Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alcamoth

As the time got closer to midnight, Shulk had left the room most of his family was in. He had to distract himself from the worry of what the Intersection could bring, but being around his loved ones ironically made the feeling of what he had worse. Seconds counting on the watch in his pocket; the work that went into Origin was worth it, he had to believe it.

But what if it wasn’t? Some pessimistic part of his brain kept saying. Shulk’s mind was working against him, even as he tried to look optimistic to Fiora and Nikol.

The minute hand crossed over to 12, signalling that midnight had reached. He could hear the clock tower in the center of Colony 9 chiming, and in that moment Shulk remembered what had really occurred in that one second of time.

Tell me why! Is this... really what you want?! Alvis!

A gift from Alvis, she called it.

Age saps my courage.

We can imbue you with our life, keep the wheels turning.

Shulk had no idea how many memories were flooded into his brain at that moment, but it was enough to disorient him. He laid his head against the wall as his body readjusted to itself. He poked at his right arm, seemingly to make sure that the limb was made of flesh as it was supposed to be.

The plan had worked. A team of Ouroboros had finally done it and freed the twin worlds from the grasp of Moebius. He waited as an avatar of Origin, serving as one third of the stabilising measure that kept Aionios from collapsing even faster than it was. 

But it was no longer Aionios. The walls of Alcamoth were no longer painted black, the Mechonis sword was still at the bottom of the sea, and… his family was intact. His son was no longer without the family that comforted him when other children would mock him for his gifts. Fiora was-

Shulk started walking back to the common area of the Imperial Villa. He passed by some of the High Entian guards; they knew he was an esteemed guest of their empress, so they did not try to stop him, but even if they did he would not care. He had much more important business to deal with. The Homs mechanic opened the door to the common room, and how he missed what he saw.

Standing right in the middle of his view was Fiora. The love of his life was waiting there. Every moment he spent in Aionios after her fall he wished she was there. It had been so long since he saw her face, yet he refused to forget. Everything he worked towards in Aionios led to this moment. His heart was overclocked and beating loud in his chest that he could feel it in his ears. Fiora was looking at him as he walked closer. Whatever she thought he was going to do, however, what supplanted when he picked her up by the waist and spun on his heels. 

Unfortunately for the two of them, Shulk’s heel slipped, causing them to tumble to the ground. Fiora let out a yelp in surprise as the two of them crashed to the ground. Shulk made sure to take the brunt of the fall, leading to him being underneath his wife on the floor. Not a sight that Shulk disliked, quite the opposite, but he was just too excited to see Fiora again.

“Shulk, I know you’re happy that Origin worked, but don’t you think that was a little excessive?” Fiora lightly scolded Shulk for his actions. She took note of the look on his face. “Is everything alright?”

Shulk gets the both of them off the ground. “Sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve seen your face.”

Fiora gets a puzzled look on her face. “Shulk, what is that supposed to mean?”

Now it was Shulk’s turn to be confused. “Do… do you not remember anything unusual? No flashes of strange memories when it became midnight?”

“No, but you’re starting to scare me.” Fiora crossed her arms, with the look of combined worry and temper he had long gotten used to appearing on her face. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

Shulk paused for a moment trying to find the words. “Origin had a misfire. Somehow, when the collision of the words occurred, a… let’s call it a virus. The virus, Z, haphazardly merged together. We were both there in Aionios, a lot of us were. But Nikol was gone. From what I could tell, all of the children were forced into combat.”

As Shulk was explaining the situation that occurred in Aionios, a light began emanating from Origin in the distance. Blinding them both, it covered the world completely before ending as quickly as it began.

The door to the side of Shulk and Fiora opened, and some of their compatriots came through.

“Please tell me I was not the only one who got blinded?” Reyn complained. His eyes were still dilated from the flashbang.

“Do not worry, Reyn, I saw it happen as well.” Melia comforted him. She turned towards Shulk with a cheeky grin. “I’m glad to see you again. Being chained up in Origin was not a pleasant time.”

“You remember, too?” Shulk asked. “Why are we the only ones to remember Aionios?” Shulk felt both a wing and hand slap him in the back, and the fuzzy-eyebrowed Nopon and his former student frowning at him.

“What am I, a tirkin?” Panacea complained.

“Did friend not see Riku enter room? I remember too. For me, Melly, and Panacea, it must be how we made it until Aionios was destroyed. That assumption I’m going with. But why Shulk?”

