NOT WHAT IT SEEMS (Closed, Solo for now)

[gantzgun74]

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The normally pretty blue sphere spread out beneath them, greyed out and unmoving due to the Pause that had been inflicted upon it. As it remains unmoving, Alex and Erin finish their flight to the paused skaia and enter the atmosphere.

"Can we hurry this up??" Erin called from behind Alex, her expression partially hidden behind her mask, same as Alex himself. The Thief turned to look back at her briefly as the space was slowly replaced by breathable air. "It took us 40 minutes to get here by void portal! And depending on how long it takes us to find that pause button, we'll be cutting it pretty close getting back home for New Years!"

Alex grins as he turns back to face his front.... The atmosphere burns slightly as they enter, but soon the planet itself.



The atmosphere, never ending clouds and sky is replaced by a large almost unending chessboard like plains, black and white as the day it was created and covered in almost every inch by Carapacian's, denizens of Prospit and Derse, dressed in armor and carrying around various weapons; from swords, to knives to spears, some even held sticks they had found lying around on the ground to desperately fight off the other side. It was hard to see this sight really. A part of the thief believed it might be cruel to awaken them again and let this battle continue again...

But it would've been just as cruel to leave them frozen like this wouldn't it?

"HELLO?? BRO???" Right right, he'd better answer the Kunoichi of Void, his female counterpart from another timeline and his essential adoptive sister.

"Sorry. Was just lost in thought for a second." Erin rolls her eyes a bit.

"Should've figured... I zone out like that too whenever I'm lost in thought..." .... She tilts her head looking at Alex with some amount of uncertainty. "You okay big bro? You've been zoned out ever since we left Nexus Island and started traveling here. I mean, there's zoning out, then there's whatever the hell you just did. Like flying and meditating at the same time.

...... Alex sighs and looks out over the landscape. "I just... can't help but go back and look over all of the things that led up to this point. Finding out this game exists, denying that it's connected to the island, learning that it is, vehemently refusing to play..... And now here I am, actively looking for a way to unpause the game."

................. "Terrified I take it?"

"LITTLE BIT YEAH."

Erin giggles at Alex's exasperated response, which seems to calm him down SOMEWHAT. He chuckles along with her. "I mean... I know we have no choice now... But I still can't help but go back and look at how I reacted to the very IDEA of playing this game again before. Yeah, it's a funny old world how these things change but..."

"It still feels wrong?"

...... "Right, female version of me, need to get used to that... Well... What do you think?"

Erin turns to look at Alex... And in her eyes, he see's a flame appear, a flame intense enough to swallow the sun itself and most of the universe with it. ".... I understand that what you went through must have been rough big bro, believe me... But know this. Nothing is going to stop me from taking my revenge out on Clockjerk for what he did to Eevee and all of those us' in other timelines. He needs to go." .... Alex understands that and nods. He remembers back when he had a temper like that, when righteous fury would burn in him, and he would feel it was only natural to fight back against injustice, against the monsters he would meet in his game. "..... I'm sorry for this ahead of time by the way... I'm going to owe you big time if we get out of this in one piece... Please, just be patient with me for a little while longer..."

"No, no, I get it. On top of needing to deal with this jerk, we have a bit of unfinished business we need to settle... In particular, I have an eyeless freakshow I'm gonna need to deal with at some point... But, Erin..." He places a hand on the Kunoichi's shoulder. "If we get out of this? You owe me nothing... Well. Nothing but rent anyway. Same as always."

..... Erin looks at her big brother with wide eyes before nodding, gratitude bursting from her as she seems to relax. "S-so um.... New Years?"

"Right, New Years. That's in an hour. Let's get this done then hurry back."

The two float off....

Neither of them notice one of the Carapace's eyes and expression suddenly vanish off of the soldier's face, before it slowly faded away.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



................. After some discussion, the two decide to take their chances and explore the Prospitan Castle first since that would be, most likely, the safest place for Pieter to plop down such a device and push it. The castle they find is mostly in ruin, but it seems to at least be in fairly good condition despite the frozen fires on the upper floors...

