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{ ATE : The Unexpected Guests : 48 }
[[Louis? : Station of Awakening]]

"I see..." he furrowed his eyebrows and his feathers puffed out as he let out a small shiver, "Well, no reason lingering on that topic..."

The boy opened his wings up and beat them once to stretch them out, disquieting the mist and pushing it away from him in a single motion though it soon filled the empty air right back in again. His wings settled, cupping his shoulders again, "Hmmm," he began drawing in the air with his fingers, the mist glowing and leaving shimmering trails in its wake, "A writer though, huh?" As he wrote, he seemed to be writing in an unknown language, organized like stanzas of a poem, "What was that like? What interested you in that?"

Soon enough. I'll finally be able to bring the others back into the fold.

Is that wise?

Ajora's brows furrowed as he watched the synthesizer work. Why wouldn't it be? Allies can only bring more strength.

They were made the same as you, so they will have to go through the same process as you. Look within yourself: will they be trustworthy?

He bit his lip. Well, yeah, I trusted them the first time--

And they stayed with you, yes, because of their own potential gain. Look at what they can gain from you now.

Ajora hesitated, looking at the synthesizer, feeling the bottle on his hip, knowing the Oracle's scepter was within his coat.

You think they might not be completely trustworthy, even with a balanced heart.

A balanced heart does not bring with it a conscience.

And if I think this, then so too do you.


Ajora appeared in a small glimmer of light back within the core of the Castle, the large spherical room that served as the control center for the entire castle's interwoven computer mainframe. Lettie was here working on a robotic interface for his digital self, but she never stopped working.

Turning around to face the entrance of the core, he opened his mind to the circuits of the air, the room, the walls themselves.

I need a vault.

This will do for now.

His irises flared as he enhanced his strength, preparing for the task, and set his mind to taking the door and walls apart piece by tiny, molecular piece. The entire castle was made with strange, magimetal like material; it was how the Nobodies were able to build it and make it function at all, likely using Xemnas' powers. Ajora didn't need anything near that scale, though; he just needed to turn a doorway into an inconspicuous wall.

In moments, the area in front of him was a thick cloud of metallic specks, primary building blocks of matter that he went about reconstructing. He saw it all in his mind's eye, aligning the metals, weaving the conduits. He made an effort to match the new wall to the sturdy walls it connected to, making it indistinguishable from the outside. The only difference, on the inside, was this portion of the wall wasn't covered in computer hardware. That would probably change.

Then, he turned around and began to walk toward the central platform, where Lettie and the mainframe stood in the center of the massive sphere. With every step, the platform behind him broke down into metallic dust and followed; with no door to the outside, there was no need for a walkway. The magimetal spun around the pillar that held the central platform up, and he levitated to follow it, crafting the base materials around the top of the pillar as a second layer. As it took shape, it appeared as though the pillar had expanded sharply as it reached the platform, so as to help hold the circular surface.

However, the addition to the pillar was hollow. Flying around to the pillar's far side, away from the door's previous location, he left a hole in the metal between the new layer and the pillar itself, allowing him to place inside it the Oracle's scepter and the Compass of Desire. Afterward, he sealed the opening entirely, leaving no opening or even a sign of a compartment at all. If he needed anything he placed in there, he could come here and open it back up.

He knocked his knuckles against the addition to the pillar, and heard a deep, resounding thud. He looked down, where the second layer expanded from the first, and saw that it was seamless, as if the addition had been built in from the start. It was enough to fool the physical senses, which would have to do for now.

It will suffice. I need to find some definitive way to keep out others, or even form an actual vault pocket dimension. Perhaps blood magic... I wonder.


You may be slightly prepared for their treachery, but what of their denial?

Ajora scoffed as he reappeared in the lab. They won't. Those dark abominations are a primary threat to existence and freedom. If there's two things they like above all else, it's life and liberty.

And what of power to stand on their own?

Ajora walked over and took one of the completed stones that Celia had placed on the counter top. The synthesizer had completed the manufacted Nethicite, as he'd hoped. And all the better, this Nethicite was made separate from the taint of corruption; with the sages' barrier in place, the Darkness' influence could not touch anyone or anything within the castle halls, so this concentrated, polarized dark energy was refined, separate... pure.

Now all that was left was the stone from a different polarity entirely: aethecite.

As you know, the deal comes with my own status. Power from the nethicite, protection from the aethecite. What else could they want?

What you ask that they give up.

His lips once more curled in confusion before realization hit, and he cursed.

Fine. I can offer them that--no, I can offer them better.

"Eden," he called, pulling the bottle from his belt and placing it on the desk. The green djinn slithered out with a groan, rolling her eyes before her form was even complete.

"Yeah, yeah, what's up now?" she asked, crossing her arms and raising a brow.

"First. I wish for the ability to allow others to use my gifts, and if necessary take back such shared gifts, in which such gifts can include abilities, magic, knowledge, or even wishes I've used upon myself," he began. "in such a way that there is no cost or upkeep on my behalf."

She grumbled, but lifted one hand just enough to snap, flooding him with cosmic energy. "Done. Next?"

"I--wait. Quick question," he hesitated, chewing on his cheek momentarily. The genies were always known to be a little... meta. "Do you know what status effects are?"

"Status effects," she began, and the giant book of rules and definitions appeared in front of her, already open to the right page as she read from it. Her tone was dry and bored. "are temporary conditions that can affect the attributes or actions of the caster, allies, enemies, or bystanders. A status effect can be instantaneous, like cutting the victim's health in half, or it can be lasting, like slowing all of the victim's actions. Blah blah blah you obviously know this."

