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The World the two ended up visiting was, in many respects, unique.
For one, neither Ansem nor Xigbar had seen so many modern looking buildings rising so far above the ground before. Skyscrapers, multitudes – not just a singular tower like so many Worlds possessed – rose like monuments to progress. The bright blue sky was flooded with technology: fans, electronic billboards, planes.
Xigbar knelt at the edge of one of the highest buildings, leaning over the yawning expanse of concrete and asphalt below him with curious gaze. Next to him stood Ansem, arms folded as always, eyes eagle sharp as they scanned the horizon and the vivid red bridge that ran parallel to it.
“So, what did they call this World again?” Xigbar’s relaxed voice floated upwards. Ansem closed his eyes, admiring the wind on his face as he answered.
“San Fransokyo. Brilliant World, this. The technology is beyond so many others. Such an interesting petri dish for my Heartless…” Ansem mused, and then opened his eyes to stare at the other. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised you decided to take this post with me. Twilight Town was understandable, but now? Don’t tell me you didn’t make other ‘friends’ in the Organization.”
Xigbar responded to the teasing comment with a carefree chuckle and rose to his feet, balancing on a pencil thin antennae jutting out over the hundreds of feet of air beneath them.
“Maybe I wanted to play catch up after Sora obliterated you to kingdom come!” Xigbar said, and tilted his head to admire the other’s regal stance and composure. “I don’t have to pretend I haven’t grown a bit of a Heart back, now. I’m allowed to admit I missed you a little.”
“Growing soft, are we?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who kept up the rendezvous while he was a glorified potato sack.” Xigbar chuckled. “It was hard having dates when you didn’t have a body, but it was cute that you tried. But...what’s up with that ?”
Xigbar gestured to Ansem’s body...or more accurately, the coat that covered it. It was tight leather, hugged his curves in all the right places--for all intents and purposes, a divine outfit for Xigbar to admire his boyfriend in. At the very least, he thought Ansem flattered the outfit better than he did. And yet…
“Man oh man...you couldn’t look less comfortable in the coat if you tried.”
Ansem shifted his weight, lips tugged into an awkward looking grimace. “You know as well as I do that I don’t quite have a choice in this. It works just fine.”
“When we met up in the Realm of Darkness and you could keep your form down there, you never wore anything that restricting. Trust me, I remember, it was hard not to appreciate the view.” Xigbar gestured to his own chest with a sly wiggle of his eyebrow. “Seeing you like this just ain’t natural. You look miserable.”
“I’d be miserable even outside of this coat.”
The statement came across blunt, perhaps even accidental. Xigbar paused, noticing the way Ansem’s eyes widened slightly at his own words, before quickly narrowing back down. The sharpshooter wound his way back to the other, hopping with supernatural agility from precarious ledge to the slightly less dangerous platform, and slung his arms over his shoulders, carefully observing the way Ansem stiffened.
“Sounds like you need to take a load off. No way we can take you into battle if you’re not at your tip top best. After all,” Xigbar’s voice lowered, smile grim. “The Guardians or Lights or whatever you wanna call ‘em are cutting it a bit close to us.”
“We’ve already talked about that, Xigbar.” Ansem said warily, though he couldn’t help the smirk that came as he carried on. “Do you have a suggestion, then? Surely you couldn’t be planning to give me a massage.”
“As if! Though if we win this, why not? I’m sure I’d be the envy of allllll our little friends.”
“What, then?”
“Simple: we grab lunch.”
Ansem turned to face Xigbar, expression hardened in sheer disbelief. “Now? Of all times?”
“Absolutely!” Xigbar threw up his arm and gestured over the city and all of the shops it contained. “I mean, check this place out. You love seeing new worlds, right? And it’d be such a waste to not explore this one while it still exists. I mean, you never know what Master Xehanort might get rid of in the World to come, y’know? C’mon, I know it’s catnip to you.”
Ansem’s eyes scanned over the city once more. The way the sleek architecture piqued his curiosity, the way exotic offerings thrilled him. The myriad scents and colors that leapt out to him even so far up. The wanderlust that drove him as Xehanort that refused to leave even now burgeoned at the fore, pushing him, begging him to dive deep into the World and explore it despite himself. And Xigbar, ready as always to chase a thrill, handsome, rugged face alight with mischievous knowing, encouraging him to take the leap.
