#khtd

BRUCE WAYNE AND NIALL LYNCH; FAMILY TREES

CALL DOWN THE HAWK // DETECTIVE COMICS // A LONLEY PLACE OF DYING // CALL DOWN THE HAWK // BATMAN AND ROBIN: YEAR ONE // THE RAVEN BOYS // JLA/TITANS // MISTER IMPOSSIBLE // GRAYSON // MISTER IMPOSSIBLE // BATMAN YEAR THREE // THE DREAM THIEVES // BATMAN // OUTSIDERS // GREYWAREN

Repairs

There was a knocking on Ai's door.

"Uhh, Ai?" Dado's voice rang out. "Is now a good time?"

"...O-oh, come in!" The android sounded surprised. "The door's unlocked!"

"Hey," he opened the door, closing it behind himself. Slung over his shoulder was a bag.

"I'm sorry for getting you hurt," Dado hung his head low. "When Vincent threw darkness at Nerina, I..." He bit his lip, trying to hold back more tears. He'd cried enough today.

"It's... It's fine. I'll get past it." Ai looked much better for wear. Though his visor was still half-dead, his joints no longer sparked.

"...I brought some tools," Dado changed the subject. "And a manual for a fuse box."

The manual had been dug out of the Toy Box on an illicit Halloween run a few years ago. It probably wouldn't map 1:1, but the fundamentals were what mattered most.

Ai just dug the fuse set out of his bag, handing it over to Dado. He then pulled out some sort of manual.

"My creator wrote this for my usage, should I have to repair myself. Maybe you can make use of it as well." He gave the manual to Dado, then began to power down. He'd have to have his visor disassembled, after all.

"Ah- wait! What page number?" Dado flipped to the Table of Contents, frantically beginning his search for mentions of fuses or visor repair.

He began to mutter to himself.

"You seem partially organic. Is this more of a sleep state for you? Am I on a timer? Can you breathe like this? Wait, that's actually-"

He put two fingers to various spots on the android's neck, feeling for a pulse. He felt one fairly quickly. Was Ai a cyborg, perhaps?

Either way, he'd put himself to sleep...

...

Dado pet the fuzzy lil' fella.

"Alright, let's get you all fixed up. Let's see... Orange, B4." He held the fuse with a gloved hand.

"Should be pretty simple..." He carefully removed the visor. "Ah. There's the problem; it's practically melted. That's not fun.

"These things are designed to be replaced, though." Dado began rummaging through Ai's bag for the correct screwdriver. The fuse used a shape not found among the paltry tools he'd brought.

"Bingo. Nice and easy, let's... Ugh. That friction isn't good. Where's that compressed air? Here we go. Don't need to scrape anymore than we absolutely have to. Stupid carbonization from heat, I hate chemistry so freaking...

"Alright. Carefully, now... Boop. Lovely, lovely. Now, let's clean the inside of the socket a little more, just to be safe. There we go, that's better...

"Alright. Now, carefully... There we go. That's a good fuse. Let's get you all nice and reassembled, now. Good visor... Lovely. And let's put you back on... Bap."

...

Dado booped Ai's nose.

"Perfect. That was a lot easier than I expected. Now, let's get you turned back–"

As soon as he'd found the page titled "Reactivation", he saw Ai begin to stir. The page featured an illustration of a humanoid figure lightly tapping a similar android's nose.

Dado smiled. Even throughout the worlds, human desire to boop small animals reigned supreme.

"Greetings, Dado." Ai's visor had finished strobing (recalibrating?), and had settled on its natural white. "I see that the repairs went well. That's good to see."

"Yeah!" Dado grinned. "It was a lot easier than I expected. I was worried I'd have to solder something, but nope. Just needed a bit of compressed air!"

"...be careful next time you need to do something like that again. I'll show you how to use the Lanes Between; make a portal somewhere safe any time you're about to put yourself in harm's way."

He didn't bother chiding him against doing so. He knew better.

"That would be great to have, yes. I'm sure I'll be able to get the technique down." Ai smiled wistfully.

"I'm serious," he began to scold. "No one can stop you from throwing yourself at explosions. But if you're gonna do reckless stuff like that, you need to stay safe. If something happens to you..."

Nerina'd taken a huge liking to Ai, and despite feeling somewhat awkward around him, Dado liked him too. Fiora certainly seemed to like having a fluffy friend around. If anything happened to Ai, Dado wasn't sure how everyone would recover.

"Now come on." He pat his back. "We're gonna practice until you can make an Entrance with your off-hand."

"Alright," Dado instructed. "One last time for good measure. Keyblade at your side. Energy into your off-hand. Foot on the gas pedal. Accelerate... Create the Entrance."

Ai nodded and focused a ball of light in his left paw. He forced the energy outward, opening an Entrance to the Lanes Between. It was even of a decent size this time, so that beings other than just Ai or animals could go through it.

