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[ATE : NICKIEPOO VS. SASSAFRAS : 5]
[Noelle ~ Red Rose ~ Girls Washroom]

Noelle was going for another sink before the fact that the first one had gone through Nick had computed. She paused mid-pull, looking to Nick with fury in her eyes. When he screamed yet again, she thought about throwing the next sink. But it wasn't going to get her anywhere. The agromancer let go of the sink and, as it was already partially wrenched off the wall, it crashed to the ground. She turned to face Nick as the room quickly repaired itself, fingers twitching as she resisted the instinctual urge to summon her spear. Just what the hell did this guy want? And from her, no less. Sure, she did crush his groin, flip him like a flapjack, and feed him to a pet plant--but it wasn't like he wasn't trying to kill them all.

"I don't owe you s**t." Noelle growled, clearly incensed. "Say what you want and get the f*#% out. Next time you raise your voice I'm throwing a bathtub."

[ATE : NICKIEPOO VS. SASSAFRAS : 7]
[Noelle ~ Red Rose ~ Girls Washroom]

As Noelle came to grips with the fact that Nick wasn't actually present (despite not knowing how), she relaxed a little. Her agitation, however, didn't decrease. It had been a long day and she wanted to rest, and this buffoon was getting in the way. He had already done enough damage for the day, and yet he was back, making it difficult to calm her temper. Her rage began emboldening her. Noelle clenched her fists as Nick spoke, seeming impatient.

"Oh yes, you assume. Just like you assume I don't want to hear you out." She seethed, crossing her arms over her chest, "I already told you to spit it out. So, Sir Nick the gentleman who is peeking in on a woman as she is trying to bathe, please, if you will, cut the crap get on with it and gee-tee-eff-oh."

[ATE : NICKIEPOO VS. SASSAFRAS : 9]
[Noelle ~ Red Rose ~ Girls Washroom]

Noelle growled and shifted her weight onto one hip. 'Insult me ONE more time and I'll give you a REASON to wear that mask.'

What he was starting to say, however, was concerning. Give him information on her comrades? He was asking her to do such a thing? Was he short circuiting or something? And then he mentioned a seal. She wasn't sure what he meant. It was vague, but she remembered something about Dawn and a seal, but she wasn't really involved, so she couldn't say what it was or what the repercussions were. It was obvious that this Nick character felt like he had something to hold over her head in regards to the seal. She would have to actually be tactful now ('Damnit.'). It would be careless of her to let her rage get the best of her when the safety of her comrades was in question.

"You act like any recompense would be enough for me to chatter about my friends and comrades." Noelle growled, "I'm not sure we can come to any sort of agreement if it means I have to be as heartless as you. I don't believe I have any reason or obligation to make a deal with you--yet you obviously do, or you wouldn't be here. So you might as well tell me what it is, because favors aren't going to win me over."

For so long, it was oblivion. Existence, but only the barest definition of the sense. There was no feeling, no sensation, nothing at all. His mind swam with visions, sounds, information, but none of it seemed to have any relevance to him. Familiarity, perhaps, but only just. It was simply... oblivion.

Then, without warning, he felt something solid rise to meet his back--or perhaps his back fell softly down upon something solid. Sensation rushed through his form, like his nerves finally remembered their jobs. After a second, his eyes fluttered open, and he gasped for a breath that he didn't need, pulling in oxygen that wasn't even there. When his focus came to, all he saw was... darkness. Endless darkness.

And then, a gaseous green woman rushed over him, a look of concern in her eyes as she pressed her face awkwardly close to his.

"Hey there, you okay?" Eden asked, her voice genuinely worried.

He hesitated to respond, instead slowly pushing himself up by his arms and sitting up, gazing around. He was on a mosaic platform--his own, he assumed--but it was... different. It was bright, and it was practically warm, and it was... new.

"What happened?" he asked, rubbing his head before moving his hand to his chest. "I'm assuming I survived."

"Technically!" she said, hovering back a bit and giving a sheepish nod. "Though your heart did kind of... uh... die."

"Yet here I am," he said, raising a tired brow before standing up, hoping to get a good look at the Station of Awakening.

