Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As Sunny embraced Omori, he heard the knife clatter to the ground. He didn’t need to look in order to know that Omori was going to fade away, but he made himself turn his eyes regardless; he had been running from his problems and ignoring the truth for too long, and the least he could do was send off the entity that he had given life to. As the last shimmers of Omori faded, Sunny felt an irresistible urge to fall to the ground screaming and sobbing in agony, but a thought occurred, preventing him from doing so.

They deserve to know the truth. The truth about Mari, and what he and Basil had done together.

Sunny turned his head and looked toward the door leading out of Whitespace and, ironically, realized just how sterile and empty the space was. He once saw the bright white walls as a refuge, a place where he could hide his bloodied hands and pretend that nothing was wrong. Except that wasn’t quite true, was it? All that Sunny had been trying to run from had manifested itself in Headspace, and in the end, it had caught up to him, and had left nothing but an empty room once it was all said and done.

 He had hurt his friends so much by retreating to his dream world, and it was for nothing but a room where he’d run away and hidden, like it wasn’t ever his responsibility to handle the repercussions of what had happened; but that was something he was prepared to rectify.

Sunny began to stumble towards the door, each step creating an echo in the seemingly infinite space. Every step spelled agony for his unsettled mind, as he felt anxious about how his friends would react, when he remembered what had happened between himself and Basil the night before. Sunny might have been able to reconcile with Mari, but Basil hadn’t been given that opportunity, and was still suffering from his own demons. Remembering this steeled his resolve, and he felt resolute with purpose as he approached the door.

Yet, as he reached for the doorknob, his newfound courage faded, and he was struck with immeasurable fear. It was entirely possible that his friends would shun him. They had all loved Mari so much, and he was the reason she was dead; he wouldn’t be surprised if they all left him behind, and he would deserve it. He had gone so far as to lock himself in his house all day, hiding from his problems in a dreamland while his friends had suffered on without him.

 Aubrey had become a neighborhood terror, Basil had been under constant stress from the lie, and he had heard Hero sobbing over Mari’s piano. The only one who had been able to move on in some fashion was Kel, and even he had been affected by the split of the group that Mari’s death had catalyzed. Sunny turned around, and considered remaining in Whitespace, where he could go back to hiding and stop hurting them, where he could let his friends grow closer together again without him-

“You’ll forgive yourself, won’t you Sunny?”

Sunny’s eyes widened as Mari’s voice echoed through his mind, and his hand trembled towards the door while the tears he had desperately attempted to hold back began to flow yet again. He turned around for the last time, and wiped his eyes while shakily reaching for the doorknob, slowly beginning to turn it; and as he shut his eyes when he stepped through, fully expecting to wake up injured and potentially even in the hospital…

To be met with the vision of a lush green hill with a single tree on its peak, church bells ringing in the distance.

Chapter Text

As Sunny stumbled at the sight of what was before him, he felt his stomach twist in what was surely a cruel twist of fate. He had decided he was done with Headspace, but it seemed Headspace wasn’t going to let him go that easily. Although, that did beg the question, what was keeping him here? Omori had just vanished, and no other entities in Headspace would have the power to shift its structure this much. Was there something he still needed to settle…?

Whatever the case, Sunny shook his head, and started walking forward, eyes not processing what was before him as he was lost in thought; he’d almost let himself give up and close himself off from the world just moments before. Even if he was to give up in the end, and there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t, he needed to find out what was keeping him here, if for nothing else than to put Omori to rest, and assure himself Mari’s spirit was peaceful—

Did Mari bring him here? Was he dead and this was the afterlife? Sunny stopped dead in his tracks as the scenario ran through his head; he pinched himself on his cheek, and felt a sharp stab of pain that was too intense to have come from the small pinch. Had he injured himself fighting Omori and just didn’t realize until now? The pain had come from closer to his eye than his cheek, what was going on?

 Sunny shook his head to fight off the pain; if he was feeling pain, he wasn’t actually dead. Having answered that quandary, he decided to properly orient himself: Assumingly, he was in Headspace, as it certainly didn’t look like any other location in his mindscape, but he didn’t recognize his surroundings either.

Aside from the aforementioned tree, on the hill, he properly noted the sound of church bells, which only served to confuse him further; Headspace didn’t have any churches, aside from that church the Stranger had shown him leading up to the final conflict with Omori. There also wasn’t anywhere in Headspace that had greenery like this.

 Every location had an element of whimsy to it, likely an attempt to keep Sunny pacified so no dangerous thoughts of the Truth came to surface. Of all the locales in Headspace that had rolling grass fields and greenery, he struggled and failed to match it to any known place. The scenery looked remarkably realistic, not having the characteristic pastel colored grass and sky, or the planets that hung low enough in the sky to climb to from the clouds. 

Turning around, Sunny grew even more bewildered, as he was met with the visage of thousands of buildings stretching further than he could see. Even at its most populated, Headspace contained nothing close to the amount of people that this veritable giant of a city was meant to house. That wasn’t even acknowledging the fact that the hill behind him was blocking his view of anything on the opposite side. For all he knew, there might have been a whole other city on the other end. 

He was on the verge of deciding to start walking to the city, when he heard muffled voices from behind him. One sounded feminine, remarkably calm, and the other sounded masculine, albeit young and agitated. Sunny’s head whipped around at these sounds, and he began to dash up the hill; whoever these people were, any information regarding where he was would be helpful, even if this place was just a manifestation of Headspace he never saw.

 As he ran up the hill, lungs contracting as much as possible to fuel his sprint (he didn’t get out very much, sue him for not having much stamina), the voices slowly began to fade out, growing softer.

 Just as he crested the hill, he saw a woman in red and a boy in blue standing opposite each other; he thought he might have seen the woman notice him, her eyes widening in some form of recognition.

Before he was able to call out to the two, an emerald glow began emanating with them at the epicenter; the world glowed green, and Sunny squeezed his eyes tightly shut at the brightness of the light, before the glow encompassed everything around him. Everything faded away, his consciousness giving way to the inky blackness of unconsciousness.

As Sunny’s consciousness slowly returned to him, the only thing he could think was that he was growing tired of his recent escapades in having no clue where he was. That was, of course, until he realized how scalding hot it was.

As he opened his eyes, he saw a dry cliffside hanging above him, with what looked to be an incredibly tall and sharp mountain peak reaching far up into the sky. The air was dry and arid, and Sunny found his throat parched and eyes watering from the dust blowing in the air. There seemed to be a common trend with his stints in teleportation, given how he always ended up in a location he had no clue had ever existed. 

Attempting to pull himself off of his back and into a sitting position, his body creaked in protest; it seemed like all his recent physical activities had finally caught up and exhausted him, but that didn’t make any sense logically. Injuries in headspace were just as whimsical as its locales, and no amount of serious pain could amount according to the rules that had been set in place at the time of its creation.

Even further, he was wearing a hospital gown. Why it was on him when he was seemingly in the middle of nowhere was beyond anything he could comprehend, but then again, it didn’t seem like anything was making sense in what his life had recently turned into.

Beyond the hospital gown, it seemed like Sunny could only see out of his left eye. Dread pooling in his stomach, he reached his hand up to his face, where he was met with the sensation of cloth. The fight with Basil must’ve ended up costing him his eye.

He dared to pull back the eyepatch and probe underneath, only meeting with empty space where his eye should have been, along with a spike of pain that indicated perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea to do that.

These observations, along with several other strange happenings, such as the odd scenery he had recently found himself surrounded by, caused Sunny’s gut to churn and his head to feel light as he processed their implications.

“ Wherever I am, I don’t think it’s in Headspace, ” he thought.

Even though that theory might have answered some of his concerns, it didn’t clear up any of the more pressing questions he had hoped to be answered, instead raising exponentially more. If this wasn’t Headspace, what was it? Was he still in the dreamscape, and for that matter, what even is the dreamscape?

 If he had woken from Headspace, and this was in fact reality, why exactly was he in a desert landscape like this? He should’ve been in the hospital after the fight with Basil, and if he wasn’t then where was Basil, where were his friends, he needed to find them to apologize, it was his responsibility, what was going on why is the world trying so hard to stop him from apologizing hadn’t he suffered enough—

“ Breathe, ” he told himself, hoping to catch himself before he started to spiral, “Panicking isn’t going to solve anything right now.” 

As he repeatedly breathed in and out, the darkness at the edge of his vision began to recede, and the panic that tried to carve into his brain slowly dissipated. He needed to think, and he needed to plan his next steps. Precisely for the reasons he had panicked about, it was important that he search for a way to reunite with his friends and tell them the truth of what had happened with Mari.

It would’ve been funny had it been any other situation that he’d found himself repeating, but orienting himself yet again only served to annoy and upset him even further. He really hoped this was the last time he would have to do this, but he wouldn’t hold his breath on any good fortune being sent his way by any force outside of his control.

The rock wall he was staring at didn’t provide very much information, except that wherever he was seemed to have cliffs and deserts, which, if this was the real world, was helpful for narrowing specific biomes he might be in, but not specific enough to provide him anything more than a several hundred mile range that most of the deserts on Earth encompassed.

Turning his neck, Sunny was yet again reminded of the horrible pain and exhaustion he felt, but pushed through, deeming it necessary to gather more information. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though it had been worth it. In each direction, he could see nothing but more cliff walls scaling a dry desert, except for the only opening out of this corner he found himself in, which seemed to be the source of the dust that had been forcing him to squint his eyes.

Resignedly, he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain he felt, forcing himself to limp forward outside of the small crevice he was in. Each step was agonizing, but he needed to do this in order to find his way back to civilization, and he needed to get back to civilization so he could tell everyone the truth. 

Slowly making his way out of the crevice, Sunny discovered that there wasn’t much more outside of his corner than there was inside of it, but he could at least see the sky, for what good it did him. There wasn’t anything that seemed familiar in a helpful sense, though there was certainly more of the dry, barren plains he’d expected.

It was then that he noticed something lightly glittering from a rock nearby where he’d woken up, slowly walking over to investigate.

“Is this… a piano key?”, he thought, slowly investigating said item from where it stood on the rock, “A key like this should be white though, why is it black?”

Making a decision, he plucked the key off of the rock, deciding that there must have been a reason he found it here (Maybe even here, Mari was still watching over him), and gingerly examined it further. Aside from the strange size and color, it seemed like a standard piano key. He’d heard that the colors used to be reversed, so maybe that was what was going on?

It didn’t make much sense for something like this to be out here, so Sunny decided to take it as a sign from Mari, that even if she couldn’t directly contact him like she had in Headspace, she was still watching over him. He slowly slid it into his pocket, before realizing that he was in a hospital gown, and didn’t have any pockets.

He didn’t have any place to store the key, but he still held it in his hands before beginning to walk forward again. It was a little cumbersome, but the odds of something like this happening couldn’t be a coincidence, and he owed it to Mari to try and keep her memory in some form, even though he couldn’t yet do what he had set out to do and clear the air about her death.

Thinking about his situation and his friends only served to make him more introspective, and it was with glassy eyes that he continued to move out into the land he decided to set forward into. It was with this half-concentration that he was startled out of his stupor by something that would only make his shock worse.

Before him, he saw a group of what could only be massive… lobsters? Crabs? They almost looked like hermit crabs, now that the thought crossed his mind. Whatever they were, however, they were far bigger than what he’d expect out of any wildlife, not to mention the fact that they weren’t in water like would be expected out of aquatic life.

 It seemed like they were consuming some other animal, though the savagery they inflicted on the carcass made it impossible to tell what unlucky creature had become their meal. He’d known the world was far bigger than the little corner of Faraway Town, but he hadn’t realized just how strange things would end up being outside of what he knew.

Resolving himself to avoid the crabs, in case they decided he looked good enough to eat as they had that animal, he changed his trajectory so that he would skirt around their perimeter, with the full intent of reaching civilization sooner rather than later. Surely if he walked in one direction long enough, he’d eventually end up finding other people, right?

The time blurred together as he kept struggling forward, although the strange landscape had certainly provided something to keep him from falling back into his thoughts of self deprecation.

The cliffs that surrounded him looked incredibly strange, and it seemed like they pierced as far up as he could see, in shapes that he hadn’t known were possible through natural processes. The general atmosphere didn’t change, still arid and dusty, and the vegetation didn’t either.

There didn’t seem to be trees wherever he was, the air too dry to support anything beyond small bushes and the odd dead tree. No matter which direction he looked, he could only see flat plains, with occasional boulders, aside from the cliffside he found himself walking parallel to.

Sunny kept walking, noting any strange things he wasn’t sure about, though the most that he had encountered besides the giant crabs were large birds, which were still strange, but not so much as the crabs, that was for certain. 

The only other notable feature was the presence of pipes coming from the cliffside, which Sunny figured could only be a good sign. It meant that there were people around here, but he was a little concerned about the purple liquid that was coming from the pipes, as he wasn’t even aware waste could be that color.

It seemed there were a lot of revelations of that nature happening today.

It was when his stomach rumbled that he, in shock, realized just how long he had been walking. The sun had completely changed position in the sky, and he estimated that it was likely late afternoon, as opposed to the earlier positioning of the sun; meaning he had likely been walking for several hours at this point.

He took a moment to rest in the shade of a dying tree, wiping the sweat off his brow. In retrospect, it was strange he hadn’t realized how much later in the day it’d gotten, as the heat had grown much worse.

“At least the hospital gown is drafty, so it isn’t as bad as it could be,” , he mused, ruminating on how weird it felt to be thankful for something like that.

He took the brief moment to look back down at the piano key he was still carrying, staring at it intently, as if doing so would reveal some hidden truth buried beneath its surface. Nothing changed for as long as he looked at it though, so maybe it really was a normal piano key? 

“Better to hold onto it just in case,” he figured, “Maybe it’ll end up being helpful somehow.”

Reminded yet again of his hunger, Sunny grew slightly worried. There wasn’t much to eat that he could see, and he was growing thirsty as well. He definitely didn’t have any survival skills, even before he went through his stint of locking himself inside his house, but just about anything would be more helpful than what he was experiencing at the moment.

“None of this will even matter if I can’t keep myself alive, and to do that, I’m going to need to find something to keep myself going,” he considered.

A brief glance around him revealed nothing that might be able to sustain him, unless he wanted to try his luck with the toxic looking sludge from those pipes he saw earlier. All of this was without considering that time was running out in the day, and if this place acted as expected, the scorching day would turn into a freezing night; he might freeze to death if he couldn’t start a fire.

He turned his gaze back to the path he had decided for himself, and began moving forward yet again. Hopefully, he’d run into civilization before night fell. He didn’t have enough skills to keep himself alive out in the wilds, so it would be better to focus on finding help and hope he wouldn’t have to learn.

Sunny cringed, reminded of how he hadn’t been rewarded for ignoring his problems in the past, but at least he had a reason for it this time. There really wasn’t much he could do besides hope he lasted long enough to find help,so he could at least do his best to make it there. If not for himself, then for the fact that his friends still needed to learn the truth.

 He glanced at the piano key once more before he began walking again, but did a double take at a strange sight. Was it just the glare of the sun, or was the key in his hand changing color? No, he wasn’t mistaken: the black was shifting, morphing into gray, then once again into an off white color, before a glow shone from the key in his hands, casting shadows onto the ground in a manner reminiscent of the sun.

Sunny instinctively covered his face with both of his hands, sending the piano key clattering to the ground. He peeked through the veil of his fingers to see that the light was still shining, before it stopped all at once.

Everything seemed to freeze around Sunny, the heat becoming meaningless, the sound of the wind falling to the increased rate of his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

A knife materialized out of bright blue particles. Sunny’s heart skipped a beat; he knew that knife. 

A hand followed, clasping around the grip of the knife, materializing out of the same blue the knife had moments prior. A body followed, wearing a black tanktop and white striped cargo shorts, on top of legs that weren’t wearing shoes, instead favoring a thick sock material that covered up to the knees.

As the face finally manifested, Sunny looked upon it with trepidation. Blank eyes stared at him, from a monochrome body, small in stature, but large in what it meant. Omori had somehow returned, and it had come from that piano key. The piano key which was somehow hanging around Omori’s neck on a string, now wholly white in color.

Sunny stared at Omori, unsure of how to react or what to say. Omori did much the same; it wasn’t often that an alter-ego created through trauma, given power over a plane between the waking and dream world, and later put to rest by his own alter-ego came back to life. In fact, it probably hadn’t ever happened quite like this before, but given how Sunny’s day had been going, he really should have expected something like this.

The exasperation at yet another situation he never would have expected to occur slowly faded, and he was met with the uncomfortable realization that this was Omori. The same Omori that he had fought with not even a day ago, staring at him with those impassive eyes that he couldn’t get a read on.

Of course, it might have been hypocritical for Sunny to judge him, because he was also staring straight at Omori. He didn’t really notice it before, but Omori is very short– but then wouldn’t that imply Sunny was also short? How long had they been staring at each other anyways? This felt a bit too long even for the intense reunion that they were having.

Omori decided that enough was enough, and turned around, and started walking in the direction Sunny had been following since he had woken up. Shocked at the lack of conflict, Sunny absentmindedly started to follow, confused that Omori hadn’t bothered to act aggressively, given how their last meeting ended.

“I can hear what you’re thinking, you know,” Omori commented, like he was mentioning the weather.

What? Oh no, this isn’t good, what if Omori was just biding his time before turning around and attacking Sunny? He had a knife, and even if Sunny did have his violin, would it make a difference outside of Headspace? He couldn’t use any of the skills that he had used in their prior fight; although the violin would have made a good weapon for bludgeoning.

“We’ve already done this before, and I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but us not being in Headspace means I don’t have any of my abilities either,” Omori said over his shoulder. 

“I’ve got a knife, but you’re several feet taller than me, and I didn’t manage to win even with the advantages I set for myself; I’d be shocked if I managed to pull it off this time,” he finished.

Did that mean Sunny was in the clear? He hoped so, he was exhausted and thirsty, and Omori seemed to be physically fine. Omori might have reservations about whether or not he could win against him, but Sunny wouldn’t hold his breath betting on a victory in his favor. “I can still hear you, and I’m not sure that you want to be thinking those thoughts around somebody that can read your mind,” he mentioned, looking back at Sunny, a spark of amusement in his eyes showing that he did have emotions for as well as he guarded himself.

“Besides that though, I just want to move on from that whole debacle. I’d rather not die again, right?”, he said, letting just the slightest tilt of his mouth further betray his stoic persona.

Sunny was confused, but at least it seemed like Omori wasn’t going to try and attack him. It still didn’t answer the question of why he had reappeared in the first place, or what the piano key had to do with it, but there were complicated feelings of relief regardless; at least he wasn’t alone out here anymore.

This didn’t solve any of the more pressing issues, such as how they were going to survive without any food or water, or what they would do when the chill of the night hit, but Sunny wasn’t going to focus on any of that right now. He wasn’t alone, and even if it was Omori, an extra person couldn’t hurt, especially when he had a knife.

“I’m not sure what this thing around my neck is either, but I can tell that it’s radiating some form of energy; it doesn’t match anything from Headspace that I recognize, but it definitely doesn’t match up with anything you’re familiar with on Earth,” he mused. “You aren’t wrong about the food and water situation, but I don’t think either of us are capable of doing much about that at the moment…”

Omori trailed off, baffled enough by whatever he was seeing that caused him to lose his normally impeccable mask of uncaring. Sunny glanced up from the ground, and was simultaneously struck with the same awe that Omori was.

The cliffside to their right tapered off, and instead of more land, was an ocean, made of clouds? It seemed less and less likely that they were anywhere on Earth. The large animals he had brushed off due to his inexperience with the world at large recently, but even he couldn’t brush off something of this magnitude.

The clouds seemed to be calm, rolling into the side of the mountain without any intensity, stretching as far as either of them could visibly see. What they could see, however, was the gigantic tree in the distance, glowing with ethereal particles from its branches.

As Sunny processed this information, and subsequently started to spiral, Omori saw fit to turn around and step on his foot. As Sunny cried in pain, although Omori wasn’t even really attempting to hurt him, seriously he really needed to work on his stamina, Omori oriented himself directly towards Sunny, clearly gearing up to provide some form of support, he had always known that he had liked Omori, maybe he had judged him too harshly before–

“Pull it together, I won’t hesitate to leave you behind if you don’t get yourself back in a traveling state,” he claimed, staring directly at Sunny’s eyes, tone as serious as it could be.

Nevermind, he wasn’t going to die alone out here, but he was going to die alone in whatever weird world they’d ended up in alongside a 12 year old that clearly had some attitude problems. 

“Knock it off, and look to the left of where we’re walking,” he instructed Sunny.

Turning his head, Sunny noticed a metal gate, with platforms and strange looking boats lying beyond it. If he strained his ears above the constant dust storms, he thought he could make out voices as well. Reinvigorated at the prospect of other people being around to provide aid, Sunny started running over to the gate, Omori begrudgingly following.

“See, if you’d just listened to me when I told you to get it together, this wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place,” he insisted petulantly. “Regardless, let’s try and hurry; it wouldn’t do to die out here after how hard you’ve worked to make it here,” he mocked. 

Sunny ignored his remarks, continuing to hurry in the direction that would hopefully bring their salvation, Omori trailing behind at a more sedate pace. Soon, he would find people to help them get back home. Soon, he could tell his friends the truth.

Chapter Text

Up close, the door seemed a lot more daunting. Sunny glanced upwards with apprehension, when it occurred to him that he had gone to the door in hopes of finding other people, but the other people were on the side of the door, and he had no way through. Maybe yelling loud enough would draw attention from the other side? 

Examining the walls around the door revealed that they were too craggy to climb over. If they both tried to ascend the walls, they’d surely hurt their hands. There was open space to the right of the door, but the clouds had changed position, and were now low down enough that they couldn’t cross over using them.

The clouds were strange in and of itself; Sunny had touched them on his walk before Omori had awakened to see if they were really clouds, and had noticed that they had a consistency similar to water. Sunny would expect that they could even swim across them, but with the position the clouds have fallen to, they’d likely die from the fall.

It was definitely interesting that they functioned like an actual ocean, but it brought into question just how much the tide variation was anyways. It was, for lack of a better word, weird. The cloud ocean managed to rise and fall by hundreds of feet. What sort of world had they ended up in to make that happen?

Sunny remembered learning in 4th grade that the ocean tides were affected by the phases of the moon. If the moon were closer, the tides would change tenfold in strength; this world must have a massive moon that’s incredibly close for something of this magnitude to happen.

Sunny shook his head, fighting off his musing. The door was too high to be climbed normally. No matter, if he got Omori to grab his feet and give him a leg up, or the inverse, they could surely find a way to–

“I got the door open,” Omori called.

Sunny looked up, bewildered at how Omori had managed to get the door open. How had he managed to open a door that looked like it was made of steel? Even if Omori had some form of extradimensional powers, even he wasn’t strong enough to pull the door open. There must’ve been some form of hidden lock that he hadn’t noticed, and Omori had triggered it.

“Omori?”, Sunny called out in his mind.

“Yes?”, he replied.

“Why is your knife jammed into the control panel!?” Sunny mentally screamed.

“We needed to get it open. I opened it.”, was Omori’s monotone reply, but Sunny had learned better over the last bit of them walking. Omori was absolutely amused, he could see it in his eyes.

Sunny was once again reminded of how this version of himself had spent around 4 years with the younger version of Kel. It made sense, realistically, that he would have picked up some of Kel’s and their other friends’ traits. Something clicked into place when he realized that: Omori was 12 years old, and had been for years. Had he been overestimating how much of a threat he was?

“Are you ready to go through?” the boy in question asked, speaking directly into Sunny’s ears with less than an inch of space between them, twirling his knife between his fingers.

…Maybe he shouldn’t dismiss his danger that easily. He had been fighting enemies in Headspace for almost as long as he’d been around, and had navigated through Blackspace several times, with all the horrors that it contained. He could let himself accept him as an ally, but he needed to remember that Omori was dangerous, first and foremost.

“I’m honored to know you think that highly of me,” Omori's slow drawl spoke, sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

Dammit! He’s got to get his thoughts under control, Omori can read his mind for crying out loud. Focusing intently on not thinking about Omori, Sunny walked over to the door, and pressed the button on the bottom of the keypad, raising the door. He walked through, and Omori lazily followed.

“It doesn’t really work like that, but you’re welcome to keep trying,” he suggested.

Moving on, the other side of the door seemed to be extremely crowded, with what looked to be cargo stacked in boxes three times the height of Sunny. There looked to be several large containers made out of metal, maybe to transport liquids like oil? 

The boats that were present seemed to be floating above the clouds, in a manner that suggested they merely used them to facilitate travel more calmly, not that they were necessarily required. What was more interesting were the creatures that were present, as it seemed the boats were built on top of their backs. The creatures came in forms that Sunny had no reference for, and it was likely another example of the strange rules of this world rearing its head yet again.

There didn’t actually seem to be as many people as he had expected from the voices, and it looked more likely that there were just a few people yelling out orders, in what seemed to be a Scottish accent.

The people in the area dressed oddly. They wore uniforms that implied they were part of whatever military of the country they’d wound up in, but the uniforms seemed extremely unwieldy for the climate they were in. They wore sturdy leather boots, with leather underwear up to their head, but steel plates found themselves on top of the leather, with steel helmets that must’ve thrown off their balance. The soldiers with pointy helmets were fewer than those with rounded helmets, likely indicating a higher rank.

The only practical parts of their outfits were the goggles that were likely present to keep out the dust, the boots that could weather the harsh terrain, and the rifles they carried in their hands. Noting the firearm, Sunny mentally sent a warning to Omori that they needed to try and avoid them. 

It must’ve been a sign of how unsettled Omori was beneath the surface that he agreed, subtly nodding in return. It seemed they were in agreement, then. They needed help, but these people weren’t to be interacted with if Sunny and Omori weren’t sure how they’d react.

 They both came to the conclusion at the same time that they needed to skirt around the perimeter of this area. As such, they quietly began walking around the edges of some of the cargo that was waiting to be loaded. Sunny was still exhausted, and needed to rest and consume food and water, but they couldn’t let their guards down just yet. 

Hopefully, after they made their way through this area, they’d find somewhere with people that looked a bit more friendly. 

“Better to be safe than sorry,” Sunny thought, slinking around the edge of one of the crates.

“Halt!”, a voice rang through the area, echoing off the sides of the cramped space between the boxes, “Turn around, you two.” the voice instructed, sounding agitated.

Sunny cringed as he processed what had been said, while Omori sounded out a sigh, sounding more annoyed than scared. It was likely a mask, Sunny decided, as Omori was as concerned as he was moments ago. Whatever the situation, though, he wasn’t going to burst his bubble; if it made him feel more secure, he could have that for himself, including how he had positioned himself behind Sunny.

“I said halt!”, the voice cried again, verging on enraged over agitation this time.

Sunny slowly turned his body, to be met with the image of one of the soldiers that he had hoped to avoid. The soldier’s mask prevented him from reading his face, but his terse posture, the hand on his rifle, and the anger in his voice betrayed the impassive image he was likely intending to portray.

“That’s better,” the soldier said. “Would you like to inform me as to what two children are doing in this restricted zone of the port? You, from the one you’re standing behind: step out, and show your face.”

Omori, from where he had eclipsed himself behind Sunny, slowly stepped out to the side, prompting a tinny gasp from the soldier, who stepped back, hand falling from his weapon, landing limp at his side.

“You just stepped out of his shadow,” he stuttered. “That crystal around your neck, the knife you’re holding… you’re a blade!? And a rare one at that! The soldier seemed uncomfortable, slowly shifting backwards in apprehension.

Sunny had no clue what a blade was, but the soldier mentioning the crystal gave him some sort of clue. Not enough to devise what that had meant, however. The soldier had mentioned the knife and a blade in two different contexts; he probably wasn’t referring to the same thing, and furthermore, said ‘you’re’, like he was referring to Omori himself, not the knife, and what was that about the shadows?

“Focus,” Omori said to him, slowly taking his place in front of Sunny. The shadows in the makeshift alley seemed to grow sharper, and Sunny was struck with the realization that maybe the soldier hadn’t been seeing things when he’d mentioned Omori stepping out of his shadow. 

“Stand back,” the soldier, stuttered, seemingly a new recruit given how scared he was of a teenage boy and a child, along with the rounded helmet; then again, given how Omori carried himself, and the way that the shadows started to twitch in anticipation at Omori’s slowly growing smirk, maybe he was right to be afraid. 

Sunny knew what it was like to be facing Omori as an enemy, and he wouldn’t want to wish that on someone. Even if he couldn’t use his Headspace powers, he was still trained in combat far more than one would expect a child to be, and that made him dangerous. Sunny had underestimated him before, and had several bruises to show for it. While he was processing what was occurring before him, it seemed Omori had come to a decision.