What gives the two thieves pause however is the SHEER NUMBER of black pieces just outside the castle. As they fly over the bunch's heads, Alex see's a very familiar face at the front.

Jack Noir. An agent of Derse that he had once avoided like the plague given just how vicious the son of a bitch was when it came to getting his kill. And here he was just right outside their gateway to restarting the game... Erin takes notice of him too and feels her face lock into an expression of sheer disgust. "I never did like him. He was always such a rude jackass."

"I hear that-"

CL-CLUNK

...... The two watch in horror as Jack's eyes and mouth vanish from his face and the once ultraviolent loving Carapace slowly ceases to exist, becoming as dust.

....... Both of them turn to the castle. "That came from inside."

"Weapons out."

The two pull out two separate, but very similar Dream-Catcher racketKinds and zoom to the door, Alex slamming the door off it's hinges.

....... The inside of the castle is about what Alex expects; A large gathering area filled with White Carapaces all standing guard, ready to fight at a moment's notice... One by one however these normally peaceful and loveable Prospitans turn into thin air, as if they never existed in the first place...

"There! In the back!"

Alex looks in the same direction Erin does....

... And he's....

He's... Not sure what he's looking at...

Right there, where a throne likely used to be, is a single pedestal, in several pieces due to it seemingly breaking apart...

But standing in front of it?


[Play the song at .075 speed for this scene.]

At first, the figure's back is turned and all Alex can really see is that the figure is dressed in blues and has white hair..... But then she slowly turns around...



The woman standing before them looks about in her early twenties, she feels like she should. But no matter which way Alex looked at her, there was a wisdom in her eyes. An age. A power unlike anything he had ever seen before. The blue is revealed to be an odd uniform of some kind complete with a skirt, tan leggings and black shoes. Along with her pale white hair, she has it decorated with two odd bun coverings that were colored an intricate gold, with mysterious designs on them. And just to complete the look? There was a white ribbon on her chest and white gloves that almost look military issue. "Ah, so you came~. I wondered if you would."

The woman walks down the steps, closer to the god-tiers to get a better look at them... As she does, she passes by another white Carapace, hiding behind the group and seemingly looking up to the platform, as if it had been looking at... SOMETHING that had existed up there along with the platform. A being that wasn't the woman before them. "It's quite the marvelous sight isn't it?" She tapped the Carapace....

IT SUDDENLY VANISHED.

"The illusion itself was.... almost impossible to argue with. Given the ridiculousness of the common game of Sburb, it would be hard to contest that such a thing would be impossible. Far stranger things have happened within this game after all." She looks up to the Thief and the Kunoichi (both of them staring at her with expressions of UTTER HORROR), straightening up and stretching herself. "And yet... All it takes to break the illusion is to take a solid look at all of the pieces and wonder... Is such a thing actually possible? And if it was. Should it be attempted?"

..... "S-So it's you?? You're the one that's making the Carapaces disappear??" Erin tries to keep her voice even, but Alex can hear the wavering in her tone. Something about what this woman just said has her on edge, has her mind working on twice the speed. "Wh-WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THEM!?!?"

"What a silly question." The woman, almost CASUALLY, reaches up and picks into her ear. "Given what I have said, I would have figured what was happening was obvious."

..... Alex allows his mind to wander back to everything he had just heard, while Erin just feels herself bristle. This woman was making light of lives she was erasing as casually as.... As... As a writer erasing out a paragraph that didn't make any sense. "Th-THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?! YOU'RE ERASING INNOCENT LIVES YOU SICK FREAK!! THESE PEOPLE DID NOTHING TO YOU!!!"

"You are correct on that front." The woman responds, seeming to smile a bit at Erin's temperamental answer, a nostalgic smile on her face. "Though technically you could make that arguement any which way you want in this case; yes, these people did nothing to me.... But they also did nothing with themselves, to the illusions of the black chess pieces outside, in this big wide-world you once called your winning piece..." Erin is about to shout. Alex... Alex looks confused as more pieces start fitting together but the answer is yet to come-

"Though that is only technically true since they and this great chess board do not truly exist."

