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Roxas was far enough from the epicenter that he didn't get caught up in the destructive magic of Kefka's Ultima spell, but he was close enough to see the damage. Crystal certainly wasn't vaporized as the spell might have intended, but she did go down with the Phoenix Blade and the Dragon Blade clattering onto the ground on either side of her. Roxas naturally feared the worst. Ultima wasn't a spell he was familiar with, but it looked more powerful than most of the magic he'd ever seen, and that was including the wide ranging spells he'd seen used by Crystal herself. This kind of damage looked more on the level of the kind of power wielded by Crystal's summoned creatures if Roxas could compare it to anything he might have been familiar with. He was already slipping into a panic and probably would cried out in anguish if not for the fact that a split second later Crystal woke up, coughing a bit, with a sort of crimson glow surrounding her that dissipated almost immediately, although the glow matched the flames of the broadsword she had been wielding.

"Ow... that one hurt..." Crystal muttered as she sat herself up to assess the damage while digging around in her vest pocket to immediately procure a Hi Potion to chug down to replenish the rest of her stamina and vitality.

Roxas was momentarily speechless as all he could do was stare in shock and disbelief. How in the world did she survive that? Of course, once that passed, all that was left was a profound sense of relief. "Don't scare me like that!" Roxas finally managed as he slumped down next to Crystal. He was completely exhausted, both with worry over what had just happened right in front of him and also from fighting so hard against those strange snake-like Heartless with the black blood. "I don't think I can take much more of it right now."

"That's right, you wouldn't have known about me having Auto-Life," Crystal rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about that. But, like I've said before, it isn't right to sacrifice your own existence because there are people who care about you and that applies to me too. I don't do self-sacrifice. But, that little trick won't work again until I give it time to recharge."

Crystal started working on putting the Phoenix Blade and the Dragon Blade away into her digital storage device while she gave Roxas a moment to process what she was telling him. In a way it was pretty similar to abilities such as Second Chance and Once More. And, in retrospect, an ability like that also explained how Crystal and Shiro had survived their many, many misadventures. And also why she would often take her time re-supplying afterward because she needed to wait out the cool down before she risked rushing back into battle.

Riku wasn't lucky like Roxas. He wasn't at the epicenter and so he didn't take as bad a hit as Roveth from the Hypernova, but he did get blown away into the wall of a nearby building leaving good-sized impression in the wall as he collapsed onto the pavement. He was lucky, however, that even though Roveth was out cold and Axel had also gotten himself swatted down by Kefka, that Xion was still standing and hadn't expended any magic during the fight with the Heartless so she was able to cast Curaga on the lot of them to restore their vitality although Roveth's loss of consciousness would be an altogether separate matter. That was probably for the best though given that Kefka had just gotten away with Shiro again. Riku was therefore very surprised to see that even though Crystal was somehow conscious she didn't immediately charge back onto the warpath after Shiro and Kefka, not that it would be easy to track them with Kefka masking his presence and Shiro being most likely unconscious as well. Nope, from what Riku could see from his current vantage point it looked like Crystal had just finished off another Hi Potion and starting on an Ether and had also supplied Roxas with a Hi Potion too, but other than the exchange of recovery items she didn't seem like she was planning on going anywhere quite yet.

"I guess the blast must have knocked some sense back into her," was all Riku could think to say on the subject. "Thanks for your help, Xion. It was lucky he didn't get you too." He glanced over to Roveth's still unconscious form. "Of course, now we're going to have to do something about him and I doubt he's going to be happy once he wakes up."

"All the more reason why were really need for Crystal to keep her head in the game," Xion agreed. "With Shiro gone she's the only one Roveth might still listen to."

"Well, at least it doesn't look like she's going to be a problem anymore," Riku pointed out. Crystal seemed to be back to her regular self now at least.

"You're being awfully calm considering Shiro just got kidnapped by Kefka again," Roxas had noticed it too and while he was glad that Crystal was apparently done being reckless for the moment, it was a little bizarre that she was taking this all so well.

