With the Revanchist cleared out, the members of Brave Vesperia put down their arms and stood despondently. Rose let out a long sigh.
"It was our job to protect her," Karol said, his voice low.
"We failed." Yuri walked over to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It's not over, Karol," he said, his eyes on Milla. The Lord of Spirits crossed her arms in response.
"You're right." She turned to look at the vines where Celsius had been hiding.
"Odd that he would take her instead of killing her outright. Such behavior is not usual for the Revanchist up until this point. Regardless..."
As Wanda began preparing a spell that would transport the group back to the HQ, Milla explained to the group that had gone to the Checkpoint Brave Vesperia's concerns.
"As Makoto Naegi's friend, I believe it is only fair that he explains," Wanda said, illuminated in a magical light. She nodded her head, conjuring the image of one of the Coalition's leaders.
The magical projection of Makoto turned to face the woman.
"Wanda?"
Once she explained the situation, he turned to face Yuri and his friends with a regretful look.
"It was absolutely not right of us to withhold from you information regarding your friend, Rita. In all of the chaos since the destruction of the old Coalition headquarters, too much has gotten away from us."
Makoto went on to explain that while the Coalition had failed to identify Rita's murder and had tried to cover up that fact, they had since learned who her actual killer had been, though he still was at large.
"However, we believe his likely collaborator is working with the Revanchist."
Yuri exchanged a look with Judith.
"Then Brave Vesperia is going to help you," he said.
"That all right, Captain Karol?"
"Of course!" exclaimed the boy.
"If you'd just been honest with us from the start, we could have helped sooner!"
With that matter resolved for the moment, Rose spoke up.
"It is with trepidation that I volunteer my skills as well," she said.
"I have spent too long wandering without direction."
Despite gaining new allies, it was with heavy hearts that the group left this world.
***
Chapter Five
"Take Five"
Following the loss of both Celsius and Pluto, the two groups were brought back to the Coalition HQ for a moment of rest and assessment. Kyoko called upon Milla Maxwell to join them for a moment to analyze a certain message they had received.
“... What is the source of this message?” Milla asked after having heard an odd and distorted recording sent by the Office for Defense of Multiversal Assets.
“This may sound hard to believe, but its origin can be traced back to the past,” came to voice of “Mom” Lalonde, a scientist who was once an ally for the Coalition and now a high-ranking member of ODMA.
“We have been conducting research on the phenomenon of time travel. This recording uniquely came to us about the same time the Coalition reported that the Great Spirits had gone into hiding.”
"The past? As in...?!" Riesbyfe cut in, astonished by the revelation despite Mom's preface.
"Time travel?!" Touma also said, as though finishing the knight's train of thought.
“Hmm. It’s not a voice. More of a signal.” Milla crossed her arms and looked around the board room at the Coalition members present.
“But I recognize it as one of the Great Spirits, Muzét.”
“From the past?” Makoto asked.
"How does that work?"
“Muzét has no dominion over time, but other than Chronos, she would have the unique ability to travel between dimensions in order to put herself in the past.”
“I would hazard a guess that this is no mere coincidence, as we are currently in the middle of an operation involving time travel. In searching for the girl known as Junko Enoshima, we sent agents to the past. Specifically, during the time of the Fiamma Incident.”
“Perhaps Muzét has decided to make use of your project,” Milla said.
"I'm quite flattered that my... outburst from back then made its mark on the history of different dimensions, even after it was that man that turned out to be the true mastermind," Fiamma of the Right -- the namesake of the incident -- coolly added, recalling a certain priest that had changed the course of the multiverse forever with his dying breath.
Indeed, there was a time when Fiamma was what people would consider a villain, corrupted by the influence of dark magic, hell bent on merging dimensions together and ruling over them with an iron fist. He believed God was on his side, but it was really the devil on his shoulder.
How far he had come from since then, from being the villain to helping the heroes. Still, he never would have suspected that he would find himself having to revisit that event, quite literally for other people. How embarrassing.
