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((Eh, since it's cool-down time, might as well go have my breakdown~))

{Bobbi .:. Hawaii .:. Mothership .:. Central Command >> Michelle's Corner}

Bobbi looked at Dani when the younger girl walked in, but didn't say anything. She kept her attention on the screens the Grand Councilwoman had shown them the ships on. She took in every detail, looking for something, anything that would give her an excuse to go out and fight, to stave off the hysterics she was holding back. There was nothing, and the Archer sighed, biting her lip so she wouldn't break down in public.

She saw movement from Dani out of the corner of her eye, and saw the young girl rubbing at her eyes, fighting back tears of her own. She had no idea why Dani was crying, but reached out to pat the girl on the shoulder. For a moment, she wasn't sure if she should go into Big Sister mode and comfort the girl when she herself just needed to huddle in a corner somewhere and bawl here eyes out. Then, Bobbi caught a whiff of something drifting through the corridors, and if her stomach hadn't been in knots it would have growled. As it was, she just felt a little bit sick, but it gave her an idea.

"Smells like someone's got hold of some grub," she said, only raising her voice enough to be heard by Dani and no one else. "Why don't you go get something to eat, kiddo? Food's good for ya."

She didn't wait for Dani to respond, but instead walked out back into the hallways, looking for somewhere secluded that would allow her to be found if she was needed, but was out-of-the-way enough that she wasn't likely to be walked in on.

Ironically, when she found that place, Michelle was already there.

"Hey," Bobbi said, looking at her friend. Bobbi's expression, posture, and voice all displayed a weariness brought on by the endless fighting for the past week, though she was still tense with holding back her tears. She hesitated, still at the door to the room, unsure if she should leave Michelle and find her own nook, or if she needed to be with someone else grieving as well. All she really wanted to do was cry, but if that's what Michelle needed, too, instinctively she'd hold herself back and be strong for the other woman, not let go like she sorely needed to do.

[[ Captain's Edit : HAPPY 3900 ]]

[ Ajora ; Celia ; Lettie ; Zexion ; Bal-Hur : Hawaii : Lugae's Lab -> Dark Margin : Dark Beach ]

Ajora merely chuckled in response to Nicholas as the Avatar passed through. Just before the Replica followed, though, Bal-Hur wordlessly passed through the portal, causing Ajora to raise an eyebrow in Azrael's direction. A moment later, he merely shrugged and entered, the corridor closing behind him.

---

They immediately found themselves in the Realm of Darkness. Or, rather, the most iconic world in the Realm of Darkness. As all worlds had since melded together, this world was no more in the Realm of Darkness than the others in their own Realms. It was, however, still cloaked in Darkness.

It seemed that, with the merger, the Realms themselves were attempting to merge... and likely failing.

"Alright, I think it'd be best if we did this one at a time. Don't want crazy bloodshed like last time," Ajora said as he exited the portal- he was still clothed in a black suit with crimson vest, and with just a thought, most of the Replicas seemed to disperse. As a matter of fact, some of them disappeared through another portal entirely, their presence vanishing. These were the Replicas of Noelle, James, Kyle V, Joseph, Kyla, Sayrike, Bobbi, and Jenny. The rest formed a large circle in the sand, with Ajora closest to the water, Celia and Lettie at his sides.

"First, we haaave Alan."

Alan's Replica stepped forward from the opposite side of Ajora. Upon reaching the center, Ajora nodded, and the male lifted his arms up to his head and began to slide the crown off. He seemed to grit his teeth in pain with every inch the crown moved before finally he tossed it in Ajora's direction; Celia managed to catch it before it flew into the water.

The Replica's eyes, at first still cloudy and neutral, finally began glow with the presence of consciousness; his features grew taught as he glanced around, trying to place his surroundings. For a moment, his eyes became pure white, though his Clarity immediately ended.

"Good evening," Ajora greeted with a plain smile, though his eyes seemed to search the neophyte. This would be much different than last time...

After all, these new Replicas would have had memories of the old Replicas wreaking havoc on them. Might even hate them- hate him, Ajora, the instigator of their lives.

"What... did you do to me?"

Ajora merely smiled. Now that... that was an easy question to answer.

"I freed you from your bonds," he said, lowering his head in a very slow, measured nod.

"So... am I...?"

