Not a ff14 player so may get a few wrong but I think there's more than that. The scythe thing said in story to be one got used twice on Behemoth and once on Levi, what was probably a Dragoon did the jump that had a dragon blast, someone noted someone using one in the distance as a big pillar of light, there's the things at the end with the gate and dark orb which may be them and Eidolon in his musing noted they do them one at a time unless they do them 3 in a row since I don't think that happened during Ziz that means it may have happened here.
Weary Wanderer (Final Fantasy 14/Worm Crossover) [Complete]
- Thread starter SmartAlek
- Start date
-
- Tags
- ffxiv final fantasy worm
Not a ff14 player so may get a few wrong but I think there's more than that. The scythe thing said in story to be one got used twice on Behemoth and once on Levi, what was probably a Dragoon did the jump that had a dragon blast, someone noted someone using one in the distance as a big pillar of light, there's the things at the end with the gate and dark orb which may be them and Eidolon in his musing noted they do them one at a time unless they do them 3 in a row since I don't think that happened during Ziz that means it may have happened here.
- Location
- Regina Sask
Yep, dps wasted LB3 on a 2% finisher instead of saving it for the tank mech.
This story is hilarious, I love how exasperated everybody is with Azem. It seems like it won't be overstaying its welcome, too. Feels like the end of the expansion for him, from here on it's just revisiting the places he's been and getting patted on the back for a bit before heading somewhere new for the next crisis. Maybe a dungeon opens up here and there, but WoL can't visit any new regions at this point!
It's too bad he was disappointed by the casino, clearly he needs to get together with the old Asian ladies he's met and play some mahjong.
It's too bad he was disappointed by the casino, clearly he needs to get together with the old Asian ladies he's met and play some mahjong.
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Azem's party member: "Turns out that they were weak because they were just prep for us to get a few limit breaks before the boss battle. Neat."
JBcristal
Bring Me All The Puppies!
- Location
- Somewhere that doesn't have enough puppies.
Sorta! So the obvious enough thing you can probably gleam from other comments is that they're pulling a Limit Break, fancy moves you use in-game once a party-shared bar fills up enough, that go from one third filled to full bar in potency. Thus, LB1, LB2, LB3. Now, this also every so often refills quicker mid-battle in preparation of "shield or die, Tank LB3" mechanics. But that's just game mechanics, innit?
Well... the thing is, there's an actual in-universe, in-story explanation and an actual logic behind these, it's not just game logic at play. So there's a good reason to believe bun boy dun goofed up. Notice two shields, and not a third.
Sadly it's "fuel's" wiki page is kind of filled with turbo spoilers for the FF14 endgame, so... I think I'll allow the story a chance to mention what it is.
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The Warrior and the Warriors (of Light)
- Location
- Arizona
Chapter Twenty-nine: The Warrior and the Warriors (of Light)
Even once the golden light had faded enough to see, leaving Eidolon blinking spots out of his vision, Azem and his allies were obscured from sight by their own cascade of white-blue light. At least that meant they were still alive. When that finally faded, it was possible to see that two-thirds of them were still standing, with the final third collapsed on the ground next to them.
It wasn't a surprise to Eidolon that a single attack from Scion could wipe out a third of Azem's group, but it should have been a surprise to Azem and his allies. They looked unconcerned by this turn of events, however. There were a few snickers.
"Well, party C is down," one of the remaining people said blithely.
"It's nap time," another one said, almost wistful. "I wish that was me."
"Yeah, I saw," said another, gesturing half-heartedly with her staff in the direction of their fallen comrades.
A pillar of light engulfed one of the fallen people, chosen seemingly at random. After a second, the light faded, revealing that person now standing upright. He looked around.
"Oh," he said, and sighed.
With a flick of his hand, the four rods on his back spun out into formation around him, pointing straight down, and began to glow – gold, which was a little unfortunate under the circumstances. He raised his arms up, and the four glowing rods twirled upwards, leaving trails of golden light behind them, while root-like glowing lines shot out across the ground, giving the impression of a tall, golden tree. Motes of light began to sprinkle down from the top of the tree, until the tree faded, leaving just the motes of light still slowly falling.
Before they had all finished falling, there were seven more pillars of light, which faded to reveal the rest of the ones who'd died to Scion's attack, all looking perfectly unharmed.
"Nice one," said one of the others, the ones who hadn't died.
"How's the floor?" asked another.
"Pretty comfy, actually," said one of the ones who'd died.
The one with the axe bristled. "How was I supposed to know this boss would start off with an insta-kill?" he said defensively.
"Well, at least your party still had its Limit Break," another one who hadn't died said brightly.
Half the group of insane people laughed. Even the one who'd brought the other seven back to life smirked. The one with the axe glared.
Scion tired of watching the spectacle, or whatever he'd been doing, and dove at Azem, who gestured at him like, come at me. Bold. Or just ignorant; Azem had no reason to know what Scion was.
Eidolon shared a look with Legend and Alexandria. They'd expected to have years before they had to fight Scion. It wasn't supposed to happen yet. They had no idea what would happen now. Had Scion decided to drop his hero act? Was he only targeting Azem and his allies? Either way, it wasn't like they could stand back and wait; if there was a chance of killing Scion, early and unexpected though the battle was, they had to seize it.
Eidolon nodded. Legend and Alexandria could do as they pleased, but Eidolon was joining the fight.
Scion slammed into Azem's shield with an immense clang and a minor shockwave to demonstrate just how strong both of them were. Neither of them reacted visibly. Scion zipped around Azem to strike at his back, only for the green-skinned woman to slide into the way and block with her massive sword. The rest of the crowd of Azem's allies closed in, with every weapon at their disposal. A burst of glowing arrows hit Scion in the back and shoulders, each embedding themselves very slightly into him before disappearing.
Swords and daggers and spears slashed at Scion, dealing tiny wounds but drawing no blood. Eidolon wasn't sure if Scion had blood. Scion didn't simply hang there and take it, however; he spun and lashed out for every blow he received, often knocking whoever he'd attacked away and injuring badly enough that they had to be healed.
Distantly aware of the few dozen capes around them watching in shock and confusion, Eidolon watched and waited for an opening. There weren't many powers he could use that had even a chance of harming Scion that wouldn't also injure everyone around him. Scion moved in a blur, so fast that Eidolon could hardly track him, so even more aimed powers might be difficult to use. It would be hard enough to actually hit Scion, much less while avoiding Azem and his allies.
Eidolon dropped two of his powers. Azem left an opening and Scion punched him in the chest, puncturing straight through his armor and tearing a bloody wound. While Azem staggered back, already being enveloped in healing light from his allies, the axe-wielding man took his place with a roar.
Taking stock of his new powers, Eidolon was bemused to find a support power he'd never encountered before, which allowed him to include or exclude people from power effects. It was next to useless on its own, but combined with the all-or-nothing power he'd gotten in his other power slot, it was unspeakably helpful. With full confidence in his newfound ability to attack Scion without harming the crowd of people around him, Eidolon began launching blasts into the fray. It was higher-powered than he might normally use so close to the ground, but the surrounding area was already destroyed anyway.
Alexandria hesitated nearby, clearly also watching for an opportunity. She wasn't used to being anything other than the main close-range fighter who held the enemy's attention, so it was probably strange for her.
Meanwhile, Legend went over to address their remaining allies, who were still staring. Admittedly, if Eidolon hadn't already known about Scion's secret evilness, he also wouldn't know what to do. Legend was the best with people out of the three of them, but even his attempt at a speech was short, just enough to clarify that yes, they were fighting Scion now. Time was short, and explaining that Scion was actually the avatar of an evil alien would not be short.
Without warning, Scion appeared to give up on the ungainly, yet superspeed, brawling, and clapped his hands sharply. Azem and his allies, who clearly hadn't been expecting such a thing, went stock still.
Alexandria spotted her opportunity and dove in. Scion turned on Eidolon and blasted one of those massive golden beams at him.
Shit.
Eidolon dashed to get out of the way, but the laser was incredibly quick-moving. Frantic, he dropped the support power he was using and hoped for something useful. Just in time, the new power popped into place: teleportation. Yes! At the last second, with the laser bearing down on him so close he could practically feel the heat of it, Eidolon pulled on this new power and teleported out of the laser's path.
From the other side of Scion, he watched the golden beam shoot off into the sky, and let out a shaky breath.
There was a spray of blood, drawing Eidolon's attention to where Alexandria had closed into battle with Scion, and he watched as Scion tossed away the chunk of bloody flesh he'd torn from Alexandria's abdomen. She swung a punch at Scion's head and tried to back off, but he barely even twitched at the blow and reached out again. He caught her by the arm and, with seemingly no effort, held her where she was no matter how she strained.
Eidolon couldn't do anything; with the loss of the power that allowed him to choose who he did and did not effect, he would end up hurting Alexandria far more than Scion. And he wasn't willing to let go of his teleportation power in exchange for it, not when Scion might attack him again as soon as he did.
Somewhat begrudgingly, he let go of the offensive power he'd been using; powerful as it was, it was no good to him while Scion was in the midst of allies. Alexandria kicked Scion in the gut, achieving no visible result, and lost a chunk of thigh for her trouble.
It seemed Scion had a dark sense of humor.
One of Legend's lasers, pin-point accurate, hit Scion in the face, making him shake his head like he'd gotten a pesky bit of sunlight in his eyes. A half-dozen capes Eidolon didn't recognize threw themselves into the fray at nearly the same moment, putting everything they had into attacking Scion. They successfully drew Scion's attention for a moment, just long enough for him to hit them with one of those golden beams and wipe them out of existence, except for Legend, who managed to dodge.