“You should leave. If you don’t, I think things might not go in your favor,” he threatened, as the shadows that had merely twitched before began to lash out wildly, leaving gashes on the nearby crates.

It was at this moment that Sunny felt a slight tug, as if he were connected with Omori through a rope. It was hard to see, but if he focused, he could see a wispy strand of blue tying him and Omori together. The purpose of which, he didn’t fully understand, but he had a hunch it was related to the way that Omori was somehow bending reality in front of him.

The soldier seemed to come to a decision, then. His body language shifted to be more defensive than afraid, and he recklessly charged towards Omori, intending to use his gun as a blunt weapon. This, Sunny would reflect later, was the first and only mistake he would make in this scuffle.

Omori sidestepped the man, who scrambled to regain his balance. Unfortunately for him, however, Omori used his newfound abilities to coalesce a form of tripwire made of shadow between the two halves of the alley, tripping the man, where he tumbled to the ground in front of Sunny’s feet.

Omori saw fit to press his advantage, stepping into one shadow and out of another, knife poised to finish the soldier, likely with fatal intent.

“Stop!” Sunny cried in the space he shared with Omori, “This isn’t Headspace! If you stab him, he’ll die, and he won’t be reset next time around!”

Omori’s eyes widened, and his hands trembled as he processed what Sunny said, and he slowly let his hand fall from where he had raised it to finish the job. He glanced at Sunny, and looking unusually shaken up, turned towards the soldier, giving him instructions.

“Leave, and don’t come back. Don’t tell anyone what you saw here.” he said shakily, before turning back to Sunny, as he inclined his head in the direction they were heading before the soldier had interrupted them. 

As Omori walked in his direction, and began to move ahead of him, Sunny considered offering him support. He raised his hand, intending to place it on Omori’s shoulder, to show that he wasn’t alone, and that Sunny would support him in this, but wavered, and slowly placed his hand back at his side. 

Omori had shown that he was vulnerable, and had the same thoughts and feelings Sunny had, but if he knew something from the way Kel had shown up at his door, it was that pushing too often and too hard could backfire; Kel had gotten through to him, and convinced him to leave his house, but he can’t say that his constant badgering wasn’t annoying. He settled on thanking Omori instead, he didn’t want to scare him off.

“Thank you, Omori. I’m not sure I could have handled that if it came to me fighting over you,” Sunny mentally sent.

“I’m not so fragile as to break when questioned, and I’d like if you don’t treat me as such, but...don’t mention it,” was Omori’s quiet response. “Let’s go back to what we were doing before. It looks like there’s an elevator up ahead, and I’d think that there’d be more people than just soldiers since it looks like it leads to some settlement”.

Sunny averted his eyes from where he’d been staring at the ground during their slow march, and looked up at what Omori was referring to. It seemed like he was right about the elevator, it was probably here to transport cargo and any of the sailors that had business at the port.

If he strained his eyes, Sunny could also see buildings on the other side of the bridge that the elevator had connected to at the top. Surely not all of these buildings were for military personnel, right? The buildings at the top looked large in number; but even if they were still for the military, it was still better than asking one of the soldiers they’d seen down here.

Omori had told the soldier to remain quiet about the incident, but realistically, he was going to report to his higher ups. His reaction indicated that whatever abilities that Omori did with the shadows, they weren’t standard even for the weird things that were going on in this world. Best to remain clear, and hopefully they wouldn’t encounter any other of those soldiers.

It was for that reason that Sunny was ecstatic as they went to stand on the elevator and began traveling to the top. This settlement would surely have someone that could help them, and something to sustain them, or at least Sunny. Given how Omori had done something extremely taxing earlier, it didn’t make much sense he wasn’t tired the same way Sunny was; in fact, he didn’t think he noticed Omori breaking a sweat at all during the fight with the soldier.

Seeming like the elevator was made to transport slowly over quickly, Sunny turned his head upwards and outwards, Sunny gazed at the sky, taking note of the fading orange the sunset had caused, as the early dusk sky was illuminated by countless stars. Sunny thought that if he focused hard enough, he might be able to recognize some of the same stars and constellations he’d seen on Earth.

Then again, of course, constellations were mostly created with very loose designs as to what they would resemble; what one person saw as a man holding a shield, others would see something completely separate. Still, it was nice to look at the sky and imagine that his friends might be seeing something similar in their world. 

Sunny might have allowed himself to reminisce further if he didn’t catch a glimpse of the moon. It also looked remarkably similar to the moon of Earth, but the view of it wasn’t as relevant in Sunny’s mind. What was more important to him was the size of the moon; surprisingly, it wasn’t any larger than the moon of Earth, which didn’t make much sense given the tidal variation.

That meant that there was more to how the cloud ocean worked, and this knowledge functioned as a harrowing realization to Sunny. He’d let his guard down a little bit in the past hours, ever since Omori had… grown, no other terms came to mind, from that piano key. Being shown that he didn’t understand this world in such a prominent fashion of the moon had shocked Sunny.

He’d almost forgotten he wasn’t in his world while looking at the stars, but just like on Earth, it seemed the natural functioning of the world was too entwined with its celestial bodies to truly allow him to forget that this wasn’t home. At least the view was nice, he figured. The night sky was beautiful without the extreme light pollution that had permeated from Nearby City, and the giant tree was stunning in the darkness.

The strange green glow seemed to be some form of runes, now that he could see better. The logistics of such an enormous tree growing to that size was confusing, but it was far from the strangest thing he’d realized about what was going on here. He could see one of them surrounding the entirety of the world outside of the land, and another was standing right next to him.

Speaking of which, Omori sure had been quiet for a while, maybe he was admiring the view the same way Sunny was?

“We’re here. We’ve been standing here for five minutes.” said the boy, frightening Sunny out of his musing.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked Omori, who merely shrugged in response.

“It was a little funny watching you so lost in your thoughts. Besides that, letting you consider your theories about how this world works provides us valuable information, and we don’t have very much of that at the moment.” Omori responded.

Sunny did suppose he had a point, but it was a little bit embarrassing for him to just let him stand there gawking at the distance. What if someone who was native to the world had strolled past, and saw them while they were standing there.

“Relax, I didn’t see anyone in the vicinity, otherwise I would’ve told you to knock it off sooner. I’m honestly surprised you haven’t noticed the elephant in the proverbial room by now, as well.”

Sunny glanced quizzically at Omori, wondering what he could be talking about, because there wasn’t anything that he could see as important and hard to miss around them. As he was about to ask what he was missing, Omori simply raised his hand and pointed above their heads, prompting Sunny to look up, almost causing him to faint due to what was overhead.

Above their heads was a massive humanoid head, right underneath the layer of clouds in the sky. It bore a shocking resemblance to the large helmets that the captain soldiers had worn, and looked to have a horn piercing from above where its tiny eyes were; notably, it had no visible mouth.

The head looked to be made of the same material that the landscape around them was, and bore what looked to be a crown made of burning rocks at its precipice. Looking to the right, Sunny noticed what he thought was a shoulder, and an arm connecting down. The implications of what this meant were staggering.

They were standing on a giant creature. The shifting of the clouds being so unpredictable and extreme must have been caused by the steps this thing was taking, and the strange mountainous terrain must have been the thing’s arms and legs. How would such a giant creature even come about? It made no sense at all, and yet here he was, standing on the shoulder of a giant.

Sunny was breathless at the scope of the creature: he had to crane his head as far as he possibly could just to get a full view of what was going on, and this thing was big enough that a travel from what was presumably the right hip to the left hip had taken from morning until almost nightfall. Omori let out a sardonic chuckle while witnessing Sunny freak out for the umpteenth time today, and he hadn’t even been present for the first ones.

“I was wondering when you were going to notice. You must be really caught up in your head, to miss something that large above us.” he pointed out, looking away towards the bridge leading to the town. “Come on, we need to get to the town before it gets any later, or we won’t be able to find anyone awake to help you out.”

Sunny was touched that Omori cared so much about him. Omori, however, was not happy with Sunny’s thoughts on the subject. Sunny preemptively jumped over the leg Omori was trying to trip him with as they started towards the bridge, prompting Omori to take off his shoe, and throw it at him.

Well, that was what he was planning, but then the shoe rematerialized on his foot. Silence filled the air, as Omori and Sunny stared at Omori’s feet, before Sunny shrugged and kept walking. This wasn’t even in the top 10 of crazy realizations for Sunny today, and he was so tired that he didn’t care to have a more intense reaction.

It was with that interaction that Omori facepalmed, and wished he had something he could actually throw at Sunny. He’d have used his necklace, but something about that felt… wrong, as best as he could describe it. As such, Omori attempted a last ditch effort.

He reached for his newfound abilities, and forced the shadow to manifest as Sunny set foot on the bridge. He’d intended to trip both his legs with the shadow, but it only manifested across his left side. 

Omori stared at the bridge while Sunny fell down to the ground with a grunt, and he took note of the fact that the shadow the bridge cast had ended where his manifestation had as well. It seemed like he could only make shadows corporeal if they already physically existed. He was eager to experiment, but he pulled Sunny off of the ground and pushed him to walk.

It seemed like they’d come in a bit too late to see other people along the entrance to the town, as the bridge was devoid of any life. They crossed the bridge, Sunny admiring the landscape, which was beautiful despite its harshness. As they began to hear faint voices in the distance, and approached the end, Sunny felt something grab onto his sleeve.

“I’m going to hide in your shadow again.” was Omori’s response. Before Sunny could ask why, it seemed like Omori was already going to explain, “That soldier’s absolutely reported in by now. They’ll probably be looking for two people, not one.”

Sunny’s eyes widened in realization, and he nodded quietly to Omori, who positioned himself behind Sunny. Now that Sunny was focusing on it, he could tell that something was immediately behind him; not like when you can tell someone is behind you, but a strange sensation like he’d put on a jacket.

“Okay. Let’s go.” he told Sunny.

Sunny nodded, and took his first steps into the city. Upon further inspection, it looked as if the city was heavily industrialized. He’d have compared it to some of the larger cities on Earth if it weren’t for the strange differences, such as the lack of skyscrapers, and the odd streetlights. He also noticed no roads made for cars, which was also strange.

Maybe this world wasn’t far enough along to have modern technology? The guns had looked normal according to what Sunny would expect on Earth, and it looked like the ships in the harbor were pretty advanced. Despite this though, key things were missing, such as cars. 

As far as he could tell, this world did have electricity, or some other equivalent, because the buildings were lit up. It was just that everything was ever so slightly off, like one of those mirror worlds he’d read about in books.

The structure of the city looked familiar enough for what he’d expect if they really had ended up in a world less technologically advanced. There was one main street, with seemingly smaller alleys branching off of it. It seemed like there were a lot of vendors running stalls, but most of them weren’t being manned, likely due to the time of day. 

It was then that Sunny noticed he was attracting a lot of attention from the sparse crowds that had gathered on the street. He shouldn’t have been so surprised, because he was wearing a hospital gown, but he felt self-conscious nonetheless. What if one of them told those military people what had happened before, and they tracked him and Omori down?

If he strained his ears, he could hear the whispers of the people on the side of the street.

“What is he wearing?,” one woman asked.

“I don’t think I’ve seen that kid around before…” another commented to a man beside him.

“He looks lost, mama!”, a child walking with her mother proclaimed.

“Omori?” Sunny mentally asked, “You’ve got better perception than me. Should I duck inside of one of these alleyways?”

Sunny felt a phantom tap on his shoulder, confusing him at first, until he realized that Omori couldn’t talk in this form.

“Okay, let’s do one tap for yes, two taps for no. We can come up with something more robust later.” he suggested.

Tap. That was one, and it meant Omori agreed that they should head down an alleyway. Sunny quickly chose one to the left of what looked to be a butcher’s stand, and walked until he found an alcove next to some garbage that someone had thrown out. Seems like there wouldn’t be any help to be found today, and on top of it all, they hadn’t found any food or water.

Sunny felt tears welling in his eyes, and he slouched down against the wall of the alcove he’d settled on. What else should he have expected, given the day he was having? For every bit of good luck, the universe seemed set on giving him twice as much bad luck. He saw Omori melting out of his shadow, and looked up, to find him holding out something.

In his hands, Omori held a canteen, along with two sandwiches filled with some type of meat. Sunny startled, realizing that Omori had likely stolen from that butcher’s stand, and was going to object, when his stomach chose to grumble again. Stealing wasn’t right, but in this case, it might be necessary.

Sunny took one of the sandwiches from Omori, and tore into it with a fervor, finding the bread and meat to be seasoned with something savory. He almost cried in delight at eating food again, only to watch Omori calmly eat his own sandwich. Omori opened the canteen, and took a drink of it himself, before holding it out to Sunny, who greedily gulped as much as he could, coming off of the lip of the canteen gasping for breath.

“You should try and sleep, you’re still tired, and it’s night time, so we can’t do much anyways,” Omori suggested. As Sunny began to protest, Omori cut him off, claiming “You’re useless right now. Go to sleep, and I’ll keep watch. You can be helpful in the morning.”

Sunny slouched back against the wall of the alley, and decided that Omori was right. He wouldn’t be any good as tired as he was, so he needed to try and rest. He oriented himself with a box that functioned as a makeshift pillow, and tucked his knees into his gown as much as he could, facing towards the wall of the alley.

It was with a heavy heart and uncertainty brewing that Sunny closed his eyes, falling into a restless sleep, only hearing the sounds of Omori twirling his knife.

Chapter Text

In retrospect, Sunny noted, as he swerved around a corner in one of the back alleys, shaking his cloak that was still smoldering from that blue fire, this situation probably could have been avoided. They(Omori) could have been more careful, and shouldn’t have gotten into so many fights with the soldiers in the city. It had only taken a week before Sunny was fighting for his life yet again, and he didn’t really enjoy it.

Seriously, why was it always Omori starting all these fights? Sunny hadn’t even wanted to fight him in Headspace, but Omori jumped him and wouldn’t let him explain that he just wanted to learn the truth. It might be a sign of anger issues (I know you can hear this Omori), because why else would such a short annoying 12 year old fight 5 squads of trained soldiers!?

It had all started so innocently, Sunny thought, recalling his time during the last week, ducking under a fireball sent his way.

He’d woken up after his restless sleep to see Omori fashioning a small tarp in the alleyway, using some type of textile. Wait, did Omori leave him alone? He’d said he was going to keep watch! If Sunny had actually been attacked, Omori would’ve been off gallivanting, doing whatever he did during the night, while Sunny bled out in a dingy alleyway.

“Relax, I didn’t go that far. I’d have heard your screams. Probably.” Omori claimed, uncaring of Sunny’s tragic plight.

“Don’t be so dramatic, it worked out okay in the end,” he brushed off Sunny’s concerns. “Anyways, look next to you. I got you some new clothes.”

Sunny tried not to think about how he’d obtained those clothes, he’d like to keep his morality. They looked pretty simple, but he couldn’t complain. At least it would be better than this gown he’d been wearing for the last few days.

It looked like Omori had chosen practicality over style, with the clothes being brown and dull in color, but seemingly resistant, judging by the high quality fabric it looked like he’d procured. The boots were likely made of leather, and somehow Omori had gotten his exact size. He wasn’t going to think about what that implied.

The pants looked like his old cargo shorts, but were slightly darker in color. The shirt was more like a jacket, but it would be nice to have some extra protection from the dust storms that plagued this area. 

Most odd, however, was the cloak that laid on the ground. It looked decently made, but Sunny struggled to think of why he would need it. Wouldn’t the black color render the camouflage that Omori had coordinated useless? Omori had clearly been paying attention to his reaction, as he decided now was as good a time as ever to interject his thoughts.

“I figured out yesterday when I tripped you that I can’t form material from shadows unless they’re naturally cast. I don't know if that applies to me hiding in your shadow, but I could see it being problematic. This will give me a place to hide, even if the time of day isn’t ideal.” he explained, talking down to Sunny as if he were a small child.

Sunny resented that implication, but was cut off by Omori throwing packaged food and another canteen at him. Had he stolen another one? He’d have yelled at him if he wasn’t so hungry and thirsty. Well, not yelled, but he’d have looked incredibly stern. As it was, he quickly opened both and scarfed their contents, as Omori put the finishing touches on the tarp he was hanging.

The tarp wouldn’t protect from everything, but at least they’d have some shelter from the sun, and rain on the off chance that happened. Maybe they could set up some barriers so his body heat would warm up the small corner, but that wasn’t as important as getting a start on today.

The constant moments of shock that he’d been experiencing were evidence that both of them were drastically out of their depth in this world. They needed to try and gather information, and maybe find a place to sleep at night? No, that was too risky, that soldier had probably leaked their portraits by now; they’d have to settle for attempting to gather enough info so that they could find a way back home.

Going home was a contentious thought, but Sunny entertained it for a moment. He was as far as anyone had ever been from Earth, and there wasn’t any guarantee that he’d be able to make it back, but he wouldn’t let that stop him. With all the crazy things he’d seen in the last day, he wouldn’t write off anything as impossible.

No, he wasn’t in denial, he was just… optimistic. Now if only Omori would quit doing that weird smile he did at him. He was glad at least one of them was amused right now. 

It was with that notion that Sunny set into motion what would prove to be his routine over the coming week. During the day, he would go out and attempt to gather information, yet nothing truly provided much help.

He discovered that although they spoke English here, he could not, in fact, read the written script, and that they were on a Titan(apparently that’s what a ton of those creatures he couldn’t identify were titled) called Mor Ardain(which sounded very Scottish), the seat of an empire. It turned out that the harsh landscape was a result of how industrialized everything was, and apparently other titans weren’t like this.

He’d wanted to find out more, but Omori had pointed out their face on a wanted poster, alongside other posters for a group called Torna. Omori had forced him to grab and memorize the other wanted posters, claiming that since they were in the shady part of the city, it’d be better to watch out for any shady figures. Sunny was particularly concerned with the tiger looking one with the longer hair; apparently even the people here came in strange variations.

Speaking of the city, the city they were in was named Alba Cavanich, and it was the only remaining city on the Titan after the heat around the old one had gotten too intense, apparently. It seemed like it was the only city in the world that was as industrialized as it was, and it had nearly destroyed their titan.

Unfortunately, Sunny couldn’t find any information about what the world at large was called, likely due to it being so commonly known, who would ever bother asking? The most he’d learned had been the bit about the titans, and that the ocean of clouds was actually known as the Cloud Sea.

Making good on Omori’s task, Sunny attempted to keep an ear to the ground, and heard bits of gossip about the city and the world’s prominent criminals. The three people next to their wanted poster were part of a terrorist group called Torna, and they were responsible for stealing core crystals, whatever those were, and they were the most wanted criminals of a country called Indol.

Sunny had also heard stories about the return of the Aegis, whispered in fear between parents when their kids weren’t looking, and spoken with reverence by any mercenaries he’d seen. Apparently the Aegis was known for almost destroying the world centuries ago, and was marked by an emerald crystal. 

Sunny had briefly considered the possibility of what he saw in that weird dreamscape as being the Aegis, but brushed it off; the odds they were the same were slim at best, and the Aegis seemed like it was more of an artifact than a person like he’d seen.

The special inquisitor, titled The Flamebringer, and their partner, the Jewel of Mor Ardain, had supposedly been sent out to Gormott, a province of the empire, to track down the Aegis. He didn’t know much about who they were, but they sounded like trouble, especially if they were part of the military that Omori had kept getting into scuffles with.

As much information as he’d gained, not a lot of it was really all that helpful. What in the world was a core crystal? Why was Indol so upset at this Torna group for stealing them, and what or who was the Aegis? Objectively speaking, Sunny had gathered an impressive amount for what he’d had access to, but none of it meant anything since he didn’t understand anything about the world at large.

It was a bit of a shock the first time it happened, but he really shouldn’t have been surprised, when he’d woken up and Omori had come from one of his nightly excursions; he’d taken to going out at night after sleeping inside of Sunny’s shadow. 

When Sunny had woken up on what he’d marked as the third day in this new world, he’d been surprised to see Omori resting on a blanket that he’d stolen along with Sunny’s new clothes. He’d assumed that Omori would have been awake like he was yesterday, but he supposed not. Maybe he’d just been really tired, it can’t be easy to – is that blood on his knife? 

Beginning to hyperventilate, Sunny began violently shaking Omori, attempting to rouse him from his slumber. Omori was making it difficult, lazily slashing with the knife that had blood on it why does it have blood on it what did Omori even do , but Sunny continued until Omori finally woke up, staring at Sunny with bleary eyes.

“What do you want?” he groaned up at Sunny, proving even the stoic and unflappable Omori wasn’t a morning person.

‘Oh hey, Omori, it’s great to see you. I hope you had a good time last night, and that you got a lot of work done, but I do have just one question to ask, you see.” Sunny frantically asked.

“And that would be?” he glared, clearly fed up with his sleep being interrupted.

“Why is there blood on your knife!?” Sunny screamed across the shared mental space they had.

“Oh, that’s what you’re worried about,” Omori commented, way too casual for someone that had committed a crime, “Some of those soldiers looked at me funny.”

Sunny almost felt a blood vessel burst at the inane reasoning Omori had for dragging even more attention onto them. Here he was, hiding in corners and eavesdropping on people in the alleyways, while Omori was getting into fights like he was a member of some sort of fight club! 

What did he even mean they looked at him funny? He’s got white skin and is carrying around a knife, even though he’s clearly like 10 years old, of course people would be looking at him strangely! Omori had better hope that this wouldn’t end up causing trouble for him in the future, or he’d severely regret it when Sunny… Well, he’d think of something. 

“Don’t do anything like this again,” he reprimanded, “This isn’t your territory anymore, and there’s enormous consequences if you get either of us caught.”

“Fine, I’ll be more careful when I go out tonight. Now can you either lay back down and quit making so much noise, or get up and let me nap inside your shadow? Beating those soldiers wasn’t exactly easy you know,” he complained, as Sunny heard just the slightest bit of a whine in his voice.

He must’ve really been serious, if he was desperate enough to show this type of vulnerability, so Sunny let him off the hook. He nodded at Omori, and threw the blanket he’d been using back over his body, as he tried to sleep until the sun was a bit higher in the sky. He was satisfied Omori had learned his lesson, and they wouldn’t have any more issues.

It happened again the next night. This time, Omori was clever enough to hide himself in Sunny’s shadow before going to bed, meaning that Sunny couldn’t shake him awake this time. Omori was also stubborn enough to pretend to be asleep until evening time, and to try and cover up what he’d done, but Sunny had seen the bloody footprints that definitely weren’t there before, and Omori went silent when questioned about it, before tapping Sunny on the shoulder twice.

Aside from the daily heart attacks Omori had been giving him, Sunny did have to admit that he was providing valuable support to the two. While Sunny gathered info during the day, Omori had been gathering material goods like food and water that they could use to sustain themselves physically.

He wasn’t satisfied with how they’d been stolen still, but he also didn’t see much alternative. Any chance of him finding a job like he had in Faraway over the last week he had there went out the window the moment that they encountered that soldier, and it definitely wasn’t going to be possible now that Omori had been getting into these fights.

It was almost impressive, the way that Omori managed to pick fights with people that he absolutely should have avoided. Each night, he came back, looking ragged, but he’d clearly been the victor. After a week, Sunny had grown tired of him being close lipped, and asked how many people he’d been fighting.

Omori’s answer was that it wasn’t too many, but when asked to name the number, he estimated around 30 total, or 5 each night. Anyone looking from the outside might have scoffed at this estimate, and proclaimed it as the boasting of a child that was in over his head. Sunny, who knew Omori, did not. 

He’d managed to get him to confirm that he hadn’t killed anyone, but given the way Omori smiled at him with dead eyes upon asking the question, the jury might have still been out on that one.

It was upon hearing that the special inquisitor and her partner were back on the 1st week anniversary of them arriving here, good for them for making it so long, that Sunny insisted upon remaining awake at night. If Omori was insistent on causing so much trouble, then Sunny would have to monitor him, especially with this dangerous inquisitor around.

Sunny had heard stories about the Flamebringer, and it sounded like they were bad news. They were supposedly strong enough to fight something that had almost destroyed the world 500 years ago, and had come out without a single scratch from what he’d heard. Anyone with that level of strength needed to be avoided and treated as a proper threat.

Their partner didn’t seem like a slouch either. Sunny had discovered that the Jewel had fought the Aegis alone and hadn’t been very injured while the Flamebringer was on their way to the province of Gormott. It spoke to the strength of the Jewel that they were capable of fending off such a dangerous enemy, without their partner at that.

Sunny knew without a doubt that he couldn’t do much without Omori, and although Omori liked to pretend otherwise, he could tell he was secretly grateful for the sanctuary Sunny had provided him recently. Sunny had only thought it right that he helped care for Omori in a mental and emotional way, as Omori had taken the responsibility of caring for Sunny physically.

He’d also learned that he could filter what made its way to Omori, as evidenced by the fact he was thinking about this without being tripped or smacked from his walking shadow. He hadn’t figured out the specifics of it, but it seemed like Omori had known he could do it all along, and just wasn’t letting him know.

He absolutely found it funny, Sunny thought, sitting against the wall of their shelter, watching the pitter-patter of the rain. It was odd that it was raining, as it seemed like an infrequent occurrence around here. Sunny wasn’t going to complain though, it was probably going to be nice and cool tomorrow.

Although, it had been a while since Omori had disappeared off into the twisting streets. Had he gotten hurt? It’d be best that Sunny went and looked for him, he decided, before promptly being interrupted by the sounds of somebody running.

Sunny prepared himself to fight, standing out from his tarp, for what good fighting would do, before relaxing as he saw the telltale hair sprig that Omori had. He was going to ignore the fact that he had the same haircut, and focus on the positives. Omori was here, which meant that he hadn’t gotten into a fight that he couldn’t win.

He was looking pretty ragged though, and the way that his eyes were wide in what looked to be some form of fear was concerning, to say the least, given that Omori had been picking fights with military members and coming out on top.

“Hey, so this might be a bad time, but I think I’m being chased by the Flamebringer? At least, I think it’s the Flamebringer, there were some pretty cool looking blue flames, actually, you should really see them. You know what, I’m going to do you a favor, and give you the honor of seeing them, have fun!” he rambled, clearly nervous as he darted behind Sunny, merging into his shadow.

Seriously? He’d warned him, and Omori hadn’t listened, and now they were both going to die out here unless he could figure out something to get them out of it. Maybe if he pretended like he wasn’t the person they were looking for? Running would only attract attention right now, and on the off chance the Flamebringer would see him, maybe they’d write him off as unimportant.

Sunny pulled his cloak up, and turned his head down to the ground, attempting to make himself as unassuming as possible, while fear consumed his mind. Omori had mentioned the Flamebringer, but he hasn't mentioned anything about their partner. Was their partner going to be with them as well?

Tap. Sunny resisted the urge to groan and toss his face in his hands, as Omori confirmed what he had feared. One of them was already horrible, but both of them were borderline impossible to manage. He was knocked out of his panic by the sound of boots clacking on the street.

Don’t get noticed. Keep your head down. They won’t notice you if you don’t make a scene, he repeated as a mantra. From the slowly approaching sounds of the boots, which fell to a halt as he heard them in front of him, his rotten luck had struck once again.

“Boy.” the voice rang out, powerful and feminine. “Have you seen a Blade with white skin and black clothing holding a knife?”

Sunny slightly shook his head, hoping and praying to anyone that would listen that she’d accept his response and move on.

“Look up at me,” the voice commanded. “I need to see you to verify that you aren’t who we’re looking for, and then you can go.”

Sunny slowly forced himself to look up, feeling and hearing the rain turn from a light shower to a steady downpour. He inclined his head upwards, to be met with brown eyes on a sharply feminine face, framed by black hair cascading down from a black hat with a gold emblem on its front. 

She looked just like Mari, maybe he shouldn’t be so scared– no, her eyes aren’t warm. She’s gazing at him coldly, and she doesn’t care about Sunny the way Mari did. Recognition flashed in her eyes, and she opened her mouth to interrogate Sunny further, most likely. At least, he hoped it’d just be interrogation, there was no way he could take her on.

“Brighid, please verify that this is not our goal.” she impassively commanded. “This boy looks exactly like our target, and yet, he isn’t.”

“He does bear a remarkable countenance, my lady, but you are correct in assuming that he isn’t our target.” a silky voice responded, stepping towards her liege from the entrance of the alley.

Sunny looked behind the Flamebringer’s shoulder, and saw a mature figure wearing a long lilac gown slowly saunter up to her partner. Sunny’s eyes widened as he saw the purple hair she had, but that wasn’t all: the ends of her hair were set on fire, where the purple gradient transitioned to a light blue. The gloves she wore were the same color, and seemed to be set on fire just as her hair was.

