Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Main Lobby

[Ambyssin]

"I'd rather he be in a cell." Bahamut's expression remained dark as he floated past Soda. "As for getting a message to the moon, why not just ask those of us who can fly through space to go out and investigate."

And he headed for the door without another word.

 

[Fusion]

"...I feel like I could get that high, or at least most of the way," Vix muttered to herself. It wasn't like she ever thought about it before, and she is way stronger now than when she tried to scale a mountain... and almost died, so... maybe.

However, wanting to put more thought in it felt kinda meh. Whatever light fixtures had as adrenaline was wearing off, and for the first time in forever... Vix was feeling tired. Or drained. Maybe both. Whatever it was, she felt it was time to leave.

Puddle and Scrafty, reluctantly, followed behind. But from a distance.

 

[Namohysip]

Silver looked like he was about to warm up to the idea when Potluck said, "We can be helmet buddies!" And to that, it seemed Silver had gone cold to the idea once more.

"What happens to you if something happens to Soda Prime?"

"Tch... No idea. Never tried to test out what happens if I die with a Substitute active." He smirked. "I'm pretty good at Substitute. Maybe I'm already dead and I don't know it." He seemed to be joking, but Soda was so out of sorts that he couldn't hide that glint of fear in his eyes.

 

[Negrek]

Nate sighed. "I'll take that as a 'no' on any sort of message, then." Didn't look like Silver was taking the bait, neither. Maybe Nate could try talking with Chip about the design of those machines of his.

It was getting late; people were filtering off, to sleep or to pursue whatever else it was they usually went for after a fight. Nate wouldn't be surprised to see the Soda-sub at a bar later. His own injuries stung, and he could feel a headache coming on, but having everyone gathered together like this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"There's one other thing," Nate said. "Soda told us that Xerneas had been killed and replaced, like S'more. I'm, uh, hoping you feel better." He gave the deer-legend an uneasy look. No more going all snakey and glowy and shit for the moment, anyway. "Have you got the same kinda deal people like Soda do? Forgetting shit, not knowing why you think things, feeling like shit ain't right? And do you maybe remember when shit started getting weird for you?"

 

[Namohysip]

Xerneas was near Diyem, but much less possessive about it. Something must have mellowed him out ever since the Eterna corruption, mostly, was taken away.

"I am going to have Zinc take a look at him," Diyem replied. "Perhaps we will find something noteworthy, but preliminary checks..." He glanced at Zinc.

"Oh, um." The Goodra fidgeted. "Well... I did do some basic screening, a-and I don't really know what more I can find, ohh... when I checked... it was Xerneas, at least, his body. But... b-but..."

"Go on," Diyem pressed impatiently. Perhaps he, too, was tired.

"Well..." Zinc shuddered. "It's the inside. E-everything about Xerneas... from his brain to his heart... all of his organs... they're... gone!" She tore her eyes away from Xerneas, who shrank slightly. He probably already knew. "Just... replaced with... I don't know what. It looks like empty space, and yet... there must be something there..."

 

[Negrek]

Why was everything about that guy so fucking freaky? Honest to fucking god. "Yeah," Nate said. "That was the other thing. Soda said the xerneas we knew was something like a shade, almost. I wonder, if it looks empty in there, maybe there's some kind of shadowy goo stuff? Kind of like the shades have? Then you wouldn't be able to see it, but Diyem or someone could." Nate shuddered. "Not that I have even the faintest fucking interest in trying to look in there to check."

Instead he narrowed his eyes at Xerneas, focusing.

Nate used Foresight!

 

[Namohysip]

Owen was looking away. It wasn't like he didn't know, but it was also not something that would have helped until now. But others seeing for themselves would also help... Especially since Owen wasn't sure what to make of it.

Nate's Foresight wasn't as elaborate or in-depth as Owen's, but he could still glean more than enough detail. Xerneas, the way he moved, the way his body 'sounded' against Nate's probing... Hollow. It was a hollow shell, like whatever used to be inside Xerneas had been removed or--more likely--consumed, or converted. Something strange and sludge-like curled around the bones that remained inside, which was further surrounded by a flexible chitin of some kind.