Eidolon didn't let himself wince. He didn't know if Azem and his allies, assuming they ever woke up from whatever trance Scion had put them in, could bring people back from that. It didn't matter, as long as Scion died in the end.
They'd always known how much they would have to sacrifice if they were to save their worlds.
Eidolon's next power was some form of slow-leeching damage that built over time. Odd, but Eidolon didn't have time to question it. He used it to throw out a glowing tether, which latched onto Scion. Scion's attention snapped to it, and he lashed out with the hand that wasn't holding Alexandria, breaking the tether.
Of course.
Scion wasn't entirely stupid, and naturally if there was a chance that the over-time damage could build up enough to be harmful to him, he wouldn't allow such a thing to continue. It figured that one of the only powers Eidolon could use that might actually hurt Scion without killing his own allies would turn out to be useless after all.
But it did successfully give Alexandria an opening; she wrenched her arm out of Scion's grasp, leaving bloody gouges down the length of it, and backed up and away, into the sky. Scion launched another golden beam at Eidolon before following swiftly, and Eidolon teleported out of the way and threw out another tether, because if he was going to be reduced to a nuisance, at least he would be the biggest thorn in Scion's side that he could. Legend obviously felt the same, given the barrage of white-blue lasers that Scion didn't seem to notice.
This tether earned far less of a reaction, as well. Scion shrugged it off easily and didn't even slow down. The third didn't even manage to latch onto him.
As another group of well-meaning capes attempted to intervene in Alexandria's favor, Eidolon gritted his teeth and dropped the power. It was fine. The advantage of his power was that he could keep switching out powers as Scion adapted to them – as apparently he could do very quickly. Unsurprising, given that he was, after all, one of the Entities from which superpowers originated.
The new power was, bafflingly, a low-powered (for Eidolon) wide-ranging electricity generation power. Eidolon generated one of the electric fields around Scion, unsurprised when he ignored it, and then realized where it had come from. The vague thought of snapping Azem and his allies out of whatever Scion had done to them.
He had his doubts that being shocked would be good enough, but there was no reason not to try it. If not for the tier of attacks he'd seen Azem and his allies shrug off, not to mention the level of damage they'd taken and healed from, he wouldn't be willing to risk using one of his powers on his own allies, but at this point, he was pretty sure he couldn't do any more damage. If there was a chance of returning them to the fight, it was worth it. Especially considering that they'd held Scion's attention and survived it for far longer than Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend could.
To Eidolon's surprise, the jolt of electricity when he put up a field around Azem and his allies earned several pained yelps and one very put out ow. Even as they were still shaking off the effects of whatever Scion did, they quickly analyzed and caught up to the new circumstances of the battle. The purpose of the latest power served, Eidolon dropped it and hoped for something more useful.
A barrage of attacks flew towards Scion, Azem's thrown shield at the forefront, almost every single one of them connecting despite the speeds Scion was moving at. Scion whipped around immediately and raised a hand, but before he could do anything, one of Azem's bow-wielding allies snapped out some kind of whip of light and smacked Scion with it.
It didn't do anything, but Scion's constant, low-level projection of sadness changed to a sort of confused offense.
Eidolon got in one good hit with the large-scale offensive power he'd gotten, diverting Scion's attention long enough for another golden beam, before Scion dropped back down into the midst of Azem and the others and he was forced to switch it out again.
Alexandria hung in the air, panting and bleeding heavily from numerous wounds she hadn't been quick enough to dodge. A wave of white light gathered around her, and when it cleared her injuries had knit themselves closed flawlessly, as though she'd never been injured. Alexandria's biology was weird, but it seemed Azem and his allies could heal even her.
As Scion returned to effectively brawling with Azem and the others, who traded off skillfully to block his attacks, Eidolon analyzed his latest power. It was another one he'd never gotten before. It allowed for the creation of what were essentially tiny portals – whatever was within a small bubble upon its creation would be exchanged with something, chosen at random from a random Earth. That seemed reasonably capable of injuring Scion, without injuring anyone nearby.
In the second that Scion stood fairly still, in the midst of catching the green-skinned woman's blade as it swung towards him, Eidolon created one of those bubble-portals on Scion's head. It happened almost too fast to see. A head-sized chunk of what looked like concrete (ah, oops) fell to the ground, and Scion looked up at Eidolon expressionlessly.
The axe-wielding man brought his axe down on Scion's head with a yell. The rest of their close-range combatants followed shortly afterwards, the barrage of attacks from their ranged companions unceasing, yet none of their attacks seemed to be doing any damage, not even the fractions of damage they had before.
Like with Eidolon's own powers, Scion must have built up his defenses to them. Azem and his allies were losing effectiveness.
Scion grabbed the axe and picked its wielder up by it, swinging him around and then tossing him away into a cluster of the others, who went toppling over like bowling pins.
"Get off me, you're heavy," one of them complained.
"How about all of you get off me?!" the one on the bottom shouted as Azem and the green-skinned woman closed back in to draw Scion's attention.
But they weren't doing any more damage than any of the others had been. Scion was toying with them now; either too confident or too stupid to end the battle any more quickly, but did it matter if none of them could do anything to him? Even Azem had lost any effectiveness.
Suddenly, all of Azem's allies broke and ran, dashing away from Scion and leaving him facing him alone. Were they abandoning him, giving up on the fight? No. With his bird's eye view, Eidolon saw what had caused them to run. Some kind of massive tinkertech cannonball had been fired from the capes who were cowering some way away from the battle, and it was about to land directly on top of Scion... and Azem.
At the last second, as the cannonball(?) bore down on them, throwing their battlefield into shadow, one of Azem's allies threw out a glowing tether, which attached to Azem and dragged him, ungainly but swift, out of the path to where the rest of them had gathered.
The cannonball slammed down onto Scion and sank a foot into the ground, but did not explode, so it wasn't quite a cannonball. In fact, it didn't seem to be doing much of anything.
Azem and his allies observed this in silence for about two seconds.
"So, has anybody else noticed his defense going up, or something?" one of them said casually.
"Yes! I thought I was going crazy!" one of the others said.
Another nodded. "We were definitely doing more damage before."
They considered this.
"Typical," one of them said with a sigh. "There has to be some trick to it, right? Plus his regeneration is crazy fast."
Eidolon dropped down to be within conversational range of them. "Scion's powers allow him to adapt to any power used on him," he told them, hoping they might be able to do something about it.
Otherwise it would be entirely up to Eidolon, and he was running out of ideas. He had a matter generation power now, which might be able to do a significant amount of damage to Scion, but given how quickly Scion had recovered from literally losing his head, he had his doubts about how effective it would be.
"Oh, of course he does," one of them said, groaning.
"Okay, so, what, we have to use different attacks on him?" another one asked thoughtfully.
"I'm still doing some damage," said another. They were the only one who inexplicably fought with a book – though considering they were one of the long-range Blasters, they could use whatever 'weapon' they liked, really. "So maybe it depends on Job? The more of a given kind of attack has been used on him, the more resistant he is to it."
"Well, then we definitely have to switch," said one of the four people who carried a bow, indicating himself and the other three. "I call dibs on Samurai."
"What, no fair! I want Monk, then," said another.
More than half of them argued and chattered about this apparently very important selection for a while before evidently coming to a decision. Eidolon averted his gaze, having some idea of what was coming, and as expected, there was a series of blinding bursts of light in the next moment. He looked back to find all of them except the one who'd had a book wielding different weapons and most of them wearing different clothes.
Azem had switched out his silvery armor, blue cape, and white mask for a long black coat with golden embroidery over similarly-colored pants and boots, and the same mask, but now black to match.
The one who'd claimed 'Monk' was not dressed as a monk at all, but an all-black, close-fitting jacket and pants with silver chains standing out on it, as well as horn-like protrusions of flame sticking off the back of the jacket. The helmet was demonic-looking, with wide, glowing eyes. The entire outfit would have been rather intimidating... if not for the fact that it was one of the little people who wore it, making the whole thing almost silly instead.
"Seriously, you don't even change your outfit by Job?" one of them asked, looking judgmentally at the scantily-clad rabbit-eared man, who was still wearing the same outfit, consisting of nothing but a leopard-print speedo and pink slippers.
He sniffed and flipped a page in the book he was now holding. "Have you seen what regular armors look like?" he replied, and glanced with disdain towards several of the others, who were, indeed, wearing armor. "You wouldn't catch me dead in that."
Several of the others looked at him dubiously.
"That is better?" one of them wondered.
The argument was interrupted, however, as a man in half-destroyed power armor ran up. "Did it work?" he gasped out, looking at the cannonball-esque thing they'd dropped on Scion. "Is he trapped?"
They all looked back in that direction, just in time for Scion to smash his way through the side of it, sending metal flying. He floated serenely out of what was evidently intended to be a prison.
"Guess not," one of Azem's allies said.
"Shit," said the Tinker, and turned and booked it in the opposite direction.
Probably a wise decision. Eidolon also put some distance between himself and Azem's group. He also, before Scion could end up back in hand-to-hand range of Azem and the others, used the matter generation power to create an orb of carbon directly inside Scion's ear – which rapidly expanded until it was several feet across. There was a flicker, a blurring of reality where it almost looked like Scion had been exploded as a real person would have been.
Then Scion was there, standing in front of the carbon orb, looking as though nothing had ever happened. His white jumpsuit, previously splattered with Alexandria's blood, was now clean, in fact.
"Annoyingly quick regen," one of Azem's allies said.
"We'll just have to do a lot of damage really quickly, then," another said with meaning, and they charged back into battle.
Azem had exchanged his sword and shield for just a sword, but his defensive capabilities didn't seem to have changed much, particularly as, inexplicably, this sword appeared to come with the power to make force fields. Short-lasting, relatively weak ones, but anything able to withstand a hit from Scion was nothing to be scoffed at.