Both of the women standing before him could easily kill him without a second thought. He needed to tread carefully here, and it was best that he cooperated, in hopes they’d let him go after he cleared up the misunderstanding. It seemed that the two in front of him had decided the same, as the Flamebringer turned her attention back to Sunny, satisfied with her deduction that Sunny wasn’t who they were looking for.

She opened her mouth, likely to interrogate Sunny as to what was happening, but was prevented by her shadow manifesting from behind her, pulling her to the ground and chaining her down. Her partner leapt at Sunny, intent on paying him back for what had happened, before she too was tied to the ground.

Sunny looked at the two struggling to escape their binds and noticed that Omori had used his shadows to drag them to the ground, but was also forcing them down further with red hands. When he gained the ability to use those again? It was pretty impressive that he figured out a way to use them again, he’d thought they were stuck in Blackspace.

He realized that Omori was aggressively tapping him, honestly it was probably closer to slapping at this point; he didn’t need to hear his voice to understand what he was trying to get across: this was his opening, and he had to take it. He scrambled to his feet, grasping on to the tarp to pull himself up faster, as he wildly began running, turning left around the corner of the alley, ignoring their screams for him to stop. He’d lost precious time in his thinking, and he’d need to do his best to make up for it.

Sunny could hear their words growing fainter as he dashed with all he had left in him, and thought that maybe he’d get away, but was stopped in his tracks from a wall of blue flame manifesting in front of the path he was running down. He looked behind him, to see the two giving chase, and now the Flamebringer was holding two swords with flame flowing down their sides, which didn’t inspire much hope in him.

He started to panic, as his escape route had been cut off, but felt a harsh pressure from Omori on his shoulder, who began swiping upwards on his back. Sunny glanced up, and saw a staircase form out of a shadow cast on the building, and he climbed on top of a nearby crate, using the staircase to clear the height of the wall of flame, before glancing back at their chasers.

The Flamebringer wasn’t being deterred by the shadows that Omori had been wildly attempting to block their path with, slicing each one to bits with the swords she used, and she nodded at the blue haired lady, who seemed to focus for a moment. 

Sunny jumped up and fell off of his platform, as it seemed like their nod was a signal to increase the intensity and height of the flame wall. As Sunny collapsed to the ground, he noted that it didn’t hurt as much as it should have, but now wasn’t the time to focus on that; he had to keep trying to get away.

 He pulled himself back up to his feet, attempting to restart his chase, while Omori kept aggressively tapping him over and over again; he seriously needed to get a grip, he wasn’t the one running for his life after all. A tendril extended from Sunny’s shadow, smacking him on his head, as their enemies dismissed the wall of flame, prompting him to ignore his annoyance.

He noticed that Omori was summoning multiple red hands and shadows to slow them down, but it wasn’t doing much. The shadows were made useless by the swings of the dual swords the Flamebringer held, and it seemed like her partner was burning the red hands; it turned out that they were flammable, but this was probably the worst possible time to figure this out.

Sunny felt something snake around his leg, before turning around, and seeing that the swords the Flamebringer held could also extend as whips for some reason, because why wouldn’t they! This was starting to become more infuriating than fearful, and with a snarl, Sunny forced his leg free from the whip, grabbing onto a streetlight to avoid falling down.

They needed to go faster, and it seemed like Omori had the same thought, as one of the red hands appeared in front of Sunny, and when Sunny grabbed it, he was flung through the air at a high speed; he wasn’t going to make the landing the way he was falling, but that was alright: Omori had noticed it as well, and created a pillar of shadow that Sunny used as a baseboard, before leaping off, landing in a roll on the street below.

He was impressed that he’d managed to pull off something as physically intensive as that, because he wasn’t exactly in good physical shape; now that they’d created some distance between the two, he allowed himself a moment to ponder why, before he noticed a small blue thread that was extending from his chest to behind him.

He’d seen this blue thread before, back when Omori had decided to trip that soldier at the port, and didn’t realize what was going on back then. The thread was stronger in color this time, and wasn’t as frayed around its edges. Sunny didn’t know what that meant, but given how he was actively keeping pace with how fast Kel could run with no training, he had a good guess that it bolstered his physical abilities somehow.

Omori decided that he was thinking a bit too hard, and poked him in the neck this time. He was definitely getting more creative, at least. Changing up where he poked was surely going to help them in this situation, and they weren’t going to be killed after all! Hooray!

It seemed like that was the decider for Omori, causing him to set one of the tripwires he’d grown fond of recently; Sunny, expecting this, tried to dodge, only to be tripped over the real trap that Omori had set past the tripwire, a floating hand. Sunny went careening through the air, somehow orienting himself to land in a roll.

Unfortunately for him, while he and Omori were bickering, their chasers had caught up, and threw up another one of those fire walls in front of Sunny, who didn’t have the time to stop before he was caught in the flames. Just as his clothing made contact with the flames, however, the flame barrier fizzled out, and only the edges of his cloak were caught on fire.

He kept running once he brushed off the momentary shock, making a hard left, and dodging under a fireball, reminiscing on how screwed they were to end up in this situation. He’d intended to keep running, but unluckily for him, the daunting building in front of him directly in the light of a large streetlight seemed to spell otherwise.

Sunny looked around for any potential way out of this corner he’d ended up in, but couldn’t find anything. Swallowing, he closed his eyes, and turned around; if this was the end of the line, he’d fight like hell to keep going. 

He’d been through a lot this last week, and he was sick of it. He was tired of sleeping in an alley, tired of waking up to a dust storm, and tired of not having anyone around besides Omori. 

This situation was awful, and he was so tired of everything, but in an echo of Omori’s words from when he’d first brought him back, he’d rather not die here. With that in mind, he opened his eyes, met with the visage of the Flamebringer and her partner, who stood in front of him, poised to attack at the slightest sign of aggression on his part.

“So it’s you that is the Driver of that Blade that’s been terrorizing our squads,” she coldly sneered. “We were foolish to treat you as a non-threat, and we won’t make that mistake this time. There’s nowhere to run, so surrender!” she finished, her voice having steadily raised until it was a shout loud enough to hear over the constant downpour.

Sunny wasn’t much of a fighter, but surrendering now wouldn’t have worked. He and Omori had made too large of an enemy, and it was this, or being jailed and potentially executed. As such, he took a deep breath, and settled into the stance he’d seen Aubrey stand in when holding her baseball bat, picking a piece of metal off of the ground next to him.

“So you won’t surrender. In that case, Brighid, do not hold anything back!”, the Flamebringer instructed, before adding “We have underestimated two children this week, and unlike what happened with the last, we won’t let them off as easily!”

Sunny remained still as a statue, ready to retaliate. Even if he was going to stand and fight, he wasn’t going to make the first move. He knew far better than to expect it to be possible for him to stand against them offensively, and so his best opportunity was playing it safe, only attacking when he had the opportunity.

Omori tapped twice, and Sunny wondered why, before his question was answered when Omori faded out of his shadow, and took point in front of him, brandishing his knife, face impassive; Sunny knew better, and understood that this was a security blanket of sorts for Omori, but he could use some regularity right now, so he let it go.

The presence of Omori caused their adversaries to slightly falter, as the Flamebringer’s swords twitched, and the fire that was flowing across the exit of the dead end they were stuck in wavered, as if they’d seen something that had caused shock. Their surprise was temporary, however, as the Flamebringer took the role of the vanguard, rushing at Sunny and Omori.

Omori, ever the stubborn one, decided it best to meet her head on in combat, as he planted himself low to the ground, before dashing out knife first. Sunny knew that if he got too close, he’d get in the way of Omori and his whole thing, so it was best to play behind and only move when he had an opportunity.

It seemed like the Flamebringer’s partner had the same idea, as she stood decently far behind her liege, focusing on altering the terrain of the battlefield rather than being a direct participant at the moment. Sunny ducked and weaved around the fire that spread across the field, taking advantage of the strength boost that the link provided him, as he subconsciously noticed it turn to gold.

It was a shock to his system as he witnessed her flames being smothered by the rain. He’d seen evidence before with how her barriers had smothered out, but he hadn’t put it together until now. It seemed like their enemies weren’t invincible like they’d thought, and with a rush of determination, Sunny took his chance.

Sunny used the brief lull in the flames to assist Omori, and took his place behind his back. He stood back to back with his other half, before spinning around at the same time Omori did the same, taking a wild swing with his pipe, prompting the Flamebringer to bring her sword up in defense. In doing so, however, she had exposed her back to Omori, who had traveled through Sunny’s shadow to the opposite side.

Omori lifted himself up, and blindly slashed at her back, but while they were coordinating their assault, it seemed like the blue fire lady had done the same. Omori was forced to hide back in Sunny’s shadow as the second sword was extended from a few feet away, swiping at Omori like a whip.

Sunny’s offense failing meant that he was out of his depth in this situation, and his combatant knew it as well. For each failed attempt at swinging he missed, his assailant pushed him back further and further, before breaking Sunny’s sloppy defense, and sending him tumbling across the ground with a kick angled at his legs.

Sunny braced himself against the shadows that Omori had preemptively built up from his back, and used his pipe to anchor himself as he skidded across the ground. Although the streetlight vastly hurt their potential operating space, Omori had access to Sunny’s shadow, and their enemies’ shadows as well, for all the good it did as they danced around every attempt he made at giving them even the slightest opportunity to rest.

The Flamebringer pushed her newfound advantage, and with a swipe of her hand, her partner stood beside her, as they lit their swords on fire and extended them out, clearly going for the final blow. Sunny was baffled at their tenacity; he’d seen that the rain was preventing those flames from truly ravaging them, and even with that limitation, they weren’t any match for these two.

Omori vainly attempted to stop their assault by grasping wildly at any shadows in the area and directing them towards the duo, forcing his red hands to punch and grab their weapons, but it didn’t matter. The heat haze and flames created by the two standing in front of them were too intense for Omori’s attempts to penetrate, and it only served to slow them down.

Sunny was growing tired. He’d been sleeping on the street and hadn’t had proper meals for the last week, and he wasn’t well enough physically or mentally to find his second wind. It was clear that Omori was flagging as well, given that his red hands appeared almost translucent, and his shadows were sluggish.

Sunny wearily closed his eyes, accepting that it was over. He felt regret that he never told his friends the truth, but at least he’d get to see Mari properly again. He felt the heat rush towards his face, as the whips made their speedy descent to end his life, before abruptly stopping. He dared to open his eyes, and was breathless at what he witnessed.

Omori had stood in front of him, and had taken the blow that was meant for Sunny. Sunny had forgotten about this. Omori did not succumb, but for how long?

The way that the flames stopped in their tracks, and the swords had no impact despite their wild marks into his body, was promising, but Omori was faltering, and was being shoved back by the force of their onslaught.

Sunny poured all of his energy into the weird glowing bond, in hope that it’d travel the opposite way as well, as Omori looked up, one eye flashing from the shadows drawn on his face. He called as many hands as he could muster, slamming the wave into the blue haired lady, and he threw his knife directly at the Flamebringer’s face.

Her eyes widened in shock, as she moved her head out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid Omori’s knife grazing past her cheek, drawing a line of blood where it had left. That he’d made her bleed was enough for Omori, who smiled, one that seemed genuinely happy, unburdened and untainted by his stoic and snarky persona, as he collapsed to the ground.

Sunny didn’t last much longer after that. He stared at the pair in front of him, watching the blue haired lady pull herself off the ground. He saw them slowly stalk toward him, and decided that he was done. Their cold gazes stared at him impassively, as they remained utterly silent in their victory; there was no gloating, and Sunny saw that as his cue. 

He’d done his best, and in the end, it wasn’t enough, but they’d made their assailants treat them seriously. He gazed blankly at the ground, and without Omori to sustain him, he gave into his screaming body’s need to sleep, unsure if he’d wake again. 

Chapter Text

Darkness, yet again. It was a bit of a pattern at this point, and one that Sunny was more than tired off after what felt like the 30th time it had happened this week. Was he dead? It definitely looked like it, given the way that he couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly, murmuring. Sunny did his best to ask a question, to do anything that would clarify if he was alive, if Omori was okay, if he was finally going to be able to rest, but he couldn’t force himself hard enough. He drifted, returning to float in that black void for an indefinite amount of time.

Once more, his consciousness returned, to be met with the same darkness. It was different this time, he thought, seeing bright spots at certain places in his vision. He tried once more to force himself to do anything, and found that he could move his fingers.

Sunny could’ve cried were he fully conscious. If he could feel himself moving, he couldn’t have been dead like he thought, right? Now, if only he could make himself wake up, but he felt so tired. Next time, he thought, returning back to that half-conscious state.

It was time. Sunny’s consciousness returned to him for what would be the last time before he woke up, and he could tell that something was different. That barrier he’d pushed against to wake up was smaller, and he felt stronger against it.

He pushed as hard as he could, and blearily opened his eyes, to immediately wish he’d stayed asleep as two bright lights glared down on him. These must have been the bright spots in his vision.

He didn’t feel strong enough to move around much, he decided, but he could at least move his eyes and his head. He stared at the ceiling, and noticed its tiling, before craning his head, as tears began to leak from his eyes from what he saw.

“I’m finally home, thank goodness.” Sunny thought, glancing at the hospital architecture around him. He was back in a hospital gown, and those days he spent in that weird world with Omori must’ve been some coma dream.

He noticed a bed next to him. There must have been more than one person in the hospital with him. Maybe it was Basil? He’d hoped he hadn’t hurt him much, but it was the only reasonable explanation anyone else would be in the same room as him.

“Sorry to interrupt your moment of celebration, but I’m a little offended you dismissed me as nothing more than a coma hallucination,” a groggy, familiar voice spoke from the other bed.

Sunny’s heart dropped. That wasn’t Basil. He pushed his creaking body to look towards his right, and the tears of joy quickly turned into dejected weeping, as in the bed was none other than Omori, with that strange crystal necklace he’d only ever had in that weird world they’d ended up in.

Sunny closed his eyes, and shut out the world around him. It wasn’t fair, he thought, how he could go through so much and not receive a moment of rest. He’d done wrong with what happened with Mari, he acknowledged that now, but didn’t he deserve a moment of reprieve?

“Relax, it’s going to be okay.” Omori placated, voice softer and more tender than Sunny would’ve ever expected. “I’m still a little annoyed to know you still think of me like that, but I’ll let it slide this once,” he continued, still remaining gentle.

Sunny’s first thought was to dismiss what Omori said, he still didn’t get along the best with him, but…

Images flashed through his head, of the fight the two had against the Flamebringer and her partner. Him reaching out to one of Omori’s hands, covering for Omori against the fire lady.

Omori standing in front of what was certain death, taking a hit meant for Sunny. He and Omori might struggle and have a rocky history, but he could let his guard down some. He’d been holding stuff against him without giving Omori a chance, and while he definitely enjoyed being annoying, he meant well.

“I’m glad you’ve finally realized that. It was growing bothersome watching you freak out around me,” Omori sardonically chuckled.

Sunny ignored his comment, understanding that it was his way of coping, and he wasn’t going to take that away from him. He’d just broken down in front of Omori after all, and this vulnerability wasn’t something he would naturally expect.

“If I could move my body, I’d throw something at you right now,” Omori offhandedly commented, prompting a light smile from Sunny as the worry lines around his eyes relaxed.

It looked like Omori had decided the moment was over, so Sunny decided to take stock of the room around them. It was a hospital room, clearly, but now that he was thinking properly, he’d noticed the strange machines that were likely native to this world. 

There was a small window to the left of his bed, with a desk directly underneath it. There wasn’t anyone at the desk, but there was what looked to be a file sitting on top of it. Their medical files, maybe?

The door was to the right of Omori’s bed, but neither of them were in a position to move and leave at the moment, and that was ignoring whether they even needed to do so. 

How had they ended up here, exactly? The end of the fight seemed… grim, to put it lightly. He glanced at Omori, who’d clearly anticipated this question, or more likely, had been proving Sunny’s thought process.

“I’m not sure how we ended up here either,” Omori claimed, back to his usual deadpan. “Those two that we fought seemed like they weren’t going to hesitate with that final attack. Honestly, I’m shocked I’m still here. That hurt way more than I was expecting.” he finished, face invisible to Sunny, as Omori had turned towards the opposite wall.

Sunny began to ask another question, but was cut off by Omori.

“I just woke up around when you did. First thing I saw was you looking around the room, and the first thing I heard was your inner monologue. You think a lot, you know? That’s besides the point though, long story short: I know just as much as you do about what’s going on here.” he explained.

Sunny fought off another moment of panic, and focused on what he did know. Of course, upon doing so, it turned out he didn’t know much, and he started to freak out. At least, he would have, if he wasn’t rudely interrupted from his mental breakdown by someone else.

“Ah, you’re both awake. It has been quite some time since you both were knocked out.”

Oh god, oh no. Why was she here, had she taken them just to torture them both? That’s probably what it was, there’s no way she was doing this out of kindness, she’d almost killed him before, what was he going to do?

“Does he… do this a lot? He didn’t allow me to explain myself.” the Flamebringer’s voice cut through the haze.

“It seems to be a bit of a recent development. Of course, I do share a lot of his concerns that he’s freaking out about right now, given what happened last time I saw you.” Omori posited, an undertone of malice in his voice.

“Of course, that is natural.” she impassively claimed. “I do not begrudge either of you for having reservations, but I insist, we merely do want to talk to you.”

Sunny broke through his dismay to level a flat gaze at her. She couldn’t have been expecting either of them to believe that, especially since she’d attacked them last. Omori voiced Sunny’s concerns for him shortly after.

“We don’t buy it. You came out of nowhere and attacked us, like a crazy person.” Omori claimed, nose shriveled in disgust.

“You say that, but if I recall, Brighid and I were simply going to question your Driver here, and then let him go if he was innocent.” she spoke dryly. “Of course, that was up until you decided to forcefully pull us to the ground with your abilities.” she finished, voice irritated.

Sunny sighed, and stared at the ceiling. The Flamebringer was right, here. She and her partner(Brighid? Is that the name she mentioned?) weren’t kind, but they didn’t seem malicious either. If anything, he’d gotten caught up in the moment as well, and let Omori stir him up.

Sunny tapped the plastic frame of his bed, to draw her attention. She looked at him, eyes shadowed under the hat she wore, and he did his best to look contrite. He solemnly bowed his head in apology, upon which her impassive gaze unthawed a smidge, and she nodded in return.

He then stared at Omori, although it might have been more apt to dub it a glare. Omori suddenly seemed very interested in the corner, as he began whistling, and stared away from Sunny and their visitor.

She seemed as unimpressed as Sunny, and turned back towards him. Sunny did the same, as it was clear that she was preparing to say something.

“Now that we have addressed our misunderstanding, I do need to ask you both some questions. If all is well, you are both free to go afterwards.” she claimed, honesty clear in what was visible of her eyes.

Sunny eyed Omori, who was doing the same to him. They came to a conclusion at that moment, and Sunny nodded at the Flamebringer, who nodded, and thanked them both.

She looked like she was getting ready to start another line of questioning, but Sunny tapped on his bed again to draw her attention. He couldn’t talk. He’d tried, but he couldn’t do it ever since he woke up in the wilderness. He wasn’t ever very loud, but he did talk on occasion, and matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t force the words out now.

She looked at him, rapt in attention, and Sunny felt sheepish as he opened his mouth and mouthed a sentence, while tapping his throat and shaking his head. Clarity flashed in her eyes, and she nodded.

“You cannot talk?” she asked, and nodded when Sunny indicated that she had guessed correctly.

Sunny gestured towards Omori next, indicating that Omori could convey his thoughts for him. Omori rolled his eyes, but nodded.

“I suppose that will work,” she concluded, and then asked “First, what are your names?”

Omori didn’t need Sunny’s input on this one, and responded “My name is Omori and he’s called Sunny. I don’t have a last name, but his is Suzuki.”

“I see. How old are both of you?” she asked next.

“He’s 16. My age is a bit more complicated.” Omori answered, seemingly bored given how he stared out the window.

She nodded, and then responded “Of course, my apologies. I understand that age is something that Blades don’t always have a measure of. The general time that you were awakened will suffice,” she ended.

Sunny’s eyes widened while she spoke. There was that word again! He still didn’t know what it meant, and he sent a request to Omori to ask her.

Omori nodded towards Sunny, and asked “Could you explain what a blade is? He doesn’t know what that means and neither do I. We’ve heard a few people say it, but we only know blades as that of a sword or knife.”

Their interrogator stuttered, seemingly stopped dead in her tracks, before hesitantly asking, “Neither of you are familiar with what a Blade is?”

Omori and Sunny both nodded to show that she was correct, prompting a confused and low stream of murmuring from the Flamebringer, who had looked so composed until now. Was their not understanding what a blade was a problem?

“I… perhaps it is best that we wait to answer that question for now. Brighid will arrive shortly, and she is the better teacher on this topic, given her status.” she suggested, and began to steer the conversation in a new direction. “Moving on, can either of you answer what you were doing in Alba Cavanich? There have been reports of a small figure attacking our troops with their very shadows during night time over the last week. Could either of you answer what that was?”

Sunny flatly stared at Omori, daring him to answer her question. He pleadingly looked at Sunny, but Sunny’s head shaking indicated that he’d have to explain himself on his own with this one.

“Well, you see, it’s actually a funny story, and very well reasoned and justified. You know, uh… yeah, that was me.” he admitted, before brazenly moving on to whatever garbage excuse Sunny knew he’d spew out next.

“I’m completely justified, because they looked at me funny. I know what you said before, but it’s truly a crime against humanity that they’d continue to be so awful towards me.” he tried to cover up, only to be met with the blank gazes of both Sunny and the Flamebringer.

“Considering how you are black and white, holding a knife, and appearing out of people’s shadows, I think that they might be justified in this “looking at you funny” you claim.” the capped woman commented, very clearly unamused.

Sunny stared at her with stars in his eyes. This whole situation might turn south still, but he’d finally found someone who had to deal with Omori’s antics as well. He stuck his tongue out at Omori, who made a very rude gesture in response.

The Flamebringer glanced between them, bemused by their antics, before folding her hands behind her back and asking her question, which turned to be a nail in the coffin in Omori’s flimsy excuse. “If you do not have any better reasoning, am I to assume that this was an act of whimsy on your end?” she snarkily asked Omori.

Omori opened his mouth, likely to try and defend himself, before thinking better of it, and nodding his head.

She facepalmed, and huffed out a sigh. 

“To think, several squads of imperial soldiers were ambushed and put into intensive medical care by the actions of a bored Blade, without his Driver to boot.” she complained, before sobering.

“Well, I suppose that there’s no use obsessing over that right now. Now that you’ve answered how the soldiers were constantly being attacked, can you describe what your purpose in coming to the city was?” she nodded at Sunny, “From what it looks like, it seems you were mostly unaware of the actions your Blade was taking, which begs the question: what was the purpose you both had in coming to Mor Ardain?”

Sunny stared at the bedsheets in front of him, eyes furrowed. How exactly was he supposed to explain what he was doing before he got here– scratch that, how was he supposed to explain how he got here? He still didn’t understand it himself, and he’d bet Omori didn’t either.

A half-truth was probably the best choice here. Something that would explain just enough to be realistic, but leaving out the stranger details of what had happened. He nodded at Omori, who spoke for him.

“We washed up on the shore of the Titan about a week before we ran into you. We’d never been here before, so we stumbled around for a day before ending up in the capital, looking for someone to help him out with his medical problems.” Omori explained, to receive a pensive look on the Flamebringer’s face, where she responded after a moment of thought.

“I see. That does answer your greater motive, but I do have some more specific questions I’d like to clear up. Namely, why did you all not search for an inn or a medical facility during your week here?” she questioned, prompting Sunny to glare at Omori.

Her eyes lit up with realization, as she commented “Ah, that is correct. The first incident we have regarding your Blade dates itself to the 2nd of Amalthutober, which if I’m not mistaken, was your first day on the Titan, correct?”

Sunny panickedly glanced at Omori. They weren’t prepared for any questions about the date or time of year it was, they didn’t even know what country they were in for a while. She noticed their floundering, and decided to continue with her thoughts anyways.

“I suppose that neither of you would have been keeping track of the days without a calendar… Perhaps it would be better to phrase it as the day the first incident in Port Anangham, where you attacked a new recruit?” she revised, clearly understanding their confusion.

Sunny nodded; that sounded about right. She nodded, clearly satisfied with her logic that they were laying low in case of their capture by the military they had run from. She opened her mouth, likely to ask yet another question, but was interrupted by a knock at the door to the infirmary.

“Come in, Brighid,” she answered.

The door slowly opened, and Sunny and Omori were met with the visage of the blue-haired fire lady they’d fought before. In the proper lighting, she was beautiful, and wore a refined look about her, like she was above the petty troubles one might run into.

“Lady Mòrag, I am sorry I was late. The meeting with the Captain ran over– oh my…” she trailed off, struck with intense awe and shock at what she was seeing.

The Flamebringer, now identified as Mòrag, nodded in her direction, before speaking.

“Yes. I had assumed you might be more equipped to answer some points of contention, given your status as a Blade. That appears to be what they are most confused about.”

Brighid stepped closer to the two, and brought her head down to eye level with them both. Sunny felt nervous as she closely examined him, and Omori, as usual, didn’t show much reaction to an uncomfortable situation. Some things don’t change, Sunny guessed.

“You two are remarkably alike for a Driver and Blade… I didn't have the opportunity to examine either of you beforehand, but now that I can, you are almost identical,” she claimed, before looking towards Omori, “Although, you are younger than him. It’s almost as if you two are twins, several years apart from each other.”

Omori scoffed, but had a pensive look on his face. What she was saying was true, and might be helpful to them later. If they ever end up in another situation where they have to hide from law enforcement, and knowing Omori, it’d happen eventually, using the cover of brothers would function nicely.

Satisfied with her examination, Brighid stepped back, before leading to the point she was attempting to set up by looking at the two so closely.

“It is well known that a Blade takes characteristics from each Driver that resonates with them, but for such an incredible similarity, could it be that you were his first Driver? That wouldn’t make sense, though; new blades are what we consider to be ‘common’ before developing characteristics through generations of awakenings…” she murmured.

Sunny glanced at Omori, to see he was just as confused as Sunny was in his eyes. They both had no clue what was going on here, and from the way that Mòrag had looked between them, she seemed to remember that as well.

“Brighid,” she said carefully, as though it was a topic to be treated seriously, “They aren’t aware of what a Blade and Driver is. His Blade confirmed that he wasn’t aware either.”

Brighid stepped back, caught at a loss. She began to rapidly mutter under her breath, yet her eyes never widened like you would expect. Actually, she hadn’t opened her eyes at all through this entire process, maybe she has abilities like Omori does that lets her see?

“That’s- that’s impossible!” she exclaimed. “Throughout each case of Blade resonance, the Blade in question is aware that they are a Blade, and know basic knowledge about the world around them.” she finished, staring at Omori.

Omori was clearly getting fed up, and he decided to make his annoyance known.

“I’m getting tired of these obscure comments. I’m not sure if I’m an anomaly to whatever you’re talking about, but I’d appreciate it if you'd pull it together and answer what a Blade is, and why I’m one.” he proclaimed, as Sunny loudly tapped on the bed and shook his head at him.

Brighid was taken aback, but seemed to find a sense of peace, as her face smoothed out. Whatever Omori had said, she’d found merit in it, and she decided to explain the basics of this system to Omori.

“Blades are beings that come to live through a process called resonance. Their being is contained within a glowing crystal that we call a core crystal, and when that crystal is touched by a human with aptitude, the necessary strength of ‘soul’ to awaken the blade inside, they take on a physical form, and are bound to the life of their awakener, known as their Driver.” she explained, before pushing onwards. It was clear this topic was rather complicated.

“Blades, like I said before, have basic knowledge about the world around them when they awaken, and are aware of their existence as a Blade, and a general concept of what it means. That being, they usually have specified interests and knowledge that can be useful to their Driver, and come with a specialized weapon they innately understand how to use. The Driver acts as a partner to the Blade, and they work together in various ways to achieve something greater than what they could individually,” she finished, a note of pride in her voice, as she was clearly proud of her usefulness to her partner. 

Omori processed this information, and then nodded. He proceeded to voice something that hadn’t made sense to him throughout her explanation.

“What do you mean that Blades are aware of how to fight, and what their interests are? Isn’t that something that you find out through experience? I know before I was ‘awakened’ as you call it, it took me a while to get good with my knife.” he claimed.

If the mood was pensive before, it was entirely bewildered now. Both Brighid and Mòrag had paled, as if something Omori had said went against one of the very fundamentals that they believed and understood.

Omori looked at Sunny, shrugged, and Sunny gestured downward with his hands; whatever they’d said, they should give them the time to process it. Sunny knew from recent experience that sometimes you need a moment when everything you know is questioned.

It took a few minutes before either of them had gained enough composure to continue talking. At various points, they both stared at each other, having a conversation without words, then looking back at Sunny and Omori, as if they were seeing a specter.