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What?

The woman smiles at Erin's dropped guard and Alex's uncertain expression before twirling around on her feet and motioning around. "Think about it. And I mean truly consider every aspect...... What would pausing the game actually accomplish if it COULD be done?"

.... Alex decides to speak up when Erin can't, the girl confused and unsure of how to answer. "W-We did have a Time Player on our side. Someone who could see the future and could have directed this game's take on Pieter to craft the pause button and wait for us to come here. Finish what he and the other started-"

"Oh hoh, is THAT all." She turns and grins at the two thieves. "And pray-tell, how would the Mage of Space have crafted this button?

- How would he have made it work?

- How would a pause have remained in effect for all of this time...

- And most importantly... What do you think would happen when all of that time is finally released by the game unpausing? How would the unpausing IN ITSELF be kept from wiping out this universe wholesale in the resulting paradox and defeating the entire purpose of the whole thing?"

............ Alex had no answer. After all, he was no Mage of Space, nor was he a Time Player.

"That's something this illusion gets right." The woman twirls her finger around her head, playfully twirling a lock of hair. "It's all so fantastical and ridiculous, so of course it all makes sense.... on Paper. But when you really start thinking about it... You start to realize that the entire thing sounds.... So contrived..

She chuckles and walks back up the steps. "Consider it for a moment. Was there ever a point in the game where it felt like you could control it outside of the rules of your game? Was there ever a point where it felt like you could manipulate time outside of the sphere of influence given to you? The Source Code even throws in an in-game Reset Button so that you can reset your game in case anything goes wrong... That should tell you one very important thing about the game. Time is constantly moving forward. It can be manipulated to some degree, it can be peered into by those with the third eye, it can even be slowed to some degree or even stopped briefly if you have the right powers...

But stopping the game full on in it's tracks indefinitely? No. If the game had that sort of option within it's code, the last vestige of challenge would well and truly be gone."

......................

The truth hits the two thieves, and the realization feels like a gut punch from a Denizen. Alex crumbles to the ground, while Erin's legs start to wobble in complete disbelief.

"Are.... Are you saying... W-we came all the way out here looking for something that DOESN'T EXIST-? N-NO! THAT'S NOT TRUE!!" She manages to steady herself and she looks furious redoubling her grip on her racket. "We came so far and had so many big emotional conversations about this game and all of the good we could have done from it!!! You can't just random-ass waltz in here and tell us the entire thing is a goddamn fake!!"

While Erin is having a mini-breakdown however, Alex stands up and once more starts looking around, carefully scanning the castle... And the more he looks around, scrutinizing every small detail... The more he starts to notice a pattern emerge. They weren't especially noticeable before, mainly because they'd always been so busy looking about the planet for other players or for the pause button, but now that he REALLY looked with his current mindset? .....

He could see mysterious red data cubes appearing in the walls like static before becoming the bricks in the wall once more. Erin was too distracted to catch one of the Carapaces going all staticky before ceasing to be like the others had, leaving the Prospitan army, if indeed it even existed at all, down to only five members. The meeting hall was now almost barren, save for those remaining Carapaces, him, Erin and this mysterious woman.

Nothing about any of this looked familiar.... But... He knew he had never once seen such an effect in Sburb.

"You can deny the truth all you want... But the illusion is already unraveling. Soon this Skaia will cease to exist, and it's cruel false hope will die along with it." And THAT catches Alex's attention as he turns to look at the conversation currently ongoing.

"WHAT?!?!?!"

Alex is once more on the defensive, now focused on the woman in front of him. "Y-You can't do that!!! So many of our friends need for this hope to exist!! Our friend Beth needs this session to-"

"Do the same as you."

........

