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A sound echoed across the void they now resided in. Trembling, several voices boomed beyond existence. They all knew what it meant by an instinct dwelling at the pit of their sole beings as both James and the missing number looked towards Oddscar. He nodded with a mournful look as the strange-looking pokemon gave a gentle bow of his head, the brown-skinned creature of vague reptilian origin speaking with telepathic clarity. The choice has been made. Oddscar, son of nobody...come with me. But before the raptor feral could approach him, his other self shouted: "W-WAIT WAIT!" They stopped, turning towards FG. "This...th-th-this isn't fair, this is BULLSHIT!" If I was able to do this without either of your assistance, I would. But it must be done. "Nobody said anything about a choice, did Hau'rhun know about this!? DID HE?!" He was aware of this, yes. "...he knows? He fucking KNEW and he didn't tell me?!" He already alluded to your being chosen for this because of your unique coalition of both your powers across dimensions, as well as the two constructs that reside within you. "I don't...I don't understand, are we...are we like two souls or-" "We share the same soul." Oddscar nodded with a grievous look. "But our minds are different. We have different memories, different loves, different hatreds. But our souls are one and the same." This is not a spiritual matter in the way that you are with your demon. This is a matter of coding, of data constructs that now reside within you. You have two constructs, "programs" one may call it, one of whom must operate your mind and body whilst we possess it...the one who operates your body at the time will be able to control us, guide us but by the end of it will not survive our direct control. "W-wait," said FG with his hands up, "wait...what exactly is going to happen?" We are about to infuse your body with an immense power. Whoever's mind is currently controlling that body, will be the one doing their best to launch an assault on the great evil in order to protect all that is good. We will be allowing some barest sense of control, fighting back our sorrow best as we can and it is only by that mind's will that they can direct us towards the great evil. This will cost them their sanity, and therefore their life which shall be rendered free from the mind leaving the other construct free. The construct who is not chosen, that is you, will be buried deep within the subconscious safely away from our touch. "Wh-what about Scissoraptor?! He's inside me, he can be your fucking pawn and both of us can live!" An interesting proposition...but I must refuse. "WHAT!? NO, WHY!? COME ON THIS IS PERFECT!" We are thousands of souls within a single construct. Do you really wish to put a soul devourer in amongst us, like a serpent in a den of mice? "You can't control him, destroy him, put him away?! You said you could alter reality!" Parts of it. I understand only the coding that which exists inside of your head, only that I can alter. I can alter your intelligence, your memory and your characteristics. But I cannot alter your soul or anything similar, such as the demon. The demon is not coded in your mind, he is but a separate entity. "TAKE HIM ANYWAY, HE'S IN MY WEAPON JUST TAKE THEM!" "James." Oddscar looked at him firmly. "I know you are trying to please everyone, but this was the option that was chosen by those beyond our control." "B-but I...I...I-i-i-i don't want this. I know you'd just be always inside me b-b-but you don't deserve this!" "Nor do you. But we must make our stand." "FUCK making our stand, we have a demon who we can drop in as a pawn! I want us both to live, I don't want anyone else to die e-even if you're just me in another life!" I have already explained to you that we need a mind willing to throw themselves into the great evil's path and destroy their own sanity. Do you really think that your demon would do the same, if he were infused with such overwhelming power? Besides...even if I was able to directly control him, which I cannot, I would not even be able to. "But...you can destroy him." No. "...what?" Beyond the periphery of all universes, in the grand dimensional space between...there lies no coding, no program but the infinite. We are powerless in this realm, across the great beyond. I can only alter the reality where creatures live, the constructs by which our world has been made, but not the world beyond where creatures pass on. A demon of the abyss, though I may be able to battle it equally in power, is not one I can control. If I was able to do that, there would be no need for all of this. "What's that mean?" If I were able to control those of the spiritual beyond, I would have long ago released all of those who shall mourn within this great weeping totem. I cannot control them, I can only lure those of greater sorrow towards me and twist the fabric of a world. Not the world beyond like this, nor anyone of spiritual means including your demon. You must exorcise him by your own means and as much as I can wound him, he is not a construct originally a part of you. I am sorry, if I were able to do this safely with the demon as a puppet, I would. But his essence, his core and his very existence are all monstrously vile and would only cause unmeasurable suffering were I to use him as my avatar. "I am not afraid," said Oddscar, "I know you want me to see the end too but...my story is over. It...it has been for some time now." The feral sighed with a sense of pity, quivering in his claws which he brought slowly to his face. Fear was taking hold of him at the sense of his mortality waiting for him as tears began to flow. He felt someone hug him tight, as James pulled him close. Oddscar embraced him in return as both of them shared that one emotion for an instant, gasping hotly as they began to weep. Their singular soul pulsed within each other as there came a soft sound of weeping from FG. "......I don't want you to go. I...I-i-i only knew you for a bit but all you said...it's not...fair. I didn't want any of this." "I know. I did not either. But just as you would sacrifice yourself for your beloved...I must do the same for my family. Just...promise me this." Oddscar pulled away from his other self. "Do not waste a single moment of your life, when you have finished with your journey truly...make every second with your beloved matter as if it were your last. For me." "I will. I-i will, I promise." "Goodbye...James Campbell." "...goodbye. Oddscar." The raptor of the hidden past turned slowly towards the anomaly's presence and made his way to the little creature. Slowly he took his hand as the world gently began to turn and twist from around them in all-too-familiar hallucinations. Walls began to flicker and darken out, a hissing static rose softly from the white infinite space before deafening his entire vision in a shrieking crescendo of black and grey. Everything became noise, his world drowning in an ocean of screams that he soon realised was not of static, but of those trapped within the anomaly's self. Voices trembled, sobbed and quivered from every direction, even from within his head as the raptor fell onto his knees becoming overwhelmed by the raw insanity of Sorrow itself. He saw two shapes blackened out amidst the static frenzy, knowing it was Oddscar and the missing number reaching out towards each other. Their hands clasped, and the silence then came. James collapsed into darkness, his self pushed deep into his own subconscious beyond anything he could remember, far deeper than ever he had reached from his own inner journey.

It was quiet. It was nothing.

It was the longest death he ever felt.