And, when Xerneas glanced at Nate, Nate would get the sense that something moved inside that shell.

That didn't look like a Shade. It was too big to be one. And it had harder limbs inside, too--not just an amorphous creature. But it still looked like a Shade... Could it be an evolved Shade of some kind? Was this what happened if Shades...

 

[Negrek]

Well, that was fine. It wasn't like Nate was was ever gonna need to eat again or nothing. He closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed hard. "Right," he said after a few seconds. "I guess you're pretty... comfy... in there?"

It certainly looked like some kind of Eien thing. The other shades didn't so much. Meaning this one actually came from Eien, maybe? Were there more out there?

"Owen, did Xerneas look like that back when we visited the tree with Pop and everybody?" Nate asked while he rummaged in Rocky's bag for one of his remaining lumps. Cynthian had tried smacking Xerneas with the mew-familiar (when had that happened, anyway?) back in the Tree, and Xerneas hadn't seemed to care. Maybe it made a difference if the stone was already occupied, though?

Nate pulled out one of the unused lumps and held it up for Xerneas to inspect. "Anything about this seem interesting to you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Kind of..." Owen nodded. "I knew something was wrong, but it was hard to tell. The distortions were making it hard to see more than just his body's movements. Now that the Eterna distortion is gone, though, it's... very clear.

"Anything about this seem interesting to you?"

Xerneas leaned forward to take a closer look, towering over Nate. Whatever it was that the Shade did to Xerneas' body, it halted any sense of decay one would usually see from a brainless zombie shell, because Xerneas smelled vaguely like the Tree of Life and nothing more.

"...Why do you have an egg?"

 

[Fusion]

Puddle reappeared, like a wet bolt of lightning that no one asked for, pointing a bloopy finger at Diyem, and said. "I'm telling!" and left.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Tch... No idea. Never tried to test out what happens if I die with a Substitute active." He smirked. "I'm pretty good at Substitute. Maybe I'm already dead and I don't know it." He seemed to be joking, but Soda was so out of sorts that he couldn't hide that glint of fear in his eyes.

Dave's gut clenched. The thought of Substitutes being left to just run around independently, forks of his psyche, until the inevitable moment their fragile bodies were destroyed and nothing remained, was somehow worse than them all simultaneously disappearing.

"Do you want to stay in the holding cells or take your chances out there? Maybe we can take turns keeping an eye on you or something."

 

[Negrek]

"So it's been at least that long, then," Nate said when Owen explained. Good to know.

An egg, though. That... maybe made some kind of twisted sense. "There were a whole bunch of them lying on the ground near where a big meteor fell. We didn't know what they were, but we thought we might be useful. And then we found some little squiggly guys who seemed to like them, and, well." He waved a hand at Rocky. The familiar smiled and pulled his core out of his chest, showing it to Xerneas as well.

"When you say egg, uh, is it supposed to work like that? A creature goes into it, then hatches from it later in a different form? Or, well, it doesn't seem like there's anything in here." He waggled the "egg" gently. "Does that mean there was something that already hatched and left?"

 

[Namohysip]

Ignoring Puddle, Diyem stomped over to take a closer look at the lumps. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm Xerneas, or... I think I am. I know what an egg is when I see one." He pointed at the hoof. "That is an unfertilized egg. I'm sure you've taken lessons on that sort of thing." He looked at Nate, frowning--or perhaps it was a frown. Hard to tell with a head like that. "What happens when a female part and a male part go together?"

"...No," Diyem said slowly, eyes narrowed. "This is a prank. What are you talking about?"

"These are Eternatus eggs," Xerneas said matter-of-factly. "But something is... twisted about them. I don't think they're supposed to normally look that way. Something... dark about it. A twisted, corrupted aura..." Xerneas paused, glancing at Diyem. "A lot like you, actually."

Diyem was frozen, his face permanently incredulous and panicked. "How would such eggs be... activated?"

Xerneas looked at the egg, then at Rocky. He reached out and pressed his forehead against Rocky's Core, "Hmm..."

