#enw

Regardless of the truth, Fandaniel now has eternity and a daunting judgement of life with more evidence than the other. He would forget the elezen while vying the possibilities to bring back the Final Days, up until the Ascian Convocation gathered to ponder her defeat of Lahabrea. She had none of her odd traits from the memory, and the suffering she's to survive could be the Ascians' attempt to stop her. Bidding his time, Fandaniel saw his hypothesis be proved correct: the causes she supported brought harmony and freedom to so many lands, and she brought down the three unsundered Ascians in order to protect these efforts. A Bringer of Light and Hope opened the door for him to set the End in motion: It was only fitting to the truth of the Universe.

This benefited him, yet he felt an intense bitterness seeing her come back from transmogrification. A seeming clone of herself and a party of true comrades ventured to save her from Light's corruption, while Noah and the other would have ditched him like every poor fool on their operating tables. He too had tried to help everyone, and this is how he ends? Seeing this memory live and fare much better than he did? Why did does she get to succeed where he failed?

For a scientist like Amon, this merits study. He would peruse any trails of information on her persona on public records. Trails of her greener days were not an interesting picture, but when he acquired Asahi's body an intriguing hint slotted in his mind: the Ragger Ghost and Witch ghost murders in Doma. If the Yotsuyu phantom seen by victims and survivors was the woman herself, someone had to be the green-wrapped murderer described with elezen-like proportions he would recognize anywhere. Coincidentaly, a report on the death of the whole Corpse Brigade long ago reported the Warrior of Light to be in the area, or Nemi as he should call her. The battered state of the bodies matched the modus operandi to a degree non-scientists wouldn't catch. If he were to confront her with the facts, would she match Asahi's gut instincts' perceptions?

But before that, he got the Crown Prince as an ally and inquired to him about Nemi... which proved to be a waste. All aside from battle sounded nothing like his research at all; Introducing himself to Nemi at the Royal Menagerie solidified that further. He was glad to not cause that sort of obsession on the Crown prince.

Locating her apartment, he opted for the civil way of teleporting through the main entrance. A Projection Module tried to encase him but he knew its unlocking code from memory. Waltzing in, he bowed and attempted to greet her as a fellow person in a neutral space, claiming the loss of the Paglth'an towers has caused him to deliver bad and good news to her before ducking a teapot to the face. "Oh, this is how you treat your visits?"

"You're just trying to be a coward and poison me or something. Get out before I bite your throat! You made very clear you didn't want to talk," the pineapple lashed out, holding a tray like a weapon.

"Oh, then you entertained Emet before grabbing the heart out of his chest? How vicious!"

"NO! I hate that guy! Where are you even getting your intel from? Zenos?" she paused and grimaced. "...This is not for material for Zenos to masturbate over, is it? I didn't cross you for that kind of creep."

Fandaniel blinked with a stupefied frozen grin. "What."

"Oh, then you don't know of the virgin who confessed to coming in his pants without knowing that's what he was saying at the cusp of the Revolution. Well, sorry to burst your bubble! That's the kind of pampered shit you've allied yourself with."

Cringing and melting over a Rattan sofa, Fandaniel sighed heavily. "Oh, I shouldn't be encoumbered by my Lord's banal proclivities, but that is even beyond pathetic. I resent this mental image."

He heard her steps tentatively close on the chair in front of the window. "Well, I can't think of other connections if you're not here to kill me."

Fandaniel flipped over the sofa and laid on it, taking and biting the head off a candy Tanuki from the table. "My lord said I shall not harm you no matter what, for you are his prey alone."

Nemi now stood by the chair warily, eyebrows lightly scrunched. "That really was a reassuring thing to say. If you dislike him so much, why even bother with him?"

Fandaniel brushed his face like a wet towel. "His fixation seemed to chalk on pride to my understanding, and his passive agreement put the meat in my plans I wouldn't find elsewhere. If you wanted to strike the Warrior of Light down, wouldn't a whole army of a proud empire be the best knife on your palm?"

Nemi tilted her face with doubt, "If you could more easily get them in line to be tempered, sure. What primal does Garlemald even have by the way?"

Biting the last candy bit, Fandaniel tapped his lips with one finger. "Tsk tsk. We're not at that act yet!"

Nemi just sighed. "Why am I even talking to you?"

Fandaniel stretched his arms and turned to sit proper. "Cause you're actually nice it seems! Extremely so. Even a man of my caliber finds it easy to talk to you."