Oddscar grasps the hands of the missing number. The two began merg iNgToBEcOmEoNE very bit of static shrieked itself inst EaDThEyLeAvEuSiNpAiNfULSiLeNcEoF hismind twisting further inside his own sense of self. Monochrome lines, sounds and songs rendered physical by thickening pulsing waves that iReMeMbErwHeNmYcHiLdReNwOuLdpLaYiNtHeWaTeRs as Oddscar began responding in turn with every inch that crept in. He felt the Sorrow wash across his memories, tainting them, seeing all he ever knew become twisting shrieking tear-struck faces. Crying, mourning, bereft with mYmOtHeRsTiLLbEaTshErHeArTfOrMeiNhErMeMoRyaNd own infecting madness. Violating his body deep, the Sorrow poured in with a skin-crawling sensation, as if being assaulted by dArKpLuToNiAnShoReSiWepT of piercing sounds strong enough to rend his very flesh apart at the molecular level. He struggled to keep his hold onto the creature's hands as his eyes began flickering. Black then white, his pupils were tAkEnbYmE losing their green sharpness and cOgNiZaNcEtObEcoMeMyoWn arrow slits of feral mind as he rolled his eyes back, trembling by a long sombre screech as a thousand tears bLeD iNtO hiS miNd LikE aCid. EvErY tEaR tHaT tRiCkLeD iNtO hiM cAmE wiTh iTs oWn vOiCe. I rEmEmBeR aLL oF tHeM. cReAtUrEs yOu nEvEr kNeW. wOrLdS yOu hAvE sEeN. YoU. YOU. PLeAsE. dO nOT...LeAvE mE.

_ Do NoT LeAve...mY...cHiLd. _

where did we go

*beyond the farplane *

why did they leave us

*when i have waited for you *

my family is gone

*but our memories never faded *

please save us

*from a forgotten death *

where have they gone

*where i cannot even hear them *

i miss my son

*i miss my wife *

everything is now so quiet

*with all their voices gone *

are we dead

*but buried in different graves *

i can see them but

*i cannot hear them, deaf within death *

can they even see me

*when i have forgotten how to speak *

i never even got to tell him about our

*first child that i lost, or about the *

new child i can never hold again

*as if i am cursed never to be a mother *

did mommy send me away

*because she doesn't love me *

i wish i could take these words back

*i'm sorry i called her those things *

i never wanted to die please let me

*tell mommy i'm sorry i want to come home *

come back

*please *

come back

*please *

why won't you come back

*i didn't mean what i said *

why won't you hear me

*no matter how much i scream *

why won't you remember me

*because i can't forget what i did *

why did you forget my name mommy

*i'm sorry i shouted at you before i fell *

my daughter can't even remember my face

*but now she cannot even touch me *

i can still feel my tears running down my face

*and her hands so warm would comfort me *

what face do i even have anymore

*when i cannot even remember it *

i don't want to see you upset

*you don't deserve this pain *

please don't cry

*i never wanted you to cry *

please, stop crying

*i promised i would keep you happy *

i'll start crying too

*i can't even see anymore *

i can see you

*but only in my memories *

i can hear you

*but all i hear is you sobbing *

why can't you see me

*why can't you let me wipe your tears *

i loved you

*as much as i loved my *

mother

*she always taught me to be strong just like my *

father

*all i hoped one day was to have our own *

little ones

*to be kind and strong and hopeful but now *

where will i be

*for them when they have no family *

when you grow old and soon pass away

*forgive me *

barren

*forgive me *

my children

*all i ever wanted was you but *

i hope you will remember me

*when my heart shall soon stop * [/i]

