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[ATE : NICKIEPOO VS. SASSAFRAS : 18]
[Nick :: Red Rose :: Girls Washroom]

Nick bit his lip, exhaling sharply through his nose. "Mmm, I honestly can't say. He might, but I think his attention is focused elsewhere. AKA focused on me and trying to get me to break down. I can hold him for a while....I've held him this long, right? But I have no idea what the seal can actually affect. I pretty much lied through my teeth to try and manipulate you but to be honest I'm not quite so good on the charisma thing and I'm still not entirely sure what's real and what isn't."

He let out another sigh, shaking his head as if trying to wake up. "What's even worse is that Chaos obviously knows that I'm going to remove him so the fight's going to be much worse and you got dragged into it. This would be one of those appropriate times for me to apologize but I feel that it really isn't going to mean anything so I'm not going to waste the non-existent oxygen my current after image is breathing in."

Okay, so, sneak in, try to cut a piece off without causing too much ruckus, which is unlikely as hell, and get out. Easy enough.

Assuming I don't piss off the forest any more than these guys...

He frowned but refrained from sighing in frustration as he slipped through the brush as softly as possible. He was, once again, invisible, undetectable by the miners and researchers in the area. It wasn't long until he found the entrance to the main cavern and began his descent once again.

His arms were blackened up to his shoulders by this point. It wouldn't be very long until the corruption reached the critical spot that was his chest--so he wasted no time in winding down the rooted path. Once again, he found himself in the large, central cavern under the core of the massive tree, and in the center, jutting from the earth and taller than anyone in the room, was the massive, naturally formed æthecite.

The unseen man slunk about, looking at it from various angles. It wasn't nearly so refined or uniformly smooth as the Cornerstone of Light; it was multifaceted, primal. In random spots, a small chunk jut out, some rounded off or flat, others sharp and pointed. Luckily, the room was somewhat less crowded than before--having made no headway in carving it, they had apparently decided to call in some method of transport. Being so deep in the forest, that could take an hour or so, and he'd only been gone just over thirty minutes.

Okay, let's be quick about it...

After moving to the side of the crystal opposite the entrance, thus blocking him from view, he tapped the bottle tied to his waist. Eden quietly rose from her living space, blade in hand, and handed it to him. His arms were already hurting simply from being near the stone, so the added pain of the greatsword was hardly noticeable.

After finding an appropriate-sized protrusion, he cautiously lifted the blade, brought it to the base of the jutting piece, and carefully cut downward--

--and, of course, the entire cavern trembled and the prime crystal flashed with blinding light.

It only lasted a moment--just long enough for the blade to cleave off the palm-sized shard, which he picked up off the ground, still invisible. However, it was enough of a disturbance to cause guards and scientists to rush into the cavern area, worried, frantic--

--he teleported out, not caring if he'd alerted them, or even set off a natural stampede. He got what he'd come for.


"Alright," he said, dropping the blade, which burned his hand, and holding tightly onto the æthecite shard, which burned his hand just as much. "Let's get this show on the road."

Holding it in front of his chest with both hands (and noting the stab of pain that happened when it touched the nethicite), he forced the shard against his chest, attempting to absorb it just as he'd done the nethicite. The problem, however... was that it didn't work. It just pressed against his skin, searing his hands. He was getting really tired of pain.

He growled in frustration, trying to open his circuits, forcing harder against his chest--and still nothing. He tried lying on the ground and placing the shard on his chest, not touching it with his hands (thinking that, perhaps, it was the darkness affecting it)--no change. He placed it on the ground and lay on it--nothing. With every passing moment, the black withering of his flesh grew and grew, taking more of his body; his shoulders were black as Heartless.

He began to panic. He'd gone through all of that trouble, and nothing worked. He grabbed it and began pounding it against his chest, which did nothing but make him sore. He tried absorbing its energy through the nethicite, which only released some dangerous sparks. If he couldn't get it to fuse with him, if he couldn't use it as a counter-balance--

"Please please please just work--"

Light flashed, blinding him, washing over his body, searing through his chest and, from there, every other part of his body. For the briefest of moments, he was fairly certain he'd just been disintegrated--and then he was back, fine, undamaged, with the corruption completely absent. And there in his chest, poking out from his upper sternum, was the æthecite, completely smoothed over, looking like a palm-sized pearl that just barely protruded.

