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[ATE: Liberation from Fate: 38]

Really, the first 'power' pretty much almost cemented in him drinking. That would mean a lot less work on his part, after all. More and more just added on to it, though he did narrow his eyes at the last one.

Not because of it being 'too good to be true' or anything like that. More that he felt a little bit of annoyance that the Dark One had to just now decide if he was was paid enough to add in that final bit. Purely out of assumption, of course, but it still made Az a little annoyed that the businessman had to think about it. Something like that should've been settled from the get-go.

Regardless, Az took his intended vial. This far in, it would be pointless to off Az after doing all this work, so he felt a little safer going first with this. With a small raise of his 'glass', Az grunted out "Bottom's up." and chugged the vial's contents.

[ATE: Liberation from Fate: 40]

More rush. Hell, more power. Azrael's head was spinning, thankfully not literally. More stuff? Another ally? What the hell was he getting into? Not that it didn't come with the perks.

The male shrugged. "Don't really care much for the others. You might not know, but most of them are bitches or assholes. Well, so is Ell, here, but I can tolerate her. The others are worse if you ask me." Not that he interacted with them much, but he had no real intention to unless they wanted to interact with him.

"So let's just go already." He reached out a hand and grabbed Rumple's firmly.

[ATE: Liberation from Fate: 42]
[Azrael: Castle That Never Was: Where Nothing Gathers]

Azrael blinked, squinting. Everything was white and silver, and that just seemed too bright to him. His eyes were definitely made for more darker colors and settings. But he adjusted quickly enough, only to remove his hand from Rumple's and cross his arms over his chest. And that squint turned into a frustrated glare.

"You're dead, you're not...which is it? Perhaps a scheme of yours? Well?" His foot was tapping against the ground, the boot making a soft thud with every contact. It was definitely an impatient stance, but it also had a sense of defensiveness. Probably because he wasn't quite sure what else he was feeling and he refused to get awkward. So, anger and irritation were his fallbacks.

Elleon glanced around, her eyes adjusting more quickly than Azrael's, though she found them staring at the "resurrected" acquaintance, her lips pursing together. "I see dying made you awkward."

"Dead? Dying? What?" he asked, visibly confused as he glanced between them--only for his expression to fall flat as he glared at the Dark One. He brought up his hands in exasperation. "You told them I died?!"

Rumplestiltskin had already lazily taken one of the seats behind them, looking at his sharpened nails with utter disinterest. "I may have said the darkness destroyed you in the invitations. All you asked was that I convince them."

"Yes, because lying always works in the long run."

"I merely str~rrretched the tr~ruth," he said, smirking as he pulled his hands apart as if to stretch a string between them, his tone as condescending as his gaze. "The darkness did destroy Ajora, did it not? Or did you decide to cling to that old thing after all?"

"No, just... ugh. Thank you for completing your end of the deal," the dusty-haired man said, rubbing the bridge of his nose and slumping his shoulders. "Anything else?"

"Nothing from you," he sneered, and without another word, vanished in a swirl of purple clouds once again, leaving the three of them alone.

With a sigh, "Ajora" hopped up to sit on the edge of the round table, scratching his head. "And yes, the heart-change does take some getting used to. "Awkward" is as good a term as any. Sorry. About all that."

His expression scrunched, as if he were glaring at the floor, before his mood suddenly shifted--and the grinning, in-control guy they'd known seemed to be back. "Anyway, guess you want the rest of what I promised, yeah? It's kind of sweet."

“b***h, where's the money,” Elleon said, rolling her eyes but smirking, her tone more playful as opposed to Azrael's bitchiness.

"Alright, well then, first up!" he said, hiding his hands behind his back for a moment with a grin before pulling them back around. Each held a multifaceted crystal the color of a soft, translucent teal that could fit into his palm.