Scoffing, Nemi slapped a hand reaching for coffee biscuits. "Bullshit. You're just trying to find an easier way to kill me."

Feigning offense, he kissed his hand knuckles. "Not quite. I do find some interesting oddities in people. And you know what's fun about you?" He waved with a flourish, leaning his elbows on the table and propping his chin with a familiar mocking grin. "Your whereabouts during the serial murders reports before Tsukuyomi was summoned."

Nemi visibly stilled, blinking carefully into a confused squint. "Are you trying to imitate Asahi just to rile me up?"

"So he did suspect you of involvement at the time," he smirked, spinning upwards in levitation, "This body doesn't lie in its sense of apprehension... He heard rumours on Jifuya's death, one moved from the enclave after a conflict of interest. Another had seen you and Yugiri near him in the One River." He stopped spinning in a half lay position, resting his face on his hand.

Nemi stepped back, frowning with confusion. "Uh, yes? Hien asked me to accompany her on questioning. Are you really this desperate to make up a narrative?"

"No little hisser, I'm on the trail of a motive. Nothing indicated any motivation to dislike that pig except for the real reason of his transfer, which a select few including you know... well, at least before his corpse had it mangled all over his skin."

Nemi frowned at the new moniker, staring with more disbelief. "Any of his victims could have recognized his face, and I doubt they'd factor in your grand plans for you to care so much about it."

"Oh please, don't get so boring my darling host! You can't help but be curious too if you're innocent, hm?" He floated backwards, drawing cookies cutting into familiar shapes near his fingers. "It can't be another pimp since you, Hien, Yugiri, Gosetsu and Alphinaud isolated in the Doman Enclave mansion to keep dear Tsuyu a secret. Even if she left at night to procure a contact, who would want to help the Wicked Witch of Doma?" He let the cookies drop, and waved a shape of dark aether as described: "Not to mention the height, slenderness and shape of the head rags. Why extend so much if not to cover long ears no native possess? I'm quite intimate with elezen anatomy you see."

Nemi groaned disgusted, crossing her arms and leaning back. "Like glamours don't exist to look more intimidating. You're still grasping on air. Are you sure that twink isn't clouding your mind?"

Suddenly lurching front, Fandaniel backtracked Nemi against the window. "No my dear, he didn't know you wield a claymore! He could see your viciousness, but he had no scientist mind to match the wounds with the right tool, which I see you use plenty." With a giggle, he whispered in her ear, savoring how cold her blood ran. "Tell me, is that why you killed the Corpse Brigade too? I know you were nearby, and the size of bone crushing matches no weapon of the regular Ul'dahn but a claymore fits perfect." Standing back on the ground, he tilted right with interlocked hands. "Now hero, what is your alibi?"

After too massive breathe-ins, Nemi closed her eyes and sighed. "If you know that much, I have no reason to hide it." In the window behind her, clouds unveiled the moon. Her gaze half-lids with a gold eye, voice distorted with another as she towers over him. "Yes, I am the Ragged Ghost. Happy with your circumstantial evidence a dead face can't deliver?"

"Haha, nothing!" He cackled bending over. "Just with the sheer satisfaction the Warrior of Light is not as pure and inspiring as everyone says she is! You must be so proud of yourself-"

Clawed fingers gripped his collar and tossed his shoulder to crash with wood, hissing as tomes tumbled behind him. He scrambled to look up as she advanced slowly, huffing and chuckling. "My, what stoic brutality! Nothing like that silly teacup show you were pulling earlier. But there is no need to put a mask around me." He pointed with his toe. "What are you covering with the possessed look? That you enjoy the rush of guts and gore?"

Nemi's widened to incredulous staring, the spell seemingly broken.

"Is it not?" He continued crossing over his legs. "But then why bother with so brutal torture? Some Allagans would like you-"

"Did you read the report files or not?!" She screamed, voice breaking. "Then you would know what all of them did in common. I don't kill cause I just want to!"

The naked honesty froze Fandaniel, but he leaned on his elbow quickly to recover his cool. "Then why do you cover your steps? Any of those fools know you could crush them under your foot."

She grabbed her temple, clearly trying not to tear up. "You wouldn't understand. You clearly don't want to live with everyone else. I do," she sighed with an empty gaze, "and I know I'll never be truly understood."

Fandaniel swallowed dry. The air was getting too thick for his wind-void cavernous chest. He should leave before another organ in him jolts to this mirror of himself. "My, getting off the pedestal would surely do you good, Hero-"

"DID YOU READ THE REPORTS OR NOT? LEAVE."