Apparently, there was a reason "please" was considered a magic word.

"YES!" he shouted, throwing his hands into the air in a triumphant fist-pump. Off to the side, he heard Eden snicker, and he gave her a playful glare. "What's so funny?"

"You," she said, and in an odd way, her voice sounded less patronizing and more... friendly. "I don't know if it's the fact that you're only two days old, or if you were always like that, but you're just... like a kid, no matter how serious a game you try to play at."

He paused, taken aback somewhat, before he rolled his eyes and turned away, standing up. "Well, guess I'm just weird."

"Oh, stop it," she said, getting somewhat frustrated and flying around to face him, crossing her arms. "You've got some 'righteous cause', you've got your sins to bear, you were pretty much a royal b*****d, but you're still just a kid, barely in your twenties--"

"That doesn't change the situation," he grumbled, reaching out and grabbing the blade's handle--it didn't hurt anymore, so that was good. He decided to keep it--it seemed rather potent anyway. "Everything's on the precipice of chaos. I--we can make a difference. We can keep things going."

"Yeah? And then what?" she asked defiantly.

"Then...," he said, pausing, and he could feel the metaphorical steam leave him. His head started throbbing, and he grabbed it with his free hand, shutting his eyes. His dead memories screamed at him, but none were above a muted whisper.

"You don't even know! All you can think about is this goal, as if it was the only thing that defines you, but it isn't!" she shouted--this was perhaps her most frustrating master in her many millenia of servitude. "You may only have a couple days of memories, but you're a person, not just an objective! Maybe you're 'not Ajora' anymore but what are you, then? Who are you?!"

"That's not important right now!" he shouted, turning angrily to face her, his eyes flashing their golden hue. His heart, perhaps, was balanced, but his eyes were likely stained forever. "The goal is more important. Survival. The longer and better I do that, the more time I'll have to... figure the rest out."

"There you go!" she shouted with exasperation. "That's a goal! Figure yourself out. You sure need to, anyway."

"Are you done?" he grumbled, narrowing his eyes tiredly at her. When she rolled her eyes and remained silent, he sighed.

"Alright, then. Come'ere," he said, holding out a hand. When she was in arm's reach, he touched her, surrounding her in a faint blue glow before pulling his hand back. Suddenly, his body shifted, like a thousand small fragmented shards suddenly flipping sides from his feet up, until finally, his form had changed entirely. His face became sharper, with a more angular nose, chin, and pair of eyes, and his hair became a soft, straight black, that was about mid-length and messy. His skin was paled somewhat, and his body shape became a bit more lithe. The crystals all remained, but those could be easily hidden.

"Well, that works," he said, looking down at his body--and pausing at his deeper baritone. "And so does that. Good."

And just like, he changed back into his original form, leaning against the wall in thought. He was, essentially, free from their grasp by this point. Balanced heart meant the Darkness didn't have a natural hold on him; destroyed "gift" meant it didn't have a direct connection. They could, perhaps, get some other form of tracking him, but he would find a way around whatever they threw at him.

Now, it was time to strike back.

He smirked. It would take some careful set up, but he'd been there. He'd traveled the inside of that tower. And, all the better, he had an inside man.

"Time to free the royals."


For now, though, he needed to prepare. With that thought, he reappeared--rather abruptly, without a Corridor--back inside Where Nothing Gathers.

"Hello again!" he said, walking up to her chair with a small smile. "Do you mind if I borrow that fancy mirror?"

"Borrow, yes," she said, sighing disdainfully as she lazily handed it over as she continued to read her tome. "Take from this room, no."

"Why, I'd never," he said with a grin, holding it and glancing into it. He only had two entities in mind for this. After finding them both, he placed the mirror back on the chair's armrest, where she'd had it, teleporting away after a simple, "Tha~nk you!"