"Yes. You are an upgraded version of your, ah, previous model," Ajora said, playing on the fact that nobody liked to be called a copy. "The others have yet to be freed. If you wish, you may stay and watch them, mister...?"

"Kagutsuchi," the Alan-Replica immediately insisted. There was no waiting, no time for deciding. He knew exactly what he wanted- Ajora grinned in response as he nodded. Kagutsuchi walked over and stood beside Ajora, turning to watch the rest of what was going on. He knew that the Replicas worked together... and he knew that if he was going to succeed, he'd do best to get close to them. Close enough to see their backs.

"Well, that turned out well enough! Next up- Jonathan," Ajora said, and from the 3 o'clock position walked Kichi's Replica. Again, with no more than a nod, he began to slide off the crown, throwing it toward Ajora...

The moment he gained consciousness, he sunk to his knees, sobbing quietly. He didn't move, only cried. It wasn't more than 5 seconds however, before his unversed made their appearance. They were thin...eerily so, and their smooth blue faces showed only a pair of intricate red designs where the eyes would be, with red lines running down to the chin, almost like blood red tears. Upon spawning, one after the other, they would start moving slowly, limping towards the closest being while dragging their right foot, not making any distinction other than between their own kind and owner, and everyone else.

As they appraoched their target, a sense of doom would befall them. Not a doom as in death, but a doom as in an utter feeling of hopelessness and pointlessness.

Meanwhile, Kichi's replica did nothing. Only sat, and sobbed.

Ajora's eyes narrowed, glancing at the rapidly-appearing Unversed. Great. A weeper. The gears began to turn as he tried to think of some way to deal with this. How do you deal with crybabies besides kicking them?

As he waited, Lettie cautiously strolled toward one of the Unversed coming their way, her posture defensive. However, by the time she got even with a meter, the creature swiftly latched onto her, giving her only enough time to through her hands up defensively, before detonating in a blast of energy. The blast sent her careening into the water beyond the beach- and she struggled just to get up.

With a growl, Ajora mentally commanded all the other Replicas to get as far away as possible, luring the Unversed away, with Celia and Lettie being told to keep them at bay as he walked over to the sobbing Replica-- Kagutsuchi, he noted, followed close behind, both of them cautiously dodging the exploding Redead things.

"Well, what the hell should we call you?"

The tormented copy never looked up, which caused Ajora to scowl even more. "I don't deserve a name."

"Ugh, please, don't give me that bull@#$%," he growled, lightly nudging the biologically-older man with his foot- a warning. "Stop acting like a two year old. You can do anything you want now. Get up."

The man never responded; rather, he outright ignored Ajora, continuing to cry.

"Oh would you stop it?!" Ajora shouted, kicking the male in the rib cage much, much harder than before, sending him a couple of feet off to the side, much to Kagutsuchi's apparent disapproval.

The Jon-Replica merely curled up along the ground, ignoring Ajora as he began to stomp forward.

[ Ajora ; Celia ; Lettie ; Zexion ; Bal-Hur : Dark Margin : Dark Beach ]

"Seriously? You're seriously going to do this?" Ajora seethed as he reached the sobbing Replica. There was a brief flash of motion, and suddenly the Jon-Replica was up in the air, held up by his shirt in a single hand. "You can get anything you want in life, and you'd rather just sit here and cry?"

"I don't want anything from a life I don't deserve."

Ajora said nothing and merely held his free hand back, fingers twitching lightly. After a few moments, he gave a spiteful smirk, tilting his head. "Well, so be it. If you're not use to me alive, then at the very least you can be of use to me dead."

Ajora thrust his hand forward, into the Replica's chest-

... only for the weeping duplicate to stop crying and grab the arm, preventing it from moving further. Ajora's smirk quickly became a sneer.

"Not so keen on death, hmm?"

"I'll... end it on my terms," he responded, and at this point, he was no longer looking at Ajora, but past him- into Kagutsuchi's eyes.

"End me. Just..." he began, looking imploringly into the clone of the man who was his original's trusted ally. "Destroy me."

"Feh, no, not quite, neophyte-" Ajora began, his arm quickly charging with dark energies as he prepared to attempt again- only for Kagutsuchi's hand to thrust forward first. The hand pierced Jon's chest and set his entire body into bluish-black flame, which quickly began to flow into Kagutsuchi's form.