If anything defined their relationship, it was that Xigbar always knew just what Xehanort, and therefore Ansem, needed.
“Fine,” Ansem sighed, though the excited shine to his eye gave away his personal enjoyment. “You’ve a silver tongue, Freeshooter. We’ll do this on one condition.”
“Anything.”
“I disguise us. I refuse to be caught dining, by the children
or
by our own.”
Xigbar whistled in surprise, a sound eaten up by the breeze. “Oh? You got that kinda power?”
“Have you really forgotten that I’m an experienced mage?” Ansem mused incredulously, unfolding his arms and brushing back the hair that flitted in front of his face with serene confidence.
As he did so, change swept across his body with the motion of his hand. His hair magically pulled itself back into a ponytail, elegant glasses materialized on the bridge of his nose. His coat melted away to reveal a smart, salmon dress shirt, navy slacks and blazer, and brown oxfords. A flick of his wrist transformed Xigbar is a similar way: the other man watched with satisfaction as his coat gave way to a cropped black shirt, golden bomber jacket, black drop bottom pants, and perhaps most refreshingly to him, a new pair of kicks. Xigbar turned every which way to test the movement of his new outfit, nodding in approval at how loose and airy it was.
“Oh, man, I can actually BREATHE in this thing! Goddamn, I haven’t felt this free in a long time,” Xigbar laughed. “I had no idea if that kinda magic disappeared the moment you got your hair back, okay?”
Ansem laughed into his hand in turn, and the smile that came onto his face was, for a moment, warm. “You always did know how to draw a laugh out of me.”
“Is that why you never replaced me even after I cut up after the Terra thing?”
The smile grew.
“Yes.”
With Xigbar’s teleportation, it didn’t take long to make it down to a small, out-of-the way cafe.
“Thought you could use something on the lighter side,” Xigbar mused as they strolled past a verdant strip of vegetation to lounge at an outdoor table. He carelessly gulped down a brightly colored concoction, something the shop purveyor had called ‘bubble tea.’
Ansem simultaneously analyzed the ingredients of a rather colorful looking roll, loaded with fresh fish and bursting with rice, his gaze alone seeming to dissect the ingredients more carefully than the tips of his chopsticks.
“The dishes are quite seafood heavy in this world,” he finally remarked after peeling back sheets of nori to thoroughly inspect the ‘sushi.’ “They remind me of what we ate on the Islands.”
“Oh, unpleasant memories, then?”
“Hilarious, but no. The food I could deal with,” Ansem said lightly. “It’s...nostalgic, I suppose.”
“So what you’re saying is that you feel better walking around and taking in the sights, is that right?” Xigbar gestured smugly with his drink, and winked as best he could with one eye. “Toldja so.”
“Don’t be so quick to judge now. You seemed almost as eager to escape as I did. Out of our duties, that is.” Ansem peeked over his seaweed salad with brows raised. “Is there something bothering you, Xigbar? It’s not quite like you.”
The smile on Xigbar’s face dropped, ever so slightly, and his eye shimmered oddly under his glamour.
“Can’t a guy get tired?”
“Is ‘tired’ really the word you want to use?”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Xigbar said sharply, and then, as if to soften the statement, started to laugh. “My issues are my own. You projecting or something?”
Ansem’s gaze lingered on the other, as if trying to peer past the facade the other had built. Xigbar met the stare expertly, face doing its best to stay as unreadable as ever. Ansem moved on with a sigh.
“That aside, I think it’s time to consider our agenda in this World.” Ansem tilted his head back to gaze at the pedestrians strolling along flower strewn walkways and sitting at bubbling fountains that shone under the hot sun. “I can’t say this World looks as though it would contain a Princess. But perhaps some strong Hearts, to better test our brave heroes…? Or even a potential experiment to see what may happen with that ‘puppet.’”
“Always thinking, aren’t you? That’s the old coot I know and love.” Xigbar laughed once more, brushing aside the awkwardness of the previous moment, and rested his chin on his hand, smile razor sharp. “So...what’s the plan, hotshot?”
“There’s always the tried and true method...adversity, you see, brings out the exceptional in humanity.”
As he swallowed another piece of his meal, dark puddles began to seep out from under Ansem, spreading forward into the streets. Antennae poked out, then eyes, then claws...and soon, entire lanky bodies sprung forth. Neoshadows hunched over and prowled silently forward as the pedestrians began to panic.