"Right, well... ya kind of unraveled there for a bit," she explained, laughing nervously. "See, when I first started bringing Light into the heart, it immediately started filling up the dark spots, and in doing so, memories from your original resonated and... replicated. And like you'd said, if your heart were to be too similar, it would break down."

"I'd thought I'd have more time before the breakdown, but it started happening immediately, simultaneously as Light was filling in elsewhere. So yeah, for a little while, you kind of... stopped existing. But!" she explained, looking triumphant. "I was able to keep all of your memories in one place--sort of like instead of one ball of yarn, I had an unorganized lump. From there, it was just a matter of getting your heart stable and maintaining as much of you as I could. That's... where things got tricky."

"Basically, the moment I tried to include anything from before your creation, the process broke down. So I took a middle ground--I used all of the memories from after your creation to fill in your heart, and the rest I had to strip away and shove into your mind."

"That... explains a lot, actually," he muttered, having barely been able to take his eyes off the mosaic. No longer was it scarred or stained, but no longer did it hold any images of those before. Gone were his parents, his brother, his friends from Earth. Instead, there was just him, a few of his allies that he'd at least trusted, a massive background picture of earth, and a blank spot in the center of the circular portraits.

He could see all of his previous memories, vaguely, but for certain, he held no more emotional sentimentality than if they'd been from a book or television show. It was all distant... as if someone else had lived that life.

"... Ajora?"

He stopped, but didn't look at her.

He had picked that name. He remembered it clearly, vividly, the night he woke up and assaulted his original--no. Kyle. It had had significance. It had been a spiteful blow at the dragoon, a symbolic mantle to usurp the universe.

But he died.

"No," he said, shaking his head. He had new purpose. Clearer purpose. In his final day, Ajora had been venting his emotions through the Unversed, giving him a clearer head, as well, and he'd come close. In death, he'd obtained it. "I... don't know what you can call me, but not that."

Eden nodded, her eyes lowering slightly--she was airheaded, but she knew what had happened, what she'd done.

"So that's it, then," he said, but it wasn't nearly as triumphant as her previous tone--it was hollow, uncertain.

"Noooot quite," she said, slinking back a bit, twisting her fingers a bit as he gazed toward her, his interest piqued. "Two other things. In the process of stripping your heart of the old memories, I couldn't actually retain that weapon of yours, or the skills it gave you."

He frowned. He'd forsaken his summon, and now even his other abilities were taken from him. "So you're telling me I'm powerless."

"Well, no, you still have that set of dark magic," she chimed in, only to shrink again. "Which brings me to the other thing. Uh, so, that crystal you absorbed--Nethicite?" she asked rhetorically, pointing to the chunk of dark-manifest crystal that hovered in the center of the station. "It, uh, doesn't like that your Darkness isn't overwhelming your Light anymore."

He didn't speak for a moment, brows furrowed in thought, before his face deadpanned in obvious frustration. "The negative energy is trying to break down my body."

"From the palms up, man," she said, lifting her own hands and making them shrivel into mummified remnants, showing what would happen to him. "It's not too fast, I'd say you have... a couple hours? Maybe three?"

"Oh bloody ********, seriously?" he shouted, growling and twisting his neck in anger. "Well, dammit, time to get going. Pull me out."

"Going? But--you could just get me to remove the crystal--"

"As much as I may detest what that old thing is doing, this crystal is pretty potent source of power, and one of the only things giving me any sort of advantage over others in my position," he explained in utter indifference to her opinion. "No, we'll need to find something to counter its effects. Now come on, chop chop."

With that, he reached out his hand, she grabbed it with her own, and the two flashed out of the Station. Once back in reality, he felt a strong ache throughout his body--and the odd, tingling sensation on his hands. Sitting up in the marble floors of Castle Oblivion, he looked to his palms and saw precisely what Eden had meant: his hands were growing black.

"Lovely," he muttered shortly before Eden launched herself out of his chest. He sat for a bit to think, pulling out the compass and watching it spin without certainty.

"First thing's first. I'll need some new powers," he said, putting the compass down and looking forward toward the wall in thought, brows furrowed. "This isn't a wish, but is it possible for you to give me dragoon abilities again?"