"As you wish, hero." He spoke unamused before teleporting away, heart hammering in his chest. He knew this would strike a risky chord, but the reciprocity caused by her naked emotion and pain threw him in a whirlwind of confusion. Did anyone in Allag or the Ascians suffer so plainly and open to the eye? He could only remember his own tears, no one else's.

He hadn't thought in so long to want to say he understood more than she would know. He shouldn't feel this now.

Later in the Tower of Zot, Fandaniel found himself deigning the truth of his persona to measure the Hero's truth of her words. Would she catch on how similar they are? Disappointingly, she just asked if Allag's hubris was really for the rest of the world to suffer, finding the acceleration for one necromancy blunder excessive.

"Yet again, my words appear to be lost on you." He lowered his eyes, "I utterly despise watching you and your companions' gestures of hopefulness and solemnity when all you know is bound to ruin. What is it that you hope to achieve in the end? Covering your ears and digging your head deep into denial?" He scoffed rounding the platform around her, stopping for a deep breath. "Emperor Xande revealed to me an absolute truth of the Stars, of life itself, and even now it remains uncontested. I hoped for your comprehension given your tendency for the unconventional realities of life, but conformity is your choice in the end. This was meaningless..."

The hero frowned and looked away fist on her chin. "You are mad cause we're positive and persistent, while your world fell into disrepair despite your efforts?" She looked at him with a softness in her frown he despised. "You know the troubles of the present took a long time to resolve, right? It was not one singular event or the other. You are just one man," she sighed. "What you said at my apartment and this... What were you thinking or, expecting from me? No one's truly noble."

The lack of contempt or condescension, it was truly infuriating. Fandaniel just rose his chin with disgust after all that. "What did I just warn you to not do? It's like you listened to nothing I graced you with. Very well, I shall focus only on your destruction."

"But you didn't answer my question!"

No matter. She couldn't know of a distant past lest he might want to destroy it, which would supplant his very existence from the root. But toying with her resolve should not be beyond the order of time. Maybe he is the executioner of the trials she comes to survive and endure? Aulus' technology had inspired him a way to ensure the Tower of Babil's launch and play his role in cracking the hero's shell.

Except, he cracked more than he bargained for.

The hero almost tripped off that shining dog, holding her scythe with trembling hands as she watched the brand being destroyed. the mere sight of Zenos seemed to paralyze her, which is at odds with the actual experience that should have been a struggle. Did he overestimate her?

But as he silently walked to the precipice satisfied, he heard a dry cough of pain and aether zoom that ticked him too late to the hand now grabbing his shoulder.

"Hey."

He could only turn quickly and stare despectively, like he wasn't in great danger of not making it to the brand.

"Hey"

But she looked all but ready to bite. Her panting was slow, and her eyes struggled to stay open to the blows she gave to her possessed body on the snow. Did she not heal herself?

"Did you, did you really have to do that?"

He huffed undignified. "And who is grabbing my arm? A hero or a shaved dog? The brands' destruction is nothing to the trials you've already survived."

Her jaw gave away as her eyes widened, clawed fists shaking into erratic waving. "No! You don't think it's anything?! To let that, let him !" she exclaimed pointing at Zenos, "worm and squirm in the recesses of my mind?! And force me in corners of his? I don't understand how that would help you unleash the Final days!"

At least Fandaniel's confusion and mute realization seemed to calm her, wide eyes dropping to the floor with quietening limbs. "Oh, you, you did not mean to do that... ha... ha... hahahahahahhaHAHAHAHAHAA!!!" She pulled her bangs with her fists, completely useless as laughter madder and painful than his racked her frame. She hissed in a language he could not understand when Zenos bleeted about enjoying it, and yellow seemed to try to flash in eyes that grew more and more lost. This wouldn't do for the end of his act. He had to get her back on script.

But he wondered, could this culminate in total despair... like his dear emperor fell? Was this a spiritual death done at his hand?

"So Aulus' design had a flaw?" He spoke softly at first, touching her head until she brusquely stood back up and nearly tripped. "How unfortunate, I never intended for such a thing to transpire." Taking a step back to the edge of the chasm, he raised his arms with a wicked grin, "But you are still a hero, are you not? Will you wallow away as the villain claims his prize, or will you follow my lead until the end I wonder?" Stepping onto the precipice, he revels on the shock in her fully present eyes as her hand reached nothing. "Come, let us bring an end to our suffering."