"Perfect! Now brake, decelerate, and close." Vines snaked their way out of his coat and formed a lawn chair. He took a seat, pre-emptively beginning their break.

Ai nodded before pulling his paw back, immediately sealing the Entrance. He sat down on the ground, a small sigh leaving him.

"Th-There. Did it right this time."

"Alrighty. Break time." He sighed happily, proud that he'd been able to teach something.

"Since you're guided through the Lanes by your Heart, you might not– no, you won't reach your intended destination every time. Steering your Heart in the right direction takes practice, and isn't perfect."

"But if you wind up somewhere new, chances are, you've got good reason to be there..." He grinned knowingly. "So don't be afraid to explore a bit."

"So," Ai cocked his head. "If we were to all go through the Lanes, we would all end up in different places unless we steered ourselves or focused on staying together?"

"Travel through the Lanes as a group is... impractical," Dado explained. "Speeds are so high that the wrong collision can lead to you crashing somewhere new, so people often have to keep a far distance.

"The best way to travel as a single group seems to be to have everyone follow the Heart of a single leader. But it's easy in those hours for someone to lose focus, and for that leader to fall out of sight... so I think it's better for everyone to simply agree to meet at a destination, then carve their own paths through the Lanes.

"This, as you can probably guess, leads to more detours... But that's what the Heart does. That's why we say «May our Hearts be our Guiding Key»."

"I see." Ai looked at Dado, his simple display seeming to stare into his soul. "After the Mark of Mastery... After Straeh decides who among us is a new master... What will we do then?"

"The Mark of Mastery isn't, uhh..." That was interesting timing for such a question. Dado internally debated whether or not to tell the truth.

"It's not zero-sum. The goal of this place, the Land of Departure, is actually to train new generations of Masters.

"Obviously, Nerina will get there first, but ideally, we should all get there... Eventually."

He dodged the question about the future in favor of answering an unasked question. He didn't want to talk about that book... Not yet, at least. Not until he apologized to Nerina first.

Ai narrowed his eyes, seeing straight through the dodge, then looked away from Dado with a saddened expression.

"Would you leave me behind if it meant you could stay with Nerina and Fiora forever?" Ai asked his true question, letting a mask of calmness slip away for a moment before attempting to reclaim it.

"I-It's a stupid question. Nevermind..."

Dado's eyes welled up. "I..." No. It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair!

He already had two people to look after! Why couldn't he leave behind just one–

"...Ai." He stared at the android, trying to force eye contact with his visor.

"Had you asked me that yesterday..." He shuddered; the tears came free. "I'll be honest. I would've said yes.

"That would be a massive mistake." What was he doing? "You have so much more to offer..." He needed to stop; he was just sabotaging the rest of his family's chances of escaping–

Oh.

"Than taking Master Straeh's place."

The "rest" of his family implied there was someone being left out.

"That's what this place was built for... And screw that. Screw this whole system.

"We're all gonna Depart. Together. The next generation of Masters can be trained organically. No one will have to make this choice again.

"No one's getting left behind." He offered his arms in a hug. "You're family now."

Ai's eyes widened, but... He approached Dado and pulled him into the hug. He took a paw and traced Dado's chest. His expression didn't change much, but he slightly pulled himself up to Dado's eye level.

"I wouldn't have blamed you either way" he started. The tears flowed faster. "I have to be completely honest, I was sure you would have said yes. But... I'm happy you consider me to be family. I'll be by your side, no matter what."

As if by magic, upon the shape being traced on his chest, Dado wept his cognitive dissonance, his shame, and his hate out against Ai's soft coat.

He kneeled there, merely crying and mouthing a wordless apology, for about half a minute. He now understood.

Dado was weak. He had less light in his Heart than anyone else in this world. He was just some nerd with a rebellious streak...

But maybe that was his true purpose. His Mark wouldn't just allow him to teach new Wielders (though he did intend to do that), nor serve as a proof of power... It'd be a tool with which he could break and rebuild the systems in place.

He could make a better future. One in which found families like his own, and presumably like those before his, wouldn't tear themselves apart for an arbitrary title.

"I wanna be honest with you," he finally spoke. "But I need you to be honest with me, too...

"Do you need me to repeat the passage I read? Or have you already heard it?" He did his best to keep his tone inaccusatory. It was a genuine offer, after all.

"I haven't read it. Not yet," Ai clarified. "I'd like for you to tell me."

Based on that, Dado was inclined to assume the android may have somehow partially overheard their conversation, or that either Nerina or Fiora told him. That was fine. He was glad either way.

"It's from an account of this place's creation:

"We will create a hidden land. Here, a new generation of Wielders will be brought, and raised by a single Master. They must be taught the way of Light. They must each achieve skill worthy of the title Master.