"Yep! Though you'd probably have to be pretty specific, like define what you mean by dragoon," she said, hovering around him, floating on her back as if something was under her. "With the way all the worlds have jumbled up, all their rules and definitions have gotten whacky, too. Too many definitions of one thing."

"Well, that would be fairly confusing if I wanted to learn a branch of magic," he grumbled, pursing his lips.

"True, but it gives a bit of leeway, too!" she said with a cheery grin. "Got something on your mind? Not like you'll run out any time soon, cheater."

"There's a difference between cheating the system and gaming it," he commented with a raise of his finger before biting his lip. "Okay then. Let's... try this. I wish to be capable of permanently learning the magic or abilities of others via such ways as being affected by those abilities, or copying them directly using the nethicite.'"

"Man, what are you, a lawyer?" she asked before pointing her hands at him, unleashing a brief zap of magic that was much simpler than the first wish.

"Technical writer. Close enough, though," he said, grinning.

"Something of note, you can only get one ability per source," she said, watching with curiosity as he picked up the compass.

"Yeah, figured as much," he responded, distracted by the compass in his hands. "Alright, next wish is simple enough--I wish for infinite magical energy."

"Thaaaaat's gonna be tricky," she responded, crossing her arms and twisting around in the air as she continued to float around. "Your body can only actually hold so much, like a container--and I can't make you infinitely big. So I'd have to actually..."

She frowned a bit in thought, randomly pulling out an abacus and using it for a few moments. "Okay, so, what's going to happen is--"

"You're going to remove the natural limitations of my body to properly channel magical energy from wherever it comes from," he cut her off, smirking somewhat as she looked deflated.

"MAYBE!" she floundered, turning away from him--only to keep turning. "It's the only way. You'd be pulling from the prime source instead of your own pool, like accessing the ocean instead of a small inlet--"

"Alright, do the thing--" he started to say, only to be zapped again with the djinn's magic. For the briefest of moments, all of his magical circuits suddenly flared to life in a blinding bluish-purple hue, making every inch of his body shine. He tensed, eyes growing wide--until he heard a faint click in the back of his head, and everything returned to normal.

"What the hell was--"

"Next time let me finish!" Eden shouted, suddenly becoming magnitudes larger than him, towering over him with cosmic power. With his silence, she shrank again before explaining. "The body needs those limiters. That surge of magic? Would have crystallized you on the spot. What I did was loosen the limiters so that your body replenishes mana as fast as you use it. If you ever need more than what your body can handle, well..."

He slowly nodded, rubbing his bare chest again. "I can loosen the limiters if necessary, but at a price."

"All magic comes at a price," she replied, shrugging in solemnity. He noticed that for a fraction of a second, her eyes glanced down at the golden shackles around her wrists. "Sometimes it's just more obvious."

He remained silent, looking at her with narrowed eyes, searching, studying. For the first time since he could remember, he felt some odd... pang in his chest.

Right. Conscience. That's gonna get annoying.

Shaking his head and making sure the compass was safely pocketed, he hummed a bit in thought. "Okay, here's a question--what kind of creature would you call a Heartless, or Nobody? They're not technically alive, so I'm not sure how I'd group them."

"Oh, fragmented sub-beings, I suppose," she mused, almost immediately brought out of her reverie. "They're all pieces of another entity, right? Well, except the purebloods, huh... I guess just sub-life?"

"And Unversed?"

"Ugh, yeah, technically," she started, frowning toward her nameless master.

"Okay, next wish then: I wish to be able to control all forms of sub-life--hereby defined as 'Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed'--with no effects on my heart," he said, and after the momentary zap of cosmic energy, he cracked his knuckles. Corridors began to pop up, and various creatures began to walk out--including the Margo-Knights that he'd formed the night before. "Now, let's get some new tricks before we head out."


A Corridor opened back up into Where Nothing Gathers, and out strolled "Ajora," still clothed in only the lower portion of the Atlantean robe; it seemed as if he'd all but given up on using Darkness for clothing after the Atlantis incident.