Before Shulk had a chance to answer, Dunban looked out the window and gave a look of panic. “Where did Origin go?”

As he said that, the entire group turned to the window, and just as Dunban said their half of Origin was no longer there. Shulk quickly moved over to the control monitor and began tapping away at it. Before long, Shulk got a new location pinging on the radar. “Not to worry, it was moved further in the ocean. If this occurred though, who knows what other malfunction could have happened.”

“Shulk, Riku, and myself will go to Origin and investigate. Should anything else be going wrong, it could potentially risk the post-Intersection stability of the world.”

Panacea grabbed the spear that hung from the wall. “I’m comin’ with you, I had to deal with that Aionios crap as well; I’ll be damned if you get attacked by those purple things again.”

Shulk turns to Fiora again before turning back to the group. “Before we leave, I need to do something first.”

Panacea tried to complain, but when she saw where Shulk was walking to she decided against it. The saviour of the Homs quickly made his way down the hall, stopping at the last door. He quickly opened it up, and he visibly lost the tension in his body.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Nikol wondered as he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “Are the fireworks going off yet?”

“N-No, not yet.” Shulk crouched down so he could be eye-level with his son. “Origin reported back an error in its output. I need to go over there physically to make sure everything’s working right. Don’t worry, I’ll be back by the time the firework show starts.”

Nikol nodded his head, and with that Shulk hurried out of the villa to the Havres Riku and Panacea had procured.

The flight over to Origin was uneventful, with the party’s Havres landing in the docking bay. The quartet of Bionites started walking through the massive halls of their half of Origin.

If only they noticed it was more than just their half from the outside.

“Emptiness of Origin giving Riku creepy feelings down neck.” Riku admitted, the blue nopon literally pulling loose feathers from his scruff. “Almost makes one wish for creepy Origin beasts.”

“I’d rather not, thank you very much.” Melia complained as she held her arms against her chest. “Spending over a thousand years tied up in a semi-conscious coma is something I’d rather never experience again. Speaking of these experiences, I am still waiting on you three to describe what happened after I was taken.”

The three former Liberators began telling Melia about the crisis that arose from Alpha showing up. Necessitating the need for a compact between themselves and Moebius. How Shulk and Rex were maimed, and how years later they were taken by surprise by the appearance of Nikol, one of Rex’s daughters, and the personality of the Alvis Melia knew in a brand new body.

Melia knew from visiting the City’s memorial hall Nikol and Glimmer had been two of the founders, but was taken aback by the mention of A, given how the City seemingly had no record of A’s existence.

“That was something A was fine with.” Shulk revealed. “A had a purpose, A fulfilled it.”

They continued walking towards Origin’s Core; still as empty as the rest of the structure, the pathways of the Origin interior. Shulk was honestly getting irritated by all of the purple.

Why did we even design it like this? Shulk questioned in his head. There was no reason for the inside of the machine with the purpose of keeping two entire universes alive to have such a threatening aura. No wonder Moebius became a thing within Oriigin’s code, if this was the environment they were born from.

“So how as it, exactly, being one of Origin’s Avatars?” Panacea wondered, the look on her face showing a rare sense of concern.

“It was… strange. During that time, my sense of time was vague. The thousand years between then and the downfall of Z felt both successive, and far away from one another. I did see the last generation of Ouroboros, the one Riku guarded.” Shulk admitted. “Though, I am somewhat curious why another Noah showed up.”

Melia chimed in, “The regret that built within the golden consul over the centuries was one that turned out to have physical consequences, for him anyway. I assume it was a similar result with Mio.”

They had made it to the very center of Origin, where all of the power of the Ontos core spread outward to the rest of the gargantuan machine. Riku grimaced as the sight of a familiar looking building entered his view.

“Why is the amphitheatre still here?” The blue nopon wondered with an audible annoyance to his voice clear to the rest of the party. He did not spend all that time working towards taking down Z, only for a remnant of Z to remain beyond both the existence of himself and Aionios.

The ride down the floating platform was their final obstacle to the nucleus, and with that out of the way the quartet swung open the doors to the amphitheatre. It looked exactly like it did when the final party of Ouroboros arrived, much to the confusion of the group.

“Why is it that this remains?” Melia asked, the emptiness of the building making chills run down her spine. The rows of empty chairs, once filled with Moebius, now sat without an audience towards a stage without performers.