His voice was the last heard before the Sorrow consumed it. Eyes become white of piercing intensity as the entirety of the void within the anomaly pulled into Oddscar's body. He rose, hovering above as he opened his mouth, and sang the song which would signal the great end of eternity. For him, and all of the souls that now resided within him. In that moment, every single creature across Spacetime Seven felt a soft whisper on the wind and a slight sadness come to them for no reason whatsoever. If you ever had felt that on a day such as this, that was the sound of the great Sorrow reaching across existence. In turn, if you ever had felt a dark deep murmur past your ear that made your eyes suddenly become weak, and blur to the point that you were briefly blinded, then it was the sound of the great evil that had roared back as Sinistar slowly revolved itself towards the strange floating creature that was now overwhelming in its radiance, impossible to ignore. The great devourer did not speak, and seeing its potential opponent not back down from its world-tearing bellow it began to approach. With a second greater roar, existence started to fade from around Sinistar into a blackening hollow void bursting out from its throat, briefly shattering the frays of Spacetime Seven which to all inhabitants across existence, would be the sound of thunder on a cloudless day. Oddscar's body floated across the dimensional space, his eyes purest white and his body trembling with staticked lines fraying across his body. Snaking across his skin underneath was a virulent diseased indigo essence, permeating his entire being and never stopping for an instant. He could not even speak, but only scream a new sorrow from his throat as he charged towards the beast despite the incomprehensible size difference between them and, were it not for his possession, Oddscar would have felt the same fears that FG had felt upon first meeting Sinistar. A fly to a human being was larger than Oddscar was to the great evil as the beast roared once again. Shattering the space around itself into a brief glimpse of the darkness, the grand devourer's roar was powerful enough to force the raptor's body back, spiralling almost away before he suddenly shifted from reality, screeching back towards a closer distance from the monstrous entity. The first attack made by Oddscar came in the form of a screeching soundwave unending with bereavement, piercing sharp enough to bring distaste to the god-like who sneered malevolently at him. The eyes of volcanic size pierced their deadly stare of blood-red into the anomaly before one of them flashed, shooting a piercing streak of pure black that shredded across existence by a brief tearing scar. Oddscar dodged swiftly by his own primal instincts, his body still in control despite the anomaly managing everything else. Sinistar fired again with another lancing scrape through Spacetime Seven, a trembling of the air in every world beyond that gave unease to every creature. The anomaly rushed forwards as the black death shot repeatedly from both eyes and just before the raptor could land itself upon the colossal body, it lunged forwards with a vicious crunch of its foul jaws encompassing the void. The sound was like that of a mass extinction event, one that in Oddscar's own memory sent shudders of existential fear rampant from inside of him. The anomaly swiftly teleported away, glimmering by a trace of static noise to the side and avoid being devoured by the infinite nonexistence as Sinistar turned towards him. Roaring once more with a world-ending call of the apocalypse, the voice of Sinistar was far more tremendous in its strength when closer as Oddscar began to shudder and scream in agony. The terrifying void opened up from around the planetary doom bringer's orbit, the darkness everyone knew in the last moments of death now become a living essence that striked and tore across the anomaly. The raptor dodged with swifter body, the Sorrow managing to occasionally fade out of reality before reappearing once more to scream its immense agony back against the void. The strength of such furious mourning was enough to repel the darkness briefly, resembling tentacles twisting and undulating with death on every whispering lip of its tendrils as they struck down fiercely upon the raptor. One of the many lengths managed to shriek itself across Oddscar's flesh with a ripping scream, bursting with violent proportions as something poured out of his form. It wasn't blood, but instead some form of distending pixellated stream of amber and amethyst that regurgitated itself back inside him, healing the wound by a shuddering reversed noise as he struggled to compose himself. The netherous bonds of the subspace infernal reached out once again forcing Oddscar to pull back, a multitude of them with the substance of night and the death tolls of wars. Every swooping thrash of its many unexisting limbs was like hearing the cries of banshees across a moonless night. A terrifying labyrinth of star-destroying darkness sentient and twisting in its limbs to pour unto Oddscar's infected self forcing him to dodge and weave between the writhing malevolence. He barely ever touched more than three of them for when he did, something wilted sharply from inside of him, gasping and screeching as he spun through the coiling mesh. He braved himself to stand firm with suicidal intent as he shot himself towards Sinistar's eyes high above the mouth, looming huge triangular continents of burning fury rising high above like mountains that descended to the gates of hell. Squeezing through the crippling indemnity of the pure void swarming in every direction around him, occasionally one would tear through in front of him as he forcefully dodged under or above by a spinning strafe before he slammed down upon the craterous skin of solid steel. A trench-like valley of mountainous metallic wounds and thick skyscraper-sized towers from every point around him as he saw he was not alone. Even upon the bare skin of this festering monster, it had its own defences in the form of strange violent aberrations that seemed to live upon its shell. Trembling emberous creatures both serpentine and arachnid in nature. They shrieked with predilection seeing a potential prey, but Oddscar screamed back with a force beyond his own as the stuttering static shockwave tore through the strange dark spiders and snakes, seeming to be almost mechanical in nature despite their fluid shimmering skin. There was a mass of them beyond the structured steel, a wave of darkness coming down upon him as Oddscar braced himself to charge through feeling the anomaly guide him by its sensitive means. He understood what the plan was to stop this fiend, knowing his final destination was far beneath. The horde came upon him, a savage shrieking mass of sentient flesh bursting from Sinistar's skin like parasitic bacterium, crawling and slithering en masse as Oddscar found himself trapped within a valley of raw metallic elements. They came forth like a raw silver tide, resembling a sword's blade striking down upon an insect's head. Some creatures even burst from beneath on both sides of him, screeching as he dodged and shifted himself back before rushing forwards. He had to weather the storm, he must endure. He knew this to be true as the whispering sentiments of the great Sorrow urged him onwards. Despite the scissors still remaining on his back, Oddscar went by his own instincts and tore violently through with outstretched claws never stopping for an instant. Primal speed guided him, his claws raking across the living shadows of raw steel as the power of the anomaly coursed inside of him. Burning deep inside his heart, every second was but a physical depression, sobering unquestionable pain that overwhelmed every other sense he had to the point that it encompassed his vision. No matter how many steel fangs and twisting legs would plunge into his flesh like sewing needles through his spine, he carved his path through the neverending swamp of fiends. Strange creatures that never existed until that moment, the self-defence mechanism of the great Sinistar for its more loathsome infinitesimilly small pests continued its offensive towards the intruder.