For the first time this entire meeting, her expression softens as she continues, taking in the two thieves. "The truth hurts. I know that better then anyone alive, dead, or yet to be born... So let me be the first to tell you this... You are never going to find redemption in this game. It is a cruel and barbarous game that only the strongest of humans should ever be forced to play. You have won it in other timelines. But that is them. Not you. Seek not redemption in the past... You may risk becoming obsessed with the past, missing the present and losing sight of the future." She notes the expressions hardening and sighs, looking resigned to what's about to happen. "Removing this illusion will hurt... Perhaps it will hurt a lot... But everything will be okay."

..................

The two thieves respond. The woman slumps a bit.

And we watch the chaos to come...

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December 31st, 11:30 PM, 30 minutes until New Years.

[gantzgun74]

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(BUM)

The thieves stand at the ready, their rackets out and ready to jump into battle against this mysterious new adversary…

(BUM BUM)

Said Mysterious adversary lets herself remain slumped over in light disappointment about what was about to occur… Still, she knew what must happen, for their own growth, for the growth of the balance of power.

(BUM BUM)

So she stands up tall, lets out a sigh as her hand went up to her hair….

‘This was for their own good.’

(BUM BUUUUUUUUM)

She flips her hair…

And it’s as if something flips the balance of power along with it. Intense winds suddenly blast all around the thieves, blasts out the door and come into existence in the frozen(fake?) Skaia. Alex and Erin had faced plenty of opponents on even just their offdays on Nexus Island, but this? This felt different.

(Latin like gibberish)

Alex, after shielding his eyes, manages to raise his arms to get another look at their opponent after the show of power.

(BUM BUM)

His eyes widen in complete existential horror.

(Latin-like gibberish)



Because their opponent no longer resembled just some random girl in a uniform. That was just a form she was taking because it was convenient. The golden emblems on her head become the source of what appears to be a golden ring looping around behind her head, and appearing magically out of her back, seemingly out of nowhere? A pair of large white wings. You’d imagine from this imagery alone that Alex now had the idea that he was fighting some kind of angel…

(BUM BUM)

But it’s when he looks up that that meager opinion evaporates.

(Latin like-gibberish into a CRESCENDO)



Because above the angel’s head Alex is treated with a horrifying vision. At first it appears only to be of the vast multiverse. Of stars in an endless space…. Until he see’s the white outlines. The outlines an interstellar being that could dwarf, MOVE planets, with it’s mere presence. It’s a vision that Alex can’t even begin to make sense of.

Give her this, Erin is the one that reacts first, roaring in challenge as she NYOOMS at the woman at incredible speeds. The woman just easily dances around the attack-

And lands a powerful backflip kick that sends Erin CRASHING through a wall… Heck more then that, OBLITERATING THE WALL. The house, seemingly taking the cue, vanishes into clumps of what looks like data, revealing the sky above them.

As Erin recovers, The woman merely smiles as the vision of the divine being vanishes, and she gives both of the thieves a bring it on gesture.

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Elsewhere on Skaia, more and more of the planet is disappearing, transforming into data cubes before seemingly just blipping out of existence entirely. The soldiers prominent on the planet would disappear along with them and slowly, it looked as if even the sky was slowly coming out of focus, turning from cloudy with visions of other times within them, to turning into a textureless white void, akin to a blank canvas.

It wasn’t like everything was gone…. It was like nothing had been there in the first place.

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Powerful, graceful, fast, precise.

This was unlike fighting the Raven, the Agents or even Clockwork himself. All of their moves were sloppy, mainly because their skills were rough, unpracticed, and mainly only focused on killing then holding onto any sort of actual style…

Not this woman.

She danced around Alex’s attacks no matter how skillfully they came. Seeing through feints from miles off, chuckling as she once even used a finger to catch a racket attack-

Then redirects the blow so Alex can crash into Erin who’s once more jetting at the woman at high speed. Both God-tiers crash into the cliffside, obliterating it while the mysterious being blows on her finger airily. “Slow, weak, predictable.

“You are powerful to be certain, perhaps more powerful then most incarnations of yourself… But you have allowed the lifestyle of the Thief of Void to make your attacks and moves far more predictable then they have any right to be.” She smiles as she looks over her shoulder at the two recovering thieves. “Which is why I find the Kunoichi title so misplaced. Ninja should be far more skilled then that should they not?”