"Let's just say that as painful as it was to take a hit like that, it was also extremely informative," Crystal explained. "Kefka is a magic user and Ultima is the strongest spell in black magic. We also know now, definitively, that he can teleport and cast barriers. If we know what he's capable of, then we can figure out ways to fight back against him. Ways he won't be able to counter or anticipate from us. Sure, he's out of his damn mind and evil for the sake of being evil, but the spells that he's using obey specific rules. If we know the rules, then we can find a way to beat him. And that makes him a whole lot less scary. The next time we face him we'll get Shiro back and make him regret becoming our enemy."

"So it's alright if we need to take a little time to recover first," Roxas nodded. He couldn't stress enough how glad he was that Crystal was back to normal again. Well, as normal as she could be while plotting her revenge against Kefka in a more constructive manner at least. Roxas got back on his feet and offered Crystal a hand up. "Come on, let's regroup with the others and get everyone in on this scheme you're concocting."

"Good idea," Crystal accepted the hand up and nodded. "Odds are we'll be needing everyone to make this work."

While Kefka was negotiating an exchange for Free's magic eye, Medusa would have been making the preparations to inject Shiro with the syringe full of black blood. This proved to be surprisingly easy with Shiro's scars acting as a bulls-eye for where to jab the needle into his chest to get right at his heart.

"Well, even if he does go back to his friends after we're done here, his reaction to the black blood will still provide useful results for my own research," Medusa really didn't care so long as she could at least observe Shiro at a distance.


The others, meanwhile, would have relocated to the academy infirmary where Roveth and Black Star were put to bed until they eventually regained consciousness on their own. Roxas and Xion waited with Roveth while Riku took Crystal outside into the hallway to have a word with her about what had happened out there. They weren't exactly yelling or anything, but their voices were raised enough that it wasn't hard to overhear what the two were talking about.

"Listen, you can't just charge into battle on your own and expect that it will all work out," Riku admonished Crystal. "I know you were upset, but even that doesn't explain what exactly got into you out there. You might not share that cold killer presence that Shiro sometimes gets now when he's fighting, but you definitely have a reckless violent streak buried somewhere inside that innocent exterior. It might have worked this time, but it's way too risky and your team needs you to lead them. Roveth and Axel might have their own agendas and they can both make tough decisions in the heat of battle, but Roxas and Xion need guidance. And really, you're a much better tactician than you are at being a human battering ram."

"I know," Crystal muttered. "I get it. It was stupid. I won't do it again."

"Good," Riku nodded. "Now what exactly is this plan you have for the next time we go up against Kefka?"

"We're going to beat him at his own game," Crystal stated simply. "If we all stick together we'll be an easy target so we'll have to break off into smaller tag-teams to split his focus while also using certain powerful combination skills to keep him on his toes. Of course, before that, we'll have to find a Moogle to synthesize us some equipment upgrades. And, of course, we'll need you running interference with your Dark Teleport and Dark Shield abilities to support everyone while we're drawing Kefka's fire. If we can get under his skin, then we might be able to hit him where it hurts."

"Sure, that won't be a problem," Riku smirked a bit. "In fact, it sounds like it might even be kinda fun."

"Don't enjoy yourself too much or Kefka might single you out to be used for target practice," Crystal warned Riku before heading back into the infirmary to see how Roveth was doing.

"Do you really think we can beat Kefka?" Roxas wondered.

"I think we won't know until we try," Crystal shrugged a bit. "But, if there's any chance at all, we're not going to find it by backing down now. Besides, I can't just let him do whatever he wants with Shiro. And Roveth is going to be dying for some payback too."

"Roveth's abilities are derived from an entirely different system of magic than Shiro's," Crystal added with a confident smirk. "Of course, even if he's packing a special powerhouse, we're also going to need some monsters that don't necessarily abide by common sense or the known laws of physics. You know the summon I'm talking about, right Roveth? If you have something comparable to that, then today might be the day to use it. Kefka won't know what hit him."

"Good work, Axel," Roxas was glad to see him again and also impressed to see he had successfully confiscated the Moogle for their use.