Strafing between the black stormy jagged lengths, his claws snapped off anything that came into contact with them by a pulsing screech of white from his fingertips, like fire from another world. With a path loathsome throughout the gaping valley of Sinistar's god-consuming flesh, he searched for an entrance, any point he could break in and infiltrate the bowels of the dread beast. The howling maelstrom of living steel came shearing down upon him from behind in but a single breath, a tidal wave crashing upon the cliffs breaching forth as the monsters followed after him, desperate to eradicate the infectious creature. Oddscar ran fuelled by the unlimited strength of sorrow, his eyes streaking with bloodied tears as he roamed across valleys and between mountainous ridges of the god devourer. Soon he found it, a fissure in the flesh wide enough for him as he dove straight downwards into the gates of hell. The screeching silver darkness pounded against the crack just missing him by the tail as the raptor fell into the great chasm. Charring rock of sulphuric stench, rotting deathly planetary stench of overwhelming proportions became almost solid against the raptor's face. It was not the fact it smelt like the inside of a crematorium, but the fact that the stench was burning fire in gaseous form. Every breath Oddscar took made his lungs suddenly freeze with violent bursts of coughing panic, screeching from the painful rasps as he felt the smell of extinction peel the inner flesh of his throat and lungs. Deeper within he went, through the darkness of his journey to the centre of the unearthly. The consumer of worlds breathed with foetid sounds of a horrendous volume as suddenly red stretching tendrils came pulsing from out the walls. Without a sound they burst through, ripping the raptor and slicing through his self as he desperately dodged with the anomaly's assistance. His mind was heavy, thick with watery tears unending and a madness gone fully to the abyss. But he tried to keep focus, bleary in his sight and struggling to keep his sanity. He knew it was holding back until the very point of no return, but that did not help matters as he grabbed onto the rocky surface beside him with his footclaws in mid-fall. Gravity kept him down by Sinistar's own gravitational field as he ran downwards across the wall, latching on to better dodge the vicious tentacle lengths. The vile blood-festooned steel twisted and sprang through the walls, zigzagging like threads and needles desperate to pierce Oddscar through the heart, but he heard the sounds and watched for any trickling twisting perforations as he kept moving. Hopping over the tentacles that plunged stabbing straight, they remained solid as he leapt over and underneath with primal agility. His hands dug into walls, jumping off from one side of the narrowing chasm to the other as the more deep into the bowels he went, the more red and howling a sound came from his vision. One tentacled length came too quick after another and managed to pierce Oddscar deep above the kidney impaling him straight through, shrieking in agony as his claws gained razor sharpness to sever through the piercing shaft. Falling swiftly to grab another wall further downwards, he swung himself with another tentacle that shot out straight above his head, latching onto to propel forwards with greater speed. As he finally reached the desperate bowels of the great beast Sinistar, traversing thirty miles straight down with the anomaly's willpower aiding him, he found it was full of stars. Deep into the darkness peering by a pulsating aura apocryphal, he found the threshold of existence. A crimson black hole swirling down into infinity, a neverending void of darkness where stars and planets digested by the monstrous being would slowly crush, and dwindle, and fade with thousands upon millions of screams into nothing but stardust. Precious pitiful stardust of multicoloured schema beyond his comprehension as countless astronomical bodies that had once painted the heavens with their light, would now become ruinations of eternity. The voice that came from the raptor was that of many voices, the many whimpers and broken screams of countless creatures with every syllable fluctuating between children and parents, old and young, deceased and unborn. It spoke to itself. wE cAn StOp iT wHaT mOnsTeRs cAn CaUsE SuCh a hOrRiFyiNg eXiStEnCe? iT LoNgS fOr hUnGeR iT sMiLeS wHeN wE cRy wHeN i CrY wE mUsT sToP iT FiLL iT WiTh oUr TeArS SiNg oUr SoNg oF FrEeDoM So wE ShALL FiNd pEaCe SoMe wAy oR aNoThEr DeAtH SiNg SiNg FoR oUr sOrRoW, OdDsCaR AnD yOu sHaLL bE FrEe aT LaSt WiTh Us The raptor but obeyed as his eyes began to bleed thickened black, shifting with every pupil and every iris that was possible from every single creature that long resided within the Cinnabar Anomaly. The scream that resounded next would be heard within the dreams of every living creature, everyone who ever slept in that moment and for all those who would wake the next day would find their cheeks strangely wet. For no reason whatsoever as there came a song of sorrow that filled the infinite stomach of Sinistar. A wretched malefaction in the form of horrifying wisps, glitched purple strata began to bled from every single orifice from Oddscar's body. The raptor had become a virus of woe, and the disease was spreading fast. The body began to turn insane, the hands twitched and gyrated powerfully with twisting snapping crunching screams as bones pulled themselves apart, ripping slowly from each other to unleash every single quandary of piercing misery that he carried. In that moment, there came a dark pulsing, a tremor from within that James would have recognised. The demon screamed with a horrid fervour at what he felt, thousands upon many souls tearing past him, screeching, hovering, gasping across his vision from the many that had so completely possessed the raptor's body all at once. His eyes twinkled amidst the darkness, drowning within the flood as he struggled to withstand the increasing pressure of the missing number's release. He resisted as fast he could, bracing down against his restraints until something clicked. He stopped struggling and looked up with a smile cruelly as the raptor's body began to glow a magnificent fuchsia, barely becoming a body but rather the essence of agony, an avatar of Sorrow. With a scream that rang across the lengths of the universe, Sinistar himself started to shudder with the extent of such pain of internals powerfully impaled upon the raw twisting glitchy threads, plunging like swords into the walls of the beast's stomach as they began to worm through, corrupting, destroying. Deconstructing. But not just the actual entity itself, for soon Sinistar felt the most horrifying feeling it had ever known of its existence. It began to feel full. No longer did it hunger. It was being filled by a raw emotion it had never known since. The black hole started to pulse and quiver like it was its infernal heart, twisting tendrils of endless tears wrapping round the all-consuming darkness as it began to crush it slowly within its vices. The intangible began to fill the nonexistant as a constant pouring of weeping fearful anguish. Sinistar could not comprehend such but it was slowly turning the worse for wear by a sickness that began to slowly kill it from within. Its body tightened up, its flesh began to glitch, spasming, contorting with grinding crushing noises of an earthquake being undone. A deep whispering pain trembled through like the sharp whistle before a nuclear explosion. Then there came the roar, the roar that almost split the heavens apart across Spacetime Seven. To those peaceful far beyond in worlds unknowing, the only sense they ever felt of it was a sharp faintness of the heart, or a flickering light inside houses for no explainable reason. The glitched essence of the missing ones burst free from Sinistar's form by an unending crawl pouring out of Oddscar's cancerous body, crawling all over the steel carapace and crushing the silver dark storms of its defensive instincts. Every little inch of land was slowly becoming twisted, fluctuated between this world and the next emanating from within one shell of a body as screams became unceasingly cacophonous. Tentacles of tribulation plunged deep back again inside the great galactic devourer as the roar reawakened and worlds felt faint. Stars flickered in fear as the night sky would be blacked out briefly but not enough for anyone to ever notice. Both the voices within the raptor and Sinister itself began to reach a crescendo, united if not for a brief second within torment as the astronomical abomination's flesh started to finally tear itself anew within itself, impossible reverberations that resonated throughout the beast. Pouring from Sinistar's throat came purpling stands vomited forth, dozens upon dozens like a nest of serpents residing within its colossal maw as they multiplied. They wouldn't stop reproducing, undulating, constantly splitting themselves into teardrop-shaped lengths, wettening across the great Sinistar's face as he was slowly torn in two. Flensed from his steel flesh, the tears were like acid rotting away the beast into nothing but a rotting rusted decaying moon, peeling asteroid-sized flesh and hurling it across the abyss.