"Manufacted nethicite, crystallized darkness fresh off the presses. Capable of both increased strength and magical absorptive properties," he said, holding each up in his fingers to let the ambient light of the room refract through their facets. "Even better, because I've completely shielded the castle from external darkness, the crystals were made completely untainted--only purified, natural dark energy. Raw power without the schizophrenia."

"Slight catch to that, though, is that it would potentially disturb your balance and maybe even give a doorway to the darkness once you left this safe zone," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "A hazard with any dark power. That's where part two comes in."

He placed the crystals down on either side of himself before once again bringing his hands behind his back--this time pulling out two perfectly spherical, iridescent orbs. The looked like translucent pearls, if pearls were the size of your fist.

"Manufacted æthecite--crystallized light. An impenetrable shield against darkness for your heart, completely erases any dark presence you might have and makes you utterly invisible to darkness," he explained, once again holding them up with his fingers to let the light shine through, like a round prism generating every color imaginable. "No actual power, but there's no better protection from malevolence or manipulation."

"Alone, each would likely tip your heart one way or another, or some other odd symptom. Together, though, they harmonize," he went on. "Power and security. The closest thing to a guaranteed freedom in heart, mind, and body, that I can offer, and they're yours--no strings attached."

"I figure I might as well repay you for the past few days," he said, shrugging as nonchalantly as he could manage. "If you accept, then here's what you need to know: with the nethicite, you have to take it. Literally force your will over its power, and draw it into you. That will set off a small reaction--darkness will seep around you and form a cocoon, and your body will acclimate in safety."

"That should only last a few minutes, but it must be done in this castle. If you take the crystals outside the castle walls, the darkness will taint it. And once you're done, you need to absorb the æthecite before you leave--but unlike the nethicite, you do not force the light. You have to request it. Politely," he said with a hint of distaste, rolling his eyes, tapping his fingers on the crystals. "This allows its protective influence to envelop your body and the nethicite. I'm not sure it's required to do it in this order, but the opposite order not something I want to test, especially not on you two."

"I know you guys hate it when I ramble, so I'm done. What'll it be?"

Ajora grinned, placing the æthecite in his lap and tossing the two pieces of nethicite to Azrael and Elleon. "Get to it, then."

It didn't take long for either to initiate the process--there were sharp inhalations, and then the darkness began to seep from the crystal and envelop the two once-replicas. The shadows formed black, ethereal cocoons around them, lifting them off the floor.

Meanwhile, Ajora simply hopped off the table and went back to focusing on the large sheet he had spread out.



"Alrighty then," he said, grinning as the two finished absorbing the crystals. It had taken a few minutes of time for the dark cocoons to seep back into their bodies, once the nethicite absorption had completed; after that, he'd simply tossed them the æthecite. That took a little less than a minute, with the blinding light flashing over their bodies and coursing through their veins and muscles, washing over them with an odd warmth, but it was done all the same.

He reached behind his back again, lazily pulling a small leather satchel from nowhere and tossing it onto the table in front of them. It seemed empty, but upon reaching inside, each would find exactly one sphere. "Last but not least: dress spheres. You can sync the charms to them, but doesn't mean you can't just take the charm off if you want privacy. On top of that, should lock in your summons and keep them under control. And hey, infinite disguises without the need for darkness."

[[Cue: Yonah(piano) from NieR]]
[[Alternate BGM: Blinded by Light(piano) from FF XIII]]



As the earthlings, Bobbi, Kyle, Kyla, and Joe gathered together and centered themselves, they entered the drop. A sinking feeling at first followed a sudden lightness as they drifted off into another's heart. Bobbi, the only exception felt a little less than the heaviness akin to sleep. Her eyes opening to find herself in her heartscape with the sensation skittering away. Sound drifted in next, voices far away singing softly in harmony, but the words were foreign and nonsensical. Leading them was a woman's voice, but even that was a blur, like the sound on a radio reduced to its limits.