"Don't worry, you don't have to hide from us. We're not going to hurt you," Crystal turned her own attention to the aforementioned Moogle. "After all, we're customers and you're about to make lots of munny."

The Moogle wriggled free from Axel and brightened considerably at the prospect of making lots of munny. "Okay, tell me what you need, kupo!"

"Let's see... I've already got one for myself, but the others could all use a Ribbon to guard against negative status ailments," Crystal started things off with the basics. "Oh right, these aren't listed among your usually prescribed synthesis materials, but there wasn't much use for them on the world I acquired them from so maybe you can figure out some way to use them anyway," she handed over a substantial number of rainbow colored seashells.

"Amazing, kupo! The legendary Rainbow Shell! And so many of them, kupo!" the Moogle became visibly excited. "Sure, I can make you some truly excellent accessories and equipment with these, kupo!"

"Let me think, what else?" Crystal glanced over the list of items available through synthesis.

"Sweetstack is pretty powerful, but maybe we can synthesize some stronger Keyblades," Xion suggested.

"You mean like maybe this Ultima Weapon thing?" Crystal glanced at the name in the synthesis menu. "Huh, I didn't realize these guys could also manufacture specialized Keyblade upgrades."

"Wait, you can just make an Ultima Weapon?" Roxas was genuinely surprised and shocked to hear this.

"Based on the synthesis materials I've given to the Moogles before and my synthesis ranking... I can probably make at least five of them," Crystal admitted. "Why?"

"Keep in mind, once you make one you might be able to make an even stronger version, kupo!" the Moogle informed the group helpfully. "These Rainbow Shells are truly amazing, kupo!"

Roveth had blinked a bit, and went into a neutral gaze when he heard Crystal going ham with the synthesis materials, and once his mind caught up to the fact of Crystal -actually- able to create the Ultima Weapon keyblade, from what his mind had gathered via... something, probably from studying the info on Sora and Roxas in the basement, he would clench his fists, before his eyes started going inverted and blood red, and glowing -VERY- menacingly as his killing intent starting to leak out like a miasma "Crystal? how long have you been gathering these synthesis materials...? AND WHY IN THE REALMS OF DARKNESS HAVE YOU NOT USED THEM FOR EVERYONE SOONER!?!?!?!?!?!?" of course the last part of that shout had Roveth's head swell to comical proportions of rage and bloodshot eyed anger, this shout could also be heard all the way across Death City with how powerful Roveth's rage was about this. oh yes, it was clear he was now set off, and it'd take a LOT to calm him down.

Axel of course sweatdropped a bit seeing Roveth going off not unlike a volcano this time, then again, it seems like Roveth's anger was probably justified in his mind as he shook his head "uh... i think i'll just keep silent and walk over here..." he said, quickly moving to Xion and Roxas's side to at least protect them should Roveth physically lash out at anyone.


Kefka meanwhile just looked up from his work, grinning "i see you're curious as to why i'm working on this boy? well.. when i first met him he actually used a spell that i was not intimately familiar with to damage me, that, and just recently, in fact, from watching him i've noticed something else.. he is a... sleeping agent, of the Primordial God named Chaos, God of Darkness." he said, waving a bit "i just want to see how far he can go before he eventually breaks and becomes one of darkness like all other agents, like myself for instance. mwee hee hee hee hee~! he has great potential, this much i can see... plus adding in this black blood... it should be very entertaining to watch this one." of course, with that he put the finishing touches on molding the vertical eye-socket for Shiro's head, so on, and would work on taking out the eye, and starting to properly surgically implant it into that hole.

"How very interesting indeed," Medusa listened as Kefka explained his interest in Shiro. It made total sense to her why Kefka would be experimenting on the boy if what he said were true. "If what you say is true, then he should be able to resonate very strongly with the black blood. It's no wonder those fools from the academy mistook him for a Kishin. Although, I must say, those others he was with also seem rather capable. I might have fun playing with them a bit more myself."