goodbye

James awoke to the sight of a tremendous explosion, one silent and yet beautiful in its entirety as the world between worlds became wreathed in stardust. Remnants of a corpse from a deadened god beast as darkened torrid piece of steel unknown started to deteriorate, crumbling to a bitter bleak gasping of ash that slowly became a whitened chalk to swirl and fade into obscurity. Colours continued to swirl beyond, each strand but a single universe and its many possibilities. But he saw something else emerge from the shattered remnants of Sinistar's essence. Strands of pale mist, whispering across the seas of existence as he watched thousands upon thousands of souls swim beyond the boundaries of the universes. To a farther plane he could never see, they floated past his eyes which turned bright with strange awe and wonderment, feeling their emotions raw and pure with unbridled happiness. Tears crying out to rejoin those that had forgotten them. An ocean of souls full of joy and relief. Bliss. Freedom from pain and sorrow. "We...h-h-holy...sh-shit, we...we won? Is it really-" Yes. A voice called out to him amongst the souls, most of whom he did not see the real forms of as they rushed forth across the entirety of the space dimensional in every single direction. From above it looked surely as if a ghostly flower was blooming, releasing itself to the unevoking sun as James saw the one creature he knew from a distance. The lone skull-headed creature with his little bone club and the voice of a child. You did it...you kept your promise. "I...I did? Wait...where...where's Oddscar?" He's free. He is gone to the abyss, where he shall no longer feel pain or be alone. Like me. She's here. "Who?" She must be...here, I know she...I can feel her. "You...is that who-" My sweet...child. A voice came from elsewhere, older and wiser most certainly not from the little Cubone who sprang up in surprise. James cast his gaze across the grand river of souls trying to see who he spoke of, knowing it could only mean one creature in particular. Anxiety burned within him amongst confusion and a strange sense of relief, his body somewhat lighter than before with not a single wound or pain encroached inside of him but soon he saw it. A larger creature with a smoother skull upon its head, the stern eyes of a Marowak piercing across the realm with a softness unbridled. M-...m-m-mommy!? My dear child. I...I can finally see you again. MOMMY! MOMMYYYYYYYY! Isaac leapt through the air above the teeming sea of souls as the Mother stood waiting, her arms open wide before closing tightly around the cubone. He fell straight against her chest, clutching with a scream of happiness that rendered James' heart to weaken. The two smiled and wept together, turning softly like a waltz and never to let go again as skull-covered heads rubbed smoothly against each other, small whimpers of blissful reunion. M-mommy, mooommyyyyy I f-found you, I found you mommy! I know...it's okay...I'm here. I will never leave you, never again. M-m-mo-...m-mommy...I never g-gave up, I never...I k-kept looking for you. I never stopped looking either. My...my sweet child. But it's not just me you have to welcome. Huh?! Mommy! MOMMY! M-mommy I hear you! MOMMYYYYY! From across the trembling sea of spirits more creatures popped up from beneath the waves opaque with mist. Four more creatures like Isaac, their heads also somehow wearing a skull each but more misted, wispy as if sculpted from some sort of fog. They all cried in unison screeching in piercing joy clasping their mother. She pulled them close, gasping as the sound of a family sobbing with joy together, climbing onto her or even grasping her legs. Mommy, mommy I found you too! We couldn't find you mommy, we tried, i-it was- I n-never cried, I p-promise I didn't! We're sorry mommy...we...we're sorry that we scared you. Oh...m-my children...o-oh Arceus my children I'm s-so happy...I...h-hahaha...hhhah...ha ha ha.. A gentle laughter came broken from her lips, streaking softly down a few wettened lines from her eyesockets darkly as she pulled each of them close. They all looked up towards their mother with overwhelming exhaustion and eternal bliss before all of them turned towards James still hovering above the spirit migration as the Mother spoke. You have done much more for us existence than anyone would have ever expected. I...I can never thank you enough. "I...I-i-i'm just glad...that Isaac's back home. How did you get here?" The realm of spirits stretches across every eternity. The moment I saw this grand stream of long forgotten souls I came down to find you...and my children. Thank you. Thank you James Campbell. Th-thank you mister James. Isaac smiled first before any of the children could. I...I knew you would find my mother. You promised. "...I did. I...are you all okay now?" Yes. The mother nodded kindly. We are together...maybe not in life, but at least we have finally found each other again. Thank you. You may return now, back to existence. "Um...listen, I-..." He crossed over the eternal sea by the edge of his feet, claws dangling across the top of the spirits as he approached by a floating gait feeling sweltering joy and wondrous elation shudder throughout their being. "I...what should I tell Kirie?" I will tell her myself. After all she is but a spirit like me. Do not feel angry towards her, for she has suffered enough. And she in turn has paid her duty to me. "I see...I'm glad you all found each other again-h-huh?!" Before he could even say anything, all of the cubones hugged him tight with their cold ethereal little fingers, grasping tightly to push deep past the skin as if they were hugging his soul. The raptor broke finally, tears pouring forth as he felt their joy complete before he pulled Isaac especially closest of all. "I'm...I'm s-sorry for all you went through." It's okay...we made it together didn't we mister James? "...yeah. We did." Slowly they released him before shifting back to their mother's side, who smiled nodding at him in respectful love. Goodbye...James Campbell. When you pass on, we shall meet again in the afterlife. "Heh...that's...good to know, um...I would say see you again soon but-" I know. I hope you live a good life. Farewell. Goodbye mister James! Th-thank you! Goodbye! G'bye! Thanks fer helping us! Byyyyyyeeee! Both mother and children's voices rang out at once making James' heart swell with an almost painful love, as he could do naught but nod softly in return without feeling his body turn weak before making his way back. Slowly drifting away from the spiritual sea, he watched the Mother and her children along with Isaac clasp hands together as they ascended. Far and away he could not see them, as they crossed drifting with every other soul towards the farplane, to the afterlife. Another realm of a different plane of existence entirely beyond any living creature's comprehension.