"Maria~" he said, and he did, finally, seem somewhat cheerful--things were finally looking up, if only barely. Except for the slowly blackening hands. "You wouldn't happen to have a particularly potent Geist around, would you? Not one of the blank ones, one that's upgraded enough to control its memory powers?"

"Prototype One would be the one you're looking for," she said, nose deep into a spell tome. "Though I haven't seen him and have no way to contact him. If you find him, direct him here, he's doing a very important job for me."

"Prototype One, gotcha," he said with a small smile before walking over to the magic basin, peering into its contents.

"Are you so sure you should be running around--," she stated, turning a page. "--knowing you're such a wanted man?"

"That's exactly why I'm running around," he said, grinning as he opened a corridor. "Sitting still just increases the chances they'd find me. I have work to do to make sure that never happens again."

"Fair enough," she said, though she sounded entirely indifferent. As long as she had her spell tomes, not much else mattered.

"Well, alrighty," he said, giving her a small wave before he left. He would need one thing before continuing anything else. "Au revoir~!"


A slur of constant gunfire echoed throughout the forest of Neverland, followed by a chorus of screaming Lost Boys scattering through the brush, running for their lives.

"Hmph," the Replica huffed, unsatisfied. She casually lowered her pistols and began to stroll forward--some of her Unversed dashed ahead of her, tracking her playthings--when they spotted something else.

She tensed, and in the blink of an eye, vanished from sight.

Well, that will prove interesting...

Slinking into the shadows himself, he focused on directions--her invisibility power was potent, granted by the Unicorn, but after her stunt in the Caribbean, some things simply couldn't be avoided.

The visage of Ajora rushed from a tree nearby toward where the woman had once been--and was immediately destroyed by a shot from a completely different direction. A second clone dashed toward the bullet's initial trajectory, and was shot from yet another angle. This continued for six or more easily-dispatched clones before, finally--

--the pattern emerged.

Suddenly, a sphere of gravity magic appeared, rising from the ground--before dissipating, followed by another, then a third--which remained in place. A vicious snarl rang from the sphere as Amy's Replica dropped her invisibility, hovering around aimlessly. When he popped out of the shadows, she brought up her guns, unleashing a massive cannon-like shot of crystal, destroying... another clone, she discovered too late. Because the real one had appeared behind her and, with a forceful thrust, he shoved his hand into her back.

She shouted, beginning to glow with a faint blue aura in midair, before he pulled her down and shoved one of his remaining Slave Crowns on her head, silencing her. It would be her final shout, because shortly afterward, he yanked her heart out and kicked the enslaved body into a Corridor, vanishing into one of his own.


"We're here."

They remained aloft in a massive tree's branches, looking down below at the mining party that had gathered. The miners were surrounded by some typical mercenaries for the area--and a couple that were in more modern clothing. Including a couple in... lab coats?

He snorted. ShinRa.

They were likely here for the same reason he was--the strange gems that gave off light. Not just glimmery, shiny light, either. They emitted purified Light energy. It was no good for powering anything, of course, but even he remembered what the most powerful of such crystals could do--after all, it was the main reason Disney Castle stayed so safe.

"Æthecite?" she whispered, looking flustered. "That's your plan? Another crystal?"

"It'll balance out the nethicite," he responded before tapping the bottle held tightly on his hip. She disappeared back into the itty-bitty living space, and he immediately vanished entirely before sliding down the tree as quietly as possible.

The entire area was a sacred place--it was, after all, the Forest of the Elk God, one of the purest locations in Princess Mononoke's world. As such, small white crystals littered the dirt around them, giving off very faint glows--they weren't the primary source, but side-effects of the main chunk. They were trace amounts; he would need something more pure to defend his body from the concentrated Darkness. So he slipped through the miners and guards, passing toward the epicenter of the excavation--a small cavern underneath a massive tree, likely the biggest in the entire forest.

Down into the root system the crystals appeared larger, stronger--and his arms, which were blackened up to his elbows now, were searing because of it. He really was running out of time. He would need to get a piece off the main manifestation--

--which, he soon discovered, was a large, jagged white crystal, easily taller than he was, and glowing more than bright enough to make the entire underground system look lit up by the sun itself. The problem, however, was that it was heavily guarded--he'd need to steal a piece and run--

"I'm telling you, it's unbreakable!"