Alex and Erin growl angrily before turning to each other and nodding. Alex vanishes into a void portal under his feet, while Erin cartwheels into one of her own. The woman meanwhile just raises a eyebrow at the movement before HUNDREDS of Void Portals appear around her. “Pfft. This old trick now?”

WHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSH

With all of the ferocity of a certain laser attack in a Kingdom Hearts game, many many many many rackets fire off all at once at the woman, prompting her to go on the defensive, deflecting many of them with both her finger tips and twirling dancesteps and dancing away from others. It’s actually intense watching the woman work as her movements are coming fast enough to actually give a damn, and the few rackets that do score lucky hits?

The hit seems to rip chunks out of the woman, revealing her body to be made of light…. THEN THE CHUNKS REGENERATE IN RECORD TIME.

When at last the attack ends and Alex and Erin reappear, they reappear near Ingrid and swing their weapons with precision, with Ingrid suddenly becoming parallel to the ground to avoid the rackets aimed at her head and her legs both twirling while in mid-air and yet cleanly landing on her feet-

CLANG!!! WHACK!!!

The Rackets once more start swinging at her with intense fury, Erin’s attacks being especially furious as she roared. “STOP!!! STOP THIS!!! STOP!!!!!”

“I’m afraid I can’t dear.”

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“You cannot stop what has already begun.”

On the island, certain parties around both the island and in surrounding dreambubbles start taking notice to what is happening to Skaia, the planet itself seemingly and slowly transforming into a mass of pure white without any sort of texture visible from that distant perspective.

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Alex’s clashes finally score a hit…. With Erin’s racket as the woman once more dances aside. “Just like you cannot stop me-“

“SUPER MASSIVE BLACK HOLE!!!!!” Erin’s furious blackhole attacks fire out, prompting the woman to start a spur of teleport spamming.

Alex however is keeping a careful eye on the scene before him, watching, waiting- THERE!!! “SCALE BREAKER!!!!”

He disappears.

And as the woman reappears, Alex reappears behind her, racket swinging out in a wide-arc-

WHAM!!!!!

The woman’s wrist shoots up and catches the attack with a defensive gesture, stopping it cold. “Are you done?”

“NOT EVEN REMOTELY. WHISPERS IN THE DARK!!!!”

He slams a hand open which opens another Blackhole near the woman causing her to grimace-

“BEYOND THE VEIL!!!”

And just to make things even more difficult, the genderbend was following up with her own take on the technique, launching out several tentacles from the horror terrors out of portals. The woman dances around several of the tentacles, slicing up one of them with precise kicks, lined with laser like hardlight, before one finally scores a lucky hit and knocks the woman backward…. Clean into Alex’s Blackhole attack. “GOT HER!!!!” He slams the portal closed leaving the woman enclosed in a space that should be nothing short of writhing agony for all put in.

……………… All goes silent and the song seems to end.

…… The two thieves meanwhile let out a sigh of complete relief and collapse on the ground.

“… That… Was AWFUL.” Erin gasps, looking completely out of breath. “… I can’t tell, is Skaia going back to normal?”

“G-Give me a sec…” Wheezed Alex as his vision swimmed. “Just…. Need to get my second wind…” Once he manages to calm down his breathing, he stands up…. “Hmmm…… Well the Carapaces seem to have stopped vanishing, but I’ll zoom around for a more complete view of the situation.”

So Alex lifts into his flight mode, lifting off the ground and goes flying-

A couple of feet before he suddenly stops dead and flops into the ground with an uncomfortable sounding SMACK. “ACK!!!”

Erin is on her feet in an instant. “A-ALEX-!!!” Rushing over to check on him however allowed her to get a sense of what was happening…. And…

And the sight terrified her beyond the capacity for rational thought.

….. Alex’s God-Tier aura was vanishing.

“Wh-what-?” She takes a step back…

Alex meanwhile? He can feel what is happening, his nose is now crooked. “E-Erin… R-RUN… RUN!!!!”