Shulk walked up to the stage itself, passing by the closest row of seats to the stage. He laid his hand against the wall, before the control panel opened out of the floor. “Well, good to see it still functions as the Origin control center.”

He began to run the diagnostic check, seeing what exactly went wrong during the eruption of  blinding light. It all looked fine to him, until he got to the power control module. “The Ontos core is gone.”

The calm, rather dissonant tone of Shulk’s voice did nothing to help the other three as they began panicking.

“What do you mean the Ontos core is gone?” Melia questioned with firm worriedness. “Did it have another phase shift, and now is no longer in our dimension?”

“I have no idea. All I know is that Ontos is no longer within its power control port.” Shulk pressed a button on the panel in front of him, a part of the wall opening up to reveal an energy terminal with a familiar shape. “Where it is, I have no clue.”

Somewhere, beyond the view of the group, a smirk erupted on the one watching them.

Four are here now; the next group has almost arrived.

Chapter Text

Gormott

Rex bolted awake as if he was hit by a titanship in his sleep. He looked around with a panicked eye as he viewed a place that was familiar yet so alien to him. It was the master bedroom of the castle, as pristine as he last saw it. The Leftherian sank back onto the bed, empty of the other occupants, and began focusing his memories.

His hand touched his face, feeling his left eye even as a flash of the battle where Alpha took it out entered his mind. Finding Glimmer, now twenty and without her memories of him, in Cent-Omnia and requiring him to figure out how to deal with her lack of knowledge even as he tries to act fatherly. The battle that required him to part from Glimmer once more; even after affirming they would see each other again, Rex still needed the time to cry within Origin’s Core.

The clock on the wall made it clear it was barely after midnight. Origin had worked; thanks to the last generation of Ouroboros, the twin worlds were no longer tyrannised by Moebius. Rex nearly let his eyes close and drift back into sleep, but the memories of his time as the avatar of Origin made him remember one important detail: One of those Ouroboros were Mio.

Rex slowly made his way out of the master bedroom, still not used to being back in these surroundings. The walls looked too clean, too normal for what he had seen when the castle fell under the control of Nia’s robotic duplicate. The halls felt too empty; Nia had sent most of the staff home for the night, making sure they weren’t here if anything went wrong

It very much did go wrong, the voice in his head reminded him. Rex put his hands on his temples as he walked down the residential wing, trying to remember the layout. The centuries within Aionios took up more of his mind than he wanted; as memories of Aionios flooded back, he kept losing his place.

It took a while for him to find where he was going, as he stopped multiple times to reorient his mind back on his objective. He found the trio of doors he was looking for and began searching. The first two were empty of their occupants, Rex began panicking from this, but his heart calmed down when he entered the last room.

His children had clearly decided to bunk together for the night. Mio was the one in the bed, given that this was her room, and the stuffed doll of Dromarch was held tightly in her arms. Glimmer had taken a bunch of pillows from her room and built an impromptu mattress. Milton was simply sleeping on some blankets, the light glowing in his hand acting like a little night light for the three.

The tension from Rex’s shoulders finally faded as he quietly closed the door. His children were safe and unknowing, that was the biggest thing, but he still had people that needed checking up on. He turned around, hoping to continue his walk through the castle; instead, he crashed right into someone in the dark.

“Bloody hell, if yer lookin’ to harm ‘em-” The threat was something that ironically comforted Rex, as it meant one of the people he was looking for was right in front of him. “... Oh, Rex?”

Nia, the water-wielding Flesh Eater and the feisty Gormotti queen, was right in front of him. Rex couldn’t help but hold her tight, pressing his face against the top of her head and her long fuzzy ears.

“It’s good’ta see’ya again, Rex.” Nia said with teary eyes. “Almost thought yer a Moebius that survived Aionios dying for a sec. Nearly gave me a heart attack.” She wiped away some of the tears with her hand. “You’ave no idea what I’d been through once I woken up.”

“Actually…” Rex interrupted the moment through his reveal. “I kinda do.”

Nia’s ears flattened out as she raised her head. “What’s that supposed’ta mean?”

Rex finally lowered Nia back to the ground, “I spent some time as part of Origin’s mainframe. I saw a bunch’a stuff while I was there. It’s a long story.”

The two of them looked out the window towards Origin, a symbol of accomplishment, before a bright light suddenly erupted from its core. The two of them winced in pain from the sudden brightness, before it stopped nearly as quickly as it began. All that was left was empty sky.