Even with the frazzled look on her eyes, she fought fiercely and desperately. Truly, her candle could not be fizzled out by horrors he couldn't understand. As he saw her mistake dawn on her, he contemplated what he'd lost in his first life, all that he would pass on to the woman who thought her home truly safe and sound. Having been torn so violently, would the memory of her promise change? When it didn't, the dying primal frowned at her bitterly. No matter what happens... "You did your best." That bitterly passed his lips before nothingness.

Now he was floating with no desires, needs or full awareness... Such bliss. He could turn up and glance at the world wherever and whenever he desired, and shut it away in an instant. The tumultuous chaos remained distant to him, though the twist of the people themselves turning did make him frown. That's not how it was recorded to happen, but it made sense mechanically. The horror of it increased the effectiveness at which people perished....

But, their souls did not enter this realm of nothingness. Where did they go? What could they sense wherever they ended? And to make matters worse, The living had banded against the blasphemies extending their futile suffering. He almost wished to avert away, but Nemi's disappearance from the source puzzled him enough to keep his attention in many places. When she reemerged from his precious Crystal Tower, he could not look away. She went to the First... for what exactly? Far more puzzling that her sorry band descended into the Aetherial sea itself, which he couldn't let be so easy. It was time for this show to end!

...and it seemed it would be his show. Of course, of course his soul and real self alone couldn't stand a chance. But he did the most out of what he got, and he wouldn't have to watch the same tired struggle over and over across millennia... but then Nemi said the name of the lost little girl that was caught as the mechanism of the end, a name only existing in his dreams.

"How... how do you know that name?"

"Would you believe me if I told you the First's Crystal Tower comes from a future where time travel was harnessed? Elidibus' soul was still stuck inside and he had a vision of me and where to send me so... hey, I'm one of the reasons we're all here now, I guess, and I mean to make justice of the tragedy that started the Final Days. If you know Meteion, you probably remember what she is and Hermes' intentions, right?"

Amon could do nothing but laugh bitterly. He knew the woman in her dreams had to be Nemi, but for her to straight up say it means she promised to end inscrutable energy echoing the death of several lost worlds. She found the truth herself and, still refuses it? With no fight left in him, Amon disclosed the memory dreams that haunted him before his ascension, and the doubt that licked at the heels of his own resolve to end everything. With a last sigh , he looked at Nemi in the eyes and whispered. "There is just no other end in sight. I can't see another end in sight... how, how did you see differently knowing the root of the Final Days, and everything you have after your suffering being prone to fall to them? Where your words to Hermes true, or just a bluff to perish here and not alone?"

He detested the worry in her grimace, how it could not be discarded as cheap pity. "Amon, I really meant it. Not just Meteion's plight but Hermes' loneliness needed experiences and openness their time just didn't have, but I know and have lived it deeply. Even if the odds are the worst, what's the point of not trying still? That kid shouldn't be stuck in that cage, not even understanding all or any about the world she's hurting. I'm not abandoning anyone if I can find them! Besides, a classic fight against a big powerful entity isn't the worst thing that's happened to me if I'm being frank."

Amon didn't know if to laugh or cry. "Maybe the times of Allag just needed more bleeding to a fault people like you. At least you have no fear to waste your breath."

He only heard steps before his feet lost ground pulled by the scruffs (souls can be touched here?), but the green eyes punching his view were more pouty than anything. "Listen here you little clown: just cause you made a god explode doesn't mean you get to keep sniveling and looking down at me for persisting. Do you want to be open to more bright answers or not?" Putting him down, she fixed the necktie and dusted his pauldrons before crossing her arms. "That said, having a static thought cycle in your head must have been annoying. I'm sorry you had my voice in repeat against your will."

Amon scoffed under his mask. "You're smiling, but I concede you have the right to that sarcasm. But what import are my opinions to you?"

Nemi's mouth quirked up a little. Somehow, he hated her even less. "You did upend everyone's lives for your hypothesis, so I'm going to defeat you in your own camp," she leaned forth with a lopsided grin, "I'll prove you wrong by going to the end of the universe and getting Meteion out of there, proving your answer wrong. Then you'll have to think again and make a new, answer."

"Did you mean hypothesis?" yelled the black-robed m'iqote from afar.

"Y'sthola! I'm trying here!" she turned with a flustered and annoyed voice. To this he had to chuckle. To sound so normal after how utterly disturbed she wheezed before his death... at least she's sincere and consistent.