The others stood around her, each opening their eyes at their own pace. Before them was Bobbi's station of awakening, the stain glass surface of the tower glowing brightly, much to the disdain of several seemingly waking eyes of the young men and women finding themselves there. Light flowed up in from the surface glaringly, so intense it made white on the mural like staring at the sun.



The air, was alive. Moving slowly, like water and rivers, several snaking flows of shimmering light coiled about the entire platform. There was an astounding beauty to it, similar to that found in the aurora borealis. There were countless of these prismatic rivers, some as thin as one's little finger, others as large as a mans torso. All in all, a beautiful sight to behold. One steam flowed close by, close enough for one reach out if they desired and run their hands through the cosmic light themselves.



In stark contrast, there was a single locale of relief from the overwhelming light. About two thirds across the platform, stood a black chair, no, throne, it's high back with dark purple, satin cushions, black cherry wood and glossy polished appearance made it a stark contrast to the floor that screamed in protest to the sense of sight. On it, sat one they could all recognize as their lost companion, Louis.



The young man sat lop sided, legs kicked up over the arm of the throne, his arms behind his head as he laid back and stared at nothing in particular above him as he giggled to himself occasionally, humming the rest of the time with the phantasmal music. He hadn't seemed to have noticed them yet, whatever it was that had him so amused in his imagination, it had him very well distracted.



To Bobbi, there was one noticeable thing missing, however. Shiva was no where to be seen. She couldn't feel her presence at all. It was as though she had completely vanished into thin air leaving the girl feeling slightly empty. Yet, Louis remained. Where was Shiva? What happened when Bobbi was in the waking world? What did /he/ do?



((~/~ = Lyrics to Ashes of Dreams -New-))

The falling was new. Not falling in general; he was a dragoon, what went up had to come back down. No, the falling down into a heart. Anytime he'd dived into his own, it had been a simple matter of waking up within.

Why did they call it a dive, anyway?

Still, his composure was easy to maintain as he fell--plummeted, really. He had an instinct about when to flip, but to his pleasant surprise, the drop seemed to make him feel the right time, anyway. The probably helped the others out, to be sure. He landed more gently than one would imagine after a plummet, only having to bend his knees a bit to brace for the fall. And then...

What in the world...?

Brilliance. Lots and lots of brilliance. It was practically blinding, but it did little to Kyle; he was Light. But his alarms still went off; this was too bright. He knew Bobbi. Bobbi was a great person. But Bobbi wasn't this bright--Sora hadn't even been this bright. This was abnormal.

What was making it so bright? He could only guess, but this wasn't literal light so much as it was the metaphysical essence of light. So, for there to be such an abundance of light...

Has he taken her darkness?

He reached out and lightly placed a hand on Bobbi's shoulder, reassuring her and politely restraining her simultaneously. He stared at Louis, at the throne, at the station. He wanted to be sure.

"I'm about to forego my senses for a second, charm if you need me. Bex Zii," he muttered, his eyes suddenly glossing over with a dull green light. All sound faded to nothing, his skin became numb to the breeze, the smell and taste of the air died as it reached him. Even his sight was denied him--save that magical Clarity.

The sixth sense opened up the world around him, a 360-degree vision that revealed not the physical world, but the magical. To his sides, there was a small swirling twister of teal-tinted wind--Joe, he knew immediately--and a smooth, prismatic gem that absorbed and refracted light--Kyla, no doubt.

Directly adjacent to him was, of course, Bobbi, a strong, multifaceted glacial gemstone, with a brilliant flame within. Whereas the twister and the prism were separate, this gemstone showed a clear, powerful tie--an obvious leyline of sorts--to the glowing platform beneath them all, which radiated an identical essence.

But he wasn't interested in her ties, or Joe's, or Kyla's, or even his own.

He stared forward, where he knew the specter of Louis to be, and analyzed every inch and flicker and line. He needed to know what sat before them. If it was the shard itself, then the plan would go on. If it was a projection, though, it would have to be tied to a source. The question beneath the question, whose answer decided it all:

Where was the shard?