"Go to ssssleep~ you de-lisssiousss morsssel~," hissed Kaa as he slowly grappled around a small animal, their eyes locked by the snake's hypnotic glare--only for him to suddenly get grabbed around the throat from behind, causing him to choke--and release the creature. A faint blue glow surrounded his body and he groaned as he felt something drain away from him--and then, just like that, it was over. He was dropped to the ground, and he turned his head swiftly back and forth, looking for the attacker--and finding nothing but shadows.


One more sub-space teleportation, and he was... in Narnia, of all places. He had memories of the place, and it was rather poetic that it was here, of all places, that he'd find his next target. The first place they met the Geists would turn out to be the place he found the first Geist prototype.

When he'd spotted him in the mirror, he saw that Prototype I was on the island of Terebithia--where Ursula had made her headquarters and raised a Geist army with the help of the fae-witch, Kallista. What he was doing here, there was no telling, but the place was devoid of life--the cacaelian was dead, her Geist commander was slain, and everything else was lost to the war.

"Helloooo!" he shouted, hoping to get the geist's attention, wherever he was. He wasn't going to go wandering and get what few memories he had sucked out of him. "Message from Maria!"

"And why does Maria not come to me herself?" called an invisible baritone, his direction somewhere ahead of the seeker. "Who are you?"

"Since when does Maria wander from the coziness of her chair when she could send a messenger?" he mused, chuckling and spreading his arms as a sign of peace. "I like to consider myself her ally, though she probably sees me as nothing more than a useful tool."

"So you do know Maria, then. Very well," the voice called, appearing not ten feet directly in front of the nascent man. He was tall and pale, with pure white hair, as with all geists, but a face all his own. "What message does she send me?"

"Just a head's up, really--there's been a change in headquarters," he explained, lowering his arms now. "The tower was... inhospitable, so I offered my own place of solace. However, it's a bit hard to reach on your first try, so I suppose she assumed I would also guide you to her. See?" he said, scratching his head. "Just something useful, pah."

"Bring me to her, then. I must see if she has finished that Elemental yet," he stated, walking forward, his voice as dry and dead as one would expect from an entity without emotion. "I need it soon."

"Right-o!" he chimed, placing his hands on the being's shoulders and smiling a bit sheepishly. "I've never jumped a second person, so you might notice a slight... pulling sensation."

For the briefest of moments, Prototype I would have felt just that--and odd draining sensation that did little more than tug at bits of his mana. However, mere moments later, they blinked out of existence--

--and back into Where Nothing Gathers.

"Alright, well, I've done my job!" he said, deciding to make a quick exit. "Toodle-oo!"

And just like that, he was gone through the rift.



After rummaging through what medieval-era worlds he could think of, he finally appeared once more in the deserts of Agrabah, facing the marble walls of Disney. However, he looked entirely different as a result of his search.

He had unkempt, shoulder-length dark hair that was parted down the middle. His clothing was a deep maroon, the shirt of which was a deep, unbuttoned "v", the pants being of simple maroon cloth. Over this, however, was some fancy black-leather work, most of which appeared to be black leather "scales", particularly over the shirt, with thin leather gauntlets that tapered down over the tops of his hands in a point. He also wore long, black leather boots that were tied all the way up the front of his leg, also appearing to be made of black scales.

Most dramatic, however, was his skin--it was unnatural in appearance, like he was covered in tiny, golden scales.

"Mm, I'd say I'm fit for the ball~" he mused, his voice somewhat higher in pitch, but carrying just as much theatricality as before. He grinned and ported closer to the walls, now in sight of the massive gated entrance, covered with guards from all sorts of nationalities. From there, he began to stroll through the sands, apparently unfazed by the heat.

"Halt!"

He stopped, now within a few dozen meters of the gates, smiling as the guards demanded he cease. He remained standing, the dunes having given way to flat, dry stone.

"State your purpose!"

"Be a dear and get Yen Sid for me," he called back, grinning with a slight giggle. "I bring news of the king~!"