Bursting forth from a dimensional portal of his own creation, James found himself upon one knee in front of Hau'rhun once again within the same room he had been in previously. The lone two spheres trembling of his home and another existence entirely as the Cocytan grinned with arms slowly widened in great deep admiration. "You have returned! You are safe!" He slowly stood up fully with a shaking head, trembling the last twitching spasms of his nano-fuelled energy as the Watcher walked forwards. "I knew you would not fail, James." Despite the welcoming, James glared at the alien with contempt softly rising within his form. "Is...something wrong?" "...you never told me about a choice." Hau'rhun clasped his claws together in trembling hesitation. "Why did you not tell me about the choice?" "...if you knew beforehand, I thought you would have been biased in your-GUH!" He couldn't stop himself, nor his fist from flying upwards to land a cracking blow across the Watcher's chin which forced him to stagger back before James pointed fiercely with finger upwards. "I...have done a lot of shit for you, I've DONE my duty or should I say Oddscar did my duty. Now if you have any more secrets hiding from me I wanna hear them NOW. You owe me that much." The Watcher rubbed his chin with a slight wince, his eyes wide in shock and admittedly some outrage at such insolence but remembering his place, he bowed slightly with reverance and relented. "Very well. I admit that was not undeserving so you may ask whatever you wish to know." "Okay. Firstly, did you just pick me because of Oddscar?" "...yes. That, and the fact you were crossing dimensions easily which made it much more excusable for me to summon you, rather than risk a direct contact with you. I did not want to sacrifice anyone, and originally my plan was to make this completely happen without a single life taken. When you had Oddscar resonating in you, I thought perhaps there was some way of taking him out of you and so become a sacrifice of sorts. But I spent years devising on how to make it happen, and I knew I had to find some form of power that was beyond mine, something that broke beyond reality's boundaries." "The anomaly. Okay, why did you take so long to do all this? I had Oddscar for years." "Your travel to the Mushroom Kingdom delayed my plan for several years. For not only was it a world of dimensional instability, there laid one other problem that prevented me even moreso. You had found love." The admittance of such surprised James as Hau'rhun sighed with some bitterness. "I did not wish to take that from you, and if I tried, then I would be punished by my own race severely. Moreso for my own gain, even if my own gain was nothing but altruistic for the fate of us all and so long as you remained in that world...I could do nothing but watch...and wait." "So...even though this world-eating monster was out here devouring everything, you would rather have let me live a happy life with Koopin...as long as I wanted?" "Yes. Not because it is our way and by law but because I also would have felt terrible to have forced you away from him." "...well...thank you, I guess. ...must be glad that got disrupted right?" "I will not lie to you. So I will say nothing. The demon within you was enough of a motivator to push you to other worlds and so Kirie had made plans to organise some form of ritual that would allow you to weaken it at least. The other raptor who continued to hunt you was also useful." "Lemme guess, you got a tab on him too?" "No." "Wait, what?" "I focused on you, and purely upon you, monitoring you, waiting for you when you were ready to move on for whatever reason. Kirie did manipulate him somewhat in trying not to become so antagonistic towards you. But he was never a consideration to me, he had the potential most certainly to be a saviour, but I focused on you. I chose you." The raptor crossed his arms feeling tired of all this. Beyond the point of caring about this story as he sighed openly as he now felt the lightness of his body to become something more of an emptiness as he shook his head. "He didn't deserve this. Oddscar did not deserve this." "I did not want to sacrifice another-" "BULL. SHIT, Oddscar was as much a living creature as I was, oh SURE we shared the same soul or whatever HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?!" "It is not as strange as you might think, winged beasts down to the smallest moth can recall entire patterns of great epic journeys to their homes for centuries so they may breed, no matter where they lie in this world, and yet never were they shown or even told where such a place lives. Perhaps he runs along the same principle, there is great merit in the idea of genetic memory." "But it's just BLOOD, how can it remember shit, it's just liquid!" "Liquid that contains information my young James. Your brain is simply but a mould of membranous tissue and grey goo yet it controls your entire body, contains your thoughts and hopes and dreams and memories. Your blood as well contains your DNA which is the very blueprint of a living creature, which in turn was created from both your mother and your father combining their own blueprints into you. So too did they have their own memories and information within their blueprints as did their parents and so on. Do you understand?" "It...sorta. I guess I was just kind of thrown off by the whole 'hey I'm your ancestor' when I'm trying to fight the demon, I don't really need to get science and history all up in my face." "Hmhmhm...all up in your face? You have a very amusing grasp on your language." "Shut up llama boy, let's not forget Isaac, THAT was definitely someone that you lead to his death." "I know. I realised that...my plan was impossible without blood to shed." His eyes cast downwards as his head drooped, slumping every part of his body as Hau'rhun's guilt took him further gasping with a heavy sigh. "I will not excuse myself. What I did was reprehensible, and I do not think I could ever bring myself to do such again. I will not interfere in such choices anymore." "Good," said FG. "Because frankly I'm tired of all this, and right now I just wanna go back to my world and sort things out, then get back home to Koopin. Alright?" "Very well...I will not ask for forgiveness. But I do not want us to part bitterly." The Watcher stood up more fully and walked forwards with his hand out towards FG. James did not take it. "I know you are upset with me, but through our efforts we both have managed to succeed in saving entire universes from a great destruction." "Will I be remembered?" "By us, yes. The worlds out there shall never know of your victory, but I will. And so will Kirie and the Mother and her children as well as my people. They have probably seen all your efforts and my meeting with you." "Really? Do they know all the stuff you did?" "Possibly. If they are to punish me, I will accept it. Is that satisfactory enough to you as to what I deserve?" "...I...well, I mean if your own tribe or, whatever are going to give you punishment I guess that's fair, what would they do to you?" "Depending on the severity. For my interference, I presume I shall be imprisoned for it. It is up to them." "Well...hm. At least you're not trying to justify it." "I won't. I regret what I had to do, even if it came to a more than satisfactory conclusion." "Answer me this." The hand of Hau'rhun slowly pulled itself back realising he was not going to get a shake as James gave his question. "Who...chose Oddscar exactly?" "...pardon?" "Someone chose Oddscar, or maybe more than one. I heard some people whilst me and him were inside the anomaly, but I can't figure out who." "What people?" "Wait, what?" "I assumed that you and Oddscar would debate amongst yourselves as to who would own rightfully the body you now inhabit. I did not see whatever happened inside the anomaly, that was an entire different space of existence I could not see." "What are you-no. No you can't be serious, you HAD to hear what went on." "I assure you James, I swear upon Isaac that I had no hand in whatever choice was made within and that I believed the choice would be debated amongst both of you. I do not understand what other people you must mean." "I-...okay, you know what, if you don't know and you got no reason to lie to me anymore then fuckit I don't care."