“You remember things before your awakening?” Brighid asked extremely slowly, clearly shocked.

“Yeah. If you mean awakening from this crystal necklace I’ve got, then this guy,” he gestured at Sunny, “Picked it up, and I popped out of thin air a few hours later.”

Sunny nodded, and mentally sent more information for Omori to provide.

“He also thinks it’s important for you to know that the crystal looked like a piano key, and was black before it turned white a few hours after he grabbed it.” Omori added.

“You mean to say that the core crystal was inert? That only occurs when the Blade has been awakened previously, but you have no physical characteristics that don’t match his. I would be even more confused if you did have a previous Driver.” she claimed, still attempting to pull her thoughts together.

Mòrag laid a hand on Brighid’s shoulder, and stood up from her chair, while beckoning her to sit in her place. Mòrag seemed like she’d decided that this was difficult for Brighid to understand and respond to emotionally, and she pushed on, finishing the lecture herself.

“Sunny, and Omori…” she stated, finally saying their names after not using them throughout the interrogation, “You must understand that what you two have told us just now goes against every theory and law we understand about how Blades and Drivers function.” she stated, this being a revelation to herself as well, clearly.

Sunny and Omori remained quiet. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, but this was clearly more serious than either of them had ever expected it to be. Speaking now would be incredibly rude.

“Blades do not remember their past lives. It is a case where there has only ever been one exception, and I met that exception myself when I was in Gormott, fighting the Aegis.” she claimed, before continuing onwards. “The Aegis is the only known exception that could possibly fall within these rules, and you don’t have the trademark emerald crystal; although, your white is strange enough as is…” she muttered quietly.

Sunny’s head raised from where he’d been playing with the blanket, at the sound of Mòrag mentioning the color emerald. She looked at his reaction, and thankfully, didn’t consider it cause for concern. He wasn’t sure he could reasonably explain that emerald glow in the weird vision he’d had before waking up in the wild.

Omori narrowed his eyes at Sunny, causing him to remember that he hadn’t actually talked about what happened before he woke him up. Omori had probably picked up some stray thoughts, but didn’t get the full story. He mentally sent a note to Omori that he’d talk about it when they were next alone, prompting a slight nod in response.

Mòrag had gathered her thoughts, and visibly came to a decision on something. She walked over to the door of the room, and gestured at Brighid.

“Brighid, come with me, and let’s make a decision regarding these two. It’s clear that we can’t handle this like a normal ruffian situation we were expecting.” she politely instructed, and Brighid stood up to walk to the door, standing next to Mòrag.

“Please, remain here. We will be back after deliberating, to inform you of our decision,” she told Sunny and Omori. “This has been enlightening, but you two are still wanted under Mor Ardain law for assaulting our military, and regardless of your unique conditions, we have to treat you as the lawbreakers you are legally recognized as.”

Satisfied she’d gotten her point across to Sunny and Omori who were both staring at her, she nodded at Brighid, and left the room. Brighid followed after, but not before lightly bowing to both of them.

Sunny and Omori remained contemplative, each lost in their own thoughts.

Meanwhile, somewhere else…

A woman with short red hair, and a glowing emerald crystal stared out over the Cloud Sea. She and her traveling partners had finally managed to leave Gormott, thanks to the help of the Nopon shipwright who was kind enough to lend them a Titan ship.

She looked to the World Tree over the horizon, and admired its glowing branches, with runes spiraling around the trunk. She softly huffed, and turned her attention elsewhere, to find Rex bantering with Tora, and his Blade Poppi.

She lightly smiled, glad that Rex could still relax after all that had happened recently. Things had been rough for him, she noted, as she recalled their various adventures over the last week.

She’d shared part of her core crystal with him, to bring him back to life after what Jin had done, she thought as she traced the X shaped hole in her crystal. That wasn’t anything to brush off, using that power was something she was hesitant to do. Well, it wasn’t exactly her hesitation, but… that wasn’t important right now.

They’d met Tora and Poppi after washing up on Gormott. She and Rex were incredibly grateful that they’d helped them rescue Nia, who’d been immediately captured by the Ardainian military. 

She wasn’t exactly proud of how she’d brought so many people into her objective, though. Climbing the World Tree was immeasurably important, but that didn’t mean she had to hurt so many people in the process. She ruefully stared at the deck of the ship below her at that thought, upset that they were going to so much trouble for her, when she wasn’t really worth it.

None of that would matter once she reached the top of the World Tree, though. The one person who could help her with her goal was at the top, Father. She wanted to ask him so many questions, but none of it mattered compared to her ultimate goal in meeting him.

“Hey, Pyra!” a young male voice exclaimed. “Come over here, would ya? We’re getting close to the World Tree, and we should plan out what we’re going to do!”

She shook her head at Rex, slightly amused. With any luck, they wouldn’t need a plan, and she could get Ophion to let them up to the top. Nonetheless, she walked over to him at the helm, ready to indulge his enthusiasm in planning.

After she and the group had discussed their plans, they came up to what was apparently called the Great Void, an expanse of empty space in the Cloud Sea separating the Tree and the rest of the world.

It wasn’t around when she’d gone to sleep 500 years ago, but it hopefully wouldn’t be a problem–

Something wasn’t right. Ophion was here, but…distant. He wasn’t listening to her requests, and wasn’t visible. At least, he wasn’t visible until the giant metallic serpent rose from the Great Void, and let out a mighty cry.

She yelled at Rex to turn back, warning him that this wasn’t safe, but it was too late by the time that they’d processed what was happening. Ophion had stirred up the Cloud Sea, and their ship was off course, careening into the Void…

Just as a giant whale-like Titan opened its great maw, leading to her and her companions being lost into the inky void of its mouth.

Sunny wasn’t sure how long he and Omori had been sitting there, honestly. There wasn’t a clock in the room, and it looked like they’d woken up around sunset, and it was dark out now.

That made it hard to tell how much time had passed since Mòrag and Brighid had left, and it was likely that they’d spent at least half an hour talking through what she wanted to hear from them.

Omori had gotten bored around 5 minutes after they left, probably, and created a bouncy ball made from shadows. He bounced it off the wall in the corner, like he was a prisoner. Sunny had asked if he could bounce it with him, but when he tried to touch it, it fell through his hands and dematerialized.

He laid back on the bed with a huff, closing his eyes, before hearing the jiggle of the door to the infirmary. Brighid and Mòrag must have finished their discussion. He sat up, and watched the two quietly enter the room, where they struggled over who got to sit in the chair.

Omori created a stool made of shadow, and Mòrag gratefully nodded before sitting down on it. Maybe the shadows would persist only as long as Omori directly controlled them? But then that meant that he’d just let Sunny fail with the ball for his own amusement, that jerk. 

Omori’s smirk in his direction let him know he recognized Sunny’s understanding, but they didn’t have time to argue with each other. Mòrag was starting to talk.

“Before I start,” Mòrag opened, “It is important for you to recognize that above all, you both broke many laws,” she stated bluntly.

Sunny cringed. Even ignoring Omori’s nightly excursions, they had stolen a lot. Whatever punishment they’d receive would be fair, he decided.

“However,” she continued, “You are both an anomaly in every possible way right now. You have both broken numerous expectations that we have regarded as laws of nature for generations now, and fought remarkably well for your little experience.”

Sunny furrowed his eyebrows; Where was she going with this? Were they going to be imprisoned, or not? A quick glance at Omori revealed him doing the same thing, though his face was impassive.

“As such, we have decided that we are going to bend the rules in this instance. In return for pardoning your crimes, you will work alongside Brighid and I until a time that we see fit as you having worked off your debt.” she finished.

Sunny was ready to hear the end of the punishment. He’d gotten his hopes up, but there was no way they were going to let them go free. She was clearly coming to an end, and from what she was saying, of course she was going to let them work wit–

Wait, what did she just say?

Chapter Text

What was she talking about? There’s no way that she actually meant what she said, right? There wasn’t much he could think of that would make them so appealing as to ignore all normal procedures for a situation like this. Was what they had revealed really so revolutionary?

Regardless, this was a good offer for both of them. Sunny nodded, and then prepared to send a message to Omori that they accept, but was cut off by Omori tossing the ball he’d been playing with at his face.

Omori shook his head, and then posed a question that Sunny probably should’ve thought of himself. Omori really was being an asset here. Of course, as Sunny rubbed his stinging face, he found it hard to be thankful.

“Calm down, I didn’t throw it that hard.” He reprimanded, before continuing “Anyways, he wants to accept your offer immediately, but I don’t buy it. What do either of you get out of this situation? Why are we worth keeping around so much that you’d bend the rules; I don’t know much about how things work around here, but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to lock us up and move on with your day.”

Mòrag nodded, holding her hand up to assuage Brighid, who had taken offense to what Omori had suggested. Maybe it was a social faux pas around here, or Omori questioning her so blatantly was a sign of disrespect given her position?

“It is clear to me that through your responses, along with your reactions, that neither of you are very familiar with basic rules that we acknowledge,” she said. “In an ordinary circumstance, yes, we would take you into custody until a trial, but nothing about this situation is normal anymore,” she finished.

Brighid took an opportunity during the lull to present her thoughts on the situation, Mòrag seemingly content to let her speak her mind. Sunny wondered if he and Omori could ever work that seamlessly with each other. 

For each moment that Mòrag faltered, Brighid was present to take over for her, and the same applied to Brighid, like how they’d seen Mòrag pull her to sit down when she was panicking earlier.

“As we mentioned before, it is unheard of for any standard Blade to remember memories of their past lives, and your core crystal is a very strange color. Were it just your combat prowess, which was admittedly impressive to stand against us for as long as you did, Lady Mòrag would likely have sent you to become a new recruit in the army.” Brighid explained, speaking seriously.

Sunny cringed, remembering how poorly that fight had gone for him and Omori. If the way that they’d struggled to run away from them, eventually culminating in a last stand where they barely managed to injure just one of them, he was not enthused with a situation that they were against an equal.

Brighid noticed his reaction, and went to explain herself further.

“I suppose it is true that for one without knowledge, we would seem impossibly powerful to you, and to a certain extent, you may be right, “ she mused. “However, for a new Driver and Blade, your resistance was remarkable, even if my powers were lessened from the rain.”

Sunny startled; he’d thought that was the case, but wasn’t entirely sure. Brighid let a small smile frame her mouth, and nodded at him.

“The most recent foes that provided a true challenge to Lady Mòrag and I were the legendary Aegis, and they won through dumping the contents of a water tower on myself, quenching the flames,” she lightly said. “I am impressed you noticed, it is a mark of high perception to make such an observation while untrained. These skills you both display, and the extraordinary circumstances, provide a… unique opportunity for us to break protocol, in hopes that we can glean valuable information from you two. ” 

Sunny didn’t really think that he’d really displayed anything worth breaking the rules, wouldn’t it be natural to assume that water would put out and dampen the fires? Although, now that he thought about it, something he’d unconsciously realized came to the front of his mind.

“I heard countless tales about the prowess of these two in combat, and not a single one mentioned any weaknesses. Is it possible that they’ve become such icons of strength because they’re almost like a folktale?” Sunny considered, suddenly reminded of how these two were leagues ahead of anything he and Omori could achieve in combat, separated or together.

Omori, who had been sullenly glancing at the ground from his lack of involvement in the conversation, looked up at the thought. Sunny must’ve been projecting, he’d been trying to be a bit better about unintentionally doing that.

Omori poked Sunny, and gestured to the room at large. Sunny figured that Omori had seen enough to be satisfied with their rationale for not imprisoning them, and offering them a deal like this, but that wasn’t enough for Sunny. 

He shook his head, and pointed to Omori, indicating that they’d make this decision together; he wasn’t sure about this Driver and Blade stuff, but he realized that he wouldn’t have made it here without Omori, and he deserved a say in the path they took.

“It’s good to see that you’re acknowledging my superior judgment,” Omori haughtily spoke down to Sunny. Seriously, he’d made himself a platform out of shadow so he could look down on top of Sunny’s head, it was a bit concerning how haphazardly he’d throw around his strength.

“But,” he continued, “I agree with you here. Besides, I’m not sure either of us could take them on again, especially since they’re in a position to call backup at any moment right now,” he commented, jumping off of his stool and letting them dissipate.

Sunny was glad that Omori was agreeing with him. Privately, he thought, doing his best not to project, they couldn’t have said no to the deal no matter if they didn’t want to. They might not understand if this was a good choice, but it was their only choice, as they’d absolutely be beaten if it came to conflict.

Mind made up, Sunny nodded at Mòrag, whose face lessened with stress, loosening from a tense posture that he hadn’t noticed her take on.

“Excellent. It makes me glad to see you two make this decision, and we will both strive to ensure that you will both go free once we have decided that you are no longer a threat,” she commended, while admonishingly tacking on the last bit.

It was then that it occurred to Sunny that they’d taken her deal, but they didn’t really understand what they’d be doing under her and Brighid. They were military officers, right? Would that mean Sunny and Omori would be soldiers?

Mòrag, on the same wavelength, decided to extrapolate, and provide information about what they should expect.

“The Special Inquisitor position is one that was created after the loss of Emperor Hugo in the Aegis War. Both the Emperor and his two blades, Brighid and another treasure of the imperial family, Aegaeon" were lost in the final battle, and the guard sent to retrieve them was killed from one of the final attacks.” she explained.

Sunny was glad they were getting something, but he struggled to see how any of this made sense for what her position was. Mòrag, recognizing his clenched fists as a sign of frustration, decided to explain herself more thoroughly.

“The imperial family, before the Aegis War, allowed the Emperor to wield the two Blades passed down throughout the family,” she said. “When the Emperor died, and the failsafe guard to collect the core crystals was unable to collect them, we might have lost both of our imperial blades. Were it not for Addam, an ally of the Emperor, returning them, both Brighid and Aegeaon would have been lost to the Tornan Titan sinking beneath the sea.”

Sunny thought that he saw where she was going, but Mòrag kept explaining anyway.

“Because of this, after the war, the decision was made that a new position be created, of a Special Inquisitor, to handle the battlefield duties the Emperor had done before, and that the two core crystals would be split, with one protecting the Emperor, and the other fighting with the Inquisitor,” she finished, satisfied that she’d done a good job of explaining what was important about the situation, before moving to the other point she wanted to make.

“The Special Inquisitor doesn’t have such a failsafe that the old Emperors had to collect the core crystals, as they are trained in combat. However, it is not unheard of for an Inquisitor to appoint a Deputy that works alongside them, fulfilling the additional firepower lost from only possessing one of the two imperial Blades, and a protective measure to collect the core crystal should the Inquisitor fall,” she finished, implication heavy in her voice.

Sunny’s eyes widened. He understood now, that they’d be placed into a position that had immense power. Wasn’t that a bit shortsighted, though, placing a teenager and, for all intensive purposes, a child, in that position? It made even less sense given that they were enemies who’d fought in battle before.

“This position,” Mòrag interrupted his thoughts, adjusting her hat, “Does not hold any direct political standing, and its military standing is powerful, but second to the decisions that the Special Inquisitor makes. As such, you two will be trained by Brighid and myself until we determine that you are ready for those responsibilities. I will make myself clear now, however, that you are not to abuse the power that we have and will grant you,” she warned, intensity in her eyes portraying how, even though she hadn’t directly made any threats, there would be a reckoning if either of them attempted to hurt the country they were now signed under.

Sunny vehemently nodded, taking her warning to heart, while he heard Omori sigh, and saw him roll his eyes as he looked over. Omori had reclined on the bed during Mòrag’s lengthy explanation, and had folded his hands behind his head. Sunny looked at him angrily, but Omori made a very rude gesture in response.

Sunny gasped, and stood up from his bed, walking to Omori, and standing above him, hands on his waist, tapping his foot. Omori peeked one eye open, and summoned a small red hand, which tapped Sunny on his shoulder.

Sunny spun around, to be tapped by the red hand that had moved behind him, prompting him to look at Omori, unamused. Omori broke his stoic face, and smirked, before offering some of the most important commentary on these greatly important situations that anyone had ever heard.

Truly, Omori’s next words would be one that would define their futures, and the future of this world, and Earth, Sunny was sure he’d reminisce later. What he said would impact their lives greater than any worldly struggle ever could.

“Made you look.” he gloated.

If Sunny could scream, he would have. He realized screaming isn’t technically speaking, so he tried anyway. It didn’t work. If anything, opening his mouth to scream and nothing coming out might’ve made him look stupid. Thanks, Omori.

“You know, your friends seem to think that you’re very innocent and gentle, but they don’t get to hear how intensely and mockingly sarcastic you are in your head,” Omori commented.

Someone cleared their throat, interrupting their moment. They looked at who it was, to see Mòrag, looking unamused, and Brighid, holding a hand up to her face to hide her smile.

“You two are very lively, to put it lightly.” Mòrag claimed.

Omori stared at her, and with a blank face, spoke.

“What can I say? It’s my natural charm.” he responded, face blank but tone shit-eating.

“... If you insist,” Mòrag responded. “In any case, you two are to remain on light physical activity, but we can show you to your new quarters. Follow me,” she instructed, as Sunny and Omori scrambled to follow her.

“And here we are,” Mòrag bluntly announced as Sunny and Omori followed her to a closed door.

Sunny looked at the door. There wasn’t really anything that unique about it, but why wasn’t she opening the door? He looked to Mòrag, and she studied him, before nodding, and stepping back while inclining her head, clearly indicating they should open it themselves. 

Sunny shook his head; of course that’d make sense. With that in mind, he stepped aside Mòrag and Brighid, the latter who had been quiet up until this point. With that, he gently, almost hesitantly, put his hand on the handle, and opened the door.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he wasn’t as surprised as he thought he would’ve been. The room was clearly nice, with the marble walls and expensive looking carpet, but there wasn’t as much… lavish stuff as he was expecting.

There were two beds, and they had rather plain looking sheets, with simple wooden frames, and they were positioned next to a window that overlooked the Cloud Sea, but nothing in the room rang luxury like they were expecting.

Mòrag noticed Sunny’s lack of reaction, and went to elaborate on what he was noticing.

“This room, until recently, was being used as extra storage by myself and Brighid, given we reside in the room next door. We kept the kitchen features along with the bathroom instead of renovating that as well, but much of the furniture you see was put together rather quickly,” she admitted.

Sunny looked at her, and nodded, trying for a smile to show his gratitude. He wasn’t sure how successful he was, which is a shame, because he was really grateful that they were being given this. To be honest, it was almost a relief there wasn’t anything ridiculously expensive like he’d been expecting, because that would’ve made him feel very out of place.

At the same time, however, he was shocked they were given this much to begin with. They were, after all, technically in a military position, and from what he knew on Earth, even higher ranking officers didn’t get very much luxury, but here they were being given a workable kitchen, connected bathroom, and a small lounge area with a sofa. The room was overall small, but had a lot inside that wasn’t exactly essential.

“I’m glad that you’re satisfied. In truth, although I am of high enough social standing to be given a room of the same quality as that of His Majesty, luxury is not something that I enjoy lightly,” Mòrag commented. “My work involves leaving the Titan on a semi-frequent basis, and as such, I have grown used to living in quarters that aren’t what the nobility would be satisfied with.”

“Speaking of which,” she segued, “Brighid and I have declined any off-Titan responsibilities until further notice. We have taken on two new apprentices, after all.”

Omori seemed shocked by this, given how he turned from where he had started lazily reclining on the sofa. Sunny was almost impressed that he turned his head away from the sun, and he was almost reminded of how Mewo had lounged in the sun; knowing how hard it was to get Mewo’s attention, Omori must have felt strongly about this, as evidenced by what he next said.

“Can you two afford to do that?” he asked, face blank, not betraying how he must have felt to the outsiders present.

Brighid saw her opportunity, and explained instead of Mòrag.

“It’s true that we often have important duties to handle off the Titan, but the Senate was unsurprisingly supportive of Lady Mòrag taking a Deputy, given how hard they had been pushing for one in the past,” she frowned, before shaking her head and assuming a more neutral effect. “That isn’t here or now, however. What matters is that we will be here to train the two of you, and that training will start soon, so enjoy your free time while you have it,” she warned.

“Brighid is correct,” Mòrag interjected. “I would ask that you two do not leave the room for today unless you have dire need, as we have yet to build trust with you, to be frank. There is food present within the small kitchen, and our room, as mentioned, is directly next door if either of you need anything that you cannot handle yourself. For now, however, we will take our leave.”

Sunny nodded as she and Brighid stepped to the door, waving goodbye to them. Omori had gone back to lazing when his question had been answered, and Sunny nudged him with his foot. It was rude that he wasn’t saying goodbye to them given how kind they’d been to them both since they’d woken up.

Omori rolled his eyes, but held his hand up, prompting a slight smile from Mòrag, and causing Brighid to hold her hand up to her mouth, though her eyes showed her mirth. They stepped through the door, and quietly closed it, the pitter-patter of their shoes clacking off the hard floor as they walked to their room.

The room was suddenly very silent. There wasn’t much noise, and it was a bit disquieting compared to how hectic things had been. Sunny let out a shudder he hadn’t even known he was holding, and fell forward, steadied to his feet by a red hand that Omori had conjured.

The hand led him to the bed, and Sunny flopped face forward into the sheets. It was comfortable, and firm enough to provide support without being hard enough to cause discomfort. The pillow was incredibly soft from where he had laid onto it with his face.

“I expected you to have a breakdown, honestly,” Omori spoke.

Yeah, Sunny did too to be fair. Given how tired he was, and how he was still slightly sore from the fight days prior, he didn’t have it in him at the moment. He could tell Omori was prodding in the only way he really knew how, but he wasn’t really in the mood for it.

“Alright, I’ll leave you alone. But we are going to be talking about what’s going on after you have some time to decompress, got it?” he threatened lightly.

Sunny shakily threw a thumbs up towards him, before being reminded that Omori could hear his thoughts, which totally made sense and wasn’t weird at all– Nope, don’t think about that right now, Sunny, it won’t do you any good.

He focused on his breathing, and before long, he started lightly dozing, in an attempt to find reprieve until he next woke.

Sunny jolted awake, as if he was being stabbed to his very core. He rubbed his eyes, and blearily attempted to open them as he sat up from his bed.

That was weird, Omori wasn’t there. Did he go and get Brighid or Mòrag? Sunny hoped that was the case, because the only other alternative he could imagine was Omori getting himself into trouble. Well, the only way to find out where he had gone was to try and track him down.

Sunny dragged himself out of bed; funnily enough, he wasn’t sore at all. Maybe the technology they had here was capable of increasing recovery time? He turned himself to the window, and frowned at what he saw floating over the town.

It was awfully foggy, and it looked like it was night time now. Why hadn’t Omori woken him up? More pressingly, where was the fog coming from? There shouldn’t be anything causing that dense fog, so much so that he couldn’t even see clearly beyond the immediate vicinity.

Sunny shook it off; he was new here, and there was probably good cause this was happening. With that in mind, he trudged over to the door, and put his hand on the doorknob. He opened it, and–

Nothing. Empty black space for as far as he could see. Sunny trembled in fear, the only place he’d been to that’d looked like this was Blackspace, but that was only because he was trying to track down Omori and remember the truth, which he had done in the end.

Why was it here, then? Sunny turned around, maybe the door would go away and he was having some weird lucid dream, but nothing was left on the other side. The fog that had seemed to be outside crept up on him, and pooled at his feet.

“The situation you are in wasn’t my intention, and for that, I apologize.” a soft voice spoke.

An inky black figure, obscured by the fog, stared back at him, with a silhouette marked by hair that looked somewhat familiar, with how it flowed down to its owner’s chin.

Who was that? The Stranger? But he knew the truth now, why would he be here, unless he had more instructions, something he hadn’t known to do until now?

“I’m afraid that I cannot directly bring you home, though this situation might have its merits…” the voice quietly mused.

Looks like he wouldn’t be lucky enough to get led into anything concrete, why was he always so cryptic? None of this made any sense, and as Sunny frantically paced the seemingly infinite expanse to try and reach the figure, he saw the black void around him slowly lighten, and he raised his hands to block the bright light from his eyes.

“Walk the path you are on, Sunny, and hold tight to your beliefs. ” the voice quietly commanded, as the light that had grown to be unbearably bright somehow got even brighter, before suddenly dimming into the black once more.

Sunny came to with a gasp, shooting out of bed, and falling onto the floor. He scrambled to process what just happened, huffing for breath, when Omori tapped his shoulder.

“Normally I’d find this funny, but you look pretty shaken up,” he commented as Sunny started twitching on the ground.

Sunny wouldn’t even blame him for laughing at this point, he was a small and sad individual. What the hell had just happened? Why was he in that weird space, who was talking to him, what was the purpose of him being in this world in the first place?!

“Slow down, I can’t read your thoughts fast enough when you’re thinking this quickly. Take deep breaths, and then you can explain what just happened,” Omori instructed.

Sunny inhaled slowly, holding at the zenith of his intake, before measuredly letting go. He did this painstakingly, and in a few minutes, felt calm enough to start to explain.

He pulled himself to his hands and knees where he’d laid prostrate on the ground, and turned his eyes up, seeing Omori patiently staring at him from the bed. He lifted his hands, and hauled himself up onto the bed, sitting next to Omori, leaving what was probably half a foot between the two.

The inquisitive look in Omori’s eyes silently asked him if he was doing better, and Sunny inclined his head to indicate that was the case. How to best explain this, though…

Sunny came to his decision, and decided to start at the beginning, prompting Omori about a discussion that they really needed to have now that they were alone.

“Omori, we need to talk about everything that’s happened since our fight with each other.” Sunny quietly told Omori.

Omori slowly nodded, a pensive look on his face, as he brought to voice what they had both been dancing around ever since he woke Omori up from that crystal.

“You’re right, we’re in over our heads. We’ve got no clue what’s going on here, and now that we’re alone, we should take the time to try and figure it out.” he agreed.

Sunny was glad Omori was willing to discuss this with him, but Sunny likely didn’t have much to contribute if they were going chronologically. He’d woken up in that weird dreamspace with the beautiful scenery, saw the red haired lady and the boy wearing blue, and then came to on the bottom part of the Titan.

From there, it had only been a few hours until he woke up Omori. That did bring into question though, what was Omori doing between that period where he hadn’t woken up yet?

This question was one Omori was clearly ready for, given how he immediately launched into his explanation when Sunny finished.

“I don’t have any idea,” he frowned, impassive expression slightly fading. “I lost, that much is clear, and then faded away. I can’t remember anything between then and when I came back, but there’s something off about it.”

Sunny nodded, maybe this information would be useful to their greater situation. He tapped Omori, given it looked like he’d trailed off and was lost in thought.

“When I say I don’t remember anything,” he hesitantly said, “I mean that I don’t remember anything. It wasn’t like when you’re tired and everything blurs together, it was like I didn’t actually exist …” he finished.

Sunny’s heart dropped. That couldn’t have been good. He hadn’t wanted Omori to, what it sounds like happened, stop existing, he just wanted to find his way to the truth.

He was interrupted from his loathing by a red hand slapping over the top of his head, and he quizzically glanced at Omori, who was now smirking at him.

“Get over yourself, it wasn’t that big a deal,” he brushed off. Sunny would’ve liked to disagree, but was verbally bowled over by what Omori brought up next. 

“Besides that, I don’t have any other ideas as to what could’ve happened here. I’m a little surprised it hasn’t come up until now, but I don’t think the Mindscape exists anymore,” Omori theorized, pointing a finger at Sunny’s forehead.

Sunny gently pushed down Omori’s finger, while considering what that might’ve meant. If he didn’t think that Headspace and the other mental locations were around anymore, then what was up with that vision he’d just had? 

He asked these questions to Omori, who shrugged, before explaining something that Sunny really should’ve realized by now.

“I’m just about as clueless as you are here. I can’t personally go to any of the mental spaces, but given what you saw before you woke up in that desert, maybe it still exists,” Omori suggested.

Sunny thought that made sense, but despite that, he went to explain what he saw anyways. 

“A shadowy figure obscured by smoke, and a voice, you say?” Omori brought his hand up to his chin, and looked to the ceiling in thought, “That sounds a lot like that annoying Stranger that followed me around all the time,” he complained.

Sunny thought that Omori likely had a point. They were flying in unclear skies, he thought, as he stared at the city from above. There were a thousand questions that they had no answer for, and the appearance of The Stranger didn’t really make anything more clear.

“Well, I can say that the obscure instructions he gave are pretty on brand for him; at least, the one that looks like Basil. There were a couple of them, and if I’m being honest, I didn’t have any control over them whatsoever,” Omori bemoaned, like he was a child being told he couldn’t play with his toys anymore.

Sunny glared at him admonishingly for his reaction. These were unknowns, and they didn’t know anything about their goals other than how they’d pushed Omori to let Sunny remember the truth when he grew aware that Headspace wasn’t as friendly as it seemed. 