“Neoshadows!” Xigbar clapped his hands together jovially as Ansem grinned in response, nodding his head as a proxy bow. “Classy choice. But I’m pretty proud of my own crew. Why don’t we make it a party?”
Xigbar snapped his fingers and eerie noises, like sheet metal warping in a windstorm, rang throughout the already chaotic streets. Snipers slid into view from seeming nothingness, curving and pirouetting into place before assisting the Neoshadows in their hunt.
“Such effective scouts you have,” Ansem offered cordially, eyes smiling over his glasses. “I’d expect nothing less from you.”
“Hey, I don’t need the guys back in the Organization thinking I can’t pull my weight, right? So, how long until our ‘exceptional’ Hearts arrive…?”
Ansem opened his mouth to guess, but the answer was taken from his tongue with the voice of a young boy shouting over the crowd.
“Whoa...what...what kind of tech is this?! Baymax, is there anyone injured?!”
“Hah! Well I’ll be damned.” Xigbar tilted his head towards the source of the voice, and Ansem’s gaze followed.
On the back of a large, flying armored robot sat a young teen boy. The two circled the scene, the robot taking out as many of the Heartless and Snipers as it could. As Ansem and Xigbar watched, however, the claws and ammo of their monsters started taking their toll. The boy was swiped off of his robot, and further thrown down an alleyway by a particularly vicious Neoshadow. The two men rose to their feet after exchanging a glance, and with inhuman speed warped into the center of the fray, overlooked by shouting citizens and shrouded by flung debris.
“The boy or the robot?” Xigbar queried, voice edged by a sinister tint. His teeth, blunted by Ansem’s spell, flashed their true, sharper form for a brief second.
“The boy can be used to get the robot if we must, but the robot may have more easily accessible information,” Ansem answered, glamour twisting to reveal slitted eyes. “Get the robot.”
“Don’t need to tell me twice!”
With a sharp swipe of his arm, Xigbar ripped open a Dark Corridor, the size of which was amplified by his Space powers. It split the street down the middle, erupting into a black hole the size of a car. The robot seemed to waddle backwards, disoriented...and that was all it took for Xigbar to kick it into the great maw, with he and Ansem following immediately behind.
Each step further into the corridor brought with it a cascade of transformations. Lips parted into a quiet, relieved sigh as Ansem’s hair melted from its ponytail, falling primly down his back. His glasses became ashen, as if covered with frost, and then crumbled away into dust behind him as he shook his leonine mane. Oil black boots swirled into existence onto Xigbar’s feet, thin, pointed teeth revealed as laughter pealed within the dark void.
...And somewhere about ten feet behind them, a round, bright red foot was having trouble wiggling through the portal.
“You have got to be...,” Ansem muttered under his breath, massaging his brow in lieu of facing the struggling robot. “It came in first. How did it end up last?”
Xigbar let out a low whistle, pausing mid stride to watch Baymax. Its wide, motionless eyes almost seem to cry for help as its head eventually came through.
“They really didn’t build this thing for mobility, did they?”
“I was not built for. Mobility. But for comfort and. Stability.”
“I don’t think it was built for much at all. It’s almost childish. But we don’t have time for childishness, now, do we?” With a haughty glance over his shoulder to finally meet the robot eye to eye, Ansem snapped his fingers.
The Darkness of their surroundings heeded the sound.
Tendrils gathered in a circle on the dusky purple plane below them, swirling tempestuously, forming a black puddle in its center and then suddenly...surged forth. They grabbed the robot without care for kindness and yanked it through, and without giving the robot time to observe its surroundings, crawled into every slot and crevice available on its armor. The Darkness bubbled there, seeping off of the robot in waves, and it whirred in response, shuddering with seized movement.
“Armor. Malfunction. Powered armor. Is offline and. Deactivated. Movement is. Restrained.”
Ansem growled under his breath while Xigbar barked laughter behind him.
“Deep breaths, big guy,” Xigbar cooed. “Deep breaths.”
“I’ve made Heartless smarter than you, robot. Just what sort of second rate programmer put you together?” With a sigh to relieve his frustration, Ansem yanked his head towards the robot’s arrested form.