"Right, that's fair," Crystal nodded as she shrank away a bit again knowing Roveth wasn't going to let go of his anger so easily and that once they got Shiro back she likely wasn't going to hear the end of this. She wasn't really scared of Roveth, but being yelled at by him definitely wasn't a fun experience. Before she could think any more on that though, there was a small twinge of pain from where Crystal's heart was connected to Shiro's and the room started to swim as her eyes started to glaze over as a pounding headache started to take hold. "Something's... not right..." she collapsed to her knees while clutching at her skull. What the hell was that mad clown doing to Shiro to cause a rebound like this?

The pain subsided as Crystal slipped in and out of consciousness at which point she also heard a voice. "You really shouldn't worry so much about what happens to other people. After all, you've always been better off alone," the voice spoke from a position behind where Crystal was now standing so that it wasn't exactly difficult to pinpoint.

"I wouldn't call it better off," Crystal muttered as she rounded on the source of the voice to find a large broken looking door guarded by a smaller and altogether angrier looking version of herself.

"You're setting yourself up to feel that pain again when everyone you care about either dies or disappears forever again," the smaller version of herself spoke again. "And can you really even trust what you're feeling now? How do you know that any of this is even truly real? What if it's all an illusion inside your head? Why are these people, your so-called friends, so important to you?"

"I see, so this is a dream," Crystal had already figured it out, of course, being as it wasn't exactly difficult to interpret from her surroundings that this wasn't the waking world. She folded her arms over her chest and stared pointedly at the smaller version of herself who barred her way. "I don't expect for you to understand. After all, you're a remnant of the old me. The one who didn't trust or believe in anyone other than myself because it easier than actually coping with the pain and the loneliness of the solitude that we felt. But we're not the same anymore. I still remember how it felt, but it's different now. I have friends I trust completely, friends I believe in, and friends I would do anything to protect. I don't need my mental barriers anymore. I don't need to keep everyone else out."

"What? You think just because you have friends who care about you now that it's going to change what will happen?" the younger version of herself now mocked her. "You don't even know what real friendship is!"

"You're right, I didn't know," Crystal recoiled a bit from the sharpness of her younger self's words. "I made up a lot of false friendships and false memories to mask the pain of not having anyone by my side. But I understand now what real friendship means and I care about the people in my life. Nothing, not even a memory of my cynical former self, can change the way I feel about them. Especially not now. Friendship isn't the only thing I've found. I've also found the capacity to love and be loved in return."

"Wait, what?" the younger version of herself only sounded disgusted now. "When exactly did that happen?"

"Huh, I guess because it's a feeling I didn't used to understand, you didn't see it coming," Crystal chuckled a bit to herself. "And that means... the ball is in my court now."

"Crystal!" Roxas was calling out and Crystal could hear him now.

"It looks like she's coming out of... whatever it is that just happened," Xion could see that Crystal seemed to be waking up, although she hadn't exactly seemed like she was asleep either.

"Ugh..." Crystal groaned a bit. Her head was still pounding, although it hurt substantially less than when it had started. "Something has happened to Shiro and I think it's probably effecting me too."

"Your order is complete, kupo!" the Moogle spoke up with relief.

"Oh good, that means we'll be able to do something about this sooner rather than later," Crystal smirked a bit while getting back on her feet. She divided up the newly synthesized Keyblades between herself, Roveth, Roxas, and Axel, giving the extra Ultima Weapon and Rainbow Gear to Roveth as well so that he would be able to pass them along to Shiro once they found him. And, of course, there were enough Ribbons, Rainbow Rings, and Rainbow Necklaces to go around for everyone, even Riku.

Kefka nodded with a small cackle on his breath as he brought an arm up and formed a Corridor of Darkness for himself and the Demon swordsman, while idly picking up Shiro by the scruff of the neck, grinning "then i shall get things started, just send your demon swordsman through that corridor and it'll lead to a place i'll set up for the battlefield." he said while grinning as he walked towards the corridor, and within he'd disappear, heading for what was a large enough courtyard area that would be used, and when he noticed the purple clouds up above he'd just smirk a bit lightly "Mwee hee hee hee... seems that silly shadow is a little miffed! well bring it on! i dare you all!" he shouted to the world, while Shiro on the ground started to twitch and spasm, and convulse.

