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Kyle was a taken aback by the sudden appearance of a child, and as he reached up and hugged the dragoon, memories of his little cousins briefly swept over him. With an ache in his chest, he pushed out a smile, hugging the young boy back as light rushed over them.

After the sensory overload of the transition, Kyle found himself standing back on the station, facing the others. A brief glance to his left saw the two Louises--his own, and the new one, happily calling out to Bobbi. Kyle turned forward again, grinning and waving.

"Got it!" he said, chuckling. Ultima's deadpanning face made it pretty clear how they'd felt in his absence, but what other option had there been?

[ATE: The Bright Side: 65]
[Joe: Bobbi's Heart: Station of Awakening]

The tension in Joe's face visibly faded away as Kyle appeared successful, the darkness breaking away and the station looking way more normal. Also Kyle was safe, so that was a big deal, too.

He stayed back, mainly cause he was a little too relieved to move out of his spot. Also he wanted to keep feeling that instead of anger at getting close to the dragoon. He shot a small look at the dragoon, though. A look that said something along the lines of 'glad you're safe but this reckless s**t without warning is really ******** annoying'. If a look could even translate all of that. At least Joe attempted it.

[ATE: the Bright Side: 67]
{ Kyla: Bobbi station}

Much to everyone’s relief though, the wait was finally over, but not without one last scare as the world shuddered like it was in its death throws- then finally dying and disappearing into dust. As the nightmarish visions began to dissipate around them, Kyle and two versions of Louis emerged. One of which was way more benevolent in its demeanor, and since Kyle didn’t seem to be harmed that could only mean one thing-
They won.
“I swear all this stress is going to make go grey..” she breathed, touching the top of her head as if she could feel her hair changing right there.
Coming up alongside them, the artist seemed a little disgruntled and joining Bobbi in the physical punishment, Kyla took her large book, and with a little growl lifted it up and giving him a –relatively soft bop on the forehead with it’s broad leather bound side.
“How come you can go off alone, and come back victorious? ”
She muttered-but looked satisfied.
“So you said you saw Louis? As in- ‘the’ Louis? Not just a phantom, or a piece, or a perspective?”

Always with the violence, never with the words.

Kyle swallowed a bit more frustration as he casually took the bump from the artist, leaving no sign of his irritation. It was something he'd long dealt with, even on earth, so it came easy.

"Like I said, I had anchors to yank me out. Plus, it's what I was assigned to do," he explained, shrugging. "And yeah, it was the real deal. Well... as real as one might imagine. He's broken as hell," he finished, a southern drawl slipping out on his last words.

"It started out like a civil chat, but almost immediately it became clear he didn't care about us. About what his "contract" spells were doing," he said, crossing his arms. "He did at first, sure, it's why he made them. But now he views it like karma--'good riddance', he'd said. He can't control it, but he doesn't care to anyway."

"Which is hilariously hypocritical, considering why he's so pissy," he said, looking between the lot of them as he spoke before his eyes locked on Bobbi with a nonchalant expression. "You let Ajora suffer. 'Your friend scoffed and took pleasure in his death, you know'--" the dragoon said, deepening his voice to sound serious as comically as possible. "He considered Ajora his friend, which is ironic anyway, but I inferred that basically when you didn't finish him off, Louis just stopped caring about us."

"Course, after a bit of poking at his hypocrisy, he snapped. Whoa-snapped," he said, eyes widening for a second as if to emphasize it with his expression. "Stabbing me, rushing me through different visions, summoning a horde of demons, laughing and cackling like a crazy... and there were two of him."

"The one I'd been talking to, and the armored version we've faced before... when he was possessed. And that one was sitting on a throne, watching everything," he said, his expression souring again. "If I had to wager, that only confirmed what Ajora was thinking when he was inside Louis' head... that even though Louis has been in conscious control, Mateus has still be breaking him down from within."

He sighed, looking down with his mouth pursed in annoyance. "He's not going to listen to reason. Or peace."

[ATE: Liberation from Fate: 50]
[Azrael: Castle That Never Was: Where Nothing Gathers]

He watched Elleon leave with a scowl. "Still bitchy as always..." he muttered, turning back to Ajora with a long slow blink of thinking.

"Uh...you know. Stuff. Things. Plots and schemes. Working on my own though. Mostly. Elle there knows where I'm going to be working at the very, very least. I'll show you the fruits of my labor when I'm done though. ********> He tsked. "I'm rambling like an idiot."

He flexed his hand in front of himself, flicking it a little. Definitely no wind coming from him. "What about you? What you got going on?"

The man shrugged. "Probably still getting used to the heart. It can get messy, internally," he said. "Hell, I'm still getting accustomed, and I doubt that'll pass any time soon."

As the fighter mentioned he was rambling, Ajora couldn't help but snort, raising a brow. When asked about his own projects, though, he waved Az over, spreading out the large sheet of paper on the table that he'd been staring at when they first came in. If Azrael came over, he'd see two large circles, with an oddly organized grid covering them. Lines connected the top and bottom of the circles; the main lines ran straight from top to bottom, while secondary lines spiraled around, some going right, some going left, each constantly overlapping each other and the straight lines in their path from top to bottom, or vice versa.

The one thing that made the two circles stand out was the familiar outline of a castle at the top part of each--where all the lines connected.

"I'm renovating. Gotta make this place functional," he said, glossing over the makeshift map of The World That Never Was. "With all the chaos that's happened on this world the past few years, the leylines are broken, if they ever existed at all. I'm going to fix that."

As the impromptu group hug broke apart and the various Louis shards went to stand by their respective hosts, Bobbi reached up and placed a hand on her Louis' shoulder. The gesture was meant to be protective and reassuring, though she wasn't sure if she was comforting herself or Louis. At least part of her was confirming that he was real, and physical touch usually enhanced her empathy, so she should, theoretically, be able to tell if this Louis was likely to go bat-s**t insane. Of course, since she hadn't detected so much as a hint of ******** crazy before, she wasn't likely to this time.

I wasn't looking before, either. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Normally she'd swear to herself that she'd actually start utilizing her empathic senses, but she knew herself better than that by now. She was way too much of an airhead to keep that kind of vigilance up for long. Still, though, speculating wasn't doing her much good at the moment, and people were still talking. When Kyle looked at her and stated baldly how she'd let Ajora suffer, she flinched, feeling a lot like she'd just been punched in the gut. She didn't like the reminder, but Kyle's tone didn't seem… accusatory. Just matter-of-fact. His tone was as nonchalant as his expression.

She wasn't sure which was worse.

"There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy going on with this guy," the brunette remarked dryly, trying to distract herself from the unpleasant reminder. Naturally, she succeeded in that about as well as she succeeded in pretty much anything: dismally. Once the reminder got her brain on that track, it refused to derail. "Although 'took pleasure' isn't exactly how I'd describe my reaction to Ajora's death. It's just… harder to weigh justice against expediency than I thought it would be." She clenched her jaw and shifted her weight, taking her hand from Louis' shoulder to cross her arms. She continued under her breath, "although it turns out I didn't ******** need to go with expediency and could have been merciful like I wanted to, but nooooo."

She sighed at the end of Kyle's speech—well, more of an exasperated growl, really—and flung up her hands, rolling her eyes. "Raise your hand if you're surprised," she said, her tone dripping with sardonic intent. Her hands slapped against her thighs before coming to rest on her hips. To say she was annoyed at the whole situation with Louis was an understatement, and her body language clearly denoted that.