The Guardian now burst forth from beneath him, and grabbed the robot – one hand firmly clamped around a round arm, the other around a stubby leg. It wiggled around in futility before being half carried, half dragged along as the group began to push forward through the corridor.
“I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion.” Baymax blinked and then continued, voice halting awkwardly between words. “I was built by. Hiro Hamada. But, my original design and predecessor. Was built by. Tadashi.” It shifted its arms around, as if attempting to test the limits of the Darkness gunking up its armor and the Guardian’s hold.
“Original...so this is not the only one of these robots aro-”
“May I. Have your. Name?”
Ansem’s expression turned stiff for a moment before twisting into a wry smile, a deep chuckle unleashed from inside of him. The Guardian yanked Baymax along a little more impatiently.
“Wonderful, it thinks we’re stupid.”
“The name’s Keon-woo.”
Ansem quirked an eyebrow at Xigbar, who smiled and shrugged in response. “I wanna see what it has to say.”
Baymax’s eyes glowed red, and the Guardian allowed him enough slack to face Xigbar. A steady beam shot from its eyes, making Ansem’s fingers twitch preemptively, but harmlessly scanned a nonchalant Xigbar who stood with head cocked easily.
“Keon-woo. It seems as though. You are experiencing. Critically low body temperatures. Allow me to warm you. With my. Heating components.” Whirring noises began to fill the void as Baymax’s plush legs struggled to work against both the jammed armor and the Guardian’s grip.
Xigbar pressed a hand against Baymax’s chest and pushed him back with a snort while Ansem’s own hand flew up to disguise his sudden laugh as a slightly more dignified cough.
“Yeeeeeah, nah, I’m just clinically dead. Not much you can do about that, bud.” Xigbar rolled his shoulders and nodded at Ansem, feet once again treading shifting purple ground.
They had barely made it a few more feet into the swirling Darkness before Baymax piped up again, making squeaking noises as his soft body squished around spontaneously.
“Keon-woo’s. Companion. Seems to possess inadequate. Skin coverage. Heart rate. Brain activity. Bone den-”
Ansem’s brow knit together. “Is it having issues diagnosing me because of my replica body?”
“-aliva production. Lymph production. Body temperature. I do not possess. Protocol for this.”
“I’m beginning to think we picked the wrong lead. Perhaps we can rid ourselves of this irritant somewhere inconspicuous,” said Ansem as Baymax seemed to ponder his continued existence.
“Y’know, I think he’s kinda fun.” Xigbar’s eye narrowed dangerously and slid in Baymax’s direction. The robot met his glance with a tilt of its head. “But fair enough. Let’s-”
“Keon-woo. My scanners have detected. Chemical imbalances. Specifically. A deficiency of serotonin indicating. Depression and. Elevated stress. Most likely stemming from. Previous traumatic experiences.”
Silence swallowed the last of Baymax’s words. The Darkness around them whirled on, seeming to become a furious storm further on into the horizon it went. Xigbar’s gaze slide from Baymax onto that distant nothingness, becoming unfocused. He could feel Ansem’s stare as it lingered on his blind side. He swallowed dryly...and laughed.
“What a machine...what happened to doctor-patient confidentiality, huh?”
“Previous traumatic experiences?” Ansem echoed Baymax, voice tinged with...some emotion that felt foreign to both him and Xigbar. The question lingered in the air until it became stale and suffocating.
“It’s just a machine, it doesn’t know what it’s talking ab-”
“A. Stressor. Seems to have. Recently. Aggravated your symptoms.” Baymax’s innocent round face stared unblinkingly forward, Xigbar’s face darkening as he met that gaze once again. “Your. Distress. Is significant. Your functioning may become. Compromised.”
Xigbar spun, rounding on Baymax as an Arrowgun materialized in hand, its tip pointed squarely at the heart of the robot’s armor. His face was stern, rugged features set like stone. Only the way his eye seemed to blaze revealed the thrumming of what he had thought was a long forgotten emotion.
“You’re wrong. You’re compromised-”
But Baymax droned on.
“The primary treatment would be to call one’s family and friends for emotional support. The way your heart rate and various hormones rise when you look at this other man indicates that he is a close loved one.”
Silence fell once more. Xigbar wanted nothing more than for it to consume him completely.
“...by any chance,” Ansem said evenly from behind Xigbar, startling him. “Does this have to do with earlier?”