"You have some of the most sophisticated technology money can buy."

"It's already broken our diamond drill bits! What more can we do but just transport the whole thing?!"

Dammit.

He did a 180 heel turn and walked straight out. There had to be a way--there had to be some way to cut it.

Hopefully this doesn't take too long...


It had taken half an hour, portaling and flying around, directed by the compass. By now, his arms were black up to the middle of his biceps. Still, even as he grimaced through the withering pain, he was more frustrated by the sight before him, as he straddled a flying Unversed just less than a quarter-mile away from what had once been the beautiful island of Hawaii.

"What... happened?" Eden asked, hovering beside him, looking torn between confusion and distress.

"The Archadian Empire happened," he growled, watching in the mid-day light as over a dozen high-class airships, massive in scale and easily capable of taking on small armadas each, carefully guarded the perimeter of what was an absolute ruin.

"I don't understand. They didn't create this massive auracite deposit--"

"No, it was trapped within the island's volcano during the world merger. Last night, they sent a small fleet to capture the place, but they were defeated," he began, recounting the previous evening's events. "Temporarily, it seemed. This is... many times more ships than they had before. It seems they unlocked it, but the resulting eruption..."

He looked toward one of the ships closer to the center--its underside was pretty severely damaged, but it seemed stable enough to remain in service.

"Anyway, whatever it is that can cut off a piece of the æthecite... is somewhere on the island," he began, sighing and looking down at his arms.

"The whole island is seething with magic mist," Eden said, sounding hesitant. "If you're exposed for too long, who knows what kind of freaky magical mutations could happen!"

"Then I'll just have to make this a blitz run," he said, moving his lower jaw side to side in thought. "Back to the bottle."

The genie vanished back into her space, and shortly after, he and his Unversed mount vanished entirely from sight before pressing onward. He moved slow at first, watching and counting all of the vessels he could see. As they approached closer, however, he bit his lip--there were easily dozens, hundreds more smaller, personal ships flitting around the island, transporting material--and likely mined auracite. Any contact at all might alert the entire swarm of them, and much as he liked a challenge, taking on an entire fleet of Archadian airships didn't sound like the brightest of plans.

Still, he needed that æthecite. So when he and his Unversed finally reached the faint, translucent veil of Mist covering the island, they sped forward, darting left and right between ships. The Mist clung to his skin like thick humidity, and almost immediately, he began to feel light-headed. The shards of nethicite in his palms began to tingle--so he activated them, absorbing the magical energy and immediately using it to fuel his invisibility.

Weaving to and fro, he looked down into the massive wasteland below. In the resulting eruption from the unleashed "Treasure Planet", the entire island, however many miles large it was, seemed to have completely inverted itself. The central volcano peak was now a deep, massive crater. All of the buildings on both sides were completely decimated, leaving nothing but rubble covered in ash and gemstone.

That was, perhaps, the most intriguing part of it all: the entire island was covered in magic crystal. And it wasn't as though they were flung from the explosion--they had grown out of the rubble, formed from the immeasurably concentration of magical energy that had once been a small world.

Drawn toward the crater, he kept his focus on the direction his "desire". As he got closer to the ground, he realized that not everything had been destroyed--some items here and there had, instead, been trapped in auracite, likely infused with immense amounts of magic themselves. Coins, other jewels, all manners of items were littering the mist-ravaged area. None of it was what he sought, however.

It took a little searching, but he found it, protruding from a large collection of auracite a few dozen meters down. It was an ornate red greatsword, which as almost as long as he was tall, if you included all eight inches of the hilt. This was it--whatever this blade was, it was something that could cut through the æthecite in the Elk God Forest.

Still invisible, he hovered close on his Unversed and touched it--and immediately his hand seared with pain. That's why it could cut the crystal--it was empowered by the Light element, as well.