Run from what-??

Whoosh… A void portal opens-

AND OUT OF IT COMES A POWERFUL LIGHT UNLIKE ANYTHING THAT HAD BEEN SEEN IN NOTHING BUT SHEER NOTHINGNESS BEFORE.

And out of the portal?

(The music RESUMES into a terrifying crescendo at 7:07)

The woman walked, not even scratched by Alex’s Whispers in the Dark Fraymotif, but definitely looking irritated… All the while, her hand is behind her, ABSORBING the essence of the void itself into herself…. WHOOSH!!!! And when it’s done, the woman’s power EXPLODES outward, throwing Erin off her feet.

“Don’t run actually. I have a job I need to finish.”

… Erin does, transitioning to flight mode from being flat on her behind and zooming off at lightning fast speeds, horror apparent on her face as she aimed skyward trying to escape this planet FAST-

Only for a large void portal to appear before her, blocking her escape entirely. Before she can warp away however, the portal ZOOMED at her and engulfed her, just as she lets out a scream.

Then it’s cut off by the woman grabbing her by the throat. Erin had returned to the scene where her brother and the woman was and was now within her grasp.... Try as she might to look annoyed however, the woman's hard frown after a moment of fighting, vanishes into a fond smile. “I will admit. You two came closer then anyone ever has to beating me… It's just too bad halfway to beating me is still not close enough.”

Erin gags as she fights the iron-like fingers vicegripped around her neck. However, she feels her strength slowly leaving her. “You two were strong. Far stronger then even I was willing to guess. It makes me eager to see how you two will grow going forward. You two deserve the world and everything in it, and I give my humble wishes to you continuing to find happiness in the life that follows... Take care of each other, alright?"

And with that, all of the fight leaves Erin and she goes limp in the woman’s grip…

She’s dropped to the ground, just as the ground turns a stark, textureless white.

“E-erin….” Alex calls weakly from his current spot on the ground, arm raised to his sister whom had been drained of her god-tier powers just as he had. He had seen what the woman had done to her, seen her absorb Erin’s void powers out of her body and take them upon herself. “…. Wh-why…”

…… The woman just ignores him and walks off, leaving the two on the ground and Alex to take in the sky losing it’s texture….

The last thing Alex knows just as the world is completely lost is a void portal opening under him and Erin and the whiteness being replaced with sheer black…..

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And in that final moment, the illusion of Skaia just…. Vanishes.

……………………. However as it does, mysterious beings perched upon the Dreambubbles watches the illusion fade away.

They had known for a while the game was fake. Their arrival once upon a time had been to foretell this illusion coming to an end…



Now that it had though? Well… Now they needed something else to do. Something that did not depend on the game to give them programmed behaviors… Well…

It wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of real estate around where they couldn’t explore their options…..

[ParamountKeymaster]

But first...





A single white wisp drifted silently through the black. Its ragged wings and wiry tail whipped behind it. Its vacant, skull-like head focused on a single point.

Several wisps quickly followed, soaring across the void in luminescent clusters, lighting up the vacant medium like a meteor shower.

Gradually, they gathered together, drifting in the open space where the glorious blue crucible once rested.

The vibrant illusions had disappeared from this vast, empty realm.

All but one...

A single piece of golden architecture floated amongst the nothingness. A single bedroom, damaged greatly but still intact. One of the spirits leaned its head inside an open window, staring down at the young man in yellow pajamas and lost in a deep, peaceful sleep.

It drifted back out, speaking to its cohorts with an incomprehensible, garbled shriek. Several responded with chitters of their own. They continued to congregate as wiry tendrils unfolded from the scruff of their necks, wrapping around the detached piece of tower. Once they had it ensnared, they started flying away as a group, towing the dream room along in a graceful glide.

One of the spirits at the back craned its neck to look behind it. Its fanged maw unhinged like a snake's as it let out a furious hiss. In response, the group picked up their speed, engaging in a hasty retreat.