He sighed and pressed his hand to his forehead shuddering in a confused state of wanting to be justified in something. Or rather to give more credence to Oddscar's great sacrifice at someone else's whim before he threw his hands up and shrugged. "Fine. Fine, your plan is done, Isaac is back with his family and nobody else has to die, is that it?" "Yes, that is it. I have no reason to ever interfere with both your life and the lives of others again. I am certain after this I will most assuredly be barred from my research ever again." "Heh...alright. Hmmm...I mean...okay, I am a little angry at what you did, but...I know you had good reasons so...I don't HATE you. Just to be clear." The raptor rubbed the back of his head nervously feeling this conversation turning rather awkward. "I'm just frustrated. And I'm sorry for clocking you on the face because you were hiding stuff from me. I'm...I understand why you did this, even if it got super complicated." "Thank you. I do not deserve such words but I appreciate nonetheless. ...if...by chance you ever...ahem..." "What?" The grand Cocytan gently clacked his hands together with a strangely hesitant look. "If you ever wished to come visit me again, not that I can imagine why, you are always welcome and should I be incarcerated...you may explain to the authorities and come visit me in my confinement. I...admit I have very few acquaintances and despite how short our time was together I...appreciated the company. It is rather lonely on this island." "...hah. Look at you, in the end you're just a big llama nerd aren't you?" "Llama? What is that?" "Why don't you read up on it sometime mister 'beyond my comprehension'." "Hhhhhmhmhmhm...very well, you have made your point." "And anyways...I don't really plan on travelling anymore after this but if...I ever wanted to see you again...well." James offered his hand at last to the creature with an attempted smile. "I'll know where to find you...Hau'rhun." A smile came from the alien who shook hands back in return, clasping both upon FG's singular. "Thank you...James Campbell. Now...are you ready to return back to your world?" "Yes." They both turned towards the left portal flickering with a familiar scene of a run-down Chicago street. "I'm...hhhhh I'm ready. God...feels like I'm about to go on stage." "At this rate I think stage fright shall be easy for you to overcome." "You think so? I never was good on a stage." "Well, perhaps you can recite your tales of fantasy and adventure to all who come." "Hahaha...I suppose I could." "In fact...allow me to help you, would you mind turning on your omni-tool to record?" "Huh? Why, you want an interview?" "Hmhmhm, if you so wish but that was not my intent no, I have something...better to show you. Consider this my gift of apology for all I have put you through." "Alright. Let's hear." "No. Not hear...but...see." Pressing his hands towards the right portal, Hau'rhun brought up two translucent panels that he began to tap into, twisting the fabric of the dimensional exit towards another world, another place. Crackling electrical semblance started fading and reappearing to reveal someone new, or rather someone James had not seen in years. His eyes turned wide with shock at the much-older amphibious creature of green sallow skin and white front, wearing sturdy armour whilst sitting on a stump alongside a rusted-looking brass robot. The two were conversing, Glenn looking rather happy and laughing at a small joke between them amidst a small garden as James almost choked on his breath caught in his throat from happiness. "...G-Glenn?!" "Indeed. It has been sometime has it not?" "He...awww...he...he's okay." "Not just him." The Watcher swept the scene further into the mists of space to reveal another scene entirely. Three young men sitting together on a bed in some unknown apartment, feverishly mashing their fingers upon black controllers daring each other to push ahead in a videogame on their TV screen. One was pug-nosed with short black hair and eyes that squinted constantly, one much taller than the other two with blonde hair and lean face with sloping nose, and the last one was shortest with rose cheeks and brown hair. James almost stopped himself from squeeing at the sight of a trophy on a shelf behind them. "TH-THAT...it's them! H-holy shit T-tommy, Jack, Roy! Oh my god they...they grew up!" "It seems as if their great victory gave them quite the confidence in life." "Well the money helped too, haha...god I can't believe they're still together." "Some friendships are impossible to break. Some, but not all." Hau'rhun moved the world on ever further revealing stranger other places. James saw old faces now grown wholly anew to become happier in life. The horned reptilian girl of maiden clothes and dark amber eyes with sun-kissed green on her scales, still running a shop in an old humble Tamrielic town whilst meeting new people. Her smile never left her lips tinted with fuchsia and orange tints whilst rambling to an eager customer. Fading back into the spatial fog, James saw a new place he had never seen but the inhabitants he clearly knew. Pink skin, green hair, dark blue smocks now well-cleaned without the dust of poverty and suffering, their faces fresh with eyes wide in bliss as they wandered through a whole new village they constructed for themselves. Sturdy wooden houses in rolling green valleys of pictorial innocence, laughing, hugging, feasting. And in the midst of it all in one house particular, were two creatures one of whom was sitting at his desk with half his hair gone into budding strands. The other stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder and the other holding his umbrella as they pored over old scrolls of text. Even more surprisingly, the scene pulled back furthermore to reveal two other creatures in the same room, a library of sorts stacked across both sides with shelves. A barn owl and an albatross standing against a podium to read from another book, conversing to each other gladly, nuzzling upon strange recollections of intelligentsia. Deeper beyond the mist, it was getting more difficult for James to look without blinking too fast for his eyes became further welted with tears, struggling to hold his voice back from calling out. Hau'rhun simply smiled and spun the orb onwards showing another existence. The next one made James turn weak at his knees, his heart swell with ripening joy at the sight of a clear forest where a red-winged beast resembling but a dragon was tussling against a blue beastly gator with red fins on its back. Across the clearing they fought playfully within, arms locked in strengthening combat, he saw his old team of the hovering feisty giant wasp, the long-necked aquatic beast of blue sitting within a lake, the large mantis-like beast of scythened arms and lastly a spirit, dark and violet who stared towards James' view with a wink, chuckling knowingly. James could not help but laugh back wiping his eyes more clearly with a single hand across the bridge of his snout, moaning in absolute wonder as the world kept turning onwards. The Watcher showed another place, another existence where a young teenage boy with ginger hair sat at a table in a small house along with his mother and father. It was not a kind place, colder than before but it was a safe place where they were together still. The boy looked healthy, happier than before as his parents spoke with him, debating, conferring, plans for the future for some form of protest upon schematics planned out on the table.