“Where the’ell it go?” Nia questioned as she rubbed her eyes, as if lack of sleep was making her hallucinate. Unfortunately for the two of them, what they were seeing was the truth: Origin had vanished when the flash of light occurred. 

“Ah, titan's foot” Rex cursed, purposefully subduing the worry in his voice for Nia’s sake. “I’ve no clue.” He tried to think about a potential solution, but only one idea appeared in his mind. “Let’s get t’the Cloudkeep, check’up on Pyra ‘nd Mythra.”

“Only plan we got, so might’s’ell.” Nia began walking away, before suddenly stopping and reversing. “I’ve gotta get outta these bloody heels first.”

Nia removing her queenly dress and switching over to her Lifesage garb was as simple as a touch of her core crystal; with that out of the way, the two of them made their way to the dock of the castle. They picked one of the smaller Titanships that sat docked and began the flight over.

What was now called the Cloudkeep sat over on the other side of Gormott, where the remnant of old White Chair remained, decades after its destruction following Mor Ardain’s takeover of the titan. Nia had said that after decades of rule being administered from Torigoth, even those that advocated rebuilding White Chair gave up on relocating the capital.

They quickly made their way to the Serene Hall, greeted by Roc and Dromarch. “Rex, my lady, I’m assuming that your being here means Origin was successful in its function.”

Nia made a so-so gesture with her hand. “Eh, kind’ve. It’s a long story. Roc, go back to the castle. Keep an eye’n th’ kids. Same with you, Dromarch. We’ve lots to talk with them, privately.”

“Got it, Nia.” Roc picked up Dromarch in his hands, the white tiger trying to get out of the grasp.

“Hey, there’s no need-” Dromarch tried to complain, before Roc ran over to the window and jumped out of it.

Nia put her hand over the control module for the supercomputer, and with a flick of the wrist opened up the stasis pod. Within laid the green, completed Aegis, in the same pose they first encountered Pyra in all those years prior.

She stepped out on her own, the long braided mint-coloured hair falling to the floor, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Ugh, that was annoying.” Pneuma complained as she unfused, temporarily dissolving into light before the forms of Pyra and Mythra appeared.

Rex pulled the both of them into a hug before they had a chance to say anything else. “I don’t know if yer rememberin’ anything, but it’d been so long since I’ve seen ya’ last.”

Pyra sighed before putting her hand on Rex’s cheek. “Don’t worry, Rex, we remember Aionios. You don’t need to tell us.”

On the other hand, Mythra pouted and crossed her arms. “I hope you understand how worried we were when you were without us.” Mythra nonetheless laid her head against Rex’s chest. “Is everything still wrong?”

“Yep. For some fekkin’ reason, Origin up and vanished on us. Guess Origin still had once last surprise waitin’ fer us after Aionios ended.” Nia revealed to Pyra and Mythra, before adding herself to the hug by putting herself between Rex’s arms and the twin Aegises. “Yer gonna tell us some stuff, yeah?”

“After the Alpha crisis, and Matthew’s journey, the Ouroboros knuckles that contained our core were stored and passed down in the City for the centuries passed, eventually ending up in the hands of Riku. You remember the Homs child Noah, right Nia?” Pyra began to explain while fussing with Nia’s ear. Nia began to blush from the contact and the heat Pyra was giving off.

Nia thought back to meeting Noah during their meeting after the death of consul D. “Yep, he had the Lucky Seven. I’m assuming yer core was with them too, yeah?”

“Riku integrated the Ouroboros knuckles into the Veiled Sword, and that extra power helped the Ouroboros in their endeavour.” Mythra chuckled. “Still was surprised to see Mio there, though. Guess adventure’s just part of our family, isn’t it?”

Rex smiled his big dumb grin, before relinquishing the three from the hug. “Do ya happen’ta know where Origin went? I think it would be best t’ get over there and see what’s goin’ on?”

Pyra looked out the window, before pointing in a direction in the night sky. “It’s roughly thirty degrees north-east.”

“Can you head back and gather everyone?” Rex asked Pyra. “I don’t know if they have their memories of Aionios, but it might overwhelm them if they do.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’re not worried.”

Flying the Titanship over to where Origin relocated itself, Rex and Nia landed in Origin’s docking bay. From the inside, the metal sphere looked roughly the same as it always did, except for one thing. The two of them noticed the docking bay was not empty; instead, there was a flying machine that did not fit in their world.