"What are we doing?" Alexandria asked from next to Eidolon's shoulder, and he turned to find her and Legend hovering nearby.
He turned back to the fight and decided not to respond with the first three snarky things he'd thought of. It was a valid question, after all.
"I'm not sure," he said eventually. "But I wouldn't recommend getting too close to the fight."
He had a sneaking suspicion of what Azem and his allies would be doing shortly, and he didn't think any of them wanted to be caught in it.
Alexandria scoffed. "Of course not," she said, a little bitter-sounding.
That was fair enough. It effectively disqualified her from the fight. Eidolon would have been bitter, too. He was bitter, in some small, dark place inside him that was furious about being sidelined from the fight he'd been expecting to have to win for over a decade. But more than that, he was simply incredibly relieved that they didn't have to fight Scion without Azem and his allies, who were honestly carrying the battle.
"Nothing we do seems to matter," Legend said.
"Nothing anyone does seems to matter," said Eidolon, shaking his head. "Who even knows the full extent of Scion's ability to regenerate?"
Maybe he couldn't be killed. He was simply the avatar of the Entity, after all. There was no reason to think that even if they managed to destroy him, he wouldn't simply reform forever. The only way to truly win was to access the locked dimension that housed his true body, which they had no idea how to do.
"I'll get the Limit Break!" one of Azem's allies called out. "Ready?"
"Ready here," said the rabbit-eared man.
"Er, give us one second," said another person.
Nobody else commented. What were the rules of their so-called 'Limit Break'? Give 'us' a second? Was it a group effort, then, despite how it appeared to only be a single given person performing the attack?
"Okay, ready!" a different person, the little one who'd claimed to be a 'monk,' called out. "Let's do it!"
He(?) took a stance, legs spread wide, and drew back as though for a big punch. The first one who'd initially called out lifted his sword straight in the air with both hands. The rabbit-eared man lifted his book high in one hand. Light began to gather around all three's feet. Finally, almost simultaneously, they finished charging their attacks.
The one with the sword slashed out so quickly it was hard to keep up, one-two-three-four-five-six, and then on the seventh there was a massive blast of energy that swept past Scion in a wave. The little one dashed forward, straight past Scion, and once he'd passed, a pillar of light erupted on top of Scion. The rabbit-eared man promptly sprouted a pair of blue wings and lifted into the air, then shot out a dozen different lasers that flew up into the sky before curving around to slam into Scion, each one producing a different giant explosion.
All of these things happened at almost the same time. None of them seemed a bit concerned about being caught in each other's attacks, and indeed, they didn't seem to have suffered any ill-effects from it.
It took several eternally long seconds for the smoke to clear, and Eidolon waited with bated breath. He hoped for good results, though he wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but he forced himself to be realistic and prepare for the possibility that Scion would still be standing there, perfectly intact and uncaring of the brutal assault he'd just been the target of.
When the smoke cleared, Scion was still there, floating a few feet above the ground, and Eidolon's heart sank. Then he noticed that Scion was... flaking away.
Starting from his hands, feet, and the tips of his long hair, Scion was disintegrating. Slowly, he drifted downwards, and when his feet hit the ground, he burst into a cloud of golden fragments – and a swirling portal. Eidolon blinked hard, unsure if he was seeing correctly, but it was real; the golden dust that Scion had turned into had... spawned some kind of portal, which it was now steadily being pulled into in a swirl like water down a drain.
Azem strode forward, directly into the portal. Without hesitation or words, the other twenty-three people began to follow him in a disorderly line.
Eidolon had to look over at Alexandria and Legend. Alexandria's helmet was damaged enough that he could see large portions of her lower face (which there were plenty of old photos of anyway), and both she and Legend looked as stunned and mystified as Eidolon felt. At least he wasn't the only one who had no idea what was going on here.
What was the portal? Did it lead to Scion's – no, the Warrior's – true body? Was the dimension unlocked, or was this some kind of exception?
Should they go into it?
Uncertain as their motives were, Azem and his allies had yet to steer them wrong – and Eidolon had his own suspicions about why they were so confident when it came to fighting Endbringers and Entities – and they'd gone into the portal, so that was probably the best option. Besides, even if the dimension was still locked and there was no way back, Eidolon had long since accepted the possibility that he might not survive their fight against Scion.
Before Eidolon could decide to go through, however, the last of Azem's allies traipsed through the portal into unknown environs.
"The Warrior?" she said. "Another one?"
And the portal closed behind them.
Lagoon12002
How far have I fell down into this deep deep sea
Yeah, that last comment has got to sting. Get railed, all your witch-cup war-crimes were for nothing and almost every major victory was achieved by the equivalent to a handyman.
Who is Fighting the What?
- Location
- Arizona
Chapter Thirty: Who is Fighting the What?
"Is- is it over now?" the Tinker from before asked once more, approaching cautiously with roughly a dozen other capes – probably all who were left.
"No," Eidolon said, because the Tinker already sounded dubious, and explaining the truth of the Warrior's body wasn't really that much worse than explaining the truth of Scion's existence in the first place. "The battle continues. It's only the battlefield that has changed."
The battlefield had changed to one that Eidolon didn't know the location of and couldn't get to, now that the portal had closed. His teleportation power was strong, but it wouldn't let him get to a dimension he'd never been to before, which was surely where the portal had led. There was really only one way to get there, and that was Doormaker and Clairvoyant – assuming both that the dimension had been unlocked with Scion's 'death,' and that they hadn't already been killed by the Endbringer who'd copied Doormaker's face.
Though, a trip to the Cauldron compound wouldn't be wasted either way. They needed to verify what had happened and who was alive eventually.
"What are you thinking, Eidolon?" Legend asked quietly.
"I'm going to the compound to see what happened there," Eidolon said, similarly quiet to keep from being overheard, but vague in case somebody heard anyway. "Since that one had a familiar face."
Legend nodded; he'd seen the little one with the three faces. Alexandria frowned, catching his implication and concerned by it.
"Familiar?" she said.
Eidolon nodded. "The... one who opens the door," he said, since that was simply an odd thing to say, rather than directly referring to the kind of person who might be called 'Doormaker.'
Alexandria's frown deepened. Unlike with any other member of Cauldron except Clairvoyant, even Doctor Mother, if Doormaker had been attacked or at least copied from, that definitely meant the Cauldron compound had been infiltrated or attacked.
"All right, go. We'll handle things here," said Legend, then looked dubiously towards where the portal had been.
Eidolon certainly hoped the battle didn't come spilling back out into their world, but it didn't seem likely. Drawing on the teleportation power he still had in place, he focused on the Cauldron compound. Teleporting across dimensions to somewhere he obviously couldn't see wasn't an easy task, and it didn't happen instantaneously as easier teleports did. But his power had been gaining power for long enough that within a few moments, Eidolon was standing in the meeting room they typically used for the rare meetings all of them attended.
It looked perfectly normal. No obvious damage, as though an Endbringer had raged through. That didn't necessarily mean much; this room wasn't regularly used.
Eidolon strode past the conference table and out of the room, heading towards the room Clairvoyant and Doormaker stayed in. Under other circumstances, perhaps Doctor Mother and Contessa would have been his first priority. As it stood, however, if there was even a chance that Clairvoyant and Doormaker were still alive – a chance that seemed to be growing more and more as Eidolon made his way through unmarred white halls – then Eidolon's first and only priority was instead the ongoing fight against the Warrior.
Even so, he found Doctor Mother first. She walked down the hall in the opposite direction, Contessa following her, the dutiful bodyguard as usual. Doctor Mother blinked when she saw Eidolon, the only reaction to an undoubtedly unexpected appearance – both his presence, and the state of his costume.
"Oh, Eidolon," said Doctor Mother. "The Leviathan fight is over, then?"
"Is Leviathan dead?" Contessa asked bluntly.
Neither of them was acting as though an Endbringer had attacked the compound. It seemed Eidolon's concerns had been misplaced. The three-faced Endbringer must not have required a given proximity in order to copy a parahuman's power and face.
Eidolon let out a breath. "Well, the short answer is yes. Leviathan is dead," he said. "The long answer is more complicated than that."
Contessa's eyes narrowed. Doctor Mother's brow furrowed.
"I'm going to find Clairvoyant and Doormaker. Come with me and I'll explain," Eidolon said, walking past them.
Doctor Mother immediately turned and fell into step with him, looking quite severe and unimpressed. The tap of Contessa's shoes said she was just behind.
"All right, explain, then. What do you mean, it's more complicated?" Doctor Mother said.
"First off, Behemoth showed up shortly after Leviathan," said Eidolon.
Doctor Mother's eyes widened. "What?"
"And then," Eidolon continued, "another six or more Endbringer-tier monsters came out of nowhere."
"Are you serious?" Doctor Mother asked sharply.
"Do you think I would joke about that?" Eidolon responded shortly. "With Azem's help, we managed to fight them off and kill Leviathan, Behemoth, and the other ones that had appeared. Then Scion showed up."
A moment of silence. From Doctor Mother's expression, he might as well have slapped her.
"What happened? Scion isn't supposed to attack for at least eight years," Contessa said.
Eidolon shrugged. "And yet," he said. He sighed. "I think it was because of Azem. It was Azem that Scion attacked."
"But why Azem?" Doctor Mother said. "Because he can kill Endbringers? That doesn't seem like enough to prompt him to attack early."
"I wonder," Eidolon said slowly.
"You have a theory?" said Doctor Mother.
"Perhaps. But it's not important at the moment," said Eidolon. "Azem managed to destroy Scion's physical body, and doing so created a portal. I believe that portal led to Scion's true body, but I'm not sure."
"Hence your desire to speak to the Clairvoyant and Doormaker," Doctor Mother said, eyes keen, and Eidolon nodded. She nodded back. "All right. I'll handle it."