"Um, Diyem?" Owen asked, hesitantly stepping forward. "What's... going on? Eggs? I thought those lumps were just... I don't know, some kind of artifact from the meteor that can hold energy, like the Joulettes..."

"Joulettes?" Xerneas asked, eyes still closed.

"Yeah, um, shards of Joule that were corrupted by Shadows. It required someone from us pushing it in, though. And we were only able to do it once, for some reason..."

"Only once," repeated Xerneas thoughtfully. "That means you passed something from yourself into the egg. Because it feels, to me, that what is inside Rocky's egg... is some dark energy, some life energy, and some of Nate's energy. That dark energy... yes, I believe it matches you, Diyem. The life energy... I believe it is Joule..."

SPLAT!

Cal landed just outside the office--Owen must have told her the news--and rolled the rest of herself inside. Her head, mushed into the rest of her form, shouted, "What do you mean, I'm an egg?!"

Diyem's legs wobbled; Zinc, nearby, helped sit him down.

"I'm a father," Diyem said dumbly, staring blankly ahead.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Soul was bored. If she wanted to get invested in drama, she could read a trashy book or something like that instead of putting up with actual bickering. She groomed her tails, more as an expression of boredom than out of a need for actual hygiene. She'd never really found her shadowy form to get dirty, and her fur wasn't real, but grooming while everyone else was talking was a nice, passive way of expressing disintere-

Wait, what?

Soul reached into her chest and pulled out the core she now knew was an eternatus egg. She held it as she stared into it as if it was a crystal ball from which she could divine the truth.

She had, in the most literal possible sense of the word, a mother-of-shell. Eien.

That was a strange enough thought in and of itself, but the idea that her core was still an egg after she'd emerged from it came with it's own litany of anxieties. "Is it sterile, or can it hatch? If it hatched, would I still exist, or would I... make like Darkwhite?"

A third, stranger possibility occurred to her. "Or... W-Would I myself become the Eternatus?"

Soul... would be okay with that, she decided. More than okay, perhaps. She would be happy to have a real body, a true self.

 

[Namohysip]

"Do you want to stay in the holding cells or take your chances out there? Maybe we can take turns keeping an eye on you or something."

Soda had been caught up in all the revelations--this one surprised even him--but when he finally came back to his senses, he glanced at Dave. "...Figure if I want to stay here longer, it should be somewhere safe. Every bit of damage can mess with a Substitute, after all. Someone bumping into me, someone accidentally stepping on my feet, anything. It's real... precarious, eh? Guess if we want drinks, it'll have to be in the cells." There seemed to be an attempt at lighthearted humor, but it fell flat.

"Is it sterile, or can it hatch? If it hatched, would I still exist, or would I... make like Darkwhite?"

A third, stranger possibility occurred to her. "Or... W-Would I myself become the Eternatus?"

"That, I'm not sure," Xerneas said. "But I do sense a new life within. Yours."

"A... a new life?" Cal repeated. "But what about... Millijoule..."

Xerneas tilted his head, but then Joule spoke up and briefly explained the circumstances.

"Oh, interesting... But that wasn't formed in the same way, was it? With Maple, but not Diyem's darkness, which these eggs seemed to be intended for. Joule, perhaps a new life had never formed at all--and it really did only capture a fragment of your spirit."

"Maybe that's also why Millijoule was the only one who had a strong sense to return," Owen theorized. He thought of Luz, but that was more a desire to have an escape, rather than an active want. ...That was going to be awkward for her to find out.

"I-intended--" Diyem seemed to have been beyond himself, then, and looked ready to pass out. "Eien..."

"Oh, no," Zinc whispered. "His positivity levels are rising. We need to get him out of here." She gestured for someone to help carry him out.

 

[Ambyssin]

Xeromus had stayed behind and was uncharacteristically silent at the news. But his eyes sparkled with... something.

 

[Dragonfree]

Soda had been caught up in all the revelations--this one surprised even him--but when he finally came back to his senses, he glanced at Dave. "...Figure if I want to stay here longer, it should be somewhere safe. Every bit of damage can mess with a Substitute, after all. Someone bumping into me, someone accidentally stepping on my feet, anything. It's real... precarious, eh? Guess if we want drinks, it'll have to be in the cells." There seemed to be an attempt at lighthearted humor, but it fell flat.