"That's... more broad than I was expecting," he said scratching his chin.

"Well if you're looking for specifics, then you're looking for the established status effects that tend to have forms in many different schools," she began, dully flipping a page. "Like poison, or slow, or... frog? What?"

"Actually, that's perfect. I wish to be immune to all established status effects intended to hinder me," he explained. "so long as I remain in conscious control of my actions."

With another grunted sigh, she snapped her fingers, and the wish washed over him. "That all?"

He nodded, allowing her to slip back into the bottle before reattaching it to his belt. The first chunk of refined aethecite had just finished.

Soon.

[ATE: Liberation from Fate: 2]

Azrael blinked at the Dusk that appeared before him. He didn't know what the hell a Dusk was doing around here, or why it was wriggling in his direction. Not with hostility but with...annoyance? Was it annoyed that it had to find him?

It started to move towards him, only for it to stop as Az's staff was thrown, sticking out in front of the Dusk as it impaled itself into the ground. The Dusk stopped moving, and then dropped a scroll of parchment before giving another angry wiggle and vanishing.

"Rude." Azrael frowned at the parchment, before going over to pick it up off the ground The weird little seal on it vanished and the roll started to open, so the male opened it, read the words, and rolled his eyes. This seemed like such an..Ajora thing.

And then after touching the seal, the words shifted, along with...something in Az. After reading the message, the male let out a "Feh..." The b*****d died? Then who the hell sent this? And where the hell...that place?

"I guess it seems like I should figure out who sent this, then..."

And in a whoosh of a wind and a dark portal, Az was gone, now suddenly waiting for whoever at the 'appointed place', even if he was keeping to shadows and trying more to blend in then stand out. No need to make himself a flat out target for whoever was showing up.

As they both appeared and conversed, the world was still, the black sky quiet, the town mostly devoid of life save for the ones who stayed behind.

Then, without warning, something was... off.

At the top of the rubble, where Finklestein's lab once stood, there appeared nothing. But the two replicas would have felt something. Something different. Something that caused the odd, gnawing suspicion to increase, even before they consciously realized what had happened.

The rubble and its surroundings had suddenly become devoid of dark essence. It was as if a hole had appeared in their sense of the world. They could see it, smell it, hear it, but that sixth sense, that attunement to darkness, could feel the absence, could not reach into the unseen dome, which to the two replicas was only a few steps away.

Something at their core tightened, straining, and their suspicions might have been met with the instinct to turn away.

Leave.

Do not go farther.

Turn away.

But, after all, it was just an instinct. One thing they would have noticed, however, staring into empty air, was a flicker of an image. It lasted no more than a half of a half of a second, and was only visible to the two of them: the seal that had been on the letters appeared, as if like a vision, and flickered into nothing before they could rightfully blink.

If they stepped into the strange area, the most immediate thing they'd have noticed was that the chest-gripping instinct to leave vanished instantly. With it, however, was that same sixth sense, alongside the occult resistance they might have gotten accustomed to--the same resistance that had come to them when Ajora tapped into the Sun-Cryst, when the unnatural voices pierced them.

Their vanishing was not painful, nor was it jarring; rather, it was as if they had walked through a veil, stepping inside from a barely-noticeable chill into a comfortable room-temperature hall.

To anyone besides Elleon and Azrael, however, it would have appeared as though they vanished into thin air. Even moving into the dome would have done no good; it was as if they'd walked forward and disappeared.

The disappearance of their shaded gifts, and that mysterious gut instinct, might have given them a true suspicion all their own. But before they would have acted on it, they might have first noticed someone sitting casually on the top stone of the rubble pile, leaning forward with one elbow on his knee propping his chin up.

They might have recognized him, even.

"Good afternoon, dearies," came Rumplestiltskin's tenor greeting, his crocodile grin giving no sign of hostility. "I hope you weren't too busy."

[ATE : Liberation From Fate : 6]

Elleon took notice of Azrael's caution and reserved some of her own, but her curiosity and confidence certainly overpowered it. This was a lure, vague notes almost always were, but why to such a place as this? Its significance was only to the Replicas, so was it a Replica that sent for them? No, something was strange, and the feeling she had was much too distinct to have been any of the Replicas she had met, and she did believe she had met all of them. She stepped forward with Az, looking slightly haughty as she did so, only giving brief pause to the change in atmosphere. Her stomach churned but her mind stayed sharp, immediately jumping from one hypothesis to the next as the figure of none other than a certain Rumplestiltskin appeared. The number of people that knew of this character narrowed the field of their possible summoners, and knowing that this couldn't possibly be an earthling narrowed it even farther.

Ell tilted her head toward Azrael in acknowledgement before responding to the fabled Dark One, "Whether or not we were busy is irrelevant. I take it you called on us?"

[ATE : Liberation From Fate : 8]

Ell smiled and tossed her hair over her shoulder as she looked back at Azrael. She beckoned him with a finger, "All's well, come stand over here."

"Good, the gang's all here," he said, his grin remaining strong as he eyed the two of them.

"If you've come, then you either value freedom, power, or the best of both--survival," he said, flourishing his hands as he spoke, his airy voice coated in self-assurance. "I honestly don't give a damn which, as long as you're not working for that nasty business trying to, oh, kill everything."

"So then, the key to obtaining those three precious little traits," he said, and then held up a single finger. "is a heart. And not one of those fake little replications. A real, shiny one."

"Normally, the price of these are fairly steep, but~" he began, standing up suddenly. "Most of your admission has been paid in advance. Are you interested enough to stay~? Or do you like having those pesky bastards breathing down your necks at all times?"