Clockwork did not respond. He did not pursue the creatures. He merely floated there at the edge of the empty space, watching them depart in silence, unfazed by the spirit's threat, unaffected by the reality-warping phenomenon that he had just witnessed. None of it mattered to him. He knew it was coming. He knew what was going to happen now.

This changed nothing.

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S̵C̴HK͏REE͘EE̸E.̛.̸.̸!͟

"...?!"

Evan jolted in place, then went ramrod stiff. His eyes flicked back and forth in their sockets. His lips parted and his jaw dropped a centimeter.

Slowly pulling himself out of his sudden stupor, Evan reached over and grabbed Patrick by the shoulder. "Did you hear that?"

Patrick met Evan's eyes, responding with a raised brow. "Uh, no? Hear what? Countdown hasn't even started yet, buddy."

"I..." Evan looked away, his disturbance increasing with each passing second. It was faint, barely detectable over the din of his roommates engaged in their New Year's Eve party, but he knew he heard something. Something distant, yet right there in his peripheral ear, and the fact that Patrick didn't seem to notice only rattled his nerves even more.

"S-Sorry. Excuse me." Without looking back, without another word, Evan stepped away. He weaved between his friends, stumbled through the living room, slid the patio door open, then stepped out into the wintery air. The city ambiance didn't bother him. The frigid temperature did not deter him. Evan's eyes and ears were on the sky, and nothing else around him mattered.

The blue star in the northern night sky... the one that he had grown so attached to... the one that showed him his history and his fate... it was gone.

"Sk... Wh... Where... Wha...?"

Evan couldn't articulate what he was seeing. What he was feeling. He couldn't believe it... but he couldn't deny it either.

Skaia wasn't there anymore.

"No... No, this... It can't..."

This made no sense. This contradicted everything he had learned about this game. How could this be happening? If Skaia was gone, then everything he had been working towards would've been for nothing!

Blindly, half-consciously, his eyes still trained on the blank spot in the sky, Evan pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened Pesterchum. Only once he had selected the chum on his mind did he tear his gaze away from the void and set his sights on his words...


-- paramountKeymaster [PK] started pestering clockworkAngel [CA] --

PK: Kendall??
PK: Kendall, are you there?!
PK: Skaia just vanished, dude! What the heck is going on?!
PK: Is this for real?! Is it really gone or what?!
PK: I thought you said we were supposed to beat this game! How are we supposed to do that now?!
PK: Kendall, please answer me! I'm freaking out here!
PK: Where are you?!

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S̵C̴HK͏REE͘EE̸E.̛.̸.̸!͟

"COFF...!!!"

Kendall covered his mouth, taken aback by the sudden irritation at the back of his throat. A single cough seemed to clear it quickly enough, but the tenseness in his chest did not abate. The angel remained shaken, standing alone atop Mt. Bonsai in stone-cold silence.

Something was horribly wrong. He could feel it.

He pulled his hand away, brushing his fingers along his lips. A small trickle of ivory blood rubbed off onto his hand. He involuntarily exhaled a soft, raspy shudder.

He turned around and looked to the sky.

His eyes landed on the black veil where the blue light of Skaia once shone.

"No..." Kendall took a few shaky steps forward, his feet dragging along the mosaic floor of the desecrated temple. "You... What... What have you done to me?"

Kendall felt his phone vibrating in his back pocket, but the thought of answering it never crossed his mind. The chronological stimuli already bombarding him was horrifying enough.

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Fog... Clear... Fog... Clear...

The white spot on the window rhythmically grew and shrunk from Evelyn's heavy breaths. She stared into the night sky, her deep brown eyes reflecting the darkness until they became bottomless pools of dread. One hand leaned against the cold glass. The other tightly gripped her churning stomach.

"E... Erin...??"

Skaia's disappearance was an event that the rogue had no logical explanation for, but truthfully, at that moment, it was the least of her worries. She wasn't afraid of the loss of the medium; she had witnessed the death of her own firsthand. What terrified her was the ramifications. She found herself asking what had happened to Erin and Alex. What this new development would mean for their friends. How... he would respond to it.