“Is that a havres? Rex questioned aloud as he looked at the machine. He poked at it, just to make sure it wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him.

“Oh, yer gotta be kiddin’ me.” Nia groaned as she planted her hands against her face. “Here’s hopin’ nothin’ got crossed from our world into their’s.”

They made their way to the core of Origin, hoping to figure out if anything went wrong in the internal systems. The site of the amphitheatre was one that worried the pair, making them worry about something malevolent potentially being spat out by Origin.

“The only Moebius left was Triton, but he was a big friendly fellow.” Nia thought of her brief encounter with the wannabe pirate. “You’n’him would’ve gotten along great.”

They entered the nucleus, only to see something that they were least expecting.

“Shulk?” Rex asked the blond, who quickly turned around to the call of his name with a voice that should not be here.

The rest of Shulk’s group turned to face the pair, eyes quickly widening at them. Melia spoke up first. “Not to be rude, but how in Bionis did you, well, get here?”

“We just flew a titanship here. Went from th’ Cloudkeep, before that the castle.” Nia explained as she put her hands on her temples. “Oh Architect, please tell me this doesn’t mean what I think it does?”

“Riku not sure if Nia find answer she wants.”

“Why’d you answer, ya blue fuzzball? Yer not Klaus!” Nia snipped at the Nopon weaponsmith. She put her hands up as if she was planning to claw at Riku.

“Nia, don’t scratch up Riku. We are just as confused as you are.” Shulk got between Nia and Riku before putting a hand under his chin. “It appears that what happened is simple: for some reason, Origin did not put our worlds back how they were before the Intersection, and instead combined them into a single world.”

Panacea sat on the ground, holding her head as if in pain. “Ugh, just when I thought I didn’t need to think about this stuff anymore.”

“I suppose the first order of business is starting from the beginning.” Melia took her stance and looked at the Alrestians. “Did anyone back in your home remember Aionios?”

“Other than Pyra ‘nd Mythra, we didn’t check.” Rex answered while pinching the bridge of his nose. “Everyone’s still asleep, but we did tell Dromarch and Roc to get ‘em all to the castle ASAP.”

Shulk began thinking. “Back in Alcamoth, it seemed nobody but us remembered anything about Aionios. Maybe because we weren’t… slain, had our spirits manifested as objects, or some other. I think their memories might simply be sealed beyond our reach.”

“Are we sure we even want them t’ remember?” Nia questioned. “Last I checked, Aionios was filled with lots of trauma that I really would prefer people not know about.”

“Before, I only thought about our world, but with our two worlds becoming one that’s even more people that- nevermind that.” Shulk scratched the side of his head. “I continue to wonder, what caused Origin to relocate itself?”

“I did.” A voice from their side stated.

The group turned to where the voice originated, and who they saw surprised Shulk and Rex: someone with navy and black armour, a lilac cape, silver hair going down to the waist, and the red Trinity Processor hanging from an ear.

A gave them a faint smile while clasping hands together. “I hope you don’t mind staying a while; we have much to discuss.”

Chapter Text

Origin

Melia was the first one to do more than stare at the uninvited guest. She spoke up, but any attempt at putting on a commanding voice fit for royalty failed, leaving only a surprised gasp. "A-Alvis?"

A raised an eyebrow towards Melia. “I know it has been quite some time, and that I look quite different from when we last met, but I am glad to see you are able to recognise me.” A stated, flicking A’s left ear to emphasise the glowing red crystal.

Shulk, having since been used to the change, nudged Melia's arm. "Remember what you said? 'A gift from Alvis'? That gift ended up returning in a different form."

Melia took a moment to process what she was looking at and what Shulk said. The person that stood in front of the group had an appearance that was at the same time familiar and alien. “Well, my apologies, Alvis. I was not informed of what your new appearance looked like, and I am still somewhat jittery- as Reyn would say- after everything that has occurred.”

“No matter; spending nearly as long as one third of Origin’s avatar, with these two I might add, as you were captured, annoyed me, I will admit.” A stated, hoping to keep the conversation from getting bogged down on this piece of information. “And for now, A is what I’d rather be called.”

Rex tried to pat A on the shoulder, only for A to slowly move his hand away. “I gotta say, I’m glad’ta see a familiar face ‘ere. I’d hoped to see ya again.”