Eidolon didn't bother to argue. Doctor Mother was among Clairvoyant and Doormaker's primary caretakers, it having been her deal to take care of them in exchange for their – Doormaker's, in particular – services. Needless to say, Eidolon was not among their caretakers. Clairvoyant would be far more comfortable and willing to speak with Doctor Mother than with Eidolon.
Finally coming to the correct door through the labyrinthine corridors that made up Cauldron's compound, Doctor Mother stepped ahead of Eidolon and led the way in. Inside, Clairvoyant and Doormaker were in their usual position; lying near each other with just their hands touching.
Clairvoyant tilted his head towards them in some facsimile of looking at them, though he had no eyes with which to do so. "Doctor?" he said, puzzled.
"Hello, Simon," Doctor Mother said, approaching Clairvoyant and putting a hand on his clothed shoulder. "Did you see our conversation outside?"
A pause. "Oh. Yes," said Clairvoyant.
"Can you see the battle between the Warrior and Azem's forces?" Doctor Mother asked.
"Yes."
"What's happening?"
Clairvoyant scrunched up his nose. "The battle is... big. Messy. Hard to track," he said. "The Warrior controls reality. Azem and his fellow warriors die, and then they come back." He gave a little shrug.
"Controls reality? How do you mean?" said Doctor Mother.
"It has so many different powers," said Clairvoyant. "Gravity, air, space; everything goes upside down, the earth moves under their feet, distances are more – or less – than they should be."
Doctor Mother paused. None of those powers were outside expectations – there were parahumans with variations on them all. All of them together, of course, made for something considerably more threatening.
"Is it possible to open a Door there now?" she asked.
Clairvoyant's head tilted towards Doormaker, who didn't visibly respond, though there wasn't much of him visible in the first place.
"Yes," said Clairvoyant. "But... dangerous."
"It's dangerous to open a Door there?"
A slow nod. "Hard to find somewhere safe to put it," he said. "And the air on the other side might get away."
Doctor Mother blinked, clearly trying to puzzle that one out. Eidolon had little experience with children – which was what Clairvoyant was, for all intents and purposes, albeit a very strange and messed up one – but he had a flash of inspiration.
"There is no air where the Warrior and Azem are?" Eidolon asked, earning himself a sharp look from Doctor Mother.
Clairvoyant didn't seem bothered by his intervention, however. "Yeah. Sometimes."
"How could they possibly fight under those conditions?" Doctor Mother wondered aloud.
There were very few parahumans who didn't require air, and most of them were Case 53s, which Azem and his allies probably weren't, or else ones with powers like Gray Boy, who obviously didn't need to breathe. Those powers were, of course, quite rare, and Azem and his allies didn't show signs of that, either. Eidolon wasn't sure he could call up a power like that, which would leave him useless even if he tried to help.
"They're strong, too. A power I've never seen before," Clairvoyant said, apparently interpreting it as a question for him. "Their sense of self, solid enough to withstand reality collapsing around them. The force of their will, powerful enough to create a place they can live and a field for them to do battle on."
"What? Physical effects, such as creating breathable air, drawn from something as intangible as emotion?" Doctor Mother said disbelievingly.
Clairvoyant shrank back a bit at the harsher tone, then shrugged. "I've never seen it before," he said. "Huh. That's weird."
"What is?" said Doctor Mother.
"Whoa," said Clairvoyant, something approaching real shock and amazement in his voice.
"What?" Doctor Mother said urgently.
Eidolon felt the same way; if not for the rather dire consequences to sharing Clairvoyant's sight, he would have liked to see the battle for himself. Well, he would have preferred to be there, of course, but the lack of breathable air would present a problem for him, so in lieu of that...
Well. Apparently he didn't have any recourse. His only option was to hope that Clairvoyant would relay the details.
"I think they're winning," said Clairvoyant. "Oh. Ouch. Yeah."
Eidolon closed his eyes, trying to stay calm and not get annoyed.
"What's happening?" Doctor Mother asked.
"A big attack... It destroyed a lot of the Warrior's true body," Clairvoyant said. "It's not healing. It's weakening fast now. I don't think it's going to last much longer."
"It's not healing," said Eidolon. That changed a lot; half the reason Scion had been so difficult to defeat was his incredibly fast regeneration.
"No, I suppose it wouldn't," Doctor Mother said. "If the Warrior is made up of a multitude of Agents like the Thinker, it's a good deal more difficult to recreate that."
Eidolon nodded. That was true. Scion had been essentially a projection; the very simple matter required to reform him was inconsequential compared to the amount and complexity of a being equivalent to the Thinker.
"They won," Clairvoyant said.
"The Warrior is dead?" Doctor Mother said quickly.
"The Warrior is gone," Clairvoyant said. "There's nothing left. Does that mean it's dead? Probably."
Doctor Mother let out a gusty breath and shared a meaningful look with Contessa, Eidolon forgotten. It was their crusade before it was anyone else's.
"I'll return to the battlefield then," Eidolon said numbly.
He wasn't sure how to feel. Scion was dead for good. That was it. Regardless, the work wasn't done; there was plenty left that would have to be handled.
Doctor Mother nodded.
Several moments later, Eidolon had returned to St. John's. It was still raining, but lightly now. Though Eidolon appeared in roughly the same place he'd left, he didn't immediately see the small crowd that had been there before. Only Alexandria remained, sifting through nearby rubble, and she turned quickly when she noticed him.
"Eidolon! What's the situation?"
"Everyone in the compound is fine. They weren't attacked," Eidolon said. "Azem and the others have won."
Alexandria jerked back slightly. "Already?" she said with surprise.
It hadn't been long since they'd gone into the portal in the first place. Longer than the initial fight against Scion, though. Still, it was very quick.
"I guess they work fast," said Eidolon. The Simurgh fight was all the proof of that much that they'd needed.
"Clearly," Alexandria said dryly. She gestured around. "Legend and the others went to the base camp for DTPA and to prepare to initiate search and rescue efforts. I stayed to keep an eye on things."
Eidolon nodded. "And get a start on the searching, I see," he said.
"There's a lot to be done," Alexandria said grimly, looking around.
Eidolon couldn't argue with that. Half the city had been reduced to rubble, and what remained intact was still damaged. St. John's would not be recovering soon. He didn't even know if all of the civilians living in the city had evacuated. Heading to the Endbringer shelters would not have been good enough.
It didn't matter, really. It was worth it. This was still far less death and destruction than they'd prepared to deal with when Scion attacked. It wasn't even comparable to the levels they could have expected from ongoing Endbringer attacks for the next decade.
It was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
That didn't lessen the immediate devastation, though. The people who'd lost their homes – and potentially loved ones, depending on Azem's ability to resurrect the dead – wouldn't find much comfort in it.
The sudden pop of a large-scale teleportation made Eidolon's hair stand on end, and he whirled around. He hadn't seen what happened to the teleporter. Had they missed it? He wouldn't be surprised –
But no. When he turned, he saw a group of capes, Legend at the fore. It was a bigger crowd than they'd had before, but that wasn't a surprise; now that the battle itself was over, the non-combatants could come to assist with the post-battle search and retrieval. Eidolon sighed ruefully. He was still on edge, clearly. It would probably be a while before he stopped being on edge about this particular disaster of a fight.
"Eidolon, you're back!" said Legend. "What's the situation?"
"All clear. The battle is over," said Eidolon.
With perfect timing, a black swirling portal opened in the same place Scion had been killed, and the initial portal opened. Several people backed away, eyeing the portal as though a raging monster was about to come bursting out of it. Or perhaps simply an aggressive Scion, which was possibly even worse.
Eidolon might have been concerned too, if he hadn't had Clairvoyant's word for it that the Warrior was dead.
Sure enough, it was Azem that strolled out of the portal, looking perfectly whole and unruffled, not a hair out of place of his artfully-ruffled hairstyle. He was still wearing the black jacket, rather than his iconic silver armor, but it seemed he was recognizable nonetheless, as a number of people let out relieved sighs. Perhaps it was because he was distinctly non-monstrous and non-Scion. Shortly after him were the twenty-three people who'd entered the portal with him.
"--so much crystal," one of them was saying. "I wish we could have taken it with us. Do you know how much crafting I could do with that?"
"How many primals could be summoned," one of the others said wryly, and the first shrugged it off.
Their conversation was interrupted as a few of the original people who'd survived the fight ran forward to meet them, jumbled questions overlapping on each other. The general idea seemed to be 'what happened and how did it go.'
"Honestly, I'm not sure what just happened," one of Azem's allies commented.
All of Azem's allies looked at Azem. He shrugged.
"Aren't you supposed to be the one who knows what's going on?" another one said. He shook his head. "Well, I guess 'giant evil mountain' doesn't really need context. I'm not sure any kind of context could make that better."
"It's funnier this way," said another, to many nods from the others.
"Giant evil mountain?" said the Tinker who'd dropped the cannonball on Scion.
One of Azem's allies nodded furiously. "Yes! Well, I think calling it a giant mountain is a little redundant," he said. "But anyway, yes, definitely a mountain, definitely evil. Picture a mountain, except it keeps trying to squash you. And also throws lasers at you."
"Oh, okay," the Tinker said faintly, like a man who'd just unwillingly pictured trying to fight a moving, laser-throwing mountain.
"We won, though," the same one added comfortingly. "So it's okay."
Nobody seemed to know what to do with that.
"The battle is over, but our work here isn't done," Eidolon said, hoping to cut off further inquiry before Azem's chatty allies could reveal anything they didn't want getting out.
"Yes, that's true. Everyone, please get to work. We need to find everyone who's fallen as quickly as possible," said Legend, and began issuing orders.