Dave nodded slowly. "Right. I'll swing by tomorrow with something from the Cauldron." He paused. "Guess you should avoid the extra-hot sauce. Do Substitutes eat?"

On the one hand, the idea that Squiggly'd basically been some kind of unholy sperm cell was disconcerting, but on the other hand this notion that this changed anything meaningful about their relationship to the familiars left Dave skeptical at best. Nebulous energy mixing making you a parent was a real reach. Sure, if--

A third, stranger possibility occurred to her. "Or... W-Would I myself become the Eternatus?"

"That, I'm not sure," Xerneas said.

His blood ran cold. "What?"

In his mind's eye he saw Mia growing, twisting, coiling like the corrupted Xerneas. She wouldn't -- would she? If it'd just make her hundreds of times stronger...? Oh. Yeah, she really fucking would if she could, wouldn't she.

 

[Negrek]

"Ooooh," Rocky said, returning his core to its usual place with a soft squelch. "Diyem's my dad? And also Joule? And...?" He turned to Nate with an immense grin on his face.

"No," Rocky said flatly.

"No, nooooo, it's true, you heard what Xerneas just--"

"No," Nate said, and there was an edge in his voice that stopped Rocky from pressing the issue. For now, at least. His tail was still flicking, and he smiled as he dug deep into his bag. He came up with the fragment of Sword's core that he'd taken from the Worldcore, with its band of purple stone.

He offered it for Xerneas to look at. "Is this what it looks like when an egg hatches, then?"

Nate turned stiffly towards the dejected substitute hanging around by Flesh's side. "Soda," he said. "Sorry to ask, but do you remember what that meteor you grabbed looked like?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Guess you should avoid the extra-hot sauce. Do Substitutes eat?"

"Yeah, ones like me do," Soda said. "Doesn't really feel exactly the same, if you ask me..." Talking about random crap with Dave always eased his nerves.

He offered it for Xerneas to look at. "Is this what it looks like when an egg hatches, then?"

"Hmmm... Maybe. But I don't sense any new life from it." Xerneas seemed a little upset by this. "What happened to it? It seems... wrong, somehow. Like someone who was once alive had been forced into..."

"That adds up," Owen said. "Sword's spirit was shoved into an Ultra Stone and turned into Darkwhite. She never really was born, just... changed."

"I see..."

Owen looked Xerneas over again. He wasn't Xerneas, and yet he had some of his mannerisms, some of that disposition. "So... do you really think you're Xerneas?"

He shifted uncomfortably.

"Your life sense. Do you sense it from yourself, or is Xerneas somewhere else?"

"I don't want to talk about that right now."

Nate turned stiffly towards the dejected substitute hanging around by Flesh's side. "Soda," he said. "Sorry to ask, but do you remember what that meteor you grabbed looked like?"

"Eh, yeah. It was a pretty big meteor, way bigger than the Ultra Stones, but at the same time, I couldn't really get a sense of its size." Soda rubbed the back of his head. "I was trying to figure out how to transport it in case it was useful. And then..." Soda trailed off. "...Huh."

"Don't remember," Owen said, recognizing that tone.

"I don't," Soda hummed. "...Fuck, why don't I...?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Maybe that's also why Millijoule was the only one who had a strong sense to return,"

Gods above and below sky, that... That could mean—

"Changes nothin' that matters," mumbled Luz. "There are still ways my core could shatter if it came to it."

Except it did change something. Sooner or later, she'd face whatever the next stage of this egg business was coming. Once, she'd have been fascinated by it, with nothing to lose. With her sense of identity and hope for her own future and fixed plans stronger than ever, though...

"I don't wanna have somethin' like that happen t'me without my say-so," she added, quietly.

"I was trying to figure out how to transport it in case it was useful. And then..."

"You did transport it, right?" she asked, head tilting. "Y'carried away somewhere, right? ...or did ya?"