Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dusk shook her head in response, "I'll be honest, I know nothing. Nothing of anything as I said before. I only know that I was drawn here. To this place. I feel a sense of comfort, near it. "

Dusk paused as if thinking, "The Darkness did me a great service in destroying Earth. Now all I wish is to destroy any shred of hope that might be remaining that things return to the way they were."

"Oh, I don't count Daj," Adam said, slightly grinning in disbelief of the situation as he shook his head. "I don't know that I could--"

"It's kind of vague if we should be counting just the primary me or all the split processes..."

"Yeah, that too," he said. "No, a Nobody turned up on my doorstep a little while ago, named Ezra. They might look like a kid, but they've apparently decided to stick with me. A little to closely, to be honest; I had to sneak away to wake you up without an audience."

"You'll probably meet them here in a bit. I've basically locked down the Castle That Never Was as a sanctuary," he explained, motioning out toward the window and the cityscape, the Convergence high in the sky. "If you're going to stick around, we'll need to get you some means of self-defense. I can probably manage some basics, but nothing quite on par with what you had or the Earthlings have, nothing that comes... naturally. We'll probably need to make a deal for that."

Dusk tilted her head up in her best efforts to look up into Ultimcia's eyes.

"I have little, but I am willing to do what it takes."

Push and pull. Push and pull.
In and out. In and out.
Breathe. Breathe.
Sweat dripped down the side of Sayrike’s cheek and soaked into tangled strands of hair clinging to her face. Her chest ached. She couldn’t seem to pull enough oxygen from the air. But still, she kept going.

She would have said this was the hardest portion of training yet, but then again, it always seemed like it was the hardest. The mini-army of Earthlings were collectively doing exercise drills and weight training at the moment, as they had been doing for a week or two now, though it was hard to keep track of time inside of the Mirage Arena amid all of the sweat, tears, and burning muscles. Right now, they were working out their arms on some kind of weighted contraption that slightly reminded Sayrike of a rowing machine, but also involved pushing instead of just pulling, so it felt like twice the exercise. For the umpteenth time Sayrike wondered if saving the universe was really worth this pain. Her endurance had always been pretty good (even if she was a little bit slower), but the masters seem to intuit this, and she was routinely in one of the groups whose exercises ran for longer than the others as they pushed her limits.

“All right, time!” someone called. The machine disappeared, and Sayrike, legs unable to support her, collapsed to the ground, chest heaving. Everyone else was also scattered on the ground, too exhausted to move. She couldn’t even tell who had been leading this particular portion of the circuit today as her mind chanted to itself, in, out, in, out, hoping the mantra would keep her from throwing up. “Nice work today, guys. Whichever one of you showed us your ‘workout machines’ from Earth, thanks! These are much more fun than the stuff I had originally planned for you today! All right, training is over for the afternoon—go relax! We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow! Hahahahaha!” The cackling trailed off as whoever it was—maybe Yuffie?—walked out, leaving the Earthlings panting on the ground.

Who’s the real Heartless one here? Sayrike joked to herself.

That evening, Sayrike lay on her bed. She could hear muffled speaking as people moved up and down the hallways, but tonight, she didn’t feel like joining them. Too tired. Interaction took effort. A few minutes passed, and the sleeping quarters became quiet. Sayrike brushed off a speck of disappointment from her mind when no one came to her door to see where she was, but she quickly reminded herself that this was not the university dorm, and these people weren’t her roommates. This was an illusory space in a fantasy world and her family, while safe, was still largely unreachable, and who knew what had happened to her friends, and who knew if anything would return to the way it was, and what if they were just going to fight the darkness forever with no end, and—
No. Stop it. This line of thinking will lead you nowhere. There is only this moment and the next that you have to worry about. One moment at a time. Just relax and meditate. Sayrike calmed her mind, and she listened to her breathing.
Hm. The silence and stillness was nice.
Just so, so nice.
Nice.
So…
Ni—
“Aaaaaah!” Sayrike growled in frustration as she sat up. She needed to get out of her head and do something. Her body protested the sudden movement, but it was already up and out of bed. Her dress sphere changed into basic jeans and a loose grey t-shirt, and the black and white mask over her eyes automatically reformed without her thinking about it, as usual. She stepped out of her room. The faint sounds of conversation dribbled into the softly glowing hallway, tinged with the promise of warmth and companionship. But that’s not what Sayrike needed right now. She just needed to walk.

She crept quietly past areas where she heard voices, using her natural ability to sneak under people’s radar. She hadn’t earned the nickname “Breeze” for nothing. But they were all preoccupied, so it didn’t take much to slip out of the dormitory complex.