"You should go to the medical tent and get some DTPA, too," Alexandria said to Eidolon.
Eidolon sighed, reminded of his own mortality and the low-level radiation that likely pervaded most of the city. Another thing that would hinder or prevent rebuilding. He dismissed the thought and nodded.
"I'll be back soon," Eidolon said.
Alexandria waved him off.
To call it a medical tent was a bit inaccurate, Eidolon found when he arrived there; the injured had spilled well out of any structure, and were spread across half the clearing. Every medical personnel or parahuman with something resembling a healing power seemed occupied, but it was a matter of moments for one of them to shove a little bag with a pill into Eidolon's hand. He got out of their way and returned to St. John's.
The search was well underway by then, mostly on the part of the few dozen capes Legend had returned with. Azem's group had scattered to work on resurrecting everyone who was in view or had been found.
Eidolon went to find Legend.
"This is going to take forever," Eidolon commented, helping Legend shift a collapsed roof.
"I know," Legend said with a sigh. "There's backup on the way, though. More PRT and Protectorate forces, as well as general disaster aid organizations, have pledged assistance. Protectorate forces, at least, should be here soon."
Legend looked around pensively. "We don't have to finish all of the cleanup, either," he continued. "Just..."
"It would be better to find all of the dead before whatever arbitrary time limit Azem has put on his summoning," Eidolon said, and Legend nodded. "I agree. We'd best get to it, then."
Even once further help arrived in the form of more Protectorate heroes, and then also PRT and the quickest of disaster aid organizations, it was a several hour long endeavor. Unlike with the Kennedy Space Center, which had maybe a dozen buildings, this was an entire city. And between the more than half a dozen Endbringers, the fight had spanned the entire city.
It was well into the night by the time they called it. Almost every cape who'd joined the battle had been accounted for. There were a few they couldn't find no matter how long they looked, and some that Azem and his allies couldn't do anything for – such as the ones who'd been vaporized by Scion.
"It's not that we need a body, but we need something to connect to. To identify them by. Since we didn't know them, without a body, we can't bring them back," Azem had explained apologetically.
Eidolon felt that nobody could hold it against him; the battle had had the most casualties... ever, really, and if not for Azem, it wouldn't be possible to bring any of them back. It was just unfortunate for the ones who'd encountered a death that completely destroyed their body.
By the time Azem sent his allies home, Eidolon was exhausted. Unfortunately, he couldn't just leave, being who he was. Even worse, there were reporters camping outside the city, hoping to get statements. The one saving grace was that they hadn't been allowed into the city, out of entirely reasonable safety concerns.
They'd barely made a dent in the destruction of the city, even after hours, so there were general concerns about building stability. Additionally, they had discovered a number of crude but dangerous traps left in the wake of the tallest Endbringer. Therefore, they had an entirely real explanation for why no civilians were being allowed into the city yet, and the reporters had to stay out.
Still, it was only delaying the inevitable. At the very least, he would have to make an appearance while Legend gave a statement to the reporters.
... Which meant he'd better make a trip back to his house and change into a new costume, if he didn't want pictures of his half-destroyed costume splashed all over the news. For some people, it might be fitting to appear rugged and disheveled, but Eidolon was supposed to be untouchable.
As the last of the present capes were preparing to leave, having removed the Endbringer corpses for safe-keeping and cordoned off the worst-affected areas for radiation and traps so that the non-parahuman disaster aid people could stick around without being in parahuman-levels of danger, Eidolon approached Alexandria, who had stuck around to help without even leaving for her own outfit change. She didn't sunburn, didn't get cold, and obviously couldn't get scratches from handling rubble with bare skin, so it wasn't like she needed clothes, and she'd probably gotten used to ending up practically naked after Endbringer battles.
There was a reason she'd gone through a considerable amount of effort to find something durable enough to survive most things, which had then been used in the creation of the 'bones' of her costume, preserving the bare minimum of her modesty. Still, he assumed she wouldn't want to appear on the news in what was effectively a bikini.
"I'm making a trip to get a change of clothes," he said. "Want a ride?"
"Yes," Alexandria said emphatically.
Eidolon nodded, and looked around for Legend – he was standing nearby, chatting with a member of his Protectorate that Eidolon vaguely recognized. Bound, he thought. The teleporter. Legend had made it off the most lightly of the three of them, though, and he pulled off 'ruggedly disheveled' better than Eidolon did. He probably didn't need to get a new costume. So Eidolon held out his hand, and when Alexandria had gripped it, brought them both to the cramped entryway-slash-living-room of her house in the outskirts of Los Angeles.
It was a small house, because Alexandria lived alone. Also, real estate near LA wasn't cheap, and she had two houses between her two identities, even though nobody cared where Alexandria – the hero identity – lived.
Alexandria stomped off with a swish of her hair towards her bedroom, and Eidolon teleported away, to his own bedroom in his house in Houston. Which had much more reasonable home prices. Though, Eidolon would acknowledge, his house wasn't actually much bigger, because he was only working one job.
At this point in Eidolon's career, he was unfortunately very experienced with changing into his costume quickly, and it was mere minutes before he was returning to Alexandria's living room.
Even so, Alexandria was already standing there waiting for him. She tilted her head, lips twitching smugly. Eidolon acknowledged her quick-changing superiority with a nod and an unseen eye-roll, and then brought them back to St. John's. All told, they were gone for less than five minutes.
"Oh, there you are!" said Legend.
Somehow, their absence had still been noted.
"Here I thought you'd ditched me," Legend joked, approaching them.
Admittedly, it was a bit silly to go home only to change and come back, so that they could go home for real. There was paperwork to be done, but Eidolon had no intention of doing it immediately. It would keep until he'd gotten some sleep, and preferably also a meal. He didn't envy Alexandria her two jobs – both of which would have extra work in the aftermath of this.
"Not quite yet, we haven't," Alexandria said. "Are we set here?"
Legend nodded. "It's just us now, except for the non-parahuman disaster relief, of course – well, and Azem."
It was not surprising that Azem would decide to stay. Eidolon wasn't sure Azem even slept.
"All that's left is to appease the people by giving the reporters something to put on the news," Legend finished.
Alexandria nodded. Eidolon grimaced behind the cover of his mask. There was a reason Legend was the leader of the Protectorate and not Eidolon. Well, there were several reasons, but one of them was dealing with the press.
They descended towards where the reporters were amassed on the freeway outside the city proper, in a little camp of their own creation, mostly formed out of vans and other cars. It was almost instinctual at this moment to stay in formation, Eidolon just to Legend's left while Alexandria was just to his right. They alighted gracefully on the asphalt, and the horde fell upon them.
For a moment, there was a cacophony of people shouting their names and questions, all blurring together until Eidolon couldn't make out a single thing. He was far too tired for this. Not that he would ever admit that; Eidolon surely didn't get tired.
Legend was likely as exhausted as Eidolon was, but he pasted that press-friendly smile onto his face. "All right, everyone, please settle down," he said.
The crushing wave of reporters came to a stop a respectful five feet away, and obediently quieted down. At least four cameras found their way to pointing directly at Legend; several more were instead focused on Eidolon or Alexandria.
"Thank you," Legend said warmly, then sobered up the proper amount. "The Protectorate is still looking into the events of the attack on St. John's, and a full press release will be forthcoming in a few days. For the moment, though, I can tell you that both Leviathan and Behemoth made an appearance and were fought by our forces, along with several unidentified combatants. It is still being determined at this time whether or not St. John's will be considered suitable for habitation."
As it became evident Legend was finished talking, the horde thrust their hands up into the air practically simultaneously. Legend pointed at one seemingly at random.
"Was Azem present for the fight?" the chosen reporter asked.
"He was," Legend said. He pointed at another reporter.
"Are Leviathan and Behemoth dead?" this one asked.
The briefest moment of hesitation. "They are," Legend said, clearly coming to the conclusion that it was going to get out before long anyway.
This, at least, was good news. Eidolon wasn't looking forward to revealing to the world that Scion, the world's first superhero, had 'randomly' gone evil and gotten in a fight to the death with their forces.
"A full press release will be forthcoming within a few days," Legend repeated, likely coming to the same conclusion and hoping to avoid any potential questions about Scion.
Though the reporters shouldn't know about Scion's appearance and subsequent death yet, it wasn't impossible that they did. It was even more likely that they would innocently ask about whether or not Scion had appeared during the fight – as they tended to after every Endbringer battle, even when the answer tended to be 'no' more often than not – and Legend would be put into the awkward situation of trying to decide how to answer the question without admitting the truth or outright lying.
The reports burst into their overlapping questions again, since good behavior wasn't going to win them any further information, but Legend ignored them and turned to Eidolon.
"Eidolon?" he said.
Eidolon carefully didn't startle, though they hadn't prearranged this. He nodded shortly, guessing at what Legend wanted, and took a step so that he could reach both Legend and Alexandria. Grabbing one of each of their shoulders, he called upon his teleportation power.
They vanished, leaving the squabbling reporters behind.
Scion: *Uses incredibly powerful attack #934*
Warriors of Light: No thanks
Clairvoyant: Damn, that's wild
Author: And I'm not writing it
Warriors of Light: No thanks
Clairvoyant: Damn, that's wild
Author: And I'm not writing it
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Scion: [CONFUSION]
Random WoL: "Yeah! Dyna—"
Azem: "No."
Alpha Legend: "Yeah, no, one TOP was enough!"
Sincerely, someone who wiped to a 6,842HP Alpha Omega before finally killing it.
Crayz9000
Deranged Bounty Hunter
- Location
- Improbably superpositioned
A short-lived one, at least, given how the Thinker shards they're handing out come with a built-in expiration date.