"An incident from the past. I guess if there's no place in the world you can hide..." Touma -- one such person who was present during that Fiamma Incident back then -- murmured. If the Revanchist was going to be hunting this next Great Spirit throughout the x-axis known as space, one simply needed to hide within the y-axis instead; time.
"I definitely have no choice then; I'm coming with. And knowing my rotten luck, I can hazard a guess on where it is," Touma said. Yes indeed. After all, he
was returning to his home world once again.
“Junko Enoshima…” Makoto’s voice was quiet.
“I suppose we don’t need to know what ODMA plans for her?” he asked, an air of sarcasm present in his voice.
“It was simply a matter of rescuing a lost girl,” Lalonde said, sounding as if she had no interest in a discussion on her group’s actions.
“But now it seems to be much more, doesn’t it? The issue that has arisen is that we have lost contact with the group we sent into the past. If the Revanchist has some means of time travel, Muzét could be unsafe.”
“Could this, like… mess with history?” Makoto asked.
“We don’t really know,” Lalonde said.
“It has been our running theory that the past can not exactly be altered. Coincidences will arise that push the multiverse away from paradoxes.” Milla nodded upon hearing this but provided no verbal comments.
Makoto thought on this for a moment.
“That would make sense, considering what happened with Wanda and Eveline…”
“Unfortunately, even if we propose that history is already written, that does not mean history is known to us. Those in the past could be lost and we could never know.”
“Without Chronos, I do not know what we could do,” Milla said.
Lalonde let out a happy sigh.
“Thankfully, we do have a solution. We have recently found someone who possesses a kind of magic that can transport a group into the past. Send them to ODMA and we will proceed from there.”
"Another person on hand who can travel back in time? Perhaps you humans aren't as primitive as I had believed," Othinus commented, once again perched atop Touma's shoulder. It was just as well; while it would have been little trifle to do such a thing as a full Magic God, Othinus was reduced to little more than a fairy after all, unable to be of assistance as much as she'd liked.
***
The individual Lalonde had spoke of turned out to be none other than the mage, Dorian Pavus, whose previous mentor developed a powerful spell for time travel. Though Dorian had dismissed the magic as too powerful for anyone to have, he had reluctantly sought out his mentor’s old research upon hearing ODMA’s pleas. Alongside his friend, Maevaris Tilani, Dorian developed the time magic once again, allowing ODMA to use it only for this particular mission.
The group that the Coalition sent to ODMA were gathered together and transported alongside Dorian to the past.
Dorian let out a sigh once the group had gathered their bearings in this new environment.
"Now then everyone, let us make sure this adventure turns out better than my last foray into another time period," Dorian said, sounding not particularly pleased.
"Connor, Maevaris, do stay close to me for the time being."
"Alright, then. Time traveled back to my own world during a time when it was being merged with another world and find an intruding Great Spirit named Muzet hiding there before the Revanchist can. No biggee, right?" Touma bemoaned.
It felt like such a long time ago, but in his world, it was crazy to think that only roughly two months had passed since then, and another month just about that he was even exposed to the greater multiverse in the first place. And once it felt like he was able to wrap his head around that, things only got crazier from there. Such misfortune.
"In any case... Are you all ready then?" Fiamma of the Right's voice asked from headquarters through their speakers, with Fairy Othinus now perched atop his shoulder now. Both of them had elected to stay behind, not wanting to split their attention too much.
As the other Coalition agents left for ODMA to start their mission through time, many others were still back at Knowhere, overseeing the battles currently occurring across the multiverse.
After the meeting and having seen the agents off, Makoto Naegi joined Kyoko Kirigiri in her office, ready to hand her a stack of papers.
"Kyoko, we..." He let out a heavy sigh.
"I have our finalized reports from the last couple of hours. The casualties are..."
He paused, as if something was stuck in his throat.