Sayrike let her feet wander. The Mirage Arena was a place of infinite potential, and she hadn’t quite figured out all of the places that had been manifested in this pocket dimensional space. This, combined with not paying attention to where she was going, caused Sayrike to lose her sense of direction after about 20 minutes of meandering through the various spaces that had been created by their trainers. But that was fine—discovering new places took her mind off of more serious matters, and her thoughts began to lighten as she marveled at the myriad of rooms she found. She passed by the entrances to a veld, a forest, an urban cityscape, the ocean floor (god she hoped there wouldn’t be singing involved), a snowy mountain pass, a pool hall, a shooting range, a wooden dojo (it sounded like someone was practicing inside), a fish market, a farm, several classrooms, a wildflower field, and a circus tent before she found a door that piqued her interest. It was a closed wooden door that simply read:

“Space”

{ ATE : Data Mining : 1/FINAL}
{Day 9}
{Ashley :~: ??? :~: ???}

In a place that she had visited a day ago, Ashley returned with a mere thought. She had promised someone that she would return after this was done but it was bugging her. Even if she was different then she was when she first came here, she needed to see this to completion.

This time however, it would be a lot simpler. She moved to the computer without the fear of heartless attacking or popping up out of nowhere. Her fingers first reaching into her pocket and putting on the headphones that were connected to a device that was strapped to her hip. She turned on her music to focus before looking over at the computer. The screen asking for the one thing that she did not have before.

Her fingers moved to the keys and smiled. The key strokes felt more at home to her then they did previously and she knew exactly why. She was the one in control now. This was hers to command. She pressed the keys in the exact order that she was taught:

SORADONALDGOOFY

She finally reached the screens that she was looking for and she was excited. She did not however, make any noise while doing so. She figured that there would be consequences for such noises. She was not about to take the risk of setting off heartless to her location when she was different now. She was not the assassin from before. She did not entirely know what she was. It is better to not risk it now.

Ashley went behind her back and pulled out her laptop before setting it next to the computer. She turned it on and made sure that her program was ready. She then reached into another pocket, pulling out a usb cord and plugging it both into the laptop and into the computer. With a single keystroke, her program began to do its magic. She watched as information began to fly from the computer to her laptop. More files and data beginning to be sorted into folders onto her laptop. One of her folders was even set up to store a copy of the program that was on the computer itself. Something that she would play with later.

While before Ashley thought this would be a simple job that at most would take an hour, it took nearly half of the day. The entire time Ashley would do her best to remain hidden and watch to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as it could go. She had checked over her program several times before and even ran a couple tests. She was sure there wouldn’t be any bugs.

When the program finally ended, she breathed out and unplugged the cord connecting the two machines from each other and smirked. She closed and shut down the laptop, putting it back behind her before looking around the room.

“Sometimes Ashley,” Ashley pondered, “You have an obstacle in your way. A mountain to climb. I think I finally climbed part of it for now. It feels good to do this for myself and complete something even if it is small in the grand scheme of things. Now I need to go through this. The storage is done. I would destroy this computer but…. I think having a backup might be a good idea.”

Ashley did however feel pissed about not knowing the password. So, she went to the computer and changed the password to something that she would remember before logging out of the computer. With everything she wanted done, Ashley looked one last time at the room before teleporting out.

[Dusk's mind and body froze. Everything was gone. No Ultimcia. No Kuja. Nothing. At the same time, she wasn't. Dusk knew she wasn't. She tried to breathe to calm the feelings building in her, but couldn't. She could only stare into nothing as she wrapped her arms around herself.

The dancer's eyes closed shut as she tried to keep crying out, though she really couldn't, as the voices spoke directly to her mind. No her soul, her heart. Every sensation she could of imagined in her nightmares was a part of her. Dusk felt every fiber of her being quivering in fear as the rest of her refused to cry out.

She opened her eyes with a startled gasp as it stopped. A single tear went down her cheek as she felt herself falling, embraced by the darkness. Dusk watched as her Station of Awakening came closer. The image of her in a white dress surrounded by blue flowers and dark feathers graced the platform.

When Dusk landed, she weakly sat up and looked around the area. With heavy movements she slowly stood.

The girl stared at the blade that remained in her extended hand. She vaguely remember reaching for the knife. Now that she held it. It felt like nothing she held before. It was perfect. Now that she held it. Dusk refused to let it go.

"I do..." Dusk said simply to the unasked question as she tightened her grip on the blade's hilt. With a slight grin played across her lips.