Privately, Sunny thought, attempting to not send the message to Omori, Omori needed to take this more seriously. It had always been something that lurked in the back of their minds, that Omori’s control over the mental scapes weren’t as airtight as he acted. 

Excepting the Strangers, there were several more entities that Omori couldn’t control, like the Daddy Longlegs. Omori couldn’t get into Headspace anymore, and the entities that he couldn’t control were now causing trouble, or at the very least, had indicated that they were more knowledgeable about how they got here than both Sunny and Omori were combined.

Not to mention, they were being so cryptic about what was going on. If they did know, they could at least give more guidance than what they’d received, but it seemed like that pattern of being unclear they’d had in Headspace was going to continue.

Sunny clenched his hands, staring ruefully at the flooring beneath his feet, while he saw Omori swinging his legs back and forth in his peripheral vision. He huffed out a sigh, and stood up from the bed. This worrying wouldn’t do any good, and they needed time to process what was going on; sleeping would be good for them.

With that in mind, he nodded to Omori, and moved to lay down on the bed next to the one that Omori had seemingly stolen from where Sunny had been using it. He reached to the small table in between the beds, and shut off the lantern on top of it, leaving the room to be illuminated by the moonlight.

Closing his eyes and rolling his face into the pillow, Sunny tried to keep a good attitude. Things didn’t make sense now, but surely tomorrow would be better, right?

A loud thud woke Sunny up from his sleep, followed by the voice of Mòrag instructing them to get up. Sunny groaned, and pushed his face back into his pillow. Maybe he’d been too hopeful, seeing as they were being woken up at the crack of dawn.

He heard Mòrag leave the room, leaving behind a message that they’d best get ready, or else they’d have to do more work. Sunny dragged himself out of bed, and got to getting dressed; it wouldn’t do to keep them waiting, after all.

Chapter Text

Sunny examined the clothing that was stored within the drawers next to his bed. Mòrag must have been very confident in their agreement, he decided, as he noticed an outfit remarkably similar to that of what the Special Inquisitor wore; maybe this was part of the whole Deputy thing?

There was no oversized hat, luckily, but the top appeared to be a jacket fit for function over extravagance, as it had none of the attachments that Mòrag’s bore, and was a plain black with red accents, bearing the mark of Mor Ardain’s titan in a stylized patch on its breast.

It was decidedly different to what Mòrag wore, and even lacked the pauldron she sported on her shoulder, although the cape/overcoat present was likely there to make up for the lack of style. Sunny was relieved to notice that the overcoat contained a hood and flowed down to his ankles, which likely was intended to help Omori’s function, given how they’d noticed his need for ambient shadow.

The bottoms were far more standard, and reminded him of cargo shorts, albeit longer and likely more durable. The boots were the only thing that he wasn’t too sure about. Metal was probably decent enough for what it needed to function for, but as he laced them on his feet, his posture felt far more rigid when he stood. He might be able to wear something else if he requested it, but more important was his next task, as the newly titled Deputy’s hands trembled in anticipation and fear as he trudged across the room.

Sunny focused his vision, and stared down at what was surely to be his most difficult challenge yet. He steeled himself, and prepared for what needed to be done. He locked his arm, and leaning forwards just slightly, extended his hand outward, reaching for his goal. Forcing his shaking arm to stop, he extended his index finger to point outwards, and lightly tapped Omori from where he was sleeping on the bed.

Nothing happened. It seemed like he’d have to do a bit more to succeed here. Sunny dropped his pretense of being nice; Mòrag had called for them and had threatened more work if they didn’t get ready fast enough. Sunny had accordingly got out of bed and started readying himself for whatever she had planned, but Omori was still dead to the world in his slumber.

Mind made up, Sunny reached his hand, and firmly grasped the shoulder of Omori, shaking with a moderate amount of force. Still, nothing happened. He aggressively started shaking Omori, and just as he was about to give up and go on his own, Omori snapped awake.

Well, it’d be better to say that Omori’s shadow snapped awake, as the shadow Sunny had cast dragged him down to the ground, where he scrambled to escape its grip. He glared balefully up at Omori, who’d decided to leisurely stretch as he rose from bed.

Omori’s response to Sunny’s ire was to stare blankly, and shrug, as though it was entirely Sunny’s fault for waking him up. Sunny finally broke the hold Omori had on the shadows, and rose to his feet, grabbing Omori’s arm and dragging him to the door. Omori didn’t need to get ready the same way he had, after all, and he’d slept in too long to grab something to eat from the kitchen.

Sunny let go of Omori as they reached the door, and he placed his hand on the knob, shoving it open. He wasn’t too surprised to see Brighid standing there, hand raised to knock. They’d taken an awful long time, after all.

Sunny immediately went to incriminate Omori; he could get away with it if he threw him under the metaphorical bus, so he gestured to his whole body, then stepped aside, pointing to Omori, whose hair was stuck in weird positions, and who was actively yawning while staring at Brighid.

Brighid raised an eyebrow, and then nodded to herself, before turning around, and leisurely walking down the hallway, signaling that they should follow her. Sunny scrambled to do so, tugging on the sleeve of Omori’s shirt, who rolled his eyes before begrudgingly following.

They walked down the same hallway they had yesterday, before coming to a stop at the door to the infirmary. Sunny quizzically glanced toward Brighid, silently asking why they were back here, prompting her to respond.

“Lady Mòrag requested that the doctor see you before moving onto the physical aspects of our training. Ether healing is very efficient, as I’m sure you can tell by your bodies hurting far less than they had when you woke yesterday, but she thought it best that a professional checks.” Brighid explained, while opening the door to the infirmary.

That made sense, actually. She also had a point about not feeling sore, too. It was actually kinda shocking, but Sunny guessed that was how that sort of ether healing worked, even though he was new around here. The delayed effects of the pain remaining despite his physical injuries being healed was an interesting bit. This sort of technology, or is it magic? Eh, that’s not important right now, this is something that people would start fights over on Earth, so it was definitely worth learning more about– What the hell is that?

Before Sunny and Omori stood a furry creature that stood on two stubby legs, with a large egg shaped body, reaching up to about Sunny’s midsection. There was a tuft of hair on its head, and complementing the tiny legs, two stubby arms, but it was holding some paper with limbs; no, they looked like wings, that looked to be tensile, given how it was foregoing its arms in use of them.

All this alone wouldn’t have been too big a deal, considering how Sunny had seen strange creatures ever since arriving here. This one didn’t seem to have a counterpart the way a lot of them seemed to have on Earth, but there was one caveat to this whole situation: it was speaking.

The creature bumped into brighid, and in a show of apology, stuttered out words in broken but understandable language while waving its limbs around frantically, and dashed off.

“That nopon has been around here quite often as of late. I wonder if the doctor has hired him as an assistant?” Brighid mused, before noticing how lifeless Sunny was, and how Omori had followed suit.

“Is everything alright? It looks as if you two have seen a ghost.”

Sunny snapped out of his shock, and lightly elbowed Omori so that he could convey just how confused and bewildered they were.

Omori, broken out of his light daze, opened his mouth, and tried to form a response, but considering how stuttered phrases trailed broken from his lips, it seemed like he was also having trouble understanding what that was. He eventually settled on something that if he was properly thinking, would feel embarrassed about.

“Furry thing. What was- how was it- it was speaking?” Omori questioned, mimicking Sunny in his recent displays of hysteria, albeit more muted from Omori.

Brighid seemed confused, but after processing the words ‘furry thing’, she stared at the two in intense disbelief, as if they were breaking yet another law of this strange reality.

“You mean to tell me neither of you have met a nopon before?” she interrogated, confusion reverberating throughout her tone.

Sunny blankly shook his head; if a nopon was whatever that creature was, he’d never seen one despite his week or so around here. They spent a good chunk of time keeping their heads to the ground, and hadn’t ventured out of the seedier districts of Alba Cavanich, so maybe that was why?

Brighid took one long glance at them, and then muttered something under her breath.

“That’s something we can investigate later. For now, Lady Mòrag wants to see you two for training, so a brief summary will do. That was a nopon, a race of sentient mammals that have a shrewd business sense, yet eccentric personalities,” she explained, before ushering them inside.

The medical exam seemed to pass far more quickly after that event. Sunny felt he was so out of it the doctor could’ve stabbed him and he wouldn’t have noticed he was bleeding out.

Brighid quickly ushered them out of the door after that, eager to get to the training field, and to Sunny’s hesitant eagerness, they were there soon.

The complex they were using to train looked much like the rest of the city; composed of stone and concrete built to last the dusty weather; speaking of which, the weather remained dusty and arid like Sunny and Omori had experienced before.

That aside, it looked as though there was a field of packed dirt located in the center of the area, and upon further inspection, Mòrag was standing in its center, facing opposite. Sunny unsurely looked back to Brighid, questioning if they were to go speak to her, at which she nodded.

Sunny stepped off of the concrete and onto the dirt, slowly pacing towards Mòrag, Omori lazily padding next to him, much like a cat. Considering the glare Omori gave him, he was projecting his thoughts a bit much; a shame, because Sunny had been getting better at that recently. 

Omori came to a sudden stop, and then shoved Sunny to the ground, following by ducking himself. Sunny was confused, but then saw Mòrag’s blade extend overhead. Looks like training was starting now; Sunny, emboldened by strength similar to his stint across the rooftops, rolled to his feet, and reached out his hand to Omori, who had funnily enough already had it extended. 

Looking across the barren field, Mòrag stood, hands on her swords, clearly waiting for them to make a move before she responded in turn. Sunny gathered himself, and briefly assessed his surroundings. 

The weird blue thread connecting him to Omori was present; maybe this was the form that the bond between Driver and Blade took? Sunny shook his head, and surveyed the field. No cover, and the sun directly overhead would limit Omori’s mobility. Despite this, the world around him felt… sharper? 

He got a chance to put his newfound perception in action when he noticed Mòrag swing her sword out of the corner of his eye, as small orbs of fire blasted from the arc she trailed in the air. 

Sunny slid to his left, and watched/felt/sensed Omori do the same, merging into his shadow. In an instant of understanding, Omori communicated that Sunny needed to advance and close the distance gap; that he’d cover them as best as possible, and Sunny heard.

Sunny darted forward, adjusting his body low to the ground as he sprinted, in a position he was sure wasn’t ideal whatsoever; at the very least, he was making a good effort, right?

He got the sense that Omori was amused, as he witnessed the shadows shake in a form akin to silent laughter as they batted away the projectiles Mòrag flung their way. 

Jumping off the ground to dodge a wall of fire, Sunny noticed she fought almost as if she were dancing; every movement elegant and refined, each with a purpose. He cleared the remaining distance, but soon realized he didn’t have a plan beyond that.

Sunny wasn’t familiar with combat in a more intimate way like Omori was, and he’d done his best to help him out, but truthfully, the bulk of the frontline damage was caused by Omori. There wasn’t any way for him to match him in the chaos of the melee; Omori was experienced and had done this for years, he needed to be the one taking the lead.

Omori seemed to recognize this, as he enlarged Sunny’s shadow, sharpening its edges as he burst out, knife held softly but firmly within his hands, taking a stab at Mòrag. Mòrag, unfazed by their approach, sidestepped Omori’s attempt at subduing her and extended her sword out as a whip.

Omori clearly thought she was attempting to stab him, and he latched onto Sunny’s shadow, pulling it in front of him like a shield, yet Mòrag remained stoic. Sunny’s eyes widened as he recognized her true goal, but he couldn’t warn Omori fast enough before Mòrag’s sword tangled between his legs, and he fell to the ground wrapped, unable to move against her tight grasp, lest he cut himself on the barbs.

Omori took a glance at Sunny, and deemed that he wouldn’t be worth helping out in this situation, trying to take advantage of the concentration she must have required to hold Sunny down.

Unfortunately, Brighid finally decided to make herself known, and with a flash of heat and a slight movement of the wrist, Omori fell to the ground as well.

The bindings slackened themselves, and Sunny pulled himself up to a sitting position, met with the visage of Mòrag and Brighid, who both seemed… not disappointed, but perhaps confused?

“I had noticed that you two were fighting separately before during our little escapade, however I wrote it off as the panic of the moment clouding your judgment.” Mòrag commented.

Sunny glanced at Omori. It was clear that the way Drivers and Blades fought was very symbiotic. Having experienced the bond with Omori, it felt both very personal and invigorating, but Mòrag and Brighid seemed to move as though they were one entity. 

Sunny had experienced a partial version of that with Omori, and even felt as if they came close when they were running through the alleyways, but the casual way that Mòrag and Brighid fought so effortlessly was astounding.

Omori, hearing Sunny’s thoughts, decided to convey them to their two teachers.

“Neither of us are familiar with fighting with each other, and I wasn’t even awakened as you all put it until a few days ago.” Omori explained.

Mòrag and Brighid looked at each other; there was clearly something they were missing.

“Your teamwork and cooperation could be improved, but that’s to be expected given your Blade’s recent awakening. Stranger, however,” Brighid frowned, “Sunny, you are not sharing Omori’s blade weapon.”

Was that a bad thing? Sunny wasn’t sure, but he hoped they weren’t breaking a cardinal rule of this Driver and Blade system. He reported to Omori, who spoke in his monotone voice while talking to their mentors.

“ This one is worried that he’s broken some rule about how the system between us works. From my point of view, I’d be willing to bet that we aren’t redefining your reality like we had before, but this certainly isn’t natural, right?”

Mòrag shook her head lightly, and adjusted her cap as she looked up at the sky to gauge the relative time, before looking back at Omori and Sunny.

“You would be correct with your assumption; and do not worry, Sunny, although it is unorthodox, there is not anything inherently wrong with using your Blade’s weapon. Although, this is a good opportunity for Brighid to teach you the basics of your roles within combat.” she finished, before looking expectantly at Brighid, who stepped forward a pace.

“As you have likely noticed, Lady Mòrag and I fight as partners, but she primarily wields my dual swords. As a Blade, we provide energy in the form of an ether link to empower our Drivers; the use of the Blade weapon by the Driver has been the standard for hundreds of years now, and was recorded by the Emperor Hugo as having been pioneered during the Aegis War.” she explained, while glancing at them, pausing for a moment to consider their potential confusion.

Sunny shook his head; this was making sense so far, and it explained how he and Omori should handle their fighting style from now on, but… it didn’t really sit right with Sunny.

Omori was the one with the fighting experience here, and if Sunny was honest, he wasn’t as interested in fighting up close and personal while Omori provided support. Sunny knew that he wasn’t exactly the strongest; being a shut-in for years would tend to do that, but even then, he wasn’t sure he had the disposition to so brazenly fight at the front.

Mòrag noticed Sunny drift off into space, and with a soft utterance of her voice, he snapped out of his stupor, to see her looking at him with understanding in her eyes.

“You don’t wish to fight at the front, is what I am gathering, correct?”

Sunny nodded.

“Normally I would advise you to overcome this hurdle, as there is much value in fighting using your Blade’s weapon; it allows your Blade to freely manipulate their ether, while opening your attention to fight more fiercely.”

Sunny sensed there was a ‘but’ coming, the way began her sentence.

“However,” she trailed off, “It seems that neither of you two are insistent on learning this; I sense that Omori would be irate at the concept, and you do not wish to take that position, Sunny.”

Mòrag once more looked at the sky, before nodding her head to herself, having come to a decision.

“As such, if you intend to keep fighting the way you currently do, it would be beneficial for you to learn how to assist from a backline position; furthermore, there are ways of imbuing weapons with ether energy utilizing mined deposits of ether crystals. This would provide you some freedom of ether manipulation using the weapon, albeit not as much as a Blade weapon allows for.”

Sunny nodded eagerly; this seemed like a good idea to him. There was the question of what weapon he would learn to use, which a quizzical look, him turning his head, towards Mòrag seemed to convey well enough.

“I don’t suppose you have any weapons that you are partial to or have experience with? I’d be surprised if that pipe you used was your true preference,” she finished dryly, clearly remembering Sunny’s stint with a rusty metal pipe he’d just grabbed off the ground.

Sunny winced, brought back to that feeling of desperation he had felt in that moment. He wasn’t sure if he or Omori were going to make it out of that situation, and he’d fought like a rabid animal around the end.

That didn’t answer the question, though. Sunny had no experience with actual weaponry, as a result of his only fighting experience prior to their arrival in Alrest being a brief fight with Omori, where he used a violin of all things; suffice to say, it wouldn’t be very practical for him to–

“He doesn’t have any experience with traditional weapons, unless you count a violin. Of course, that wouldn’t be too surprising.” Omori interjected, clearly fed up of being, what he considered, was ignored, even though it’d only been around a minute since he last spoke.

“We do not.” Mòrag bluntly replied, though she had a glint in her eyes, prompting Brighid to place her hand on her shoulder, lest she grow too lost in her thoughts. “Although, perhaps it would be unorthodox, but it could potentially work.”

Sunny wasn’t entirely sure it was the best idea, but if she thought it was possible, then maybe it was worth considering? He nodded his assent.

“Excellent. It will be a few days before the palace smith has a working prototype, but with creativity and practice on your end, this could be a harsh surprise to those unfamiliar with such a strange weapon.” Mòrag suggested, finality of the discussion clear in her tone.

Brighid stepped forwards, and began to lay out the plan they would be following. Sunny and Omori individually would train with Brighid and Mòrag respectively. They emphasized how Sunny would have been in Omori’s place, but given their experiments of the vanguard and rearguard variety, Sunny would learn how to support Omori as he fought, and Omori would learn to better fight at the front. After those dedicated sessions, they’d convene and learn to fight together.

Omori questioned if Sunny was going to undergo physical conditioning with an evil glint in his eyes, only to deflate when they responded negatively. Sunny didn’t get it either, but they insisted that the training they provided would be suitable enough given the combat boost that Sunny received from an active ether link.

The more Sunny learned about how powerful ether links were, the more shocked he became. It was already strange enough that he could bolster his abilities through no action of his own, but to hear that he could almost entirely subvert the actions of physical training was mind boggling.

Stranger still was how easily Mòrag and Brighid acquiesced to his strange and impractical request. It would’ve been all too easy for them to urge him to conform to the standardized way of fighting, but he was very satisfied that it had worked out.

Omori had been very quiet alongside their departure from the training field, and Sunny was a tad concerned, but judging by the way that Omori had tripped him and pulled the old ‘poke their shoulder and then act like you didn’t’ trick whenever he thought about it, maybe he just needed some time to think about whatever was on his mind.

Sunny was more intrigued by how Mòrag and Brighid were pulled off to the side by an Ardainian soldier. Sunny did his best to listen in, but only caught a few choice words.

“Dark figure- rooftops- Argentum intelligence,” the soldier reported, prompting a response from Mòrag, who looked to Brighid, before seemingly dismissing the soldier, who saluted and then returned to his patrol, but not without a strange glance at Sunny.

Sunny noticed then that Brighid had been staring at him– seems like she’d caught him trying to eavesdrop, hopefully she wouldn’t be too upset.

Omori, unwilling to acknowledge Sunny’s general difficulties in, well, living, took one look at Sunny wringing his hands, shaking his head, and manically whispering to himself, loudly and suggestively commented, “Boy, that seemed like it was important. I hope that it isn’t anything that we weren’t supposed to hear!”

Mòrag let out an aggrieved sigh, before trudging to where the two stood, Brighid and the dust at the tails of her coat, before coming to a stop a few steps away from Sunny and his Blade, and pulling down the front of her cap.

“While I would have preferred you didn’t shout, there was no information that was being shared that you weren’t privy to hear; as you are going to be appointed the Deputy of the Special Inquisitor, the information classified for normal members of the military do not apply to you,” she explained. “That being said, there are notices that you are not yet ready for, due to your lack of experience.”

“Brighid, if you would explain?”

“Of course, Lady Mòrag. The soldier who spoke to us a brief moment prior informed us of a dark figure seen roaming the rooftops at night in Alba Cavanich. The Argentum Guild intelligence branch was requesting permission to conduct an investigation, which we have not yet decided upon.” she frowned, eyes closed as always.

Sunny’s eyes widened, as he glanced at Omori. Were they talking about the two of them? All things considered, it did fit pretty well, but upon further examination, it likely wasn’t he and Omori; they had been off the streets for a couple days now. Furthermore, Sunny had no clue what the Argentum Guild was, and unless they made a really big mistake and forgot about it, the only group looking for them would have been Mor Ardainian officials.

His confusion must have shown, given that Mòrag shook her head, and started to explain.

“The Argentum Guild is a trade guild that operates to employ salvagers and distribute and market goods and commodities. They’re the largest guild within Alrest, and have more political influence than some Titans, due to the crucial role they play within the distribution of trade across the countries of the Cloud Sea.” Mòrag finished, pulling her gloves further down her hands.

Sunny tilted his head, and then nodded. They really needed to get more information about the basics of the way things worked around here; they couldn’t keep stepping on toes while ignoring basic facts of life. Even within Mòrag’s statement, Sunny hadn’t yet heard what a salvager was, but he figured he’d leave that for now until it was more convenient.

Mòrag looked pleased at Sunny’s understanding, and nodded towards Brighid, while she gave a brief dismissal to Sunny and Omori, before walking in the shade of Hardhaigh Palace, not without a reminder that should they need assistance, they’d be within the barracks. 

Sunny belatedly realized that he didn’t know where the barracks were, but they were out of his sight by then. He slowly turned to Omori, who did the same as he did, and they met in a battle of wills.

Second after second, agonizing pain began to flow through Sunny’s eyes– wait, it was only one eye now, but he didn’t give in. Omori, blank faced, held a challenge within his gaze, inviting Sunny to surrender first.

It was only when Omori, after multiple minutes of this impromptu staring contest, shifted his eyes, and horror slowly filled his face.

Sunny jumped, looking behind him, but not before blinking, at which point, Omori switched his countenance back to his blank face, and in a monotone voice, stated,

“Made you look.”

Frustration and amusement warred, before being won by the amusement. He was annoyed the last time this happened, but he’d just engaged in a staring contest with Omori out of the blue, and it almost reminded him of something Kel would have done, cheating to win a silly competition.

He grew sober at the thought of Kel, smile slowly slipping off his face. He felt a light breeze ruffle his hair, as he looked up towards the slowly setting sun, which had started casting a long shadow where the zenith of the palace crested over the harsh metal foundation, Titan ships taking their leave from the port .

He briefly glanced at the ground, and, deeming it sufficient, flopped downwards on his back with his arms held out to his sides.

He regretted his decision when he hit the ground; it turns out that it wasn’t as comfortable as it seemed, and he’d probably be regretting his decision later, if his aching back was any indication.

He closed his eyes, feeling the slowly cooling air, as he heard Omori tentatively lower himself to the ground; but he didn’t seem to have much to say, opposite of usual; Sunny then felt a wispy tendril tap his shoulder, but Omori didn’t seem truly that upset with him.

He squinted his eyes open, and looked to his side; Omori had latched his arms around his knees, and curled them up to his chest, watching forward. Sunny sighed, and averted his gaze to the endless sky above, lifting his hands upwards, and then letting them fall back to his sides.

The clouds were wispy and stretched thin here; they didn’t hold much moisture, and were a far cry from the ones he saw back home. He didn’t know how else to describe it, but everything here was the same, but somehow infinitely different, even the clouds.

Thinking of home, his mind drifted towards what he’d left behind. He’d been trying to force himself to ignore it, truthfully, but he probably shouldn’t have been doing that. He spent enough time running from one truth; it wouldn’t do to start ignoring another: he wasn’t back home.

He wasn’t back home, and he hadn’t been there for more than a week now. He hadn’t told his friends the truth about what happened with Mari, and he didn’t even know how Basil had ended up after what occurred that night.

Maybe Basil had also ended up in some other world, he thought, lightly laughing at the mental image of Basil, eyes wide, taking in all the foreign sights around him. He really hoped he wasn’t somewhere else, actually. He hoped that he was fine from the scuffle they’d gotten in, and that Sunny was the only one seriously injured.

He let his hand drift from his waist up to his eyepatch; he hadn’t acknowledged that either, but it was a permanent mark on him, this one physical. Sunny couldn’t see as well now, he’d noticed, and he’d need to work around that later.

He shook his head free of thoughts of that line of thinking, and went back to pondering what had happened after he fought Basil. Did they even know that he was gone? What would they have done if they’d noticed him mysteriously missing from his hospital bed?

At least he wasn’t alone. Even if things had been rocky for a while there, he’d much rather be doing this with Omori than without him.

“Omori?”

No reply. Somehow, though, Sunny knew deep in his bones that Omori was listening the same way that he used to listen to Mari playing the piano: closer than you would imagine possible.

“Thank you. For being here.”

“... Don’t mention it.”

Was this them having a moment? It was better than Omori trying to kill him again. He’d go so far as to say they were friends, if Omori wouldn’t get upset with him for it.

“Don’t push your luck, you’re still in striking distance,” Omori lazily berated.

Sunny giggled as Omori threatened him once more; Partners, then. That was how Mòrag and Brighid talked about the bond between Driver and Blade, right? Sunny still didn’t get exactly how it was supposed to work, and he had his doubts they could ever be as close as the two of their mentors were, but sitting here with Omori in the quiet of the evening was certainly better than what they were up to a few weeks ago.

That being said, or, well, thought, it was still easily hotter than anything he was used to in this dry climate, and it was probably time that they both retired for the evening. They were still tired from their recent recovery, and Mòrag and Brighid were probably going to continue pushing them to grow, so they’d need their strength.

Although, he thought, as he shared a matching look with Omori as he pushed himself to his feet, they had essentially free reign of the palace, so long as they didn’t push their luck too much. This was the perfect opportunity to gather more information.

He knew just the place to start, too. Surely a palace of this size would have a library. Mind set, Sunny watched Omori lift himself to his feet using his shadow, and nodded at him, before turning towards the palace, intent on his short-term mission.

Meanwhile, somewhere else…

Uraya was truly beautiful, in an almost ethereal way, Pyra observed. Last time she was here, she hadn’t had the opportunity to soak in the sights, for rather obvious reasons…Not that it mattered right now, she thought. The saffronia trees held an orange and red glow to them, as the filtered light from the surface fluttered through the sunlights on the back of the Urayan Titan.

She hadn’t realized that a swamp could be this enchanting, but the petals that fell from the aforementioned saffronia trees, along with the calming sound of running water, and the off-colored grass that was almost blue swayed in the gentle wind; that was right, wind ! The cavern of Uraya’s back was so large that it had its own weather.

Her musings were cut off by a rambunctious laugh from the front of the group that she’d fallen behind in her thoughts. She slightly quirked her lips upwards, as she saw Rex hunch over in laughter, while Vandham chuckled heartily at the antics that the nopon and his blade were acting out, while Nia facepalmed into Dromarch’s fur, the tiger stoic for his Lady as always.

She was lucky to have met them, she thought. Vandham was extremely knowledgeable, and him being around had been good for Rex. Their quest to Elysium had gotten more complicated when Ophion had knocked them into the Urayan Titan’s maw, and they were fortunate to have met a man as moral as Vandham was, especially considering his willingness to accompany them to Fonsa Myma.

The capital couldn’t have been far off, as the peaks of the stone buildings that were planted from the floor of the Titan to its top slowly approached over the horizon as the days went by.

Even though she was glad to be close to finding more assistance on their way to Elysium, with the contact Vandham had, she was still apprehensive about those that had been trailing them.

Torna was expected, and the conflict they had with Akhos was certainly difficult, with the ether manipulation abilities his Blade had showcased, but the man that called himself Zeke and his Blade were another story.

She doubted they had any malicious intent, but they were another unknown, and deserved to be treated seriously, even if the turtle they brought around with them was rather adorable.

Thinking of unknowns brought to mind that boy she’d seen in the dream of Elysium. She sincerely had no clue where he’d come from, or any idea who he was, and the only other person that could answer it had no clue either, although she’d said such more harshly.

Pyra forlornly looked towards her feet, feeling small as she considered how much trouble she might have been dragging the rest of them into. Rex was one story, she thought, as she thumbed where her core crystal had been split to sustain his life, but the rest didn’t need to be here for this.

If they knew what they were in for with signing on to this quest with her. She highly doubted they’d have agreed if they knew how difficult it was going to be beforehand, but there was something touching about their commitment despite the roadblocks they’d encountered.

So long as they didn’t encounter anything more serious than the lower ranked members of Torna (and what a name that was, what was Jin thinking; moreso, what was he doing), she had slight confidence that this would be over soon enough, and she’d finally get an opportunity to rest.

…She did still feel slightly bad for Rex going all the way with her, though. He really deserved better than what she was offering him in the way of a Blade and Driver partnership.

That didn’t matter right now though, as the trek to the capital continued.