“Ansem...look.” Xigbar’s voice came out thin and he ran his free hand over his hair, unable to turn around. “I told you, my issues are my own. Besides, Kingdom Hearts doesn’t have time to wait for my sob story. We’re so close. There’s no way I’m gonna let shit get to me now and let you down, y’know?”
“Keon-woo’s. Companion’s name. Is Ansem?”
Ansem and Xigbar tersely looked at Baymax, and then, with a turn of Xigbar’s torso, each other. With a weary sigh, Ansem folded his arms over his chest, closed his eyes, and spoke.
“The Lights would’ve found out we’ve visited this World one way or another, Xigbar.” His eyes slowly opened, and their deep orange suddenly seemed to take on shades beyond their color. “You went above and beyond for me...us. I never understood your dedication. A decade is a long time to wait, to be loyal, even after becoming a Nobody. On some level, you must trust me. Consider this another show of loyalty. Speak to me, Xigbar. Tell me who you are.”
A flurry of violet erupted from Xigbar’s hand as his weapon was dismissed. It did a good enough job of distracting from the fact that, for a moment, his hand shook violently. He fully shifted to face the other, lips taut, eye devoid of the playfulness that usually danced behind his gaze. When he spoke, it was with a gravel to his voice that sounded like the scraping of a crypt’s entrance being opened for the first time in centuries.
“I’m a mercenary. Pawn.” He paused. “Son of my father. And part of a family that made the former two more appealing options than the latter. My old man...made me a bit of a monster.”
He laughed bitterly. Ansem could feel the Darkness ebbing off the other in waves, and could read those subtle flows with accuracy no human could ever hope to. He could feel the depths of pain in those words pressing against his skin, and frowned.
“The responsibilities he shoved onto me would make a demon out of anyone. But I’m sure he knew that’s what I’d become. There’s no way he wouldn’t know. His eye...was too keen for that.”
Xigbar crossed his arms and sucked air through his teeth with the sharpness of a stab. His head turned to look across the void once more, and Ansem could’ve sworn he heard him whisper something under his breath. ‘Superbia’…?
“You know, telling you even this much is more than I’ve ever let slip to anyone. And if it weren’t for this goddamned robot... Heh, well. You would’ve squeezed it out of me if I didn’t come clean myself. You’re too curious, Xehanort. I like that about you.”
“Keon-woo’s. Companion’s name. Is Xehanort? Keon-woo’s. Name. Is Xigbar?”
“Hopefully a more endearing curiosity than this robot’s,” Ansem offered with a thin smile. “So are you saying you’ve offered yourself to be my pawn as a way of asserting independence? How paradoxical.”
“You’re not the first person I’ve dirtied my hands for.” Xigbar snorted, and gestured with his hands to emphasize. “Wise King Ansem and his guard. My father. And a whole lotta people in between. People treat me like a disposable object so I usually don’t give ‘em the time of day. But even if I’m just a pawn...you didn’t make me feel like one. Working alongside you. Watching everything come together. You entrusted me with details of your plan you didn’t give anyone else. Visited me during those years when you were just a heart in a robe. That’s more than I can say for a man like my pops. That’s more…”
Xigbar’s hand found his forehead and held it almost disbelievingly. A smile cracked his face, shattered even more by a hearty guffaw that shook him to his core.
“Just listen to me! The guy who wants to rule the World and snatch bodies makes me feel more like a human than I ever did while I was still a human! Go figure!” As he laughed more, Ansem drifted closer to Xigbar, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him as the man continued. “Even now...I’m still being hounded by what my old man wants. Forced to drag out his legacy behind me after all these years. Carrying his baggage. It’s getting old. Maybe...when this is all over, I...”
“I’ll find a way to use the power of Kingdom Hearts to let you punish your father in any way you see fit. Frankly, I’d love to see you do it.” Ansem paused, and stroked his chin. “‘I’ as Master Xehanort, in any case. ‘I’ as this...anomaly of Xehanort will most likely not exist anymore. I will admit that it makes working for our cause...disillusioning.”
The sound of Baymax blipping echoed through the void before the robot offered its own advice. “Ansem-Xehanort. Might also benefit from. Discussing his troubles.”
Xigbar elbowed Ansem lightly, eye finally making contact with Ansem’s again as he tried to ignore the feeling of warmth that began to flood his clinically dead body. “You heard the thing. Maybe it’ll get it to shut up.”