The grisly memory of a sharp, foul tang danced across her tongue, forcing her to fight with all her might not to throw up.

"I... I gotta get outta here...!"

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Lagola sat on her bed, hugging her stuffed bunny, gazing up at the stars. She saw the blue light blink away, focusing on that one spot for minutes on end until it faded entirely. Though she was visibly distraught by it, she only barely seemed affected once the deed was done, no more so than she was prior.

She knew it was coming. That didn't make it easier to watch.

Slowly, Lagola lowered her head and looked down at the moonlit garden surrounding the house. Sanuta was still out in the field somewhere, and it pained her inside to imagine what he was thinking. What he was seeing. What this meant to him personally.

And Kendall... Where was he? What was he going to do now?

What were any of them going to do now?

With a light sniffle, Lagola curled inward, turning away from the outside world, letting the bronze tears quietly slide down her cheeks.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Evan...?"

Swift watched Evan walk past her with evident concern, staring at his back while he didn't even spare her a passing glance. His anxious expression and hasty gait said it all. Something was wrong.

Without a word to any of their friends, Swift set her drink aside and followed Evan. He closed the door behind him as he stepped onto the patio, leaving Swift to linger on the other side of the sliding glass door and watch him from inside the apartment. He seemed to be looking at the sky. Swift followed suit, nervous and curious.

At first, she didn't see what had him worked up. It was hard to trace Evan's exact line of sight, and even then, Swift couldn't make out any distinct and unusual shapes anywhere among the black canvas that might've attracted his gaze. Nothing was approaching the island. Nothing had appeared in the night sky. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

So... maybe it wasn't what was there. Maybe it was what wasn't. But if that was the case, then what...?

Swift's ears folded back. She tried to remember where exactly Skaia had been pointed out to her, desperately trying to find it among the sea of universes. The familiar speck of blue light eluded her, and it quickly became clear that this wasn't an oversight on her part. It simply wasn't there.

"Oh God..."

She was not going to hear the end of this tomorrow, was she?

---------------------------

The garden was watered. The day's work was done. The sun had long since vanished and the cold of night began to set in. And yet Sanuta couldn't move from his spot among his precious flora.

The disturbance in the atmosphere was impossible to miss.

"No... Sk-Skaia...!"

The crucible of the gods... It was gone.

His heart skipped a beat. His hands shook uncontrollably. Shuddering breaths escaped his open mouth.

Mud and leaves kicked up beneath his sandals as Sanuta turned around and began a mad dash through the garden, sprinting towards the temple that rested at the base of the hill. He couldn't ignore the terrible confusion stirring within him. This was by all accounts a cosmic disaster, and he desperately had to know what had caused it. He had to know that the island's fate was not at stake. He had to know that hope was not lost.

He threw the door open and promptly disappeared inside the Temple of Kitomo.

The young hanyo would not reemerge until morning, praying and meditating all throughout the night.

---------------------------

"Son of a b*tch..."

Sirion stared through a crack in the void, weaving his fingers through it as if it were as solid as a broken window pane. A metaphysical fracture of this nature was nothing new to him; they had followed him almost loyally every since his journey through the Furthest Ring had begun. It was what he saw on the other end that truly caught his attention.

He saw Skaia growing more and more distorted... faded... corrupted...

Then he saw nothing at all. Nothing but a ceaseless void.

Nothing but... him.

"Gotcha."

Another medium destroyed by the demon. It was nothing new. Nothing special. Nothing he couldn't handle.

This time, Sirion wouldn't let him get away with it...

[DMis]

All three of the Blood coven froze as they watched and felt their bonds forcibly snap. Beth quickly closed her shop before flying home rapidly. Todd rushed through the streets and back to home. Forsaken looked to the sky as she was cleaning.

"Alex... Erin... please be okay..." she whispered.

Yang felt an odd phantom pain the moment Skaia disappeared before passing out. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all gathered around a passed out Yang.

In another building, one teal blooded troll was shaking. Dzaneb was not liking what he sensed as he went to check one the skymap from one of his roommates. The skymap confirmed his fears.