Nia groaned and put her hands in her face. “This is Pyra’n’Mythra’s long-lost sibling, eh? Those two’re gonna be mad they missed th’ chance to meet’ya.”

“They will get that chance later on. Right now, my attention is focused solely on the situation at hand.” A replied to Nia, though A secretly was excited to meet Pyra and Mythra, though had to keep up the act of stoicism for the time being.

Shulk, now having begun putting the pieces of the puzzle together in his head, pointed at the two Alrestians and asked a simple question. “A, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened that allowed our worlds to fuse like this? I thought that the worlds being made of different types of matter meant they would be annihilated.”

A smirked, a rare outward show of emotion. The smugness from having the intellect of a supercomputer for a brain was clear as glass. With mastery over Origin’s mechanisms, A motioned hands around to manipulate the holo-projectors surrounding the group. “After the initial annihilation of both worlds, they were forcibly pieced together as Aionios. Once the Ouroboros had undone Z’s deeds and put Bionis and Alrest back drifting apart, the two worlds briefly existed as nothing but pure light.”

A visual of the events was projected for the group.

“What occurred afterward was something none of you had foreseen; while matter and antimatter would annihilate each other, light in contrast reacts to both types of particles in identical fashion. With both worlds now made of photons, Origin’s systems began putting the worlds together as if it was always to be.” A explained with the holographic visuals shutting off.

“I think my brain melted a little.” Panacea complained as she massaged her temples.

“Our worlds no longer being considered opposite matter meant they could be put together.” Shulk repeated, making sure he understood what A was saying. “How well did the worlds fuse? Should we be worried about a piece of Colony 6 jutting out of Leftheria?”

“No.” A stated simply. “Now, onto another matter. When the Intersection passed, I became curious about the wielder of the Lucky Seven that put an end to Z.”

“Noah?” Nia asked, “What’s he gotta do anything with this?”

A took a moment, seemingly figuring out how to state what A wanted to say. “As part of the post-Intersection merging of the worlds, I transported him here, to Origin.”

“Why th’fuck wouldya do that?” Nia snipped at A. “That kid’s family must be worried sick ‘cause of your stunt.”

“This is merely part of the plan of getting the two worlds’ peoples to interact properly for their first encounter.” A explained. “If a Homs is delivered safely back to his home by someone of the other world, it’ll show them that you are a non-hostile people.”

“Wouldn’t you have to have a reversal of that, though?” Rex questioned the logic of A’s plan.

“Correct, that’s why I also grabbed Mio.” The silence after A’s statement was thick enough that not even the Monado could cut through it. “I picked the two that made the most sense to grab. They already have a bond through their time in Aionios, and it would be best to re-nurture that bond in their natural lives.”

A’s reasoning for the actions made did not make Rex that agreeable to the situation. “We’re gonna need a talk about this later.”

“If that is what is necessary, then so be it.” A glanced at Riku, noticing the blue nopon had yet to say anything since A showed up.

Rex decided to move onto another topic, one significantly less awkward. “So what is the plan for the kiddos, about Aionios? Do we tell ‘em what happened?”

“No.” Shulk immediately shot that suggestion down. “The pain Aionios caused among them is far too great for them to know at this young age. Unless and until they start having flashes of the lives spent under Z’s domain, they will not know. Aionios must be a secret kept forever.”

“You’re not normally this dark, Shulk.” Panacea noticed at Shulk’s demand.

“I would rather lose my arm again than subject Nikol to having this knowledge.” Shulk grimly stated.

Nia flicked Shulk on the shoulder to get his attention. “I think you should at least tell Fiora about it. Get ‘er caught up on what happened when we were away.”

“Alright.” Shulk conceded. “I just hope she isn’t going to be too worried.”

A tapped a wrist as if A was wearing a watch. “I would recommend going now. Sunrise is only 1 hour and 43 minutes away.”

The group began walking away, off to their various things, only for Shulk to stop and reverse. “So are you stuck here or…?”

“Negative. I can leave whenever I want.” A replied.

“If I’m going to tell them, I might need proof of your existence.”

A few seconds of silence from A passed. “Alright then.”

“And one more question: why the Amphitheatre?”

“It amused me.” A admitted.

A’s plan was in motion, and now A had nothing to worry about as the first meeting of the now-unified worlds was to begin. Maybe A should have told them about the falling object that entered the atmosphere during their conversation, but that was a story for another day.