Shiro, within his own mind -was- waking up, but what he was finding was an entire -mess- of his mental plane, especially with this black looking sludge all over, in fact, it reminded him of the black mud that his mentor told him about that was part of the Zoroastrian god Angra Mainyu... he shuddered a bit, though he was waist deep in the sludge, he didn't hear any whispers of curses and to die, die die die, like his mentor had, instead, all he was hearing was small faint whisperings, whisperings to let go, embrace madness, so on, it was enough to make him blanch, especially when two versions of himself slowly popped up out of the sludge, one which looked like a deceptively white version of Shiro, with inverted amber eyes grinning psychotically, and a completely black and yellow version, which actually if the grin on the white version was psychotic in general, this one was madness incarnate "well well well... what do we have here, our guest has finally arrived. heheheheheheh~!" the black one cackled, while the white one just smirked a bit "so he did, so he did..." he nodded.. up until he opened a -third- eye and revealed an utterly demonic looking red eye in the middle of his forehead "you really are ******** up now, this Black Blood is a bit... interesting." Shiro sweatdropped a bit lightly "look whose talking, i'm not the one with three eyes!" the white Shiro just stopped grinning a bit, before walking over through the black blood as it was called, and poked gently on Shiro's forehead, where he would -definitely feel not skull, but something squishier being moved around "moron, this is -your- mind, so of course anything that's different on me is different on you, silly boy." the black Shiro of course was just cackling off to the side while Shiro 'traced' a blade, and looked right into it, going wide-eyed when he did see the three eyes on himself "what the hell!?!?!" the black version just smiled in his creepy way "that clown did a number on you bozu, as for payback on him.. why not cut loose? its not like you have any attachments to the area, and your friends are all away~..." shiro shook his head, backing up a bit and pointing the blade at the black one "oh hell no, no way am i losing myself like that!" of course, both the black and the white versions grin insanely, before tackling shiro deep into the black blood, submerging all three of them for the moment, on the outside while this was going on Shiro's body continued to convulse and fight the black blood at the moment, but is quickly losing ground if the slowly descending into madness look in Shiro's eyes was any indication.

Roveth would take his own Rainbow Gear and Ultima weapon, looking it over, of course, once he focused a bit of power into it, it would change from it's current colors, to look red and black in color, with the heart in the ultima weapon cleaved in half, one space empty, while another filled in with black metal, all around, it looked like... "Bloody Ultima..." he muttered, before snapping his head up, feeling Shiro, just faintly, and looked outside "... i can feel Shiro, he's outside wherever he was, unfortunately, i feel a faint presence there, no doubt it's that unruly clown." he said coldly as he adjusted the Rainbow ring, necklace, and tying the ribbon to his arm ,since he wasn't the type to wear it in his hair like a girl as he brought out two cards, one glowing with... a prismatic color, and one glowing with a small golden radiance.

Axel noticed Roveth readying himself, but he quickly worked to equip the rings as well, and switched his base keychain to the Ultima Weapon Keychain, which took on slight flame colorings and Motifs, before Roveth proceeded to equip the Rainbow Gear atop the blade, causing to to pulse and glow, before bursting out in raw power, becoming a true Upgraded Keyblade, Blaze Diffusion. and once it revealed itself, Axel just stared at it, feeling the raw power flowing from it "oh man.. this is -definitely- a powerful weapon! and i thought my Chakrams were powerful!" he then grinned a bit and twisted the Kyblade around lightly testing the grip.

Medusa didn't wait long after Kefka departed with his little experiment. "Oh Crona, I have another little job for you..." she called with a sickeningly sweet sing-song tone as a show of just how disgustingly pleased she was by this fascinating arrangement. Of course, while she waited for Crona to get to work, there were Heartless to create and experiment on. And this next batch would promise to be even more menacing and unstable than the initial experiments if Medusa had her way about it.