"All but one will Depart. Unto the final Master, their Master's blade must be bequeathed. This Final Master will be tasked with protecting this Land of Departure, and training the next generation of Masters.

"That's the system they built... But if ancient Keyblade Wielders were particularly wise, they wouldn't have started a Keyblade War." He smiled slightly, his determination growing. "We're the next generation of would-be Keyblade Masters. If anyone's gonna fix all this... It'll be us."

Ai nodded, looking more hopeful. "When we leave from here," he spoke. "I hope we can all meet up somewhere new. If we can figure that out... Well, either way, I'm sure we'll all cross paths again. It'll probably be at one of the worlds a Master dwells."

"May our Hearts be our Guiding Key." Dado grinned, determined. "That's the thing about the Lanes Between: Hearts can usually find each other pretty easily. Anytime you need me... Even if you don't know where to find me, I promise you'll be able to."

"... Indeed. May our Hearts be our Guiding Key." Ai stared up at the sky. "Though I have the feeling my Heart is going to lead me somewhere dangerous... I won't be scared. And I WILL come back to see you all again. Promise."

Dado held out a pinky. Ai wrapped his own around it.

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Master's Summons

Vincent left the Grand Hall atop a styracosaur.

Neat. In any other mood, Dado would be overjoyed. His tearstained face bore a barely contained scowl.

He and Fiora apologized for their tardiness, bowing their heads. He walked to a different spot than usual: one as far from Nerina as reasonable.

"I can see," Master Straeh began to speak. "That there has been some... issues. But, truth be told, I'm simply glad to see you all alive. I would like to speak with you all separately on the matter — later, after you have all rested up."

Fiora seemed frustrated that her story was being put off. Dado closed his eyes, listening as the Master continued.

"Of course, that is not why I called you all here. You see, Master Mod-Gnik, my old master, has informed me and the other masters about a possible new threat. Negative emotions given form into beings of pure darkness have been appearing throughout the worlds. We have decided to call them «Unversed»."

Fiora gasped. The Master continued.

"I've decided that you all would get better training and experience out in the field. The Lanes Between are open to you all. As the Unversed spread, the chaos they bring spread with them. I simply want you to encounter them and learn what you can, then return here. Once we know a little more about this new enemy, I will assign you all with new tasks involving them. Is this understood?"

"I'll do my best," while his voice sounded robotically confident, Ai didn't look up to task.

"Understood, Master." Nerina was next to speak up. "Is this the first time such creatures have appeared?"

"From what we know, this is the first time."

Dado cursed her for her thoughtful question. It was hard to stay mad at her when she'd just saved him a few hours of fruitlessly poring over text for clues about their enemy.

"Master," he nodded, swallowing his resentment. "Are there any limitations on which worlds we shouldn't visit?"

At this, Master Straeh stopped, putting a hand to her mouth thoughtfully.

With their fight earlier, Dado was pretty sure the three of them wouldn't be exploring together... not initially, at any rate. This would give him freedom to study. Maybe he'd be able to catch up.

"I recommend checking worlds without other masters," she started. When Fiora inhaled sharply through gritted teeth, the Master elaborated. "Worlds like Twilight Town and Destiny Islands already have masters and students there to investigate. Other than that, use your best judgement. If a world seems too dangerous or not required to visit, then do not."

Dado finally understood what was going on. She'd been acting on edge the past few days...

"That is all," the Master nodded at them. "For now. You may leave after you have recovered. I'll summon each of you for your account on what happened later. Dismissed." Just like that, she turned and left.

"Fiora," Dado stepped in front of the distraught girl. He motioned to the hallway. "Can we talk for a sec?"

"...I have to make this relatively quick," he remembered. "I already offered to help fix Ai's fuse. That said..."

He looked at her, resolute. "You're going to Destiny Islands."

As Fiora's poker face fell, he continued.

"Check up on your home. Make sure it's alright. And if you need plausible deniability..." He smiled slyly. "I will take the blame for pushing you into the Lanes Between."

"But– but the mission... and she forbade, and– I..." Tears welled up in her eyes.

"You've been acting weird lately, and I finally figured out why. You had the nightmare again." He paused dramatically, then continued.

"You can't effectively focus on investigating «Unversed» if you're worried about the Islands... So screw the mission for now. You can check up on everyone, make sure everything's okay, and then find another world. No harm in that."

Light glowed in his left hand. He grinned.

"Wanna be «pushed into the Lanes» now, or do you have something you need to grab first?"

"I– Dado, how can I..." She cut herself off when she suddenly jumped forward and bear hugged him. Gone were mere tears of frustration and indecision. Dado returned the hug, his tears matching her own.

"Thank you!" She cried. "I don't know how I'll ever get to repay you! You, and... and..."