Chapter Text

While the possibility of the library being a little big wasn’t something that Sunny would have been shocked about given that it was a palace, after all, he wasn’t quite expecting it to be as large as it was; that being, probably just as big or even larger than Faraway Plaza back home. 

He was honestly lucky enough that they’d stumbled upon it since the palace was so big. That wasn’t even including how long he’d bumbled around aimlessly without direction until Omori grew fed up and decided to flag the librarian.

The librarian seemed like an old yet kind man, and he’d mentioned not many people came around here as of late; Sunny thought he heard him mumbling about preparations for a war with Uraya, and even though he didn’t know the name, the idea of a war thoroughly frightened him, and for the first time, he wondered if he’d made the right choice in agreeing to Mòrag’s offer so rapidly.

Regardless, he and Omori came to the conclusion that this was a discussion best left for when they were alone; they needed information. The old man had looked confused when Sunny asked for brief explanations of the general history of Alrest and Mor Ardain, like it was a question he didn’t get that often.

Even more confusing was that he was only able to provide two books that he claimed would be useful for Sunny’s purposes: The Alrestogony , and The Annals of Addam . 

When Sunny looked quizzically at the lack of more titles, he sheepishly replied that unless he had a member of the upper echelon of the council, the history of Mor Ardain was often restricted, due to them containing military knowledge that is supposedly still commonly used.

He went on to clarify that the two books he showed Sunny were a brief timeline detailing Alrest and its history, and a description of the great hero Addam, the Driver of the Aegis during the Aegis War, claiming that it was crucial knowledge for one trying to learn more about Alrest and its history and culture.

Sunny quietly nodded his thanks, and then followed Omori, who’d been looking for a secluded corner that they could read in. Once he found a small table and chair, he sat down and opened The Alrestogony .

The librarian was right in that the book was a brief timeline; specific events of interest were labeled and it contained information about the founding of specific countries of interest.

It was at that moment that Sunny realized the language he was reading wasn’t English; in fact, when he looked closer, the glyphs weren’t matching anything he knew at all, yet it made sense inside of his head as though it were English. Hadn’t he established that he couldn’t read the script around here, though? What had changed? He pushed down the panic at this and kept going; in an echo of what Omori said the day he was awakened, it wouldn’t do to lose himself here after all.

The book briefly described a creation myth of Alrest, how a god known as The Architect had once lived with humanity atop the World Tree, in a paradise known as Elysium. It mentioned that they were apparently thrown out for a great transgression, but no information was provided to explain why.

Sunny knew that he was supposed to be learning more recent information, but this was truly fascinating. He knew that there were more recent notes that might have been more useful, but he’d never have imagined that something like this would have been the responsibility for the world.

He reminded himself that it was likely not entirely true, as he grew more and more excited, but then he noticed a brief mention that although the story may not be entirely accurate, it is widely agreed upon that The Architect does exist. Sunny took a brief moment to compose himself; he was kicking his legs in excitement, and Omori was getting a little annoyed if his eye-rolling was any indication.

Elysium was less agreed upon, given some scholars seemed to believe that it was used as a metaphor by the early humans for the period before the creation of Alrest, but a vocal minority group insisted that it was true, for one reason.

The Titans that sustained and assisted humanity on the Cloud Sea were created by the Architect. Proponents of the theory that Elysium was real and not metaphorical insisted that the Titans wouldn’t have been brought to life if there was already existing land on the Cloud Sea.

Despite the disagreement on the status of Elysium, further evidence for The Architect being real was the existence of the Aegis. The creation myth, unfortunately, ended with those footnotes, leaving him deeply disappointed. He’d been getting really excited.

Of course, he quickly recognized that the other title he was given, The Annals Of Addam , explained something called the Aegis War; surely they were connected, right?

Sunny opened the book after insisting Omori learned more about the timeline of Alrest, and was promptly disappointed. It wasn’t anywhere near as detailed as he was hoping, and a lot of information looked to be redacted.

Why was that? This book clearly seemed rather popular here in Alrest. The footnote in the table of contents specified that it was because the author was a close friend of Addam, and wanted to keep his private life undescribed, but then why bother writing those parts anyway if he wouldn’t have been comfortable sharing them?

The redacted bits kept popping up as Sunny skimmed the book, until he reached a specific section that contained less redactions. The section on the Aegis War seemed decently comprehensive, and his befouled mood grew at the sight of it.

The Aegis War began circa 3564, roughly 500 years prior to modern day, and involved a powerful blade described as the Aegis, one that was powerful enough to sink a continent. The described events included an introduction into the character of one Addam Origo, a man dubbed pure of heart enough to awaken a Blade known as the Aegis sent by The Architect, to fend off another Blade referred to as the Aegis.

Wait, hold on. There were two Aegises? That seemed pretty important, why wasn’t that more acknowledged–

Oh. It looked like the Aegis that was involved in helping Addam save the world from a dark god eventually ended up destroying the home Titan that Addam came from, titled Torna.

So the Aegis ended up being evil? Why was this war so undocumented, the only knowledge he could glean was that a large superpower called Torna and Mor Ardain were allied in helping the Indoline Praetorium fight off the dark god, which also sank another continent, and apparently the Praetorium still included the Aegis in their religious scriptures of the Architect.

Something about this felt off to Sunny. Why would the Aegis turn around and destroy its Driver’s continent after working so hard to save it? Furthermore, how was the Aegis still around? He’d heard fearful whispers of it returning during his brief stint on the streets, and seeing this, he understood why.

Of course, this isn't even addressing that he’d probably actually seen the Aegis, after all. He wasn’t sure what that hill he’d woken up on was, but that core seemed to match pretty well, knowing the Aegis was a person and not an object like he’d initially thought.

Aside from that, it was a little strange that nobody seemed to have general knowledge of this. 500 years in the grand scope of history really wasn’t that much; why weren’t there more people who talked about Torna, if they were as important as this book made them out to be. Even Mor Ardain was mentioned, but there weren’t any specifics about what drove them to join this war effort, nor what the ‘dark god’ they fought was or where it came from.

That was also ignoring the veritable mess that the book made of describing the process of the war. He knew there were redactions, but even in a section where it was mostly intact, very little actually created a specific timeline of events that gave a clear depiction of the war.

This whole war seemed like it should have been a big deal; maybe it was and he just hadn’t encountered anything to reinforce its importance. This was proof to the people of Alrest that their god existed, and evidence to those that believed they were abandoned that maybe he wasn’t as cruel as to let them die on their own down here.

Sunny jumped when Omori placed the book on top of his head. He questioned Omori with a look, upon which Omori averted his gaze to the window, for what reason he couldn’t tell– it was dark outside.

Had he really been sitting here that long? Judging by the moon’s position, it wasn’t exactly early in the night either. How had the librarian not come by at this point.

“He did. You were too busy roped in that book to notice, but he mentioned that you could hold onto them for a couple days, so long as you brought them back when you were finished. I think he may have recognized your outfit as one close to the Special Inquisitor,” Omori pondered, hand on his chin, stroking an invisible beard.

Sunny didn’t like the idea of getting special treatment, but he was having a lot of fun learning about the history of this world he’d ended up in. He wasn’t going to complain about having more time to decipher the mysteries that popped up within his reading.

Omori shook his head.

“What?”

“It’s nothing. I just forgot how much of a nerd you were; the last time I really thought about you in a non-judgmental way was, well…” Omori trailed off, clearly embarrassed.

To be fair, Sunny hadn’t thought of Omori in a good way before recently either. That was water under the bridge though, he decided, as he kicked out the legs of his chair, sending him careening towards the floor as the legs fell out from under him, only saved by Omori’s quick reflexes with his shadow.

Sunny inclined his head with gratitude, and stood up, urging Omori to follow him back to their room, assuming they could find it.

As they walked, though, a creeping feeling consumed Sunny’s thoughts; if the last major scale war resulted in two whole continents being destroyed, and there was another that he’d heard about from the librarian’s muttering.

It wasn’t worth worrying about right now; they’d cross that bridge when they got to it.

… Omori was doing that weird smile thing again, wasn’t he. Sunny wasn’t going to react this time.

“I heard that.”

Oops.

Sunny reflected on how he had immediately collapsed into bed the night before after training as he walked through the halls of the palace, his footsteps echoing far louder than Omori’s.

Well, he immediately collapsed after eating and taking a bath; the food here was surprisingly similar to the stuff they had at home, even if he wasn’t the best at cooking, and it turns out the geothermal action they’d made by industrializing their Titan had done wonders for the hot springs around here.

“ That's surreal to think about in hindsight. Living in a palace, and using a hot spring of all things was definitely not on my bingo board.”   Sunny thought to himself, staring at the complex architecture, feet slowing to a halt. 

Then again… ending up on a walking Titan in the middle of an ocean made of clouds where a giant tree loomed over everyone, and apparently the god of this world actually existed and nobody thought that important, and he’d sent down a servant, but that servant had caused a war and another war may be on it’s way, oh no what had he done–

Sunny fell to the ground, tripped by Omori’s foot. He laid flat on his stomach, staring up with teary eyes at Omori, arms plopped to his front.

Omori saw Sunny about to cry, and Sunny was sure he felt a little bad. Of course, he wasn’t feeling bad enough to help him up, and Sunny watched his impassively shaded face, one eye glowing from the shadow and hair billowing in the wind(they were inside, what ) turn around, and keep walking.

Sunny clutched at the ground, and lifted himself up to his knees,  bewildered at how Omori managed to do any of what he just did. He then stood up, and decided it was probably a thing that he could just do now that he’s got these Blade powers.

“What are you talking about?” came Omori’s stonewalled reply.

Alright, if that’s how he wanted to play this one. He’d keep his secrets for now, but he’d bet that once someone else saw him doing that, he couldn’t keep hiding it.

“Seriously, we haven’t even been outside yet today, and you’re already suffering signs of heat stroke. You might want to consider seeking professional help,” Omori suggested, with a tone that implied he knew exactly what he was doing.

Whatever, it wasn’t like it was important anyways. Sunny did find himself wishing he had a watch of some sort, though. It’d be helpful to know if they were at risk of being late, and they did have clocks around.

He probably should’ve asked what time they wanted them to be ready, and also asked for a way to keep track of that time.

The technology here was so similar in some ways, yet so different in others. It was almost like he’d stepped into a fantasy book, except if that book had taken place in the 1900s and magic was real.

It didn’t matter right now, he decided, as he hurried his pace to match Omori’s.

The heat at the field was the same as yesterday, albeit cooler since it was relatively early in the morning. Sunny took a moment to properly assess his surroundings since it looked like they were early; Brighid and Mòrag weren’t there yet.

There really wasn’t much present there besides the wide empty field, honestly. There was a track surrounding the field, but besides that, it looked like most of the facilities were made for foot soldiers like the shooting range he could see attached to the palace.

He didn’t really have much interest in checking out the shooting range. He hadn’t considered the idea of using a gun before, mostly because back on Earth it hadn’t really come up, because when would it have? 

Even keeping that in mind, who in their right mind wouldn’t wanna be able to use some of the strange abilities that they had in Alrest? He didn’t understand what ether was too well, but it let Omori make shadows corporeal out of nothing, and it may let him do something similar, although on a smaller scale.

“I am glad to see that you two are taking initiative in being on time,” a voice commended, with praise slightly present in its tone.

Sunny turned his head to face Mòrag, who indicated something to Brighid, before beckoning to Omori. Looks like this was the individual focus they’d said he and Omori would go through.

Brighid looked towards him, and nodded, before heading opposite of the direction Mòrag led Omori to.

He walked with her until they reached the edge of the field, and she instructed him to sit down.

“The smith was unable to create your violin, but we do have a piece of ether crystal present for you to learn how to harness it properly,” she began, before pulling out a small chunk of a green crystal.

Sunny studied it, but didn’t come up with any unique traits. It looked shinier and had a bit of a glow to it, but he also hadn’t seen many crystals back home, so he couldn’t say if that was normal or not.

Judging from past experience this last while, though, it probably wasn’t normal at all for him, but extremely regular around these parts.

She held it out to him, clearly expecting him to take it. Sunny shook off his thoughts, and gingerly touched the crystal in her hand.

Instantly, he felt a difference. He brought it further into his hands, and Brighid acquiesced, turning the crystal over to Sunny.

It was a little hard to describe. All of a sudden, he somehow understood the wind around him; how it moved, what it was going to do next, and how the crystal in his hands affected it.

The world almost felt a little sharper, as it felt when he was linked with Omori, only this time, there wasn’t a connection, and it was noticeably a little bit weaker.

It was actually a little surprising to Sunny, as he slowly turned it around in his hands, that so much energy was contained within something so small; moreso, the fact he could harness that energy was also surprising; he wasn’t yet sure of how people in this world interacted with ether, but it didn’t seem like he’d be able to if he wasn’t native here.

Sunny was brought out of his thoughts by Brighid’s shadow moving over him. He stared up at her, and judging from the smile she hid behind her hands, his reaction was about what you’d expect out of a child, starry-eyed and innocent. 

Her expression became more sedate, as she stepped back, before entering what he guessed was her lecturing mode.

“As you can tell, this ether crystal contains an amount of ether within it. Would I be correct to assume that I will need to give you a run down of the basics and specifics, if your lack of knowledge on other subjects translates to this?”

Sunny blushed, before sheepishly nodding, hoping he wasn’t creating much trouble for her.

“Very well. It is difficult to describe precisely what ether is, but a simple way to describe it is the building blocks of our reality; what we see, and what we are, is composed entirely of ether.”

That made enough sense, but what did she mean by ‘what we are’? Sunny remembered that everything was composed of atoms back on Earth, including people. Was ether the equivalent here?

“Judging from your expression, you understand the general meaning of what I explained, but perhaps more concrete examples would help,” Brighid posited, moving her hand to her chin while she thought of how best to explain.

“Let’s see… for starters, that crystal you placed in your lap is of the wind element. We assign specific elements to unique forms of ether, and each form governs the control of that aspect of reality.”

That made a bit more sense. What he held in his hand felt uniquely attuned towards the wind, and if it was that element, it’d certainly explain why that specific part of reality felt more… well, more .

“Now that you understand the general concept of the element of wind,” the fiery haired woman continued, “There are other elements. The categories that exist are fire, water, earth, electricity, wind, ice, dark, and light. These elements respond uniquely to their namesake and govern how those bodies function the same way the crystal in your hand reacts.”

Did that mean the crystal itself was the way that ether ‘governed the bodies’ like she said? It felt a little weird to think that the crystal had that much control over what he saw around him.

“Judging from the skeptical view you hold of what is in your hands, I assume you have a question about the power of what you have. The crystals themselves hold no innate ability, but their composition uniquely reacts to function as a conduit for the elemental ether in the atmosphere that best matches their structure. I do not understand the specifics of what structures result in certain elements, though I am sure you can research such things in your own time.”

Sunny was definitely doing that later, this sounded really interesting. He heard Brighid laugh, and immediately realized that he was moving his legs back and forth rapidly like he had the night before. He really should get a hold on that.

Brighid sobered before resuming her lecture. “As the crystal functions as a conduit, objects with innate ether harnessing abilities are able to be utilized as such, and are often used as power sources in ether cylinders to generate electricity. However, for our purposes, it will function similarly to a one way ether link.”

He was right about the link thing? It was nice to know he was getting some of the hang of how things worked in Alrest. Still, he was quickly noticing a problem with the way that he was communicating; namely, that he really kinda sorta… wasn’t.

With Omori around, it wasn’t as big a deal. He still wasn’t entirely sure about not having his thoughts to himself anymore, but Omori wasn’t prying too much, and for that he was thankful. The point, however, was that Omori could only function as his mouthpiece if they were in the same location. Although… This did pose an interesting experiment.

“Omori?” Sunny thought.

He looked to where Omori was standing, knife out and ready, and saw Omori glance in his direction, before holding his hand up.

“I don’t actually need anything. I just wanted to test if this telepathy has a distance limit. If it does, we haven’t found it yet.” he sent back to him, unaware of Brighid watching him closely.

He briefly witnessed Omori throwing his thumb up before turning back to whatever scuffle he was about to start, but was interrupted by Brighid waving her hand in front of his face. As he stared at her, and was about to apologize for losing focus, she drew her hand to her chin and gazed at him analytically.

“Your telepathy has no defined range yet, from what I can tell? Your face grows rather lost when you converse with your Blade.” she mentioned, while moving her hands to her sides.

Sunny hesitantly nodded, before deciding that he needed to pantomime better if he couldn’t talk. He tapped his head, and then brought his hands close together while nodding, before expanding them further, still nodding. When his arms were fully extended, he shrugged his shoulders to indicate that they had no clue if it was still usable at very far ranges.

“We should focus on methods of communication for you in the near future. Perhaps a writing utensil while we search for a more permanent method? I have heard the salvagers have a system of speaking with their hands…” Brighid trailed off.

Sunny looked up in alarm. He couldn’t write, so that definitely wasn’t an option. But how was he supposed to explain that without sounding any crazier than he already did? It was pretty clear that he and Omori were, to put it bluntly, freaks of nature around here. 

Almost everything they’d done had been some form of revolutionary, and they hadn’t even begun to uncover the reasoning for why any of it was as unique as it was. They were out of their depth, and Sunny would do well to remember that.

“Come now. Stand.” Brighid instructed, while holding her hand out to her side, as if in anticipation to grasp something.

Moments later, a glowing blue handle manifested in her grip, with a unique hand guard, and a blade that looked rather unique, with a spiral design going down its sides. Sunny immediately recognized it as the weapon that Brighid and Mòrag had fought he and Omori with, albeit without the blue flames running down its side, and coiled up instead of loose.

Sunny noticed it was missing its partner, but a cursory glance at Omori revealed that he was currently being knocked into the dirt with the other sword. Sunny would have felt bad, but Omori did laugh at him earlier, so he wasn’t too sorry.

…Until a red hand slapped the back of his head and immediately vanished. Then he was a little sorry. Only a little bit, though.

This did bring up how their telepathy was still not fully understood by Sunny. He wasn’t projecting any thoughts, he felt, but maybe he had to consciously guard them? If that was the case, he’d need to practice that, but furthermore, he needed to sit down with Omori and figure out how deep this thought-sharing thing went. Neither of them knew the full capability, and it’d be useful to have some measure for how far they could push it.

That was something for later, though, Sunny reflected, as he stood up from his position below Brighid, and reached his hand out for the sword that she offered.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it didn’t really have any reaction to him. Sunny’s puzzlement must have shown on his face, because Brighid followed up with an explanation.

“I cannot channel the ether to allow the sword to resonate with you, as we are not Driver and Blade like I am with Lady Mòrag. I can, however, do this,” she stated, as the tight coil around the sword fell into separated segments.

Sunny moved his hand around, and saw the segments follow with a bit of a trail, like how a whip would. It was interesting, to be sure, but he didn’t get why she was handing it to him in the first place. He wasn’t going to be fighting like Omori was, so wasn’t this a bit redundant?

He looked at Brighid and shrugged, while trying to convey his question in his eyes.

“It is true that you won’t be using a traditional weapon, but your requested instrument will have a similar functionality to the way the whipswords function.”

She took back her sword from Sunny’s limp grasp, and re-coiled it, before using it to draw a crude picture of a violin. The instrument itself looked normal, but the bow of the violin was a bit different.

If Sunny had to describe it, he’d say that it looked a bit more technological, with spines attached to the string indicating its sharpness. Besides that, Brighid then illustrated a separate bow, with the string hanging loose.

The pieces came together in Sunny’s head as understanding dawned. The bow was going to work similarly to the whipswords, with it having a sharp edge, but a detachable component to allow for a more whip-oriented functionality.

He looked up to where Brighid was yet again holding out the sword, and reached for it, nodding with resolution; he understood, now.

“Good. Now, take the sword, and hold it out in front of you. You have no experience with weaponry, and while not exact, we’ve modeled your violin to have the same principles.” Brighid claimed, moving behind Sunny, while grasping his wrist, and guiding it forward.

“Pay attention to the stiffness of your wrist; it must be firm, but still loose.”

Sunny mentally focused in; it was going to take a while, but she had a point; he needed to learn this, and now was better than ever.

The sun traveled onwards as the arid atmosphere beat down on the field, and Sunny gradually started to make progress. It was still the first time he’d ever done this, so he had no clue what he was doing even afterwards, but he started to understand how the sword moved from whip to sword and vice versa.

Like with most things he’d encountered here, ether had a large part to do with it. When ether was actively being channeled through the weapon, the weapon would change its form depending on how much influence the ether had; a small amount would cause it to lose a bit of its straight form, while a large amount would completely deform the blade into a whip.

Brighid had explained that the key to using it was understanding when to channel ether for a specific purpose; she’d mentioned something about having purpose, but Sunny understood that he wouldn’t really get what that meant until he got to try it himself, and unfortunately, he couldn’t channel ether through her weapon. Something about how only the Driver could do so, and only in an active ether link.

He’d just trudged over to where Omori stood, dirt and dust in his hair, only to see that Omori looked much the same. Actually, he might’ve looked a bit worse. Seems like Mòrag put him through the wringer. It was probably because she wasn’t taking him lightly this time.

Well, she probably also wasn’t exactly fighting with lethal intent, but there was a pretty big difference between underestimating your opponent and understanding that when pushed into bad situations, anyone becomes dangerous. Sunny recognized that the only reason he ended up winning Omori was because he underestimated Sunny’s chances of winning, and that ended up being the reason that he finally succumbed.

Sunny looked at Omori as they began to trudge back to their room, unsurprised to see him glaring in his direction. He wasn’t exactly phased by this anymore, Omori wasn’t threatening in any serious manner to him. It still didn’t help his body from feeling sore whenever he tripped him, but compared to being chased after by a knife, that was a small price to pay.

If it helped Omori let loose his bloodlust, all the better. He wanted to avoid another situation like when he woke up in a dank alleyway and saw blood covering Omori’s hands and clothing. 

Just as they were about to enter the palace, however, Sunny heard someone clear their throat. He glanced up, and noticed Mòrag adjusting her cap, before folding her hands behind her back.

“After you two clean up, Brighid and I would like to meet you in your quarters for dinner. We trust that you two are amenable?” she stated, before inclining her head in their direction.

Sunny did his best to blandly smile(grimace) and nod in response, while internally screaming. He wouldn’t have minded them asking if they were eating somewhere else, but he had no idea how to make a proper meal, he’d been relying on microwave dinners for the last 4 years of his life! Oh no, why did he say yes, this was going to be a disaster…

Omori then loudly spoke, “Well, we better hurry back and get started on dinner, sure wouldn’t want to disappoint you two!” he proceeded to nudge Sunny in the opposite direction.

Once they got a few feet away, Omori whispered in Sunny’s ear, “Act natural, and we’ll skip town. They’ll never catch up to us if we’re quick about it.”

Yes, of course, Omori was right. The only option they had left was to leave; if Sunny cooked, there was a legitimate chance he’d accidentally poison the Special Inquisitor of the country, and then they’d have to leave anyway. Oh well, that’s life for you: you think you’ve got something good happening, and then all of a sudden it all falls down around you.

“Do not worry about preparing food; Brighid and I will bring something along.”

Nevermind skipping town then.

He turned back and gave a curt nod, before continuing with Omori on their way. They’d need to clean up beforehand. Hopefully Mòrag and Brighid had left some casualwear inside of their room? Only one way to find out, he guessed, as he pulled Omori along. For some reason, he’d squinted at him right before he nodded; he wondered why, did he do something weird?

Omori rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about it.”

It turned out that they did leave casualwear inside of their room. It was similar enough to what he’d seen back home, but it seemed like the brown and grays would continue, same as the outfits he’d seen just about everyone around here.

There was probably some economic advantage to it, maybe it was cheaper than dyed fabrics? The long sleeves were probably for a practical purpose, the sand got really annoying, and Sunny considered asking for a pair of goggles to help with the dust in his eyes.

Of course, that’d probably give more ammo for Omori to make fun of him with, and even he had to admit he may look a little goofy.

“You’re right, I would make fun of you for that.” Omori commented, while giving Sunny an approving nod on his choice.

Well, now he wanted to even despite Omori’s view on it; surely Mòrag would be able to recommend some way to get the sun and dust out of his eyes? He had no clue how the people here handled it.

It seemed like the small living space on the titan drove people to the city first and foremost. From what he’d seen, they were on the shoulders, and the titan was bipedal, so there wasn’t much space. He wasn’t even sure where the land on the lower level came from, come to think of it; maybe it was man-made? If that was the case, how many titans had this sort of anatomy? Most of what he’d seen in the port had looked like fish, and the few ones that were on land still looked like they were quadrupeds.

He heard a rap at the door, and shuffled over to the entryway while taking one last cursory glance at the set table; he didn’t know where Omori found the table and chairs, and didn’t care to find out.

He inhaled deeply, and placed his hand on the knob, closing his eyes to calm his nerves. After a moment, he opened the door and saw Mòrag standing, Brighid by her side. She was dressed the same as usual, bar her hat, meaning he could see the bun that she had her hair tied up in.

Sunny nodded at them as a greeting, and then stepped aside for them to walk through the doorway. He closed the door behind him, and then turned to the table, seeing Brighid and Mòrag approach the kitchen.

“The room is sparse, as expected, but I am pleased you acquired a proper table and seating for it,” Brighid praised, a note of pride in her voice.

Mòrag adjusted the cufflinks on her coat, and nodded towards Brighid, while placing a small pan that was covered in what looked to be aluminum foil on the table.

“We did not have the time to procure what would be expected at an imperial gala, but we asked the local butcher, Bassani, for an order of my personal favorite of Mor Ardainian cuisine, the quoteletta.” Mòrag spoke to Omori, who’d taken to standing at the sink, filling glasses with water, halfheartedly attempting to appear interested, but it was apparent to all in the room that so long as Omori was going to be fed, he didn’t care what she brought.

Sunny’s curiosity, on the other hand, was piqued by the promise of something new. They’d been here approaching a month now, but hadn’t got the chance to eat anything besides the raw ingredients left in their room when they got here. 

It wasn’t entirely his fault that he didn’t know anything about cooking, Hero had taken care of most of it when he was with his friends, and afterwards, he mostly ate whatever his mom had put outside his room.  At least he wasn’t staring at the food in a trance like Omori was. Sunny was pretty sure the only experience he had with cooking was whatever was going on with the baking… game show? inside of Sweetheart’s Castle.

Upon closer inspection, however, the food looked like the sandwiches that Omori had stolen their first night in Alba Cavanich. His realization must have shown, because he managed to draw Mòrag’s attention. 

“I see you’re already familiar? As I mentioned, this is a quoteletta. It is considered a staple of Mor Ardainian cuisine, and reflects its people quite well.” Mòrag spoke, as she held up a sandwich for Sunny to inspect.

Did it? Sunny looked over the sandwich closely, but he didn’t see anything besides the bread and the meat, which looked similar to beef from back on Earth. There wasn’t really anything he saw that indicated any special properties.

Mòrag watched him closely, and let a small knowing smile grow across her face.

“I see that you’re trying to find something out of the ordinary,” she spoke, lowering the quoteletta onto a plate that Omori had laid out in front of all the chairs. “Truthfully, you’d be right: there isn’t anything special about it. The meat is sourced from armu beef grown outside of the capital, and the dough for the bread was created using mookah flour, which grows near the few trees present on the Titan.”

Sunny sensed an incoming change in mood, as Mòrag’s quiet satisfaction faded away, and fell into something more pensive. He didn’t want to interrupt her, so he made himself busy by quietly filling the glasses with water alongside Omori, who’d also slowed; it was clear they were listening more than making any meaningful progress.

“I’m sure you two have seen, as well as I have,” Mòrag pointed at the window, highlighting the rather barren landscape outside of the capital, “that our Titan is not very hospitable. The land and soil is poor, partially due to the nature of it, and the rest due to the intense industrialization that past generations performed on it.”

Sunny had noticed that the Titan wasn’t exactly the nicest place he’d seen. He wasn’t blind, and it was blatantly clear that the desert landscape must have been partially altered, considering the polluted pipes and abandoned district he’d been through on his climb up to the shoulder.

“The Titans were supposedly sent by the Architect to provide humanity a chance to survive in the empty Cloud Sea once thrown out from their home in Elysium,” Mòrag recited, in much the same tone a child would a nursery rhyme.

“Whether or not this is true, the birth of the Titans alleviated the need for a place for humanity to survive, but with it brought other concerns.”

Sunny wasn’t entirely sure where she was going with this, but he had an inkling that it wasn’t going to be good. Brighid had fallen into what he could assume was a nervous habit, wringing her hands, and Mòrag had sat down at a chair, grasping at her coat.

“The Titans are living beings, the same as you and I, and much like us, their lifespans are not infinite. They are longer lived than humanity and their blades, but even still they are susceptible to dying, the same as we.” Mòrag quietly spoke, meeting Sunny in the eye.