It was as if the entire atmosphere had changed. The guards looked shocked, and almost immediately, one of the ones on the top of the wall leaned down to talk into something. Primitive as some of the forces may have been, the castle itself was not without its technology.

It was barely a minute's time when the old, serious wizard appeared before him, eyes narrowed in cold suspicion.

"You claim to bring news of King Mickey?"

"Oh, and the princess, too," he said rather nonchalantly, tilting his head. "The Kairi girl? They're together, you see."

"Yes, we know," the wizard said plainly, knowing full well just by the man's presence he wasn't of any great benevolence.

"Oh? So you know they're 'royal guests' of the Fiends, being treated to all the great pleasures of the darkest dungeon in the known worlds?" he asked, giving a high-pitched chuckle as he elaborated with flair. "And you haven't even bothered to rescue them? I'm sure it's quite terrible, really."

"I need not answer to a snake for my shortcomings," Yen Sid snarled, clearly growing frustrated. "What do you want?"

"I can get them back, silly~!" he chimed, lightly clapping his hands together like an excited child. "I've been in and out plenty of times, a guest of honor, really!"

"Oh? Then why should we trust you?" he said, his voice low, dangerous, as threatening as one would expect from the master above all masters.

"Well, I didn't particularly like their decor, see," he said, his tone as patronizing as his gaze. "What's it matter? I can bring them back, and it'll only come at a tiny fee~"

"... and what price would you ask, snake?" he retorted, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes somehow further.

"Well, two people, two costs, but I'll only need one up front," he said, lifting a hand and grinning. He lifted one finger. "Up front, you will provide me with a supply of those fancy dress spheres you gave the lost children, though they must work for others, obviously. And no little charms, either."

"What would you need those for?"

"Ah ah ah, that's not part of the deal," he said, wagging the finger before raising another. "Second, and more importantly, I will need a protective enchantment, identical to what your little train and airship have in order to keep those girls and boys safe. In the form of scroll or gem, whatever suits you best, so long as my acquaintance can cast it."

Yen Sid paused, glaring at the "man" in front of him. "You give me no incentive to trust you will return."

"Hmm, what to do, what to do~?" the scaled dramatist mused aloud, bringing a hand to his chin. Then, he snapped his fingers, tapped a bottle on his waist, and the red greatsword appeared in a puff of green smoke in his hand, which he offered to Yen Sid. "Will collateral work for you? I'm borrowing it, so I'll need it back, you see."

The wizard hesitated, taking the blade in hand, noticing immediately its natural Light enchantment. He gazed back up at the man with narrowed eyes. "They must be returned alive."

"But of course!" he announced, tossing his hands flippantly into the air before offering his right hand and a Cheshire's grin. "So do we have a deal?"


"Alright, all that's left is to make sure Zexion's got things under control," he mused, back in his original form, but still in the leather garb. It was actually rather comfortable, for medieval clothing. Then again, he'd been naked for the past few hours.

"Are you sure about this?" Eden said, hovering nervously around the marble halls of Castle Oblivion once again. "I mean, the whole point was to get out of their reach. Why risk jumping back in to their own base?"

"Sabotage," he said plainly, looking at the small leather pouch lying on the ground in front of him. It was simple enough, yet inside was the first payment. He'd yet to actually use one. "I... accidentally led them to a breakthrough in mass producing an army. Not one of my prouder moments."

"No, you don't say?!" she growled, narrowing her eyes at him.

"And of course, there's no telling what else they've been up to, with Zexion and Lugae working for them," he added on with a sigh. "They've been working in the shadows for too long. They need a set back. And the good guys need their mascots returned."

"Will you be able to do it, though?" she asked, nervous again. "You know my limitations. My wishes can't affect them. If you get caught..."

"That's precisely why I need Zexion to be ready," he explained. "He can set off a distraction that should keep their attention off the dungeon. Besides, after their meeting, they may not even all be there."

"And the Darkness? You'll be in its domain."

"I... may be gambling on the æthecite to keep me off its radar," he said, sighing in frustration. "Look, it's the best I can do. It has to be done. So just... get in the bottle, I'll call you when I need you."