Ajora, his eyes widening in anger, slipped around and put his hand on Jon's slowly-dissolving back before slipping past the flesh and pulling back- holding on to the black, pulsing heart of the now-gone Replica.

Kagutsuchi had no sooner finished absorbing the fellow neophyte than a Slave Crown was once more slipped onto his head by Celia- with Repli-Jon's demise, the Unversed had quickly vanished, leaving Celia free with the crowns. His eyes glossed over, becoming foggy once again, and with a scowl on his face, Ajora twisted his body around and forcefully kicked the Enslaved Black Mage into a Corridor of Darkness, which closed moments later.

"Next," he seethed, walking back up to his original position and running a hand through his hair to calm himself. The other Slaves quickly returned to their original positions, and without hesitation, the Replica of Danielle stepped into the center. Facing Ajora, she slid the Crown off (with noticeable pain) and tossed it toward Celia. It wouldn't be long before she gained consciousness for the first time- Ajora made sure to keep his face composed and confident.

He'd make use of the first failures yet.

[ Sora ; Yuffie ; Riku : Hawaii : Mothership Mess Hall ]

"Can you actually do that, Kyla?" Sora asked, looking at her from a table a little farther back, where he had taken a seat with Yuffie, who was now also listening. "Create a heart, I mean? Can you... can you create things that last permanently? I thought that, if you ran out of energy, your creations would just... you know, fade, like most magic. If you could... that would solve a looot of problems."

Riku had taken a seat next to Jenny, having been about to ask her a question, before getting caught up in the conversation as well. He watch Kyla intently, curious.

[ Ajora ; Celia ; Lettie ; Zexion ; Bal-Hur : Dark Margin : Dark Beach ]

Water element. Chakram girl, right, which means her summon would have to be Leviathan.

"I've freed you from the bonds of your conscience," Ajora stated plainly, nodding in her direction. He would very much hate it if she attacked, but this time he'd try to spare her. "You are here because you belong here, among brethren- alive, free, limitless."

"You may stay or go, do as you please," he said, opening his hands wide as if to signify the wide expanse of the world around them. "I have yet to wake the rest of your brothers and sisters, but if you would rather be off, then I will not hold you back. However, as I'm sure you know my name, I feel it only fair you tell me yours first...?"

[ Ajora ; Celia ; Lettie ; Zexion ; Bal-Hur : Dark Margin : Dark Beach ]

Ajora smiled as Ashley introduced herself and walked over to stand beside himself and the others (Celia and Lettie, as well as Nicholas and Bal-Hur). Well, that was easy enough.

"I ask that only that you refrain from interrupting... and have some patience," he said, and with the last part, he gave a sheepish laugh- one more befitting a human than a Replica. "Things are going to get a bit repetitive. I still have six more to go. Next up, we have..."

At that moment, Dawn strolled toward the center. Turning to face the group in front of the dark beach, she slid her crown off and tossed it to Celia. In just moments, she, too, would awaken...

[Dusk : Dark Margin : Dark Beach]

The Dancer's mind slowly started to come into focus moments after she removed the crown. As she woke up she placed her hand on her head, holding it. As though she was hit with something as she woke up. Oh, how she hated that feeling. She hated waking up. The light of the morning sun pissed her off. Always too bright. What she hated even more was waking up to a headache.

"Son of a-" she whispered as the pain was easing away, she soon looked up to see Ajora along with several of faces, all unfamiliar to her, except one, looking at her, "What the hell you looking at?" she said to all of them, but looking at Ajora as she did so, "You know, staring at someone is rude. Didn't your mothers teach you it is rude to stare."

[Dusk : Dark Margin : Dark Beach]

"Oh yeppie," the girl said rolling her eyes, "Well don't I feel special."

She crossed her arms as she tapped her foot looking at Ajora, trying to think of who he was. Why in the world would she know him in the first place? Was the expression she wore. Though as she stood there she started to recall a few things about this individual. Soon a name came to mind. Even as he asked for hers.

"Oooh right, Kyle, right? Or was it something else? I can't seem to recall. Would you care to give me a hint. I am afraid my memory is a little fuzzy when I first wake up in the morning," she said looking at the male, "As for my name, I am afraid I am not in the liberty of giving it out to people who seem to stare at others when they first wake up."

'Especially if the only name I remember is one I hate. she thought as she stared back at Ajora.