He grimaced and grabbed the hilt with both hands, sending fiery pain through his arms, before pulling at it. It was tightly lodged into the large chunk of auracite, and with every second he wasted, the pain intensified. He tried to act as a conduit for the magic, reaching out through his grip on the blade into the auracite, nethicite still absorbing. His mount tried to pull away as well, adding more force. With a loud growl and a rush of magical energy, he tried to rip the sword from the stone--

--and a blinding, searing pulse of pure magical energy rushed through his body and his circuits when the blade finally came free.

He'd almost flown off his mount afterward, but after he finally recomposed himself, he couldn't help but grin, despite the strange sensation that had filled his chest momentarily. Whatever this blade was, it was his now--and soon, the light crystal would be, too.

Then a piercing-loud siren screamed from the fleet above him, and he realized too late that they'd seen the explosion of magic--and he was no longer invisible.

He threw a free hand out to the side, attempting to open a corridor--but nothing came. Something was interfering.

Oh s**t.

A small squadron of Valfarre fighters were fired out of one of the nearby larger vessels, and by the time he'd gone invisible again, they were firing at him and his Unversed, who began trying to flee--only to be followed all the same.

s**t s**t s**t.

With invisibility pointless, he dropped the veil and instead split off into various clones, each going into a different direction. The squadron split off, but that still left a handful following the real one. He summoned a small swarm of Unversed to assault them, except they were quickly obliterated by gunfire--as was his own mount from underneath ******** called another Unversed underneath him, and once again created three false clones, realizing the others had been quickly taken care of when the fighters all began to converge. This time, he went invisible and took a sharp turn upward, hoping they were distracted--except, of course, they weren't alone. Another group of Valfarre ships were above, waiting to intercept him. He instinctively charged his body with a simple Heartless spell just as they launched a small barrage of energy toward him. In the blink of an eye, his second mount was destroyed, and he'd been blasted more than a few times, as well. However, the frontal blasts activated his Spatial Reflex ability, and he was immediately zapped to a random nearby location--falling from further up, a couple dozen meters off to the side.

They would be back on him in seconds, and he still couldn't open a Corridor.

"I WISH I COULD TELEPORT WITHOUT DARKNESS"

"FINALLY!" Eden shouted as she rushed from her bottle and zapped him with magic.

He wasted no time in suddenly ripping away in a spatial vacuum--appearing atop one of the uppermost massive airships, shaken. He fell onto his a** and took a breather, holding tightly onto the blade as if his life depended on it. It still burned his hands, but he realized that the burning was also keeping the Darkness from spreading, eating more of his skin. It couldn't reverse it, but it kept it at bay--for now.

"You had me worried," Eden grumbled, crossing her arms in frustration.

"Don't tell me you care all of a sudden."

"If you die here, then they get me."

"True," he said, frowning as he looked around. The sirens were still wailing, small ships were still zooming about below, thinking he'd just gone invisible again. He coughed, and only then remembered the mist he was currently bogged in. "Let's put a damper on things."

After handing her the blade, he had Eden slip back into her bottle, and he quickly went invisible again, teleporting inside the ship he was currently on. It was busy at high alert, of course, but they were looking for an enemy outside--not within. And to his relief, the interior was protected from the Mist outside.

Maneuvering through the halls, he found his way to the control deck--there was a judge at the helm, but not one of the Judge Magisters.

Good, then this should be quick.

A sudden flood of Flood Unversed rushed through the area, assaulting the unsuspecting crew, followed quickly by Scrappers tackling and tearing away at their armor. Some of the more experienced fighters were able to fend them off, especially the judge, but it wouldn't matter. Using the distraction to his advantage, he sneaked toward the command consoles, looking for anything regarding heavier guns--and found the console for automated anti-air defenses.

Smirking, he cranked the defenses up to "high alert"--and made sure nothing was considered a friendly.

As the exterior cannons began to fire upon the unsuspecting Valfarre fighters, guards were beginning to rush into the control deck, assaulting the Unversed horde. His sabotage, however, was done--so he teleported out and far, far away.