Further still the raptor saw a much warmer place, an island where the tallest hill tops became studded with clouds as two strange metallic heads burst out from the white cumulonimbus scuttling by the brown and green. Resembling a rooster and a drill-nosed mole, there followed behind them an entire group of the rejected, abandoned and awkward-looking robots including one strange tank with the head of a triceratops, welded back together again whilst singing with the rest of the group. All of them had beating hearts not of living creatures, but of a warmer stranger power to live their own lives free of masters, birds swooping past their heads in merriment towards the blue sky. He almost wanted to turn away, unable to handle this much but Hau'rhun put a hand to his cheek and softly held him close. He allowed the raptor to clutch on tight, grasping his soft pale hairs to recompose himself snuffling with wettened tears of gladness before he managed to watch the next and final assembly of his journey. A concert in space, lights bedazzling from every corner as there stood a band on stage bathed in every colour imaginable amongst a throbbing sea of creatures, aliens from every corner of the great galaxy. Two cricket-faced brothers wailing out their odd-shaped guitars as their squat toad-faced friend began hammering on a drumset, crying out in maddening joy alongside a silk-suited lean-legged humanoid of umber and jade. His hands glided merrily across a keyboard as hands shot up across the sea, some of three fingers, others with five, all swaying together with overwhelming emotion beneath a grand holographic banner entitled "EARTH AID". Beyond that there came another mist across his view towards a much different homespun setting down on earth. A town sculpted of broken steel and crafted wood that wrapped around its walls like a modern fortress, its doors swinging open wide to allow travellers within filthy and bedraggled. Drenched in dirt and sodden with exhaustion, smiles would lift the moment they found this place, a sanctum where a rotting-skinned human welcomed them in alongside a feisty-looking girl of dark skin. With rifle in one hand but opening the other to shake, the two greeted such weary travellers to the great entrance underneath a single sign. "WELCOME TO JAMESTOWN". The last but longest of all the visions would render James silent with relief, falling to his knees finally as he watched with fascination the same way a child would see the first landing on the moon. A city carved of ancient stone with grand cathedral looming above all as its great protector, the streets somewhat battered and bruised by the chaos of war with the church caved in somewhat. But the people still lived, they still breathed and continued to work in fixing up the city back to its former glory. In the mixture of citizens, he saw his friends still together, working as one. Two brothers of reptilian ilk, robed in clerical outfits slowly carrying through the remnants of wood and steel from the wreckage of an old ship sunken within the church's holy foyer. One with gnarled hands carried most of it with ease, but the other with staff struggled to keep up, stumbling until someone caught him. A brown-skinned crocodilian clasping him with his one hand before taking some of the junk off him, a blush of embarrassment from the priest before words of kindness and a gentle kiss reassured him. Following up behind them was a small person in goggles and many clothes tugging a lump of steel hastily alongside a bearded human in calm blue robes, the crocodilian pointing them towards one direction in particular. A small fleet of carriages where six giant birds stood waiting like horses by the beck and call of three people especially to guide them, petting them with firm reassurance. One was a long-eared sallow creature of hump back and soft nose in white robes, whilst the other two were stern-faced creatures resembling rabbits. One of them, a child in amber-studded armour looked downtrodden alongside the older with leather brace and bandaged waist, who simply patted the child on her back and offered greens to feed the birds with. White, pale yellow, reddish tinges and black, all of whom greatly wolfed down whatever they were given and nuzzled happily against the youngest creature's face before the wood and steel was loaded onto their carriages. The older lapine and her white-robed companion sat up onto the drivers' seats, side by side as they looked to each other. Smiling. They almost kissed until the youngest one hopped up inbetween them with excitement as the two smiled and rubbed her tender ears before they motioned the birds to move, trotting onwards with their heaps of scrap and garbage to clear and reuse. The larger reptilian of gnarled hands nudged the crocodilian with a filthy grin and said something to make his brother blush horribly, sputtering in panic before the croc cackled and bantered back, pulling the priest inbetween them despite his protests. Before he could do anything about it, there came a hot smooch from both brother and lover on both sides of his face, sending the cleric into a fit of panicky emotion as he covered his face, causing the other two to laugh and hug him reassuringly. Together. The worlds soon faded from his vision as James sighed in relief. He gasped back his tears of joy but something was missing. Something he had been pondering ever since he saw the three grown-up kids of Eagleland. "Wait...where's Roy?" He cast his gaze towards Hau'rhun who simply looked down with pity, a withering sense of shame as he grew hesitant to speak. "I...I could not find him. I am sorry." "You...maybe he just-you might not have seen him, he must be-" "It could be possible that he is alive, but I am not certain. I could not find him across the other dimensions, there may be one that I missed, but as for now I have no proof to offer you of his state. Forgive me." "It's okay...it's just that I was-...n-never mind." "There is one more person that I hope you will enjoy seeing. I am surprised you did not speak of him first." "Yeah?" "Look." One more time the orb flared up with a sense of colour, brightening with soft clarity like a paintbrush in focus. A familiar sandy house with pale colours in a desert town, vibrant and peaceful. Through a window it came to see four creatures sitting around a table. Three yellow-skinned turtles in green shells and one much shorter character in red clothes wearing a white mask on his face, constantly looking surprised as they all conversed around the dinner table, laughing with surprise at a story they had to tell. His heart stopped at the sight of Koopin, who almost choked on a glass of water in mid-cackle pointing with mock accusatory at the masked visitor who was elaborating even further on the story, the koopa's parents chortling at his side. "...he...he's okay. H-h-he...he's happy." "He is. But he is still waiting for you." "You...you think he is?" "I am certain that he is. You did make a promise to each other after all, did you not?" "Yes...I...I d-did, I...know I can get back to him. Hhhhh...god I'm out of tears, jesus...my eyes hurt." "I did not mean to stress you by emotion, I simply wanted to show you the lives of your friends who have managed to live on, maybe succeed greater thanks to you." "W-well...I'm s-s-sure that...Glenn was okay by himself, haha." "Regardless...what will you do now?" "...I need to get back home." "Still?" "I promised Koopin, that when I got back everything would be fixed. I'm not breaking that promise so there's still one more thing left for me to do. But first." He wanted to offer a handshake to the elder but instead his joy and confidence skyrocketed enough to give the alien a hug, who was slightly surprised but merely embraced in return with long woollen claws gently grasping against smooth scales. "Thank you. That...that really helped." "It...was the least I could do. Thank you...for coming to me. Farewell, FinalGamer." "You too...Watcher." The raptor soon let go, and with that he walked slowly to the great dimensional sphere showing his home beyond as he pushed through the orb's surface, like an athlete through the finish line exhausted, embracing himself within its magnificence. Soon his body burst into a dozen veins of light snaking across the surface, only to be swallowed by its endless folds. He fell into another world once again, tearing across the windless howling abyss of Spacetime Seven. All he could feel in that moment was a beautiful cascade of light flashing through his synapses, reflecting on all he had learnt in his journey, all to finally come home, charging onwards like a comet between dimensions, guided automatically, eyes searing with tears of homecoming sympathy. And with that moment, he proclaimed his last words as he hurtled towards the vision of Chicago. "SARAAAH! I'M COMING HOOOME!"