With a shake of her head, Eden slipped back into the bottle, leaving him alone with the bag. He hesitated, unsure if he could have trusted Yen Sid to make a clean batch. Unsure how it would react with the two crystals. Unsure if they would even work on his weird, newborn heart. Finally, with a shrug, he reached in and pulled out a shimmering, prismatic sphere that fit into the palm of his hand.

I can wish it away if it goes wrong.

Concentrating lightly, he squeezed on the sphere, focusing a bit of his magic on it--until a flash of light blinded him and left him reeling, feeling as though the floor had been blown away from him. However, after a few moments of that sensation, his sight returned--and he realized he was falling back into his Station.

It was different, however. The entire region was filled with a heavy, multicolored mist, just like what had covered the island ruin of Hawaii--Mist he'd absorbed when he freed the greatsword. And there, revolving around one another, were the two crystals he'd absorbed, the smooth æthecite and the jagged nethicite. After gently landing on the platform, things began to happen--fast.

The gemstones suddenly sped up, becoming mere blurs as they flew faster and faster, getting closer to one another with each spin. Finally, with a brief glimmer and a screech of electricity, they made contact... and stopped moving, having melded together into a the shape of a heart. Smooth æthecite made one half, faceted nethicite made the other, and they were outlined with ornate gold trimming, which also came down the middle, separating them.

However, that seemed only to be the opening act. The thick Mist that plagued the air began to crackle with energy, errant bolts darting between the colored clouds, and the wind began to pick up, blowing around the Station like a twister. Round and round it went, roaring with power, forcing him to hold his stance as steady as possible.

Eventually, the Mist became a spinning wall around mosaic platform, which was now the eye of the storm. As the moments passed, it began to condense into a single, massive current, twisting and spiraling around the Station, and the more it condensed, the brighter it began to glow, becoming an almost blinding gold and red, still roaring, still deafening, forcing him to close his eyes--

--and then it all stopped.

When he opened his eyes again, he took a sharp gasp of breath, looking up at what had formed. There, staring down at him, was a massive, gold-and-ruby dragon, two wings of gold and ruby scales spread wide behind it, scaled arms crossed in front of it. It was hovering just over the edge of the Station. He gazed over the creature, his eyes following the trail of its body and realizing that its long, serpent-like form literally encompassed the entire mosaic.

"Greetings... master."

"Who are you?" he asked, holding his ground as he narrowed his gaze at the massive beast.

"Who?" it repeated, its voice a deep bass befitting a creature of its--his--size. "You are neither foolish nor ignorant. My creation was borne of your own memories, both those dead and living. My identity is tied to your heart. So tell me, master. Who am I?"

"... Shinryu."

The dragon seemed to smile, if that was possible. "Yes. But who... are you?"

[[ATE : Louis? : ??? Dream Dive]]

{{ Cue: Return to Slumber }}

The figure retracted his hands from the flame and pulled them close to his chest. In a start he turned to face the newcomer. Bangs hung over his face covering anything from the nose up with the exception of a pair of brown pupils catching the fire's light occasionally and reflecting off their half-concealed surface. A lasting sigh of relief escaped his nostrils before he spoke, "Ah, I didn't notice you there, sorry. Are you cold? Here, take a seat, the fire's warm," His voice echoed off nothing, carrying on this plane to and from the distance. Even if the heat of the flames didn't reach her, the color and soft shadows it cast on the mysterious boy were welcoming, comforting like the open arms of a close friend.

The boy giggled slightly as he extended his arms again to the flames, not waiting for her answer, flashing the white of his teeth for a split second as he smiled. More noticeable however was his skin, milk white and perfectly contrast to the world around them, the fire bleeding color into his palms as they grew close, turning them a normal peach hue, "Not sure where this flame came from, but it's so cold here... I thought I was going to freeze to death before it appeared. A god-send for sure. Is that why you're here? Did the fire call to you too?" He sat so close, so close it seemed as though an inch more and he'd light himself aflame. Yet, even as the flame washed back and forth through the breeze-less air and brushed his skin, he didn't flinch, rather, his palm would close around the tail of red-orange light, gripping softly on nothing watching it slip through his fingers as though caressing locks of a fleeting lover's hair.