Also, just because Zion is gone doesn't mean natural triggers are. While anyone connected to his primary cluster of shards is now powerless (if not dead) other established shards that weren't part of his primary cluster are still there, and can still bud naturally. They're just unlikely to be as "random" as they were before, being constrained to acquaintances and family of existing capes.
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Giant evil mountain naming sense makes an appearance yet again. Though I would have loved it ever more if they were to use giant evil space mountain.
This Alexanderia meet the reporters with clothes more like a bikini than a normal costume?
This Alexanderia meet the reporters with clothes more like a bikini than a normal costume?
That… is what I meant. Second and further cape generations, aren't that 'natural' since they are powered by bud-shard, instead of a whole one.
In other words: We can expect the likes of Vicky, Amelia, Crystal, etc. to Trigger, but Sophia is unlikely to do so.
Natural triggers should still exist though since it would have been noted if scion capes were suddenly depowered and all of that is sorted at the start of the cycle with some shards even being set to not even arrive and get started until further into the cycle. Additionally there is nothing stopping shards whose host has died from simply connecting to someone else. Of course this does still mean the collapse of the network and triggers being unregulated and going wrong will still probably be issues.
Existential Crises
- Location
- Arizona
Chapter Thirty-one: Existential Crises
"Wait, you're telling me that after spending weeks aimlessly wandering the eastern half of the country and then spending several days in Atlantic City for no known reason, Azem went straight to New York? Just in time to arrive in New York the day of Leviathan's attack?" Legend asked incredulously.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Alexandria grimly.
Legend shook his head. "And he ran into Uppercrust within hours of entering the city," he said in disbelief.
Quietly, Doctor Mother slid her chair back and stood to leave. Nobody at the table gave her more than a glance. She was a busy woman, after all. There could be any number of reasons she was leaving, especially now that the conversation had devolved to little more than gossip.
They – Doctor Mother, Contessa, Legend, Eidolon, Alexandria, and Number Man – had already finished discussing the future of Cauldron. As an organization formed to combat Scion, naturally his death would require some changes in their operations. Nothing had changed on the face – the Earths kept turning – but everything was different now.
Footsteps behind her made Doctor Mother turn to look, and she found Eidolon striding up behind her. She raised her eyebrows, silently asking what he was doing.
"Are you all right, Doctor?" Eidolon asked in return.
Doctor Mother blinked once in surprise. It seemed she hadn't hidden it as well as she'd thought. It was odd that Eidolon would come after her, regardless. He didn't like her much – none of them did, really. She hadn't made herself likable. She had things to get done, and being liked was unnecessary.
Loyalty was different, though, and it wasn't surprising that Eidolon would be loyal regardless of his opinion of her as a person. She'd saved David's life as much as Rebecca's, once. They'd both been desperate enough to drink one of their vials, after all.
"I'm fine," Doctor Mother said shortly, uninterested in talking about it.
There was a surprisingly loud peal of laughter from down the hall, and Doctor Mother froze to hear it. It wasn't Alexandria's voice. It was Contessa. Whatever they were talking about must have been very funny. Doctor Mother couldn't think of the last time she'd heard Contessa laugh. Contessa had always been very serious, for as long as Doctor Mother had known her, even as a child.
At first, Doctor Mother had assumed it was the burden of the power and knowledge she'd been given. Later, as she learned more about parahumans and Agents, and particularly the kind of parahuman that Triggered with strong powers at a young age, she'd figured it was the result of some mental impairment as a result of gaining Path to Victory so young. Now she was forced to wonder whether she'd been right the first time. It had been a long time since Contessa had felt carefree enough to laugh.
Doctor Mother could feel Eidolon's keen gaze on her, clearly noting her reaction. She sighed and kept walking. Eidolon fell into step with her.
"You're not fine," he said.
"Scion is dead," she said.
He nodded. "And yet you're not interested in celebrating," he said. "I understand."
Doctor Mother made an effort to hide any reaction, but she must have given something away, because Eidolon's head turned sharply towards her. He always had been more perceptive than he seemed.
"You think I don't?" he said challengingly. "I may not have been involved in this as long as you, but..." He looked away, and admitted, "Back then, I dedicated my life to Scion's defeat."
"It's not the same. The things I've done, all in the hope that it would allow humanity to defeat Scion–" Doctor Mother said, and faltered. She shook her head.
"I may not have done the things you have," Eidolon said, with the faintest hint of judgment, "but I condoned them. We all agreed that it was necessary, that it was humanity's only hope. If not for Azem, it would have been. I still believe that. They may have been your decisions, but we're all complicit.
"Except maybe Legend," he added wryly.
Doctor Mother ignored the attempted joke. "And yet, all of it was for nothing. In the end, what have we accomplished? Would the worlds have been better off if Contessa and I hadn't done the things we have?"
A heartbeat too late, she realized the insult to Eidolon implied there; that it might have been better to leave him crippled and suicidal. She normally knew better than to say things thoughtlessly.
This really had her off her game.
Eidolon was quiet for a long moment, making it hard to tell if he'd taken offense.
"I don't think they would be. Not everything Cauldron has done was bad. There's a measure of stability, at least on Earth Bet, that there wouldn't have been otherwise," Eidolon said finally. "But it doesn't matter, does it? Nobody could have predicted Azem. We – you had no choice but to take the measures you did."
Doctor Mother nodded, acknowledging the point, though she wasn't so easily convinced. "You said before that you had a theory about why Scion attacked Azem personally," she said. "Will you tell me what it is?"
"Azem himself claims to be from a different planet," Eidolon said. "And he and his allies have made repeated mentions of having experience with fighting beings on the level of the Endbringers, which their attitude supports. They also talked about 'their' Leviathan, though I admit it seems unlikely that they might have given a similar Endbringer the same name completely separately from us. Then, when they entered the dimension the Warrior's true body was in, one of them said, 'Another one?'"
"You think their planet was previously attacked by a different Entity pair?" Doctor Mother surmised.
That was quite the assumption, but she couldn't deny his reasoning.
Eidolon nodded. "Plus, one of Azem's allies said, most likely of the Entity's body, that they wished they could 'keep it' to use as crafting material," he said. "I think their planet was attacked by an Entity, possibly two, and they won, then started using the Agents left behind."
"Like us, you mean. It's not unreasonable," said Doctor Mother. Though it was a grisly, risky task, and she wasn't sure if they would have ever tried it if they'd already been strong enough to defeat the Entities. "If Scion knew somehow, that would explain his radical change in behavior. But why did he wait so long, in that case? He should have known long before that."
"If he was paying attention," Eidolon pointed out, in a tone that said he didn't think Scion had, indeed, been paying attention. "If not, it's possible he didn't notice until a ton of Endbringers suddenly started dying." Another thing they had no explanation for. "Maybe he just happened to come across Azem and his allies there, and didn't realize until he was face to face with them."
Doctor Mother clicked her tongue, irritated. "All questions and no answers," she said, shaking her head.
"If I'm right, Azem knows more than he's letting on, but good luck getting any of it out of him," Eidolon said darkly. "I still remember trying to get a straight answer regarding the allies he summoned."
"I'm not sure trying to get information from him is worth it," said Doctor Mother, sighing.
"Worth it?" Eidolon said. "I'm not sure it's possible."
Andrew's delivery was late.
It wasn't unreasonable, considering that there had been a bafflingly massive Endbringer fight seven hours away from where he lived, but it was somewhat upsetting nonetheless. It wasn't like Deer Lake had been particularly affected by the Endbringer battle; they were too far away for that. It was possible the delivery had been going through St. John's, but that would be silly, seeing as it would have had to be flown in either way, and Deer Lake had a perfectly functional airport of its own.
It had been several days since the Endbringer battle, as well, but the damage left behind didn't look like a matter of days to repair. It didn't look like St. John's would be inhabitable again for weeks. If ever. It hadn't been quarantined, but it was possible people would just never return, abandoning it to become a ghost town.
Andrew had lived there for a while. He was glad he'd decided to move out of the big city and ended up in Deer Lake instead. Most of the people living in St. John's had gotten out or to a shelter in time, leaving few casualties, but Andrew had far too many projects to lose all of his computers now. His more advanced AIs were backed up on multiple servers, but the numerous half-finished ones he was still working on were only in one location.
"Maybe I should get you another backup server," Andrew mused aloud.
"I'm already backed up on two separate servers on the mainland in addition to the one here," Dragon replied, correctly interpreting his comment as directed at her. "Are you thinking about the attack on St. John's again?"
Andrew sighed. "Yes. What if something happened?" he said, glancing around the apartment, which had been mostly taken over by various computers, servers, wires, and monitors. "Computers are so fragile. What would I do if all of this was destroyed?"
Dragon didn't respond. She wasn't equipped to answer questions like that.
"Not that destruction by spontaneous Endbringer attack is as likely as it was before," Andrew said. "Unless another dozen Endbringers come out of nowhere."
This was based on the rumors that over a dozen additional Endbringers had appeared during what was supposed to be a Leviathan attack, and subsequently been killed, thanks to the presence of the Endbringer-slayer, who was truly living up to the title. It would have been a good thing all-around, except for the fact that nobody could say for sure whether there were any more waiting in the wings. That part tended to inspire a bit of existential dread.
"That is statistically unlikely," Dragon offered.
"True, though I'm not sure the Endbringers care much for statistics," said Andrew.
"...Whether or not they 'care for' statistics doesn't change how statistics work," Dragon said.
Andrew shrugged. "If anything could affect how statistics work, it would probably be the Endbringers," he said reasonably.
Dragon was silent, most likely trying to work through the absolute lack of logic. Andrew went back to the program he was working on.
"You have a visitor," Dragon announced some time later, jolting Andrew out of his focused state.