"... higher than anticipated."
He handed her the first paper, which detailed those who had perished fighting Revanchist soldiers on the field of battle.
CASUALTIES
█████
████ █████
Amanda Ripley
Aleks Hyde
████ █████
Big Guy
███ ███ ██████
██████ ███
Eira Noelle
Fenrir
██████ █████████
███████
Jet Jaguar
Kurou Daijuuji
███ ███ ████
█████ ██████
██████ ██
██ ████ ████
Li Kleef
Locus
██ ██████
Takashi Shirogane
The T-800
███████ ████
Ultear Milkovich
███ ███ ███████ |
After a moment, Makoto handed Kyoko the next paper. "We've had to retire a number of our agents too. Those deemed unfit to carry on have been evacuated out of Knowhere."
EVACUEES
Alonso de Entrerríos - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence.
Austin Powers - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence.
Broly - Retired from a combination of injuries received and a lack of motivation to carry through with the mission.
Cordelia - Received injuries too grave to carry on.
Cracker Jack - Received injuries too grave to carry on.
Karl Franz - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence.
Keaton - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence.
Kitty Langley - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence.
Maeve - Unclear motivations and an unwillingness to carry through with the mission.
Reimu Hakurei - Retired from a combination of injuries received and a lack of motivation to carry through with the mission.
Ryan Diaz - Received near mortal injuries.
Will Vandom - Possible corruption from being exposed to an extreme level of malevolence. |
Makoto watched Kyoko for a long moment, trying to read her expression.
"It's all happening so fast, isn't it?"
"..."
Kyoko said nothing as she perused through the reports that Makoto had handed her, one after the other. As the young man would try to read his dear friend's expression, it was difficult to ascertain her thoughts just from her face. Her bangs obscured her eyes in some part as she scanned through the reports, her eyes dashing across each line pensively. Of course, even without those obstructions, Kyoko was never a particularly easy person to read, and she often liked it that way, even if it might have sometimes threatened to alienate Makoto even on their best days.
This was far from one of their best days.
Once she had eventually finished reading, the young leader of the Coalition set the papers down on the nearby table with a heavy breath. Their numbers were dwindling greatly, even with the emergency reinforcements from across the multiverse, and not even entirely because of the Revanchist's power. Some parties seemed ready to tear themselves apart thanks to the corruptive nature of malevolence. It almost reminded her of the civil war, except this was infinitely more bloody.
After all, this
was bar none, the bloodiest moment in the Coalition's history. The greatest threat to the multiverse was stepping forward with all of their cards on the table, and even after hastily gathering the other organizations together in the wake of the Othinus Incident, not even the Ultimate Detective could say if it was enough to stand against the Revanchist.
All she could do was hope. She would live by that creed for as long as she drew breath. She could only doubly hope it wouldn't come to that.
After a notable pause, Kyoko pinched the bridge of her nose briefly, before finally looking up to answer Makoto.
"Yes... And yet, we hardly have any time at all to slow down. In fact, it feels like things are only going to get more intense from here on out," she said softly, averting her gaze from Makoto initially, before turning to face him, right in the eyes.
"But no matter what, will you stay with me until the end?" She said, before brushing aside some stray hair coyly.
"We still have to attend to that lunch, before Ollerus interrupted us in the first place."
"I..."
Makoto was briefly taken aback by Kyoko's words. He pressed his hands together and looked away from her for a moment, much like she had done to him. Shouldn't she already know the answer to that question already? Her disappearance, the Coalition Civil War, the Revanchist... absolutely none of it could keep him from her in the end.
"Kyoko, I'm not going anywhere," he said resolutely. He turned to look at her, about to say more, when a sudden rumbling caused him to jump.
"What the--?!"
So much for lunch.
Makoto rushed out of Kyoko's office and ran alongside her through the hall. Putting her hand to the speaker in her ear, she activated it, calling for Doppo Kunikida of the Coalition Administration.