[ATE : NICKIEPOO VS. SASSAFRAS : 21]
[Noelle ~ Red Rose ~ Girls Washroom]

Noelle frowned at Nick's response, sneering as he left, "Have fun with Chaos, hope he doesn't decide there's too much a*****e for one vessel and kick you out any time soon."

'What have I gotten myself into . . . I don't know if I should . . .'
'Tell the others?'
'Yeah . . . He may need my help, but he just said himself I can't trust him. Just after telling me I worry too much. Right.'
'I leave this up to you. But if at any moment he endangers your life, it would be in your best interest to tell them.'
'I know, I . . . will.'
'I'm not convinced.'

The agromancer sighed and rubbed her eyes. She was already having a hard enough time processing the events of the morning, now she had this to deal with. She just wanted it to end--didn't want to have to think any more. There had to be a way to sort it all out, but she felt too lost to even know where to begin. With a frustrated groan, Noelle pushed herself to her feet, disrobed, and plopped into her (already full) bath. Afterward she would have to grab a notebook to organize her thoughts.

[[ATE : Kyla? : ??? Dream Dive]]


Tangible fire, touchable warmth-

In a place to devoid of such things, a cold abyss- she could understand why one couldn't help but think this spark of flickering light was so precious to this ghostly person. Ghostly, yes, that was a good word to describe him, but it wasn't like he was translucent, just white like porcelain.
He was statuesque with only brown eyes glinting back at her in the light of the fire before him. He looked…felt familiar. So she approached, shrugging slightly at her shoulders.
She wasn't very keenly aware of her own self or how she looked till she came into the light of the fire. It’s glow glinted off a pale slip that draped off her shoulders and flared at her knees, where bare feet stuck beneath- stepping on seemingly nothing at all. She reached out curiously towards the flame, and felt something-

Something more than just warmth.

Presence.

“ I… I’m not sure how, but I may have an idea as to why.” She looked back at the other person, brown meeting brown. “ Is your name Louis?"

[[ATE: Kyla: ????: dream dive]
‘Descriptive way of putting it.’
Sounded like something a writer says.

It was him after all, or at least... a part of him. Was this what remained contained in the shard he left behind? He seemed so lost... alone. Kyla knew that feeling all too well. She couldn’t wish that on anyone- this feeling.
Something about what he said next puzzled her. The fire? He heard her voice in the fire?
She drew closer till at last she was opposite of him on the other side of the open flames.
“My name is Kyla, and I’m a friend, we've met a while ago it seems.”

[[Kyla: ????: dream dive]

Someone to protect.
That piece of information gave her a moment pause. While it was an obvious give away for allies to defend allies, she never remembered hearing someone actually openly admit such an intention towards her. There was no illusion of doubt that it’s the way some of her comrades felt , like Bobbi, Kyle, Joe, why else would they fight so hard.
But somehow that knowledge didn’t take away from the fact that hearing it made her feel… touched.

“You did, really you did, a great numerous times. I did some really rash things. I probably wouldn’t be here had you not been there to protect me.”
He wasn’t he only one too.
Kyla hadn’t realized she had been looking into her palms during that moment, and blinking into the firelight when she raised her head the artist gave a soft nod.
“I’ll stay as long as I can- though.. it’s interesting you say that..I thought you.. were with me. This place..” she gestured around them- “ I wonder where exactly we are…”

[[ATE: Kyla: ????: Dream Dive]]


"Yes, you did.” Kyla repeated for emphasis. She felt the need to really emphasis this fact to him, it was important. It was something the Louis she remembered wanted so badly, this figment of him seemed almost fragile. He looked uncertain of himself.

At Louis’s response Kyla raised a brow- ‘ the sun?’ Did he mean, literally?

Strange. She did feel like it was time to leave- go where? Wait. Maybe she was thinking about this from the wrong direction-
“Alright then.”

She stepped forward cross to one side of him, and then slowly held out her hand.
“ Here… let’s go together. It’s not as scary this way.”