Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Guardian paused, looking down at the young woman. After a few moments, they finally spoke.

"May I take a look?" they asked, tilting their head forward. "To better understand the issue, it would help to sense the issue first-hand."

The Guardian slowly approached, and as they came into arm's reach, they extended one hand toward the artist--close to her chest, but not touching, just held aloft. They took a long, deep breath; Kyla felt nothing.

"Mm. There is... a blockage. No, a... twisting," they said, concentrating. "Like a wound that healed improperly, out of place..."

They took another deep breath; this time, Kyla felt a twinge, an ache, something in her chest recoiling.

"Yes, a darkness. A scar, a... toxin. Whatever happened shortly after your awakening at Earth's fall has spread like a subtle poison," they said, slowly pulling their hand away; Kyla would once again feel their gaze upon her as the odd sensation from before passed.

They tilted their head somewhat, bringing up their lightly tanned hand to where their chin would be as they crossed their other arm around their chest.

"Your memories... I cannot be sure, but I think whatever happened has scrambled them. Too deep for simple passive exposure to purge, I feel... but also too delicate for a direct approach," the explained, genderless voice somber. "I am not entirely sure, but I feel... an odd familiarity about it."

Dusk held herself guarded in front of the sorceress. She felt herself in awe and... fear. The fear she felt with her encounter with the Broker, was a fraction of what she felt in the presence of Ultimcia.

"Forgive me, disrespect as it maybe to him was not meant to upset you," Dusk responded softly, "As you said I lack understanding of the bigger picture. I know nothing of anything."

Dusk paused as she shuffled her feet then turned back to the sorceress, " What I do know is, I want to know the truth of what destroyed Earth."

"Disrespecting him, or any of my equals, is disrespecting me, and likewise in reverse," she responded, never looking back toward the girl, gently placing a hand upon the large stone. "We may differ in many cases, but we are all aligned in the eyes of Darkness. You, meanwhile, are little more than one of Seymour's failed playthings."

"Even nobodies have their potential uses, of course," Kuja chimed in, gently lifting one of his glowing spheres up, staring into its gleam. "Perhaps the puppet can dance better to our strings than her own?"

"Mm." Ultimecia remained silent, her winged form casting a great shadow down the hall and over the smaller woman. There was a moment of silence.

"Why does it matter who destroyed some insignificant world?" she asked, unwavering. "Why does it matter to you?"

"That should be obvious I'd think," he sighed, "The Darkness and its henchmen. It as a consequence of existing resulted in my death before. It betrayed Ajora, now Aj- Adam is responsible for bringing me back. All-in-all, my decision is kinda already made for me. As for my allies, guess that will have to be another answer I seek. Speaking of Questions and Answers, why am I talking to what is probably just some bizarre figment of my delusional half-dead mind?"

"The world may never know~" Jazz hands.

There was no response from either of the mages for some time; the dancer's last words hung in the air thick as the mist ever-emanating from the Sun-Cryst.

"Sadly, nothing is out of the question," the sorceress finally spoke, her hand sliding down the crystal's edges. "The Light is persistent and insidious. Like any spark, if allowed to find fuel, it will only ever grow and fester, like a scar upon the night sky."

She turned now, but glanced above and beyond Dusk, out the open balcony to the distant horizon.

"You wish to know what caused its destruction? Look no further. The Darkness consumed that world. Indeed, so thoroughly was it crushed that no trace of its existence exists in our timeline," she said, eyes glinting through her cryst-cast shadow as her gaze now drifted down to lock upon Dusk's eyes. "Upon your originals' arrival to this plane, I scoured all of time for any mention or essence of your 'earth' and found nothing. So either that world is so far gone as to have never existed, or you are from some alternate existence the likes of which even our great powers could no longer reach."

They gave a low but hearty chuckle.

"Indeed it is," they said, though their voice seemed to grow distant, less bound by position. Indeed, as the horizon began to overtake his vision and his senses began to falter, he would hear the entity's last words more from within his own mind than any physical place:

"Some would go to great lengths to avoid it."

From the side, Dusk could here Kuja chuckle lightly, and even as Ultimecia next spoke, she could feel the woman's pointed smirk.

"You come knowing the boundless power of darkness, and still you find its accomplishments beyond belief?" she asked, clearly amused. "What limits do you think our Darkness has?"