“Mor Ardain’s lifecycle is almost finished. Time is running out, and day by day, the heat near the geothermal vents on the Titan grows, and we are forced to retreat into cooler spaces.” 

Sunny quietly clinked a glass, no longer pretending he was still working to fill them, and tilted his head at Mòrag when she looked towards him, a silent inquiry of what could be done.

“Nothing is possible, unfortunately,” Mòrag let out in a humorless breath. “Our Titan is closer than others, but isn’t the only one. The Empire annexed Gormott in recent decades in an attempt to solve our immediate food shortages, but harvests, while still bountiful for now, are decreasing.”

Sunny’s stomach dropped, and he understood the gravity of what she was saying. Nothing within their reach would fix the problem. He silently turned his head back to fiddling with the glass, and snuck a glance at Omori while turning. Omori was normally a pretty inexpressive person, but he was surprised to see him even more blank faced than usual, eyebrows drawn together and mouth drawn into a thin line.

“The preparations for a potential war with Uraya won’t solve anything. Centuries ago, such as in the Aegis War, people could fight over the land and resources on the Titan without harm; they weren’t considering what those would do in the future when the land they destroyed was needed.”

Multiple Titans sunk beneath the bed of the Cloud Sea, Sunny recalled, during the Aegis War. If what Mòrag was saying was true, they would likely be reaching the ends of their lifespans today, but at least they’d still be around for the time being; anything was better than nothing when the alternative meant drowning in a sea of empty clouds.

“I have reported a facsimile of the truth to the Senate when it comes to the altercation Brighid and I had with the Aegis on Gormott.” Sunny could tell the subject was being shifted, and he was fine to let it go by without any protest. “We witnessed the Aegis and her new Driver fight in an attempt to save a member of a terrorist group, Torna. However, they did not show any directly malicious intent.”

Mòrag stood from her chair, and quietly marched towards the window, before stopping, and pointing at the Cloud Sea; more specifically, the World Tree, illuminated by the glow of the fading daylight.

“The boy, Rex, seemed intent on reaching Elysium. Whether or not Elysium is real, and if they are doing this with intent to harm the peoples of Alrest, we saw fit to allow them to travel, while keeping a light monitoring presence on them.”

Sunny’s eyes wandered past the back of her head to the top of the tree that she was pointing at. The Architect had thrown humanity out of their paradise, where none had to worry about survival, for reasons that were disputed at best. It may have just been a myth, formed by those who were amongst the first in Alrest, attempting to make sense of the strange circumstances they found themselves in. But if it were true…

Mòrag, who had turned from the window, nodded, satisfied with what she saw on Sunny’s face.

“The Titans, even the younger ones, are not going to last for much longer than our generation and perhaps the next before we are lost to the depth of the Cloud Sea. If Elysium is real, and the paradise spoken about within the scriptures of the Indoline, it may prove to be the salvation that humanity needs to continue living in this world.”

Even if he didn’t have a way back, Sunny was relieved to know that Earth was still there .

Mòrag, on the other hand, didn’t have that luxury. If the Aegis and her Driver made it to Elysium and it was the paradise written in the stories, it might be their only chance to continue living in this world; and whether they liked it or not, Omori and Sunny were now part of it as well.

On their own, they’d absolutely be completely lost, but being here with Mòrag gave them a unique opportunity to change the situation; Sunny couldn’t be certain, but the emerald glow he’d seen back in that dreamscape was too unique for it not to be related to the Aegis.

Mòrag had turned to them, waiting for some form of response. Sunny mentally instructed Omori to show some empathy, but it turned out that he was a few steps ahead of him.

“He– no, we , understand what it’s like to lose your home,” Omori started in a stilted voice, almost as if he were surprised he felt this intensely, “And it isn’t pleasant, to say the least. If we can help you with this… situation,” he trailed off, leaving an open offer in his words.

Mòrag was visibly surprised by the open nature Omori was taking with this conversation, and Sunny was sure his own bewilderment was mirrored on his face. He noted that Omori had taken a step back, and was looking off to the side, as if he was embarrassed in saying what he had.

Sunny agreed with what he said though, and nodded resolutely at Mòrag. He still wasn’t sure they could do much, but it’d be worth a shot if anything came up.

Brighid, who had seen fit to remain quiet through the recent conversations, piped up, “Thank you, for offering to assist Lady Mòrag. She is not often vulnerable with the reality she faces without any opportunity to control it.”

Mòrag’s face grew slightly red, and she leveled an unimpressed glare at Brighid, as she slid across the floor, feet barely leaving the wooden panels. 

She stopped before Sunny, and hesitantly reached her hand outwards.

“I understand that your cooperation with us is not entirely of your own choice, but we appreciate it nonetheless. I hope that in the future, you might one day share with us your own worries.”

Sunny looked down at her hand, and tentatively accepted it within his own, and shook it.

He didn’t feel prepared to share the truth of why he and Omori were here; looking in her eyes as he nodded felt too committal. Instead, he bobbed his head up and down, swallowing, as he stared at Omori’s piercing gaze, hoping for some reassurance as he let go of Mòrag’s gloved hand..

Omori had regained his normal composure, and responded with a lackadaisical shrug, showing Sunny he didn’t have any strong feelings towards either choice.

Well, he didn’t have to make a decision now. He affirmed to himself that he’d try, but that was something to be considered later. He was hungry, and the moment had passed, Mòrag and Brighid both seated and reaching for the quotelettas they had brought. He’d think more about it later.

Chapter Text

They were definitely in over their heads.

Of course, he was aware that Sunny already knew this. Sunny had lamented more than a few times about their situation, but he wasn’t truly facing the very real possibility that he might never get to go back home.

Make no mistake, Sunny was absolutely trying to come to terms with the situation, but he knew better than anyone the lengths people are willing to go to at their breaking point. For now, it was all fine, but Sunny hadn’t been faced with any concrete evidence that he’d never see his friends again. If that happened, would he lose his recently found confidence, or would he surprise him yet again and force his way forward?

Omori had seen firsthand the strength of that drive, and was still a little stung about how easily Sunny had beaten him. Don’t get him wrong, he knew that he pushed Sunny to his absolute limits… but at the same time, Sunny had done the same to him.

He probably wouldn’t ever tell him, but Omori was impressed with how well Sunny stood his ground in Omori’s turf.

Headspace was always his . From the moment that he woke up in the mindscape, he knew that he could mold and shape it towards whatever he wanted it to be. Except for the obvious Blackspace, he had near total control over all of Headspace. The construct of Sunny’s friends weren’t entirely under his control, as evidenced by the last few days before Sunny moved, but they were only imprints of what his friends used to be like; easy to manipulate, and if he really had to, he could exert his influence just a bit harder to control them.

Omori was frustrated with himself for not holding them on a tighter leash when things started going south. He still had no clue what or who that Stranger was, and those smaller things added up to skew the situation in Sunny’s favor, however slight it was.

He restlessly rose out of bed, giving up on sleep for now. He gingerly placed his feet on the flooring, taking a cursory glance at Sunny; when he saw shifting, Omori pulled the shadows around his feet. That was a neat little trick he’d discovered; shadows don’t have any mass, and as such, don’t make noise on their own as long as he’s being careful.

Satisfied that he hadn’t woken Sunny up, Omori trudged over to the window, and stared out at the World Tree, watching the slight glow of the glyphs covering its height, and the small shifting of the land he stood on; a reminder that no matter how similar it looked on the small scale, it would never be a stand in for Earth.

He hadn’t ever been to Earth, but he couldn’t deny that the connection he held through Sunny made the planet important to him. He held each and every one of Sunny’s memories, for the sole purpose of protecting him from discovering the truth.

For the longest time, drifting in the hazy malleable space of the Mindscape, Omori had one purpose above all else: Guard the truth. He had fun sometimes in the little adventures he had in Headscape, but nothing else mattered in comparison to fulfilling that purpose. 

The mere idea of him failing to stop Sunny from remembering the truth was inconceivable at the time. Even when Sunny stared him down in the empty white of Whitespace, where he came to be, he felt no fear;nothing other than cold apathy and hate towards the person in front of him.

Omori adjusted his body, and leaned forward on the windowsill. Why did he hate Sunny? If asked now, he obviously wouldn’t answer in a serious manner, but it’d be clear that he didn’t. That wasn’t always the case though…

He wasn’t sure why he felt the way he did back then. Omori knew that his purpose was to protect Sunny from discovering the truth. But more logically, wouldn’t that apply to protecting Sunny in general?

Why was it that the hiding of the truth was so paramount to him? Why did he hate Sunny for, admittedly, no justifiable reason besides annoyance and to prevent him from remembering what really happened with Mari?

Brows furrowed, Omori’s unwavering gaze fixated on the slowly rolling clouds, he grew slightly frustrated that he couldn’t answer either of the questions. He was prepared to kill Sunny in Whitespace.

He knew that if he had gained the upper hand in their power struggle, the only way to make sure Sunny never learned the truth would be stopping him from ever being around to do so.

A minute tremor in his hands, Omori steeled himself; he needed to think rationally, here. Sunny learning the truth had clearly been a good thing. He probably wasn’t ever going to move on from the incident, but acknowledging it and accepting that it happened had a tangible impact on him. He seemed less burdened, and the heavy blanket of exhaustion that he carried had mostly dissipated.

Why did Omori consider it so threatening? It felt a bit antithetical for him to obscure the reality of what happened with Mari when he was meant to help protect Sunny.

Perhaps more troubling was how all his previous anger at Sunny had disappeared when he awakened from that crystal that was now in his chest.

He looked down from the window, and examined the– his core crystal. Its glow was soft, and omnipresent. It pulsated, almost like a heartbeat, and was warm to the touch. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, honestly.

He had no idea how he ended up in the thing, or how his memories translated when by all means they weren’t meant to do that. The one thing he was sure of is that something fundamentally shifted inside his being when he was awakened.

It was impossible for him to be entirely sure, but he suspected his sudden change of heart regarding Sunny was caused entirely by that event. 

Theoretically, it was possible that he’d simply turned a new leaf and moved on from it after he… rejoined…? With Sunny. That didn’t seem too likely to Omori, however for one key reason: Sunny hadn’t done that.

Sunny was definitely willing to put their differences aside, but that was just a facet of his personality. Sunny was still concerned about Omori’s intentions when he was first awakened, but Omori felt decidedly neutral when he first locked eyes with him in the wasteland.

What changed? Were the feelings he was feeling right now even his? Maybe something got messed up when he ended up in that crystal. Stopping existing for a brief moment likely had pretty unpredictable consequences, so maybe it was a facet of that?

Even more perplexing was how he still did the same stuff he used to. He took pleasure in messing with Sunny, and it was always fun to cause some controlled mayhem. Although he could say with certainty that he felt less angry, how much of him had really been changed? Was it worth looking into?

Omori shrugged and averted his eyes to where Sunny was quietly sleeping; figuring it out wasn’t on the top of his to-do list at the moment. He needed to keep focused, because Sunny would absolutely be dead if it weren’t for Omori.

Besides that, he was disquieted by the information Mòrag and Brighid had shared last night. Their entire world, on its last legs, with no reasonable hope out of their situation; or at least he assumed so, considering someone as sensible as Mòrag was willing to allow a teenager to chase a fairy tale.

Though, to be fair, she had confirmed herself that said teenager was wandering around with a living fairy tale, so she may have had good reason.

It was precisely because of these reasons that Omori had to focus on keeping himself and Sunny out of anything too dangerous until they found a way back (unlikely) or found a solution to the problem of Alrest dying (also unlikely).

Omori sighed and stretched his arms above his head. He really had his work cut out for him, even if he was impressed with how far Sunny had come in both survival instinct and his fighting skills, even if the latter was being supplemented by their ether bond.

It was definitely a mark of how unbothered he felt by Sunny that he was okay with that level of connection, because it was definitely leagues ahead of where they were before.

He set back to admire the view of the World Tree hovering over the horizon of the Titan one last time before returning to, hopefully, finally sleep after his restless night. Watching the stacks of smoke rise from the building, he nodded, satisfied, and covered his feet with shadow, turning to head back to bed–

Was that a person in a maid costume on the roof of the barracks?

Shortly after locking eye contact with the maid, the figure threw their body to the side, and darted across the rooftops, hopping down to the streets below.

Well, looks like he wouldn’t be headed back to sleep tonight; seems like a hero’s work was never truly done.

He slid over to the window, lifting the latch, before considering: should he wake Sunny, or better yet, Mòrag and Brighid? It might cause some trouble if he got into a scuffle…

…Nah, he’d win. 

Slowly stepping out of the window, he started his chase.

Fighting was easy.

Chapter Text

Sunny softly woke in the morning, as the sunlight streamed through his window, bathing the room with a soft glow. He groaned in discomfort, and turned the other way; judging from the sun’s position, it was still early, and their mentors had told them to rest today, as they were still recovering; Sunny felt fine, but Mòrag and Brighid had mentioned something about ether deficiency if they pushed too hard, and he wasn’t going to come out and say that it probably wasn’t a problem, because that revealed a bit more than he was willing to speak about regarding their past at the moment. 

Regardless of their reasoning, he wasn’t going to complain about it. Sunny snuggled back up against his soft pillow and pulled his blanket up to his chin, and shut his eyes, intent on getting back to his sleep for a few more hours.

Of course, that all changed when he heard the door loudly knock, forcing his eyes wide open, as he panickedly scrambled out of bed. He considered that may not have been his brightest moment as he stubbed his toe against the bed frame. He let out a breathless grunt, taking a moment to stew in the sharp ache of his blunder.

He limped forward, walking on the heels of his feet. Sunny would’ve liked to get dressed more, but the t-shirt and cargo shorts he slept in would do for now.

He bumbled through undoing the latch and the deadbolt, slamming the door open, to be met with the visage of a Brighid that was likely just about as harried as he was.

She eyed up and down his body, clearly noticing his state of dishevelment, but thankfully deigned not to comment on it. Sunny could’ve done without the head shake, though.

“Judging by your… preparedness,” maybe Sunny spoke too soon. “I take it you haven’t noticed someone missing from his bed?”

Sunny’s head swished to the side, searching to deny Brighid’s claims; surely she wasn’t seeing things right, Omori wouldn’t just ditch him like this– and he was gone.

Rage boiled in Sunny’s chest, his breathing increasing in volume, as he grew ragged with frustration. No no, it was too early to be getting upset, for all he knew Omori might’ve gotten into some genuine trouble, or he was just on a walk.

Once more, he inhaled, unclenched his subconsciously tightened grip on his t-shirt, and turned around, tilting his head.

“I’d assumed you’d also be unimpressed. My lady had decided to allow you two a day to rest; imagine our surprise when we found a certain someone convulsing next to a dumpster.” Brighid dryly made clear, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Alright, it was probably on Sunny for having expectations for Omori, considering his track record. But– really? Could he not go one week without terrorizing both the people of the city and Sunny’s poor heart? Omori knew better than anyone that Sunny was unstable already!

Sunny huffed a long-despairing sigh, and glanced back at the sympathetic woman, trudging over to the foot of his bed where he’d hung his cloak. He halfheartedly shrugged it on, and threw on the boots that were sitting next to the door, glaring at Brighid to say anything about his choice of clothing.

“Given the circumstances, I don’t blame you.” was her lack of a strong response, beckoning him out the door. 

They’d only stepped down the hall a few feet before she stuttered to a stop, and slowly revolved around. What was it now?

“One moment,” Brighid’s usual measured voice met his unspoken query. “We’d meant to surprise you, but truthfully, neither of us trust either of you not to get in trouble considering your recent track records.”

Sunny wordlessly opened his mouth, but… yeah, that was pretty fair actually. He waved his hand forward, stepping back in line with her quiet footsteps.

It turned pretty clear they were heading to her and Mòrag’s personal quarters, but he wasn’t going to say anything; they already had to deal with Omori this week, and it had just started.

It didn’t help the confusion, but once they’d made it to the doorframe, she silently held her hand up, and he patiently waited like the good child he was. A moment later, she walked out with a wooden box held between her hands.

Sunny blankly stared at the wall; an aggressive clearing of the throat brought back his attention, and Brighid pushed the box into his hands, unimpressed.

There wasn’t too much special about it, it really was just a wooden box. What was inside, however…

Well, he didn’t know yet, he hadn’t opened it. He had a back track record with boxes, recently, but Sunny knew his luck would turn up.

He placed it on the ground, and knelt down, slowly and carefully lifting the lid. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting, but a violin was pretty low on that list.

Then again, he’d asked for it, he probably should have been more ready for this. He deftly lifted it up, adjusting the strap attached to its body, and almost reverently, he touched his fingers to the reflective surface, body falling into long-forgotten memories.

He hadn’t held one in person since, well…

The body was metal, clearly indicative that this wasn’t just a violin, but even then it looked so similar to what he’d once torn open with wide eyes that Christmas morning. Things were pretty different back then.

Emotions welling in his chest, Sunny rubbed away the tears that threatened to drop from his eye. He’d taken it all for granted back then.

This time, he’d make sure to do it right.

Curiously, and with a smidge of confusion, Brighid watched Sunny quietly hold the instrument in his hands, as if it were made of glass.

“I… trust that you’re satisfied?”

Sunny couldn’t shake his head up and down fast enough, even growing slightly concerned that he’d hurt himself. 

“Good. Although, if you struggle to use it for any reason related to its quality, inform one of us,” Brighid lectured. “Besides that, take another look inside of the box; you seem to have missed something.”

He did? Sunny squinted down at the velvet padding inside, noticing something else inside the case. He lifted it:a book, thin in width, but larger than he’d expected. The title read The Blizzard Choir. He thumbed through it, fingers holding still in surprise when he recognized it as sheet music.

“I take it you aren’t familiar with The Blizzard Choir? The opera is very well known amongst musicians, and many compositions from the performance have gained prevalence in orchestral arrangements.”

He shook his head. Of course he wasn’t; but then again, she had no way of knowing that. Sunny held it and the violin to his side, and bowed in gratitude.

“Think nothing of it. The violin has practical uses, but Lady Mòrag and I assumed you wouldn’t have asked unless you were somewhat familiar with the instrument.”

That was a fairly easy read, but he was still touched that they’d included it in the first place. Even though he was far away, a bit of normalcy from home felt nice. He probably wouldn’t want to carry the book around with him, though.

He carefully set it back into the case, and gestured vaguely towards his room, closing the lid and running it onto the table inside. Before stepping out, he took the strap of his new violin, and let it hang from his back, stepping outside and closing the door.

Looking to Brighid, who had waited outside, Sunny gestured in a ‘lead the way’ motion, and started to walk slightly behind her left side.

Shielding his eyes until they got used to the bright glare of the sun, Sunny thanked what little luck he had that it wasn’t windy or dusty today; his rush had left him dressed extremely poorly for the nature of the Titan.

It still didn’t make the heat haze easier to deal with, he considered, wiping the sweat off his brow while looking at the ground and its heat waves.

The walk across the bridge wasn’t exactly long, but he wished somebody would have considered putting a roof across the top of it, given the lack of any natural cover from trees or other plants.

The palace grounds themselves had the usual traffic that he’d grown accustomed to, with the soldiers on patrol and the fancy-dressed people he’d assumed were part of the government here roaming around.

Stepping foot into the city proper, though, the adjoining plaza to the palace was bustling with activity as people went about their days; merchants carrying crates of their stock, mothers leading their children to the plaza fountain, mercenaries on their way to the more seedy parts of the city to find work.

Brighid took a level and assured stride, people in her way subtly stepping to the side, never an inch more than necessary. One particular mother grabbed her excited son’s hand just a little bit tighter, as she tried to distract him with a coin to toss into the fountain.

Sunny hunched in on himself, and drew his cloak a little closer to his body, keeping his head down. He didn’t know the specifics of the role that he’d accepted by becoming Mòrag and Brighid’s apprentice, but from the looks of it, he should be concerned about the public’s view.

Brighid looked at him, and Sunny briefly made eye contact before staring back at his feet. 

“Pull up your cloak’s hood if it makes you more comfortable. We haven’t made a proper announcement of your identity yet, so people are likely going to be curious.” Brighid offhandedly mentioned, stepping in front of Sunny.

Sunny instantly yanked his hood over his head, immediately feeling less eyes on him. Well, they were probably still looking, but the hood made him feel better, and helped with the sun in his eyes. He was so caught up in his temporary relief that he almost missed what Brighid said next. 

“Much like Lady Mòrag and myself, this role will place you and your Blade into the public view from time to time, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed your privacy.” was her statement, before she veered to the right at the edge of the plaza. 

The populated streets seemed to thin a bit as Sunny saw the road thin and what looked to be processing plants on the sides of the street. Was this the industrial district of the city?

Squinting forward, he identified the trademark giant hat that Mòrag favored, as she stood still over a grey lump on the ground. Sunny sighed, and shook his head in sync with Brighid, as they slowed their pace to something more leisurely.

Mòrag tensed as they approached from behind, but her calculating stare fell to something more neutral as they stepped to her front. 

Wordlessly, she pointed behind her, and beckoned Sunny forward, intending him to handle this situation. He couldn’t say he blamed her, he wouldn’t want to deal with Omori’s bullshit either, but here he was. 

As he prepared to give him a stern talking to and stepped to Omori’s body on the stonework Sunny took in his appearance. He looked horrible. He was covered in dirt and dust, and smelled like he’d been fished out of a sea of garbage. The trash can with a heavy dent in its lid a few feet away led credence to this theory, as did the rotting food scattered across the alleyway.

Omori gave off a very large twitch, before slowly convulsing, groaning in discomfort, clawing his hands across his clothes while muttering something about a maid.

Taking a half-step back, Sunny alarmedly looked towards Mòrag and Brighid; Brighid didn’t seem worried when she woke him up, but were they sure that Omori was okay? When they gave no response, Sunny shrugged, and poked Omori with the tip of his foot.

“Ugh…” Omori twitched and groaned out.

He was cognizant enough to recognize that he was being prodded, that was a good sign! He still wasn’t responding with any vocalizations though…

Time for a more subtle approach, then. 

Sunny closed his eyes, and dove into his mind, floating aimlessly much the same way he used to fall back into Headspace, placing himself into the moment where he felt he understood Omori the best: the fight they’d gotten into that night in the backstreets of the city. 

Of course he wasn’t really sure if this was possible or not, but it was worth a shot. Sunny placed the memory in the core of his mind’s eye, and honed into the scene; not the events, but the feelings it brought.

The rain was cool yet harsh, with the wind picking up when they were cornered. Walls of blue flames scorched the very ground they stood on, and even despite the constant rainfall, flickered to life and created pockets of dry land in the area they surrounded, leaving him gasping for breath when he got too close.

He’d felt bone-deep tired from barely clinging to life in that alleyway, stealing any morsels of food they could get their hands on, and jumping at any little shadow that crossed the corners of his vision. They were arrogant to get themselves cornered at the end of that street, and just plain stupid to stick around and fight with how they were scrambling to even get away.

Was any of this relevant– 

No, not with what he was looking for. How did it feel to be bonded to Omori via ether link? It wasn’t like he couldn’t use his words, but it felt so deeply personal that surely anyone else would be alienated by his description.

It was kinda like… someone attached a tether between Sunny and Omori’s very souls. He was more when he had the energy coursing through his veins; the power let him do things he never thought possible in the real world, but even besides that, it was like he had been blind before, and was seeing the world for the first time; like it was how he was supposed to be.

He knew Omori’s feelings like his own when they were truly in sync, but he couldn’t place any words to them; they were just that: feelings. It extended beyond understanding him emotionally too. Sunny knew exactly where and what Omori was doing when linked to him.

It was with this understanding in mind that Sunny searched for the part of himself that tethered his mind to Omori’s, and tentatively reached out across the open space between them, and became something greater than himself.

He opened his eyes as the blue cord sparked into existence, reality warping as Omori’s injuries faded away. He waited until Omori had opened his eyes and sat up, and focused on how he was doing.

He didn’t feel it himself, but he knew that the pain Omori was in wasn’t debilitating anymore. Besides that, confusion, annoyance, and… a lot of embarrassment? Seriously? How dare he?

Sunny slammed the heels of his feet into the ground, shoving all of his rage out into the ether between them. How could Omori have thought this was a good idea? Traipsing about in the middle of the night, and he has the audacity to be annoyed? If he hadn’t been found by Mòrag on her patrol, Sunny never would’ve known what happened to him!

Blearily, Omori stared up at Sunny, and then looked away, nodding in concession. A cold sense of guilt flooded through their connection as the annoyance gave way to remorse.

Hold on, he needed a second…

After a few ragged inhales and exhales, Sunny let go of the tension that had unwittingly taken root in his joints, along with the link tethering him to Omori, and then became himself once more. He needed to look on the bright side here– Omori wasn’t hurt. 

And he felt kinda bad for being mean.

That didn’t mean he was off the hook for running off, though. He’d better have an excellent explanation or else Sunny would… well, he’d figure something threatening out.

The sound of someone gruffly clearing their throat filled his ears, and he flinched, sheepishly turning around preparing to apologize, but was stopped by a raised eyebrow, as if asking what he was sorry for.

He scuffled back across the distance between him and the others, and faced around, mimicking the crossed arms and raised eyebrow, although leveling them towards a chagrined, yet still defiant Omori.

Mòrag leveled an unimpressed stare at his other half.

“I trust that your plan here went exactly as you intended it to? It would be a shame if you caused this much damage and had nothing to show for it, now wouldn’t it?” was her admonishment, pointing to the Omori-sized crater that had been indented into the concrete.

Omori’s face reddened almost imperceptibly, as he took a shaky step forward, stumbling on still unsteady legs, before heaving a great sigh and deciding to (partially) own up to his faults.

“First of all,” he began, “I’d like to let you all know that the only reason I was here was because the guards stationed at the palace somehow missed someone dressed as a maid running on the rooftops of the barracks.”

Mòrag’s brows furrowed as she relaxed her posture and pulled her gloves down, before breaking her stare with Omori, and raising a hand to her chin in thought. It seemed she’d come to a conclusion that maybe Omori wasn’t talking entirely out of his ass, because she quietly requested that he continue.

“Right. So, upon seeing such a tragic failure of security, I thought it was a good idea to chase them down and attempt to capture them.”

“It seems clear that you failed in that regard. Despite that, did you at least ascertain their identity?” Brighid interjected.

“Not… exactly?” Omori muttered towards the ground. “It was dark, okay! The only thing besides the maid costume that I could really make out was that it looked like a girl and that she had black hair. Unless you count the rocket boots she used to kick me into that wall over there.”

Sunny checked. Yup, there was a hole there alright.

Mòrag pinched the bridge of her nose, and Sunny could’ve sworn that he heard her mutter something about it being too early for this, but the jury was still out on that one. 

“I don’t blame you entirely for this. You make a good point that the guards should have noticed,” she spoke in a tone that made Sunny feel bad for the increased drills they’d likely be seeing in the future.

“However,” she continued, “In the future, please do the bare minimum and inform someone else of your findings before you run off like that again. Your enhanced durability as a Blade is no excuse to throw yourself into things like this.”

“You got it, boss lady,” Omori replied, satisfied that he’d made it out without facing any consequences for his admittedly poor actions. He’d limped his way towards the other side, almost passing said boss lady before being halted by a firm, yet gentle hand across his chest where his core crystal lay.

“If I wanted to hurt or even kill you, a single strike here might be all it’d take.” Mòrag looked down and stared Omori in his eyes, unblinking in her seriousness. “You are not invincible, even if you think you are. It worked out this time, but all this shows is you weren’t seen as enough of a threat to permanently dispose of.”

“You didn’t win. You got lucky.”

Omori stopped. You could see him thinking of something to respond with to try and gain some sort of leverage in the conversation, opening and closing his mouth several times to no avail. Giving up on that front, he looked to Sunny to help bail him out.

Sunny looked at him helplessly and shrugged; they didn’t know what they were doing here. She probably knew better than they did, and even if he wasn’t at as much risk as she thought he was, her point about him running off definitely still stood.

Omori sighed, and looked down to the ground, nodding. Mòrag continued her staring, and Omori battled with a decision, before finally deciding to commit.

“Sorry. Sometimes it’s easy to forget, you know?” he flushed, rushing to continue before his nerves got the better of him. “That I can be hurt, now. Doing this, that is. It, uh, wasn’t so dangerous before now.”

“I understand.” Brighid stepped forward, as Mòrag drew off to the side, and laid a hand on his shoulder. “As Blades, we can walk away from situations that nobody else could dream of. When I first met Lady Mòrag, I threw myself into anything to keep her safe.”

She beckoned Sunny forward, and he quietly marched forward, locking eyes with Omori.

“But it isn’t only up to you. If you trust nobody else with your safety, trust him.” she pointed at Sunny. “Working alongside us is dangerous. But it’s just as much your responsibility to protect him as his is to protect you.”