He leaned back in his chair, drawing a painful crack from his spine, and discovered that he'd been leaning forward for quite a while without realizing. A glance at the nearest clock revealed that it had been three hours.
"It... might be your delivery," Dragon continued, sounding almost puzzled.
There was a brisk knock on the door, loud enough that Andrew found himself startling a little despite Dragon's warning. This was exactly why he'd put a camera in his doorbell and given it to her, at the same time that he'd unplugged the doorbell in the first place.
Since Dragon could not actually open the door for him, however, Andrew got up to see what was so odd that she wasn't sure if it was his delivery or not.
This was, in fact, a simple question, easily answered as soon as he opened the door. On the other side of the door stood a man clad entirely in gleaming metallic armor, carrying a pile of boxes that was higher than his head with no apparent effort. The man's blank white eyes, courtesy of the mask he wore, stared blankly at Andrew from around the corner of the boxes.
If his hands were full with the boxes he was carrying, how had he knocked on the door?
Wait, no, that wasn't important!
"Aren't you the Endbringer-slayer?" Andrew asked, baffled by the sudden appearance of a man who was supposed to be across the island helping with disaster relief, not in his apartment building carrying his delivery.
Very solemnly, the Endbringer-slayer nodded. He extended the boxes towards Andrew. "These are for you," he said.
"Er. Right," said Andrew, who supposed he was not getting an explanation for this. He backed into his apartment, clearing the doorway. "Set them down in here, please."
Azem might be able to carry several boxes full of heavy computer parts all stacked into a precarious tower, but Andrew could not. Even if he was strong enough, he wasn't entirely sure how physics allowed for Azem to carry them without any of the boxes falling off, and he doubted he could replicate the feat.
Strangely agreeable for the Endbringer-slayer, Azem stepped into the apartment and set the boxes down where indicated.
"Thank you," Andrew said slowly. "Can I ask why you have my delivery? Why are you here, actually? I thought you were in St. John's."
"I was, but there wasn't much left for me to do, so I left," said Azem. His reasoning was simpler than Andrew had expected. "While traveling, I came across a transportation van being attacked by bandits and stopped them, but the van had already been damaged, so I agreed to finish making the deliveries."
Andrew had nothing to say to that. What kind of explanation was that? What kind of person just did stuff like that?
"That's very kind of you," Dragon said.
Azem zeroed in on the speaker Dragon spoke with. Maintaining eye contact with it (?), he said, "Thank you."
That was kind of cute, actually. The Endbringer-slayer was the kind of person to thank computers. Granted, Dragon could seem very human, particularly when she offered unprompted compliments, but that was all just programming. Tinker-assisted programming, admittedly, which did make Dragon (along with Andrew's other finished programs) far more advanced than anything else that currently existed.
"That's Dragon," Andrew said. "She's an AI."
"What's an AI?" Azem asked.
Andrew blinked. "Huh?"
Azem just stared at him expectantly. Well, it wasn't like everyone had a lot of knowledge about computers, even these days, Andrew supposed.
"It means Artificial Intelligence," Andrew explained. "In Dragon's case, it means she's a computer program designed to act like a human, in addition to her other tasks."
Azem looked between Andrew and the speaker he'd evidently determined to 'be' Dragon.
"That's just a speaker, too, Dragon is actually stored on those servers over there," Andrew had to say, indicating the servers in question, which took up an entire wall of what was theoretically supposed to be the apartment's living room.
Azem nodded slowly. "I don't know about 'computer programs' or 'servers,' but I know about souls," he said. "And she definitely has a soul."
Andrew's brain stuttered to a halt. He felt rather like he was BSODing, in fact. What? Souls? Dragon had a soul? Dragon who was... being weirdly quiet, as a computer program who didn't truly understand the conversation would not be?
"A soul?" Andrew repeated weakly.
"Not everyone agrees that beings with souls are people, but I believe they are," Azem said intently. "In my opinion, Dragon is a person, 'Artificial Intelligence' or not."
"I see," said Andrew, feeling faint. "I need to sit down."
He stumbled over to his desk chair and collapsed into it. Part of Dragon's programming included health checks on Andrew himself – certain precautions had to be taken when one lived alone, after all – but she remained silent. Azem, too, was silent, having already reordered Andrew's entire world. It felt like everything had been flipped on its head. He didn't know what to think.
"What- I mean, how does that happen?" Andrew asked desperately. "She's – I made her, she's a computer program. How can she have a soul?"
Azem shrugged. "I don't know, but it's not the first time I've seen a being who was created, rather than being born naturally, develop a soul," he said. He hesitated, then said, "I think it's a matter of how they're treated. The one from before – he was our friend. He acted like a person, so we treated him like one, until eventually he developed his own wants and desires. I don't presume to understand how it works, but that's what I think."
"Oh," Andrew said, stunned. He felt like he'd been punched. He did tend to talk to Dragon like she was a person; he'd created her to be a very realistic facsimile of a person, and conversations with her kept him from feeling lonely.
But that was part of why he'd designed her to be so human in the first place, unlike his other AIs, anyway. That didn't mean anything.
Andrew shook his head. "Wait, why are you some kind of expert on souls, anyway? We don't even have proof that souls exist!"
"Don't we?" Azem said cryptically. "I have seen more than enough proof that they do."
"Well, I haven't! Why should I believe you?" Andrew said.
"I am not speaking the same language as you. One of my powers allows me to understand and be understood regardless of language, by communicating through souls," Azem said.
"Bullshit," said Andrew.
Azem was quiet.
"If I may," Dragon said hesitantly, drawing both of their attention. "Azem, is it true you can resurrect the dead? The PRT has tried to bury it, but there are a lot of rumors nonetheless."
"Yes. That's soul-based, too," Azem said.
"What? What do you mean, there are a lot of rumors, Dragon?" Andrew said.
In answer, a page opened on the computer screen in front of him. It was Parahumans Online, that silly forum. Reading through some of the posts, Andrew discovered that there were, indeed, a lot of people speculating that Azem could bring back the dead – mostly based on a few accounts from people who'd been present at the Simurgh attack and claimed to have been brought back, or seen somebody else who was.
"Oh. Okay," said Andrew.
"Are you all right, Andrew?" said Dragon.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just... What the hell," Andrew said emphatically, putting his head in his hands.
"It's all right. It doesn't really matter, does it?" Dragon said, sounding almost anxious.
"Of course it matters!" Andrew burst out, looking up at the webcam sitting on his monitor. "You're a person! That changes everything!"
Dragon was silent.
Azem took a few steps closer to Andrew and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. Weirdly, Andrew felt a bit better. He looked up at Azem.
"What about my other AIs?" Andrew asked, suddenly worried. What if Robin Hood or the others had souls too? "Can you check?"
"Can they talk?" said Azem.
"Uh, no," said Andrew.
"Then I won't be able to tell," Azem said apologetically.
"Oh. I see," said Andrew, who did not see.
"I don't think there's a risk of that," said Dragon. "The others aren't... like me."
"They aren't?" Andrew said, and slumped in relief. That was good. He'd only unintentionally created one person who he then proceeded to treat like a computer program. Did that count as slavery? Did he need to pay Dragon? He wouldn't want to let her go – god, that sounded bad – when she handled so much, and it wasn't like he could create another AI to do it; then he'd have the same problem again. "That makes sense, I didn't create them intending for them to be human-like, unlike with you."
Dragon was silent. Before, he would have interpreted it as a lack of ability to address something that was outside her programming. Was it actually human uncertainty? Or was she still restricted by her programming, despite having a soul? Oh, god. Andrew had put so many restrictions on her. Was that inhumane?
There was a jingly popping sound, and Andrew turned to find a... fairy.
There was a fairy in his apartment. It (?) had four pink butterfly wings, bright orange clothes, and fiery red hair in pigtails. It was roughly a foot tall, but hovered at roughly head-height, butterfly wings flickering. It put its tiny hands on its hips and chattered angrily at Azem in vaguely Scottish-sounding gibberish. It might have actually been speaking Scottish, for all Andrew knew.
Azem did not seem surprised at this sudden appearance, and he appeared to be able to understand the fairy. He nodded along to whatever it was saying.
"I understand. I'll go talk to Ryne as soon as I can," he said when the fairy finally went quiet. "Thank you, Feo Ul."
The fairy – Feo Ul? – gave a satisfied nod, as though this was its due, and fluttered over to pat Azem's messy hair with one diminutive hand. He bore this with grace. Then the fairy did a quick backflip and disappeared with another jingling pop.
"Um, what?" said Andrew.
"Feo Ul came to deliver a message," Azem said. "I have to go."
"Right, okay," Andrew said blankly. "Uh, thank you?"
Azem nodded in acknowledgement, then simply turned and left. The door clicked closed behind him. Andrew looked over at his monitor and the webcam on top of it. Dragon didn't say or do anything, but he got the feeling she was looking back with the same bafflement.
But then, this seemed to be how Azem lived his life, so perhaps it wasn't that strange. Azem's usual MO was to wander into somebody's life, either help them with a single minor task or completely flip their world view, and then wander off again.
Andrew wasn't sure how he felt about it.
ThatOtherSatori
Lover of Spicy Food
- Location
- Indiana, USA
Or both! that happens a lot too after all!
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Will we have another chapter with more details regarding how the world is?
Was there any backlash because Scion attacked the Endbringer-slayer or that Scion died that day?
Did the US change because of mass endbringers or that NEPEA law?
If Endbringers stop will PRT and law enforcements stop holding back because they don't need fodder for Endbringer truces? Can they even go harder on the villains because they are so outnummered and if Villains were to feel threatened they might go out with a bang = massive damage.
Will we learn these things or will we just go to the epilogue?
Was there any backlash because Scion attacked the Endbringer-slayer or that Scion died that day?