"Kunikida, report! What's going on?!" Kyoko exclaimed urgently as she sauntered through the corridor with Makoto.
"Commander Kirigiri! There's been an explosion at the officer's quarters! You're gonna want to take a look at this mess for yourself!" The voice of Doppo responded from Kyoko's speaker quickly. Giving an acknowledging nod to Makoto, Kyoko obliged silently, rushing forward to her destination and taking the lead from there.
As the pair reached the source of the emergency, they were hit with a wall of heat and smoke. Wisps of flame poured out of what remained of the officer's quarters and Coalition agents were scattered about in the hallway. Most were safe, but some of the agents were badly hurt. Makoto knelt next to the body of
Fandral, realizing after a moment that the man was dead. He closed his eyes and shook his head in despair.
Wynne was moving about the bodies quickly, applying healing magic to those who could use it.
"Commander Kyoko," she said once she spotted the pair. She moved over to them quickly, moving fast for a woman her age.
"This attack came out of nowhere. Those that can help have done all they can."
Makoto nodded, but then heard someone clear his throat behind him. He turned to find none other than Kyosuke Munakata behind himself and Kyoko.
"Kirigiri. Naegi. I was hoping you two would have things under control until I arrived."
"A Revanchist soldier must have infiltrated Knowhere," Makoto said, standing up to face Kyosuke.
"Clearly," he replied. He then looked to Wynne.
"Did you catch the source of the attack? Do you believe you can track them?"
It took Wynne a moment, but she nodded.
"I can try."
"Good. Kyoko, command some of the able-bodied to join me in tracking down the enemy. I will rout this despair from your headquarters."
"Right. In all likelihood, this is probably some sort of diversion to split our attention, just like during the Othinus Incident, but if they want us to take their bait so badly..." Kyoko speculated, before once again putting a finger to her speaker.
"All units, to whoever is able, I'm going to need a small team to report to the officers' quarters at once to track down and apprehend the ones who caused this explosion!" The young leader announced to all those listening.
It was up to those within the many teams of the Coalition to make a decision; proceed with the mission to track down the Great Spirits, or report to the officers' quarters to track down potential Revanchist saboteurs.
CHARACTER LIST
@Crow as Ben Tennyson [Ben 10] and Cagliostro [Granblue Fantasy]
@Takumi as Chise Hatori [The Ancient Magus Bride] and Shigure [Fire Emblem]
@Minerva as Corrin [Fire Emblem] and Yennefer [The Witcher]
@Crunch as Deoxys [Pokemon] and Titus [Warhammer]
@Josh as Ellis [Left 4 Dead] and Clark Kent/Kal El [Smallville]
@Jeremi as Frank Castle AKA "The Rider" [Marvel] and Bayonetta [Bayonetta]
@amwexia as Little My (Moomin) and Foo Fighters (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
@Alex Azure as Mason Moretti [Original Character] and Macy Moretti [Original Character]
@Donder172 as Meceliss [Star Wars] and Courier Six [Fallout]
@Sark as Yoda [Star Wars] and Guy Gardener [DC]
@York as Reiner Braun [Attack on Titan] and Schala Zeal [Chrono Trigger]
@Gummi Bunnies as Rinato "Rin" Dormi AKA "Lapis Lazuli" [Original Character] and Goro Majima [Yakuza]
@Yun Lee as Severa [Fire Emblem] and Libra [Fire Emblem]
@Space_Candy as Quentin Smith [Dead by Daylight]
@Kaykay as Shirou Yusa [Dies Irae] and Ren Fujii [Dies Irae]
@Ver as Touma Kamijou [A Certain Magical Index] and Riesbyfe Stridberg [Type-Moon]
@Lucky as Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool [Marvel] and Billy Batson AKA Shazam [DC]
@Ottonomous Ghost as Wolf AKA Sekiro [Sekiro] and Blitzcrank [League of Legends]