"You...You...YOU ARE SO FRUSTRATING. FOR ******** SAKE, YOU'D RATHER DEAL WITH THAT TART OF A REPLICA!?" He shrieked, the seal on Noelle's chest flaring suddenly. "I can't believe you would even think that's a better option, it's so ridiculous. Why did I even pick you to help!? I should have known you would be entirely useless based on how she acts." Nick hissed, shaking his head in utter disappointment. "I mean, what the hell was I thinking? I sit here, practically begging for her assistance, offering the moon and stars and what do I get? A useless, stubborn witch of a woman! I don't even know why I bother, I'm cutting this off and when we next meet, I'm removing the seal forcefully. What a ******** waste."

The image of Nick began to disappear, but halfway through his vanishing act, he suddenly reappeared, but his appearance was...different. No longer was he laid back and lounging about; he now sat cross-legged and floated in the air slightly, his fingers sat just above his lap, woven in between one another and his head hung low. It suddenly sprang up, and the seal roared to life, much stronger than it had when Nick first activated it. His voice echoed and the tone was distorted, almost as if two separate people were speaking at once.

"INSOLENT CHILD, KNEEL BEFORE ME AND SUBMIT TO MY WILL. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THESE GAMES. I OWN YOUR SOUL AND I SHALL NOT BE DENIED BY A MERE MORTAL. KNOW YOUR PLACE."

As suddenly as Nick had appeared, he vanished into nothing. A sudden reappearance of his image would flash in, and the Avatar of Chaos stood in the bathroom. His arms wrapped around his body, and he trembled quite visibly. He turned towards Noelle, still shaking, and simply whispered, "Help me..."

"...Congrats. You're the first person to meet my...charming roommate." Nick spoke, barely saying anything above a whisper. His arms were still tightly wrapped around his body, and he barely made any movement. He remained silent for some time, then turned to Noelle and wrenched off his mask and throwing it to the ground. It shattered into pieces before vanishing into nothing.

Nick's face was worn, looking as though sleep wasn't common for him. Dark purple rings lie under his eyes, and his gaze was weary and bordering on lifelessness. The most notable feature, however, was the deep glow of green emanating from his eyes. Any sign of a pupil or iris were gone, only an unhealthy glow remained.

"And why? Why, you ask? I apologize, but I can't help but be theatrical since you set me up for it. I made a deal with the devil, blondie. 'Save my soul from the Darknesss, and I offer my body to you to serve anyway you see fit'. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting him to want my body as a vessel to return to the mortal plane. I don't really get a choice in the matter. So I seal my fate with a bloodthirsty fallen deity in exchange for a little over a week for living. Fair deal, right?"

Nick smiled as if amused by the story, but the few tears that slid down his cheek stated otherwise.

Nick raised a brow, beginning to pace back and forth along the tile. "Yes, yes, I'm from Earth. As much as I loathe to admit it. I'll summarize it quickly then. Born in California, average life, divorced parents, was at work, Heartless came, trapped in the dark, Chaos 'saved' me, here we are. But that's not really important right now. What is important is that you actually are willing to help me. I think it's time for a new game." He tapped his finger against his chin, doing his best to suppress a few giggles.

"Yes....Yes....! Well, this is going to be very interesting. We get to play a new game. How do you feel about gambling?" He began speaking quickly, words meshing with one another in his apparent excitement. "A race against the clock, two Earthlings versus an a*****e of a deity. The prize: one of those Earthling's freedom from said a*****e. I don't know what'll happen exactly, but I think we can win this game. However," he paused, holding up a finger, "I still need you not to tell the other Earthicans of all this unless it gets to a point where you can't stop anything. Chaos is already pissed as it is, and it's going to take a lot of willpower from your ever charming hero who is using you as a conduit to keep him from royally ******** with you. Your job is to keep me from doing stupid s**t until I can find a way to remove him permanently."

He paused, his eyes narrowing. "You also have a second job. If I fail, and I can't stop him from taking over, you better get used to calling me Ol' Yeller and you take me behind the shed and put a metaphorical bullet between my eyes because I'm a sore loser and ******** this is going to be intense!"

Nick began to laugh loudly, partially out of excitement and partially out of fear that they would fail. But, team morale is key to success, so he saw no point in mentioning it.