“Ah, did talking actually help you?”
“Can it, old coot.”
Ansem tilted his chin up and smiled down, before averting his gaze with a tap of his fingers against his arm.
“Despite being Xehanort’s Heart…that Darkness, his essence...it feels as though existing through those formative years again, growing past that moment of separation...Master Xehanort feels to me like one’s teen years to an adult. I have matured past that me.” His voice dropped off, and his lips parted as if to speak, but instead let silence linger a little longer.
“...will this experience be wasted? Will this extra time, extra knowledge...mean nothing? I do not know if I will ever truly be at ease with that. And yet, I will likely cease to exist when our goal is completed.”
A bullet like chuckle jolted Ansem from his solemn contemplation, morphing into a pleased, familiar, comforting cackle.
“You’re forgetting we’re a pair of mad scientists!” Xigbar’s arm wrapped around Ansem’s waist with renewed vigor, smile once again sharp and vibrant. “I’ll bring you back. Just as sure as you’re here now. There’s no way we can let such a brilliant mind go to waste in our new world, right?”
The atmosphere seemed to lighten despite their oppressive surroundings as Ansem’s lips curled into a soft smile. He breathed, and it seemed to be as if it were the first he had heaved since coming into being.
“Yes. How very right you are…”
Clattering broke the tender exchange as the Guardian suddenly released Baymax, the robot falling to the floor in a pile of broken armor. It took a moment to wobble on its belly before managing to roll itself awkwardly back onto its feet. With a few seconds of ambiguous whirring, Baymax waddled over to the two men, arm raised in a wave.
“It seems as though this. Emotional therapy session. Has produced. Positive results!” Baymax’s head rotated between Ansem and Xigbar approvingly. “Please! Be sure to schedule follow up appointments with your nearest. Mental health professional.”
Tilting his head onto the other’s shoulder, Xigbar glanced at Ansem, who responded with a raise of his eyebrow at the robot.
“Aside from its...greater than average medical intuition...this robot seems to be rather useless with regards to our cause.” Baymax blipped something about rating their satisfaction with their care. “Perhaps we should be rid of it now.”
“No...hold on. I just remembered something our new pal told us.” Xigbar released Ansem and walked to Baymax, circling it with a widening smile. “This isn’t the only Baymax, remember? Baymax...just what happened to the other version of you?”
Baymax stood silently, lifting its finger once it had calculated a response.
“Hiro has not. Given me. His full knowledge of the incident. However. Baymax 1.0 was. Lost within. A rift.”
“A rift?” Xigbar’s tone rose in amusement. “Why...we just might have access to a couple of those, right?”
Ansem’s smile darkened in response, widening with white, sharp teeth.
“Well, well, well. A lost soul with a connection to a troubled, young, strong Heart. We may have to arrange a reunion between these poor things.”
“Consider it our payment for this therapy session, right?” Xigbar slung an arm over Baymax, who shuffled in place. “Your ‘Hiro’ is about to get a nice lil’ gift soon enough.”
“A gift. May increase Hiro’s. Emotional well being.”
Ansem and Xigbar exchanged smirks, and eventually laughter.
“My, that robot certainly does know how to lighten a mood, doesn’t it? It feels like a waste to so quickly go back to work.” Ansem’s fingers ghosted his chin, lingering on his lips as his eyes narrowed. “Perhaps I could call in a favor from one of our new replicas. I’ve been curious to see what that one can do…”
“Ahh, you mean the one based off of the Hero’s favorite knight, right? I won’t lie, I’m curious too. C’mon,” Xigbar extended his hand, which Ansem took nobly. “We never did get to finish our meal.”
“How right you are.”
Darkness enveloped Baymax, causing him to stumble back and forth in confusion, before eventually he was swallowed whole. The dark whirlpool swirled and surged violently before dying back down into nothingness, Baymax’s presence erased entirely.
“That robot’s armor should be far too damaged to communicate anything, should it have possessed a tracker. Let’s hope it doesn’t talk while we eat.”
“It shouldn’t talk, but you, old coot, definitely should.” Xigbar laughed, and opened up a wide portal back out into the open air of the city. “That voice of yours is butter, so feel free to slather it on while we chow down.”
“You flatterer.”
“At your service!”
"As always.”