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Wishkeeper treated the Substitute like a puppet, aiming for speed and evasion rather than any counterattacks for now. "What's got you interested in battles, anyway?" Owen asked curiously. "Is it just something you feel like you should do?"

"...I see..." Cal frowned. "You must've met a lot of people. It's too bad you probably won't be able to get any kind of way to give yourself a hint for when you go back, but I get he feeling you and Owen are kinda in the same team there..."

"Mm." Cal leaned back. "Who could have done that? Was it, y'know, something recent, or like... way before you arrived on your latest planet-to-blow-up and stuff?"

"...Could it be because... of a defense mechanism, maybe? A... mental one? Maybe, with all of the horrible things that happened, you tried to... get used to it by tricking your mind into thinking that's all there is? So then you won't... long for something better, because, like, maybe there...

Owen nodded. "Cal, the Ultra Shade who's with me usually, has the same problem. She's been trying to get better at it, but there's just a limit to what she can do when her body's just a projection." Mia's way of speaking interested Owen. Factual, straightforward. It drove Dave crazy, but he...

"Parts of you..." Cal hummed, thoughtful. "So, like... the parts that can be, like, happy, or something? You mentioned something about... what was... Malice, right? Do you think maybe it's kind of like, something is turning you into a Diyem?"

"...I don't really know anymore," Cal said. "I guess the influence from Owen has me kinda interested in fighting, sure. I still pick fights now and then, even if I can't really do much. But... I, I dunno. I think I'm still trying to find myself." She glanced at Bahamut. "If someone's...

"Mm..." Cal looked at Bahamut again, frowning. "I guess after everything that's happened, you'd be pretty, y'know, jaded to it all. I doubt you have the same psychology as, uh, meat-based life, either..."

"Meta-multiverse is a big place," Cal said, frowning. "Besides, I don't really know if others would be comfortable with some truly omnipresent superpower that can take down gods to be totally everywhere at all times, either. I guess we'll just never be satisfied, huh?" She kicked her legs, humming.

"Maybe in your world it'd be farfetched, but I dunno..." Cal shook her head. "Seems more like your world picked the short end of the cosmic sticks and stuff. Or we did, depending on how you look at it, I guess..." It was a little calming to talk about, at least. "I dunno. Dad's feral, or at...

"Doing some training?" Owen asked as he closed the door behind him with his tail. "How's that going? Feeling like your blades are sharp enough to do any real damage yet?" He knew that Ultra Shades in particular had trouble doing any real damage--for better or worse.

Cal shrugged. "In a world like this one, maybe they're just making themselves stronger. It practically feels like stuff like hope and friendship has tangible effects... D'you think it can be measured here? Like it's an actual energy reading that one of Chip's devices would be able to detect? I...

This went on for a short while as the idle buzz of other Colosseum goers came and went, but the mornings were generally quiet. That made it a lot easier to feel the ground rumble with the familiar footfalls of the oversized Charizard. The steps were normal at first, but then there was a stumble...

Karat had visited the infirmary briefly, but there wasn't anything Zinc or the others could do. Karat, meanwhile, did not answer aside from curt texts and no revelations of where Karat had gone. Chip, meanwhile, said that there have indeed been blips of Mewtwo energy now and then, this time...

"Maybe..." Cal sighed, looking conflicted again. She tapped her claws together. "Gonna miss Dad I guess. Gonna always wonder how he's doing. Maybe one day we'll meet again and stuff, or something, even if it's, like, way, way later. I might look totally different..." She sighed. "Whatever, I...

"Yeah, uh, yours is kinda weird," Cal said. "Hope we don't actually get crazy strong... or maybe we mellow out. How did Eien seem to you, huh?" She tilted her head. "Aside from Diyem, I think you're the only one who even knows what she sounds like."

"Put my foot down, huh..." Cal pondered the idea, but she seemed to hit another mental wall. Her golden embers flickered. "What... do I want...?"

"The only one who'd know the answer to that would be Diyem, and he's... probably jaded." Cal looked down. "I don't get how they fell for each other to begin with. I mean, I guess I can kinda see it, but..." She flexed her wings. "That... sort of comes to my next thing. I guess as all this is...

"At least you don't agonize over it like an edgy teen," Cal said. "...Anymore. Openly." She flopped around a little, slamming her half-corporeal fists on the rooftop, then settled back down, like it helped her think. "I feel like they don't get it," she said. "Right now everyone's talking like...

"Trivial stuff compared to the shit you deal with," Cal replied openly, flopping with a semisolid flump as she spread her wings to the sun. "But I don't really want to be around Dad right now. Either of them. Like, Daddy Darkness is depressing as hell, and Daddy Light is trying to cheer me up...