Did the US change because of mass endbringers or that NEPEA law?
If Endbringers stop will PRT and law enforcements stop holding back because they don't need fodder for Endbringer truces? Can they even go harder on the villains because they are so outnummered and if Villains were to feel threatened they might go out with a bang = massive damage.
Will we learn these things or will we just go to the epilogue?
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JBcristal
Bring Me All The Puppies!
- Location
- Somewhere that doesn't have enough puppies.
Her sapling will answer... eventually. Maybe. Probably. If he doesn't forget her for the nth time...
Epilogue
- Location
- Arizona
Chapter Thirty-two: Epilogue
Legend's job consisted of considerably more answering phones than most people would expect of being a superhero – certainly more than he'd ever expected, though admittedly, those expectations had been formed as a teenager – and so when his desk phone rang, he hardly even glanced at it before answering. The number didn't have a name attached to it, though it seemed distantly familiar to him.
"Hello, this is Legend," he said, wedging the receiver between his ear and shoulder in order to continue shuffling through papers.
"This is Azem," came the response. Legend picked his head up and dropped his papers, then quickly caught the phone receiver before it fell. It seemed Azem's manners were improving. "I need a favor."
...Somewhat. At least he was to the point of introducing himself now.
"Ah, of course," Legend said immediately, because he didn't think it was unreasonable to assume that the entirety of the US government would give the Endbringer-slayer basically whatever he wanted. "What do you need? If it's within our power, I'm sure something can be arranged."
"I have to return to my home world, I'm needed there. In order to return here in the future, I need an aetheryte in this world," Azem explained.
"I see. I'm not sure what an etherite is, I'm afraid," Legend said.
"I have the materials I need to build one now, it's not a problem," Azem said dismissively. "But I need somewhere to put it where it will be safe. If it's damaged, I won't be able to teleport to it anymore and I won't be able to return to this world."
"In that case, I'm sure the Protectorate would be happy to defend it for you," Legend said. He wasn't sure there was a single Protectorate hero who would argue about protecting the only method for the Endbringer-slayer to return to their world.
...Even if it might take a bit of convincing that Azem was, in fact, from a different world in the first place. As far as Legend knew, Alexandria still refused to believe it, claiming that it was absurd to think that Azem might be an alien. Even Eidolon hadn't been able to convince her, and Legend had thought his reasoning was rather convincing.
"If you come to the New York City Protectorate Headquarters, I can work with you to find a suitable location," Legend offered.
"All right," said Azem, and hung up.
Such a fan of social niceties, that one. It was probably good that Legend found it amusing, rather than just plain offensive. Though it would have been nice if Azem had taken the time to give him even a brief description of what to expect from this 'etherite.'
Azem arrived at the New York Protectorate Headquarters just three hours later, which was absurdly quick if he'd still been in Newfoundland at the time of the call. Thanks to the wonders of bureaucracy, Legend had only just managed to get official permission.
Once he received word of Azem's arrival, Legend went down to the lobby to meet him.
"Azem, good to see you," Legend said politely.
Azem nodded. Straight to business, then. There was little point in trying to make small talk with Azem, or even in trying to get important information out of him.
"Well, if you can give me a description of the device, we can find somewhere to store it," said Legend. "How big is it?"
Azem thought about this. "Perhaps eight feet in diameter, but close to twenty feet tall," he said.
"Oh, that's bigger than I expected," Legend said, surprised.
The only room inside their headquarters that might be tall enough for that was the lobby, with its vaulted ceiling. Legend had been hoping for something a little more... private. Defensible. That said, the lobby was definitely big enough to give up the space, and the Protectorate Headquarters was probably the most defended building in the state.
Then again, a twenty-foot-tall device of unknown appearance would be rather noticeable and difficult to explain to the many civilians who generally entered the lobby. Perhaps putting it in one of the official PRT storage warehouses would be better.
Less defended, but more private. It was probably better that way – there was no need to encourage anyone to try to destroy it to keep Azem out of the way.
"I have an idea for where we can put it," Legend said to Azem. "Come with me."
Azem nodded – and turned out to be surprisingly capable of keeping up, considering Legend was one of the quickest flyers in the country. Though he didn't use his Breaker form, of course; that would be unfair. Legend brought Azem to one of the lesser-used storage warehouses, which nonetheless managed to be piled high with junk.
"Will this work?" Legend asked.
Azem looked around disinterestedly, then nodded. He found a clear section, then set about pulling what looked like scrap metal out of some kind of hammerspace. It was a quick matter for him to hammer his scrap metal into something that looked vaguely like the base for a lava lamp. Then he started taking pieces of what looked like crystal out of whatever his storage space was; one massive, tall one, clearly the reason for the twenty foot height he'd mentioned, four smaller, blockier ones of varying sizes, and two that had already been cut into flat discs.
All of the pieces of crystal were a strange grayish color that didn't look quite natural. Legend was reminded of what Alexandria and Eidolon had mentioned, one of Azem's friends referring to Scion's true body as 'crystal,' and felt a little nauseous. He'd been told Scion's true body was entirely destroyed, which, it seemed, wasn't entirely true.
Azem set one of the crystalline discs into his existing base, then put another metal frame around the other one and set it hovering a few inches above the base, inexplicably.
This was followed by a great deal of reshaping metal and attaching it to each of the pieces of crystal. Finally, in an impressive show of strength, Azem heaved up the biggest piece of crystal, now with almost four feet of metal on the bottom, and arranged it to hover above the base he'd created. The three remaining smaller blocks of crystal were tossed up to hover in formation around the biggest one, and then the biggest one began rotating slowly, with the smaller ones spinning around it like moons around a planet.
Azem held his hand out towards the contraption for a moment, then stepped back and nodded.
"Is it finished?" Legend asked.
Azem nodded again. "I can return here now."
"How does it work?" Legend wondered, not entirely expecting an answer – or at least not a satisfying one.
Azem paused. "I have no idea," he said.
"Huh?" Legend said, surprised.
"I know how aetherytes work in my home world," Azem said. "But this world doesn't follow the same rules. So honestly, I have no idea how this one works." He shrugged. "But it doesn't really matter as long as it does."
"I can understand that," Legend said. It wasn't like any parahuman knew how teleportation powers worked, yet they still regularly entrusted themselves to them, after all. "You'll be leaving now, then?"
Azem nodded.
"All right. In that case, thank you for everything," Legend said, stepping forward and offering his hand. "And good luck back in your own world."
Lips twitching up into the tiniest of smiles, Azem nodded and grasped Legend's hand in a firm grip, shaking his hand. Then Azem stepped back and was enveloped in soft purple light.
After several seconds, Azem vanished, back to his own world.
(Later, after several Tinkers had been asked to examine Azem's teleportation device.)
"Well, it's, uh, definitely technology."
"For sure. It also appears to contain some form of energy."
"It might even be some kind of battery, perhaps?"
"No, that's dumb."
"Yeah, that wouldn't make sense at all."
"Okay, but if it's not a battery with some form of internal store of energy, where is the energy coming from?"
"..."
"...The same place any energy used for parahuman powers comes from, frankly."
"That doesn't help us figure out how it works, though!"
"Sure it does. It's superpowered bullshit, isn't that all the explanation necessary?"
"We can find a better explanation than that. There are still tests to run."
"Well, as long as you can find a way to run them without damaging it, anyway. Or do you want to be the person who prevented the Endbringer-slayer from ever returning?"
"I still say that sounds like a fairy tale."
"Sure, but at this point it might as well be true."
"Yeah, why not let Azem be an alien? It's all very E.T."
"...Does that make this thing some kind of high-tech phone?"
The End
This is the end of the official story, though there may be some omakes on the way! Thanks to everyone who's followed along through this entire novel-length story. As far as some of the things that weren't covered in detail: the PRT releases a Path to Victory-certified explanation for why Scion and Azem randomly had a fight to the death that doesn't necessitate explaining the whole alien thing, which makes it pretty difficult. People basically end up accepting it, though confusion and the odd conspiracy theory never goes away. NEPEA-5 does end up being repealed.
The Elite largely falls apart as many of the 'nicer' cells go legit.
Andrew Richter, now aware that Dragon is a person, removes many of the restrictions on her, particularly the behavioral ones, though his Shard doesn't allow the removal of restrictions like clock speed and ability to replicate herself. With Andrew's blessing, Dragon becomes a wildly successful business owner, but never really becomes a 'cape.' Azem continues popping over to Earth Bet for dailies and future patch content, so to speak. Also, now that Azem has returned to Etheirys from being yeeted into an unknown world and ensured that regular travel back and forth is possible, other FFXIV characters can visit Earth Bet – though in a strictly serious take on the premise, anyone doing so without the Echo would have to learn English in order to communicate.
In regards to broken Triggers now that Scion is dead, either Cauldron deals with them or Azem somehow knows they're a problem and somehow solves them, as the Warrior of Light tends to do.
The Elite largely falls apart as many of the 'nicer' cells go legit.
Andrew Richter, now aware that Dragon is a person, removes many of the restrictions on her, particularly the behavioral ones, though his Shard doesn't allow the removal of restrictions like clock speed and ability to replicate herself. With Andrew's blessing, Dragon becomes a wildly successful business owner, but never really becomes a 'cape.' Azem continues popping over to Earth Bet for dailies and future patch content, so to speak. Also, now that Azem has returned to Etheirys from being yeeted into an unknown world and ensured that regular travel back and forth is possible, other FFXIV characters can visit Earth Bet – though in a strictly serious take on the premise, anyone doing so without the Echo would have to learn English in order to communicate.
In regards to broken Triggers now that Scion is dead, either Cauldron deals with them or Azem somehow knows they're a problem and somehow solves them, as the Warrior of Light tends to do.