"Love you, Fiora. Nerina does too. I'll see you soon, okay?" He gently ran his fingers through her hair.

"...Thank you," she began to compose herself. "I'm ready. I already have what I want on me."

A portal to the Lanes Between opened in front of him and behind Fiora. He gently tapped her armor activation mechanism.

"Safe travels." With a wide smile, he pushed her off of himself and into the portal.

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Copse

Four knocks rang out against wood, and Dado poked his head into the partially chopped grove.

"...Fiora?"

While following her messy trail of light, he cried. The tears had now subsided, but their remnants were likely still visible.

"I'm, uhh... Can I come in?" He felt awkward. He'd never knocked on her hidey hole before, out of respect for her... but this situation called for it.

"You... followed me," Fiora turned to face him. "What about Nerina?" She peered past him, looking around.

"She said if she didn't waste her time training me, she'd be even further." He took a seat on a tree stump and sulked. "Besides, I can't just leave you alone. None of us gets left behind, remember?"

"We're holding her back, huh?" Fiora looked disgusted. "Fine..." She turned her back.

"I'm fine. Go back and talk with him. He showed mErCy, so you guys should hear him out. Not like he could have killed you or anything..."

"I don't need to hear him out. That's the Master's job... and she'll be hearing all of us describe what happened. Especially you, Fiora."

Despite his best efforts, a tear rolled down his cheek. He clenched his eyes shut, and more tears fell out. He'd always been worse than Fiora and Nerina at holding back his emotions... along with, it would seem, everything else.

"You had a view of the whole battlefield. If anyone's story is gonna be taken seriously, it'll be yours.

"And honestly..." He looked to the side. Master Straeh didn't like them cursing.

"Fuck them right now. Vincent, Ai, Nerina, whatever. They're all full of it.

"I... I tried using the Keyblade on him as soon as I saw him use Darkness against her. I even tried the Black Hole Bomb." He trembled. "None of it did a thing. He let himself get hit by it. Fighting him for real? It would've just gotten us all killed for real."

Fiora clenched her fist and turned around, enraged.

"So you do realize that he could have killed you both and should be dealt with! Who knows how strong he actually is! We had a chance to take him out while he was weak. I had a chance! But no, he should train under us."

Fiora's tears flowed freely as she continued.

"At any point he could attack us. He could have... Nerina and AI could be... they..." She fell to her knees, not finishing the thought.

"Think, Fiora!" Dado shouted. "Would some allegedly self-trained Masterless Wielder who uses darkness give his enemies a perfect opportunity to destroy him? Of course not: he knows Curaga!

"We're in a survival scenario, and as you just saw, our way out isn't fighting. All we can do is tell the Master, which is what I've been trying to say this whole time!"

"Fine." Fiora, suddenly and uncannily, stopped crying. "We'll tell the Master everything that has happened. She'll handle him."

Suddenly, a bell rang out from the castle: a summons.

She hummed absently. "Perfect timing. We can tell her now."

Fiora was poor at masking, but Dado knew when to drop a subject. The declarative 'Fine' sold it further.

He stood up, but didn't bother to wipe his tears. If Nerina would see his tearstained face...

Well, worst case scenario, she won't care. Best case scenario?

It'll hurt.

Dado walked behind Fiora.

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Damage Control

Dado knelt against Ever After, bloodied from a thousand paper cuts. Vincent fared little better.

"I think..." Vincent started. "I think you might be mistaken about the danger here."

"Hah," Nerina panted. "That was incredible. We haven't had a strong foe like that since the Master."

Leaning on Rainfell as a cane, she limped over to Dado, extending a hand. He accepted her help, the argument formulating in his mind vanishing as soon as he saw Ai.

The android's visor and joints visibly smoked from how hot his internals had gotten. Regardless, he was somehow able to move his body enough to get into a kneeling position.

"Th- tha-t..." Ai's voice was choppy. "Was certai-nly so-mething, Vince- Vince-nt. Y-you're incre-incre..."

"Fiora," Dado's voice was hoarse. "Ai needs the most help." He wished he knew how to repair electronics. In such a wide, weird world, it seemed like a helpful skill.

Fiora hesitated for a moment, panicked eyes darting back and forth before she ran past Ai to heal Nerina and Dado. Green wind soon swirled around the two.

Dado put his fingers to his temples as Fiora mentally shut down, then realized the benefit as his muscles repaired themselves. This was good.

"...Thanks, Fiora. This has helped." After affirming her, he walked over to Ai, who was clearly having a panic attack over his damaged circuits. A teal spray was failing to mend his circuitry.

"You," he pointed at Vincent as he walked past him. "You need to train under Master Straeh."

The gears continued to turn as he continued. "I'm not sure how you've made it this long on your own, or with that much darkness..."

"Heal." He interrupted himself, focusing on Ai. Green light shined on him, and he examined