"Very well, I've heard enough of your prattle. All of you out there, you are proper scholars like the old age? I expect you to collect proper evidence if by some odd twist of luck she succeeds. I doubt she has the training to do so."

"Hey!"

And with this he dissolved his perceivable form, floating away from the coming god clash to collect his thoughts. Much as he did wish for a better truth for life deep inside, what would that make all of his actions? It mattered little to him as a dead person, but if life is worth the sorrow then many have been lost for... no, if he had not labored with what he knew best, they would not have a fighting chance if the Song of Oblivion got through Zordiak's fading presence eventually, and Garlemald would still be a thorn on the present world's side. It is another of Emet-Selch's vanaglorious constructions after all. And he?He as Fandaniel was part of the sorrow and misery inherent to life, and no one could fault him for playing his part.

Then why was he being summoned by the Traveler's stone?

He opened his eyes to vibrant blue skies, crossed by familiar stones and markings of his seals now broken. My, and with such little grace. The offending caller was not visible, which forced him to turn and see his Crystal Tower behind her. Ugh. What is her point?

"Did you think this would make for a nice gesture? You couldn't even call for me in the real face of my soul." He rose an eyebrow quizzically, feeling the lighter fabric of Fandaniel's cloak too well. Fitting for the mask he committed his actions in this life, he supposed. "Are you in the habit of rubbing your domination to every person you defeat?"

Nemi rolled her eyes with one hand on her hip. "I'm sorry? Did you want me to go through Sharlayan regulations to look through that whole blue sea? That'd be hopeless!"

"Tch, the fact you are alive and the skies are blue is enough of a statement of you proving your point. You hardly need me present to know your own victory."

"Well, that isn't all of it!" She leaned over, making him hiss missing his real height. "Your hypothesis is wrong now, so you have to make a new one right this moment, oh great scientist of Allag-"

"I vow, if you don't cease this weak copycat I'll haunt your life unfinished."

Nemi stepped back with hands raised. "Okay okay, I'm sorry. I really thought you were invested in the act if you had no one to impress unlike your Allag times."

He sighed deeply before looked at the summit of the tower, gleaming and colorful reflecting the sun. "Regardless, you shouldn't put so much stake in the words of the dead. If life is not pointless then, I have no answer and that's the end of my lines."

Nemi fisted her clawed hand under her chin. "Are you really this repulsed to attention? I just thought it'd be nice to hear a better answer is right, even if it's not quite defined. Would you really be happy if you were right?"

Amon sighed. "Truly, I admit to be at a loss after all this time... and I'm a poor referral with the life you know I have lived. I'm the worst, the worst individual of this star to formulate a new sentence of life," he shrugged waving to her. "You should know that, as the one who defeated despair."

"Whoa... that had no veneer of mockery. What is wrong?"

"Nothing, just returning your transparency in our first chat alone. No one in Allag would admit to their pain and isolation so openly, nor slap me with the impulse to speak with a similar truth."

For the first time in their conversations, Nemi's mouth dropped in realization and, turned away with a smaller voice. "What did people do if they were found and, hurt so deeply then?"

Amon took the chance to chuckle. "Swap your head for a dog in your sleep, and leave it at that."

She took a step back. "Y-you have to be kidding!"

For the first time in forever he laughed sincerely. Oh, modern humans. "Maybe that insufferable sincerity of yours would have served Allag better. My time wasn't really like that..."

Nemi opened her mouth when a chirp flew overhead, and a blue blur soared around Nemi's cape and shoulders. She brightened surprised and extended a hand as perch, letting the form settle and preen under her pets. Amon finally caught on her tail and the blue hue of her feathers, and he needed no more for tears to pool his dry eyes. Almost on its own, his hand approached shakily and froze when she poofed at the sight of him. Could she recognize his soul? What did Nemi tell her? "I..." I'm all that's left, I used his memories to make nothing better. I

Soft feathers pressed with the bunt of her head, chirping a song rocking his throats with sobs that almost rode the melody... His hand finally pet her, wrecked by the gentleness and softer chirps accepting hims as well. This might not be who he loved and lost himself, but knowing her hope and how it was dashed and forced out of her, much like he was robbed of a normal death... He kept petting in fervent silence as his form turned blue, not looking up until Nemi gasped and stared stunned back at him. Looking up he felt longer hair strands brush his sharper nose and his ears strain against the fabric. Oh, I'm wearing my face again? Then my face was not her design but, mine. My soul speaks my truth as I'm, finally seen.