“I’ll try.” was his stilting, halted response, as he kept staring at Sunny, emotions warring in his gaze, confusion, bewilderment, standing above the tempest.

What was Omori so confused about–no, so lost about? Sunny stared harder. He didn’t get anything. So he tried more, tried harder, tapping the ether link, averting his gaze into Omori’s core crystal.

All he saw was his own reflection. It's always been his reflection. Hasn’t it?

“Sunny!” A voice cut through the laser-focus. 

Sunny stumbled, snapping his gaze, and by extension, the connection between he and Omori, the invisible tie holding them together wilting away into the surrounding space. He sheepishly looked to Mòrag, who’d raised her eyebrow, barely noticeable under the brim of her cap.

Sunny thought about it for a moment. He turned to an Omori that was visibly begging him with his eyes not to say anything, and then to a Mòrag that betrayed her calm facade with a gleam of intense interest behind hers.

Sunny quietly, and slowly, shook his head. Not right now, at least. 

“Fair enough,” Mòrag sighed, slightly disappointed. “Though, I hope at some point you let us in on that little exchange.”

Mollified by their respect of the admittedly unreasonable expectations he’d set, Sunny tossed them a thumbs up; it felt a bit like an empty promise. Omori had closed right back up now that the heat was taken off, despite the confusion that still brewed within.

Swivelling a full 180, their mentors began a strut in the other direction, confident and assured, leaving Sunny and Omori to hurriedly gather themselves together, as Omori fell into stride next to Sunny, affecting his lackadaisical way of going about things, while Sunny felt extremely out of place, wringing his hands and darting his eyes back and forth across the narrow alleyway.

Their trip ended just as suddenly as it began, when Mòrag and Brighid stopped within an instant as the sounds from outside the alley grew louder; Sunny attempted the same, but fell forwards, and would have eaten the concrete if Omori hadn’t grabbed the back of his shirt like one would a cat as he flailed his arms outwards to regain his balance.

Brighid snorted, Mòrag turning her face down into her coat to hide a smile while Omori stood there blank and Sunny’s face reddened with embarrassment, which gave away to puzzlement as the mood shifted, now pensive as the Driver and her Blade looked at each other, then away, then back to Sunny and Omori.

“I suppose I’ll start. Your appearance and sudden elevation to one of the highest positions that can be appointed has caused understandable buzz in the Ardanian Senate.” Brighid crossed her arms. “Not only did you two practically come out of nowhere, this seat has been unfilled for decades, if not longer.”

Sunny cringed; yeah, he could see how that’d end up being big news, both for the government if the country was on the brink of war, and maybe for the citizens of the capital if the way that kid reacted earlier was any indicator.

“I’m glad you understand the implications of this,” Brighid dryly responded. “But, if it were just curiosity it wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, Lady Mòrag asked me to investigate since we last spoke to feel out the climate. The interest has turned to unrest in the days since it was announced.”

“As such,” Mòrag stepped forward, “We’re holding an event to introduce you to both the general public and the Senate tonight under pressure from a few powerful members of the nobility.. We wanted to wait longer, give you a chance to acclimate, but if we don’t take immediate action, we lose control over the narrative of you two.”

Sunny bit his lip thoughtfully moving his head back and forth. That was… really short notice. Annoyingly short. Seriously, they couldn’t even try for tomorrow or something? He wasn’t even familiar with the Senate beyond the fact that he knew they had a Senate, and now they wanted him to go and bluff his ass off to a bunch of politicians he didn’t even know the name of?

He felt Omori’s foot lightly press into the side of his heel, and then took a deep breath, in and out. This wasn’t their fault. Mòrag had just said that their introduction wasn’t supposed to happen for a while now, and that they’d been pushed to do it so quickly in the first place. This was happening regardless of their input; so he nodded and affirmed to both himself and the women in front of him that it was okay– well, not okay, but he’d manage.

“I’m sorry, but thank you,” Mòrag seemed satisfied. “Luckily, the short notice means it won’t last very long; you’ll wear the uniforms that we left for you, and Brighid requested the imperial librarian pull out a few texts on our system if you head to the library.”

“We won’t be able to help you much.” Brighid cut in. “If you’re asked a question, they’ve been made aware you don’t physically speak, but you will be expected to socialize and answer more simple questions regardless of that. We can’t answer for you.”

“Brighid, it’s true, but perhaps you could give them some useful advice?” Mòrag laid a hand on Brighid’s arm.

“Sorry, Lady Mòrag.” Brighid bowed her head to her Driver. “It isn’t likely because most of the officials want to stay on the good side of the Emperor, but if you’re directly asked a question about the situation with Uraya, do not answer, and point to one of us; that’s the biggest concern we have. More likely, though, they’ll try to ask you subtly leading questions to gauge your knowledge and opinions.”

Okay, that was at least something to work with. What about the stuff with the public, though? Omori relayed his thoughts for him, and Mòrag granted them an appraising look, before grunting in approval.

“Only a few vetted journalists are allowed into closed doors events such as this. They probably won’t give you much trouble, but stay careful of the vultures that ask questions about your personal life.” Mòrag frowned.

“Anybody in particular we should worry about?” Omori crossed his arms and leaned back on his left foot.

“Members of the press are given a bright red badge. Watch for Senator Roderich as well. He’s one of the biggest warmongers in the Senate. Brighid and I are convinced the only thing keeping him in line right now is his loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Got it.” Omori craned his neck up to the sun which had passed its zenith and began the slow descent into the horizon, and stretched his arms outwards above his head. “We’d better get going then.” 

Omori walked forward at a leisurely pace, betraying his “concern” about the time of day, only briefly stopping to jerk his head forward towards Sunny. Sunny tossed an exasperated look at him, waved goodbye to Mòrag and Brighid who tipped her hat and bowed respectively with a brief instruction to find them in their room at 7 p.m, and followed behind Omori out of the alley and towards the library in the palace.

Chapter Text

Sunny dug his hands into his face, and let out a silent groan as he collapsed forwards into the book laid on the table.

He immediately sat back up, and smoothed out the page that he’d folded. Resolutely deciding to ignore Omori’s smirk out of the corner of his eye, Sunny thumbed the fountain pen the librarian had kindly lended to him with a sympathetic smile.The Ardainian Empire was born of necessity; shortly after The Architect had kicked out everyone from Elysium, the little references and sources that were recorded indicated that forcing out people who’d never had to govern themselves before wasn’t exactly something that could be considered a stable situation.

Small and independent clans banded together, living in camps across the Titan. As expected, the Blades were the lifelines of these factions, might making right as they cannibalized themselves constantly.A people so focused on the value of strength ended up fundamentally shifting itself once a potent source of it was found; one particularly powerful family discovered a core crystal so powerful that no monetary value or treasure could compare. The Ardanach Clan that found it and their allies subjugated their rivals across the Titan using the newfound Jewel, and consolidated those who remained into an Empire.

It felt like pretty risky business expecting such an absolute form of control to stay on the straight and narrow, but the Ardanachs turned out pretty reasonable, and the creation of an electoral senate of direct appointments functioned well for them; their innate appreciation for power didn’t diminish, but the voice of the Empire’s citizens worked to help ground any war-hungry emperors from dragging the nation into war after war.

The Emperor Hugo entered into the Aegis War under urging from the elected commoners in the Senate, who’d witnessed firsthand the destruction that the war brought. Hugo tragically fell in the final battle of the war against the now-turned evil Aegis, leaving behind a substantial power vacuum.

When the dust settled, the Senate stripped away military power from the Emperors, and deemed that to hold a position in office, you’d need to own property– in a rapidly overheating environment on an already small sized Titan, most commoners couldn’t compete with the wealthy noble families.

Sunny had rolled his eyes when he read that it was apparently a good thing that this happened– that the involvement of Hugo meant the Emperor held too much weight. They’d gotten by just fine beforehand, and what else was Hugo supposed to do when the situation was as awful as it was?

Even besides that, the description of the Aegis being malicious didn’t line up with what Mòrag had observed; did they lie about her involvement to shift the power dynamics in the Empire?

Getting through just the basics of how their system turned into how it is took way longer than he’d anticipated, but at the very least, he had a good idea of the rich nobles that’d be trying to schmoozy up to him.

Best not to give them anything to work with, then. Sunny languidly stood up after shutting the book he had open and placing his notes inside. He walked to the couch that had a mirror behind it, met with his reflection. Omori watched from behind, looking bored.

That’s exactly what he needed to get through this. If he couldn’t stack up to scrutiny, he’d be better off letting nothing get out.

Sunny closed his eyes, and let himself fall back into a dimly lit stairway, into an abandoned tree house, into a graveyard that he never visited.

Back then, the shock and unfeeling emptiness he felt at Basil’s panic, the part of him that screamed he needed to confess to his friends, and the guilt of not even bothering to pay proper respects to Mari had numbed him; made all other feelings less. He focused on that nothingness, and opened his eyes.

In them, nothing showed through, and the creases on his face had smoothed out, betraying none of his inner thoughts.

“You know, that’s actually a bit unsettling after everything that happened…” he sounded pensive.

Sunny flicked his gaze to Omori. His eyebrows held a crease, as he stared slightly below Sunny’s eye level, seemingly troubled.

Quietly murmuring something, Sunny looked at Omori, and tilted his head, curious.

Omori’s gaze shot in the other direction, almost panicked. Sunny impassively shrugged, flicking back to himself once more; nothing was showing through. He decided to examine something that he should have soon before now. Sunny pulled his eyepatch down some, wincing as the bright light reached an eye that hadn’t seen for weeks.

The left side of his vision was blurry, but out of his right, he saw a grayed out pupil that had a defined slash across it, continuing out to frame his eyelids, his only reaction a slight narrowing of said eyes and minute tremble of his fingers. With how hard Basil and he went at it, he expected that there wouldn’t be much left, really.

Sunny relaxed, and let go of the fog he’d boxed his head into now that he’d seen what was there.

Honestly? It wasn’t that bad. It sucked he couldn’t see out of it besides extremely blurred and unfocused blobs, but when the alternative was an empty eye socket, he’d take what he could get.

His hand hesitated as he went to place back the eyepatch. Should he? It was probably better for them to see him with it on, right? Create a little bit of mystery, make him seem tough.

Omori snorted, and walked up next to Sunny, the mirror reflecting both their countenances.

“Only if you can keep together your poker face; the second you let that go, they’ll know you’re soft.” Omori elbowed him.

Sunny nervously smiled back, though he did feel a bit indignant. He gestured towards Omori’s entire body; he was blatantly twelve. Omori rolled his eyes in response, quietly smirking.

“Yeah, I look young, but the paper white skin and this thing,” he pointed to his core crystal, “Shows that underestimating me wouldn’t be a good idea no matter how easy a mark I look. You don’t have any failsafe like that.”

Yeah, that was a good point. How much time did they have left–?

The clock on the wall struck out six times. Only an hour left to get ready then.

Just before leaving their apartment, Sunny grabbed his violin and its sheath where he’d hung it on the coat rack upon returning, laying it crossbody over his uniform, and then pinned his cloak to the front. He tried once more to smooth down his unruly hair, but he knew it was in vain when it sprung right back up.

Sunny reached for the doorknob, and with a grand gesture, pulled it open, stepping off to the side and slightly exaggerated a bow.

Crickets.

Omori just walked past him impassively, raising on his toes to unenthusiastically pat him on the head.

Sunny slumped over, rubbing at his good eye, and unceremoniously closed the door, hurrying to catch up with Omori.

“Omori, it might be a good idea for you to keep quiet too.” Sunny suggested, keeping pace with his Blade’s light yet assured footsteps. “Especially after last night’s debacle, I don’t think we– you, want to make Mòrag any angrier.”

Omori heaved a great sigh, wrapping his hand around his other arm, looking off to the side, a small uptick of his lips betraying his feigned regret.

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

Sunny cuffed him over the back of the head as he passed by up to Mòrag and Brighid’s room. He quietly tapped his knuckles on the door, sliding back to wait next to Omori.

A few moments later, Brighid cracked open the door, relaxing when she saw their two protégés, but keeping the door half-open. Sunny waved.

“Hello, you two. You’re right on time. Unfortunately, however, we are not.”

What did she mean by that? She looked the exact same as she had earlier, just like Omori did right now. He tilted his head, as if to ask why.

The corner of her lips tightened, and a light dusting of red took its place on her cheeks, as she shrank back into the door a small bit.

“Well, perhaps we isn’t the best way to put it. Lady Mòrag has a tendency to get a little… worked up right before a scheduled public appearance.” A loud crash sound accentuated her statement, as a few bits and bobbles rolled to a stop just below their feet.

“Brighid, how is my topknot?” Mòrag demanded, though her voice had a slight quiver to it. Brighid heaved a massive sigh, and angled her body towards the inside of the room.

“Lady Mòrag, you look as composed as always!” Brighid chided, speaking in a tone meant to soothe, but was layered with longstanding annoyance. “There isn’t really time for this, they’re here already.”

Omori attempted to peer over Brighid’s figure, and through the door as more sounds rang out from the room. “How many times has she–”

“How many fights have you gotten into since your arrival here in Mor Ardain?” Even if her eyes were closed, her eyebrows furrowed upwards as she clearly sensed this coming from a mile away.

“I plead the fifth.”

“The fifth amendment? I fail to see how the unlawful quartering of soldiers has any relevance.” was her returning response.

“That’s not– never mind…” Sunny could barely hold back his amused look as Omori huffed. They both knew a losing battle when they saw one.

Sunny heard the rapid pitter-patter of her rushed footsteps grow close until he saw her poke her head over her Blade's, hair indeed in a topknot. Brighid stepped around her, revealing Mòrag dressed in her usual overcoat and baggy trousers, only missing the cap.

Sunny wanted to comment on it, honestly, but one of them needed to display tact, as he yawned, tossing his arms up and “accidentally” brushing Omori just a little bit more forcefully than necessary. He then cleared his throat and gestured towards Omori.

To his credit, Omori kept a remarkably straight face.

“It’s nice to see you. You look good.” Was his plain reply.

The sharp lines around her face softened a bit, and Brighid shot them a grateful look over her Driver’s shoulder.

“Oh! Thank you. You two did a remarkable job appearing presentable as well. Although,” she edged out of the door a bit until she was face to face with Sunny, deftly threading her fingers through the little sprig that'd always stood up on his head, flattening it down.

When it sprang right back up, she frowned in concentration, trying again, only this time tucking it under one of the more tame parts of his hair, only for it to spring right back up once more.

“How vexing…” Their eyes met in a show of solidarity, and Sunny felt a little less alone in the world being confronted with the precious spirit of a kindred soul.

“Well, it won’t be much of a problem if past experience says anything.” Mòrag stepped back swords passing from Brighid’s hands into her sheaths, but not before attempting to fix the sprig one last time, sighing as it once again sprang right back up. “If you’re ready, then?”

Sunny confirmed his assent. Not like they had much other choice, so stalling wouldn’t help, right?

Omori glanced through a window at the ever growing crowd of people meandering about outside the front entrance for tonight's gala. “I can already tell I’m going to hate this, aren't I?”

“I’d be lying if I said that you’ll get used to it.” Brighid followed to where Omori was looking, a small grimace forming as she got a better look at the reporters. “But it does get better in time, just not ever really enjoyable.”

“I can certainly attest to that much.” Mòrag tacked on.

Sunny could hear Mòrag sigh from beside him, “Well, I suppose we can’t stand here with our tail tucked between our legs, can we now?” she motioned at the two with her hand towards the door.

She gently put her hand on his shoulder, a light smile on her face. “While I and Brighid most certainly will be busy during the duration of the event, we’ll be right beside you until then.”

“Even then,” Brighid added, “All you have to do is just survive the night, which I'm more than sure you’ll be more than capable of, if your track record says anything.”

Wordlessly, walking towards the admittedly very large ornate door in front of them, he effortlessly pushed the door open.

Sunny barely had any time to ruminate about how surprisingly easy the door was to open before he felt that he was positively overwhelmed by the blinding brightness coming from the accentuated gold used all around the room.

Sunny instinctively tried to shield his remaining eye, but he could feel somebody grabbing his wrist before he had the chance to do so. Taking a quick glance to see who did it, he saw that both Mòrag’s and Brighid demeanor had silently shifted to a completely different demeanor that they had on previously.

Mòrag had a carefully neutral look on her before she spoke, only loud enough for him and Omori to hear. “Eyes up, from here on out our every move will be scrutinized.”

If the crowd outside was big, then the one surrounding them was positively massive by comparison, absolutely dwarfing the previous size as scores of important looking people were scattered all about, some holding drinks as they chattered to one another.

Their entrance didn’t seem to go unnoticed, because of course it didn’t. The people that were immediately close by all seemed to immediately zero on both him and Omori, the whispering and murmuring already beginning as more and more people started to notice.

Sunny could feel his skin crawl as the whispering started to increase. Just because he knew that there were going to be plenty of people, that does not mean still he wasn’t going to feel completely out of place here.

He felt a light pinch to his side as both Mòrag and Brighid slowly started to walk forward, the two sharing a look before Mòrag began to quietly speak with one of the people close by. A senator?

His eyes turned towards Omori, who was keeping his usual, blank face stare that he always had on. Only this time it seemed a little more passive aggressive than usual.

Sunny could only squint in frustration. What was that even supposed to tell him? He may be able to read Sunny’s mind, but he should already know that it doesn’t work both ways! Why was he trying to mess with him now of all times?

“Remember this morning?” is all he said before he began to follow Mòrag, as they had silently begun to motion towards the two.

He could only mentally slap himself as he finally recalled what Omori was talking about. Of course he’d managed to forget that right when he would actually need to use it.

At the very least, nobody had seemed to immediately notice his inner turmoil, too caught up in their own political games to pay immediate attention to his blundering even as they continued to gossip. The way they kept a relatively wide berth from where he’d positioned himself was a good sign that they were curious, but didn’t want to upset him if they got too close.

“Wasn't really expecting to become a celebrity. The mysterious kind, no less.” Sunny mused. It wasn’t his best attempt at distracting himself.

Hero or literally any of the others would’ve managed better right now. Then again, they might’ve pushed him to do it anyway just because they’d think it would be funny.

It did help, though, that both Mòrag and Brighid had easily acclimated to the current environment. It felt like he was watching the two dance as they effortlessly bounced between person to person, always within eyesight of them but not interacting just as they’d stated.

A woman looking to be in her early thirties began to walk towards their teachers as he schooled his face.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the guest of honor! A pleasure to meet you.” They didn’t have much longer to watch, as their first trial immediately started to rear its head. A voice shot out from behind them.

Turning around, they were faced with a woman wearing a rather similar dress to what Mòrag was wearing, with only slight variations in color immediately noticeable.

“My name is Doirin Tadhg. Would you give me the pleasure of learning what yours might be?” she chortled, covering her face with one hand.

Alright, it’s go time.

Sunny only silently nodded his head in acknowledgement. Maybe she would just continue on and he wouldn’t have to say anything?

Omori stepped in, gesturing towards him with an open palm and a fake smile of all things. He had to hand it to him, Omori actually seemed interested in what she had to say. “Sunny Suzuki.” He then gestured towards himself, “Omori.”

Her eyes veered off to the side of where Omori was standing. “Oh please, I’m not that old just yet, just call me by my first name.” She waved her hand dismissively, before turning back to Sunny.

“I’ve heard murmurs. Well, more gossip really, about who you might be, but I truly did not expect such an endearing name.” Her practiced smile barely reached her eyes.

Did she think he was that gullible?

She turned back to where Omori was standing for the briefest of moments, barely sparing him a glance before turning back to him, “And am I to assume that’s your Blade then? The two of you bear such striking similarities that I might get confused!” she chortled, pretty much one to one with the way Sweetheart used to.

Omori's lax smile stiffened, “... That is correct, Ma’am.”

She continued to hold her sharp analytical gaze on Omori, the three of them silently standing, the conversations and murmuring from the party's attendees serving as a backdrop.

“It's a first for me to see a driver and blade look so close to each other. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the two of you were related.” She turned back to Sunny even as he kept his bored visage.

Sunny scanned the crowd, making sure to at least do the bare minimum of looking in her general direction. Was it too early to try and make their escape?

He spotted Mòrag and Brighid caught in another conversation with one of the other senators.

Bummer.

“Well assuming you're as half strong as our Jewel, no matter, Uraya has always been a massive thorn in our side for as long as I can remember. The longer we wait… Well I won’t bore you with such drivel, I’m sure you're well aware of our more pressing issues.”

“But enough of that, I say we move on to something much lighter. I know your schedule must be packed, working directly with the inquisitor, but how does one such as yourself spend what little free time you have?”

Omori, once again swooping in for the save, “The Imperial Library, primarily.”

She leaned in far too close for his liking, causing him to step back. “Really? The Imperial library? Perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised. I can certainly respect a well educated man.”

“What's more shocking to me, at least, is hearing that the Inquisitor personally introduced you to it. Rather uncharacteristic for someone of her stature, to say the least.”

Even with his prior annoyance, neither he nor Omori couldn’t fully mask their own shock. Well, moreso Sunny.

Sure she's a bit… to the point, for lack of a better word, when she was in the middle of their training sessions, but that's probably to be expected.

She's been nothing but patient with the two of them since they’ve started to work together.

Honestly, a little too patient. He’s pretty sure one of the guards jumped in shock when he saw Omori and him making their way to the gala with Mòrag.

Like a shark smelling blood in the water, her eyes gleamed. “Caught your attention now, have I?”

She continued, crossing her arms even as she scrupulously held her chin up with her hand, “It’s true, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the woman acting anything less than frigid cold in the few conversations I’ve had with her.”

“Even when she was younger, she acted the exact same, even to her attendants of all people! Or so I've heard.” she sighed dramatically, Annoyingly, into her hand.

Alright, that’s enough.

She covered her mouth once again, another haughty chortle forming, “Quite ironic for someone named–”

She comes up to him, wasting his time and she has the gall to insult the person going out on a limb when she could’ve left them high and dry–!

“Well if it isn’t the residential Deputy!” Another voice cut threw whatever jab she was planning to make out of the window, as she immediately stilted.

Following where the voice came from, the most striking trait was also the only one filling Sunny’s head at this exact moment.

“Huh, he’s also got an eyepatch.”

That wasn’t the only thing that stuck out, his face cutting a sharp image, with his gray hair presenting a man who had clearly seen more of this world than Sunny had ever even seen of his own. His outfit seemed better suited for fighting than formal wear.

The cloaked woman following him up made them both stand out amongst the crowd, with her eyes bespeckled and head adorned with a messy mop of green hair that felt strikingly familiar for some reason.

Where did that come from? Maybe something to do with Headspace?

Hmm.

“Prince Ozychlyrus,” their assailant diverted her attention, gracefully curtsying towards the newcomer.

Wait, this guy was a prince?!

In a mirror of how he felt when Kel was dragging him all across town, he really should’ve just went back to bed when Brighid knocked on his door this morning.

“A pleasure. You wouldn’t mind me stealing our little star of the show here?”

“Of– Of course not! Although, if you might–” She flashed an award losing smile.

“Right then.” the prince all but yanked him by his shoulders, casually pushing and dragging him around as Omori trailed along on his left side. While in any other circumstance he might have at least voiced his objection, at this point, he was going to take any excuse out of that conversation he can get.

The onlookers not so subtly watching him didn’t seem all too concerned. Maybe this was normal behavior for this guy!

“Don’t worry about the stares, he’s done way weirder than this.” The woman following him leaned into his ear, her voice bright and chirpy, with a timbre that implied relentless mockery if she found something funny enough.

It didn’t take long for them to come to a stop, the man letting go of him as they walked into a small alcove closer to the entrance.

“If you're trying to avoid any conversations, I’d recommend staying here. At least for a little while.”

“Was it that obvious?” Omori piped up.

“Nah, not really. But the quiet type usually draws more attention than most.” He turned his head towards Omori, sticking his index finger out, “And I do know what a bored kid looks like when I see one. So I just did what any sensible adult would do.” The prince leaned on the window panel behind him.

“Softy.” his companion chimed, wagging her finger.

“Hey!”

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Please welcome His Majesty, Emperor Niall Ardanach of Mor Ardain” A loud booming voice sounded out across the entire ballroom, accompanied by a prelude of trumpets.

As the presumed emperor made his way inside, the crowd that had been shocked silent moved in a great clamor towards his direction, blocking Sunny’s vision of what he might have looked like.

“Looks like I’d better get out of here before someone notices. Was nice to meet you, chum–Agh!” Sunny turned around.

Oh shit the window was open now.

“Should we…?” Omori pointed weakly towards the open air.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. See ya!” The cloaked lady cheerily exclaimed before unceremoniously chucking herself out of the window, gleefully waving at them.

They should… They should probably go find Mòrag.

Of course, with how amped everything had gotten, Sunny didn’t want to leave their sanctuary just yet, so he settled in and watched, waiting for a chance to catch a glimpse of the illustrious emperor.

The crowd weaved just enough, and he saw a flash of blue hair, but was too far away to pick out any other characteristics.

Sunny gave it a couple of minutes to let the attention die down before taking his chance at making it across the room. He specifically stuck near the walls, hoping to avoid anyone that might still be looking their way, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

To avoid catching her attention, they’d approached her from the side, unnoticed until Mòrag had turned to stretch on a whim, only to see Sunny and Omori not even 5 feet away from her.

She stepped back a bit, and sputtered in surprise, somehow managing to look put-together even when caught off guard.

“Oh, it’s you two. Is everything alright?” She greeted them, her body open to their direction but her eyes focused towards the center of the room, only darting to Sunny every scant few moments.

Sunny nodded, a little confused. He’d seen her staring in their direction up until they’d stopped being the center of attention. He slightly nudged Omori.

“We’re good. They seemed interested, but only one of them was actually brave enough to get close. Anonymity has its perks, I guess. It didn't hurt that we became the second most interesting thing in the room too though.”

Mòrag’s lips had taken a slight upturn into an extremely quiet smirk when Omori had mentioned the first part, but then went suspiciously blank towards the second bit. Sunny shared a conspiratorial look with his partner, before turning to see if he could pick out what the emperor actually looked like now that he was closer and could see through the crowd a bit more.

He focused in a tad, and completely dropped any attempts he might have made at hiding his shock.

The emperor looked like him a little bit. A lot, actually. The hair color didn’t match right, and his face was a bit more angular in comparison to Sunny’s, but the way that his hair swooped down into his eyes, the insignia he wore around his head clearly tapering down a stray bit of hair that refused to stay down, and the softness to his eyes and facial features matched Sunny better than he’d have expected.

He tilted his head towards Mòrag, but she’d tucked her face into her collar, a light dusting of pink making its way onto her cheeks.

“I think we should address the elephant in the room here,” Omori stated.

“He looks a lot like us. Well, a lot like him,” he jutted out his thumb directly in front of Sunny’s face. “It’s definitely not exact, but a lot closer than most people, and you’re watching him like a hawk just like you did us.”

If it were possible, she’d have been swallowed up by her clothes.

“I trust you won’t share this with any others,” she spoke into her collar, tone closer to a plea than an order, almost muttering her admission.

“His Majesty is my cousin, but we were raised like siblings.” She lifted her eyes upwards, a strange melancholy settling across her features. I won’t lie to you that it was a large part of my planning involving you two.”

“His Majesty must act like the strong ruler that Mor Ardain needs at the moment, and can’t let down his guard, even with how young he is. But sometimes,” she quieted. “I see the weight of his isolation in private; the bone-deep weariness that settles and shows his age.”

“In those moments, it’s clear how lonely he is. And in those moments, I know well that he also misses the simplicity of our younger days.” She stopped for a second, leaning back, locking gazes with Sunny.

“There was something about the way you blankly stared at me that day that reminded me of him. Almost like you were missing something that couldn’t exist anymore.”

Sunny broke away from the intensity of her stare, towards the Emperor, towards his placating smile, surrounded by countless other people but vacant of those he cared for, doing his best to fill his place in a throne just a bit too big for him.

He didn’t know him, but he wondered: did he feel it too? The incompetence driven by being the second born, chasing behind the tails of someone you felt was greater than you could ever be, until you trip over your own feet, gasping for breath and unable to move forward as the gap grows wider and wider?

A loud crash sounded as one of the doors to the ballroom smashed against the wall, a soldier frantically zipping his head around the room until he saw Mòrag, making a beeline right for them, the guests attending shifting into hushed whispers as to what was going on.

Mòrag closed herself off from any vulnerability still present, and sternly turned to the soldier to request a report.

“Ma’am, there’s an incident on the rooftops of Nharil Central Plaza. The Blade you told us to look out for, the one with a maid outfit? We’ve seen her.” he shrank into himself almost impossibly further.

“But that core crystal– there’s no mistaking that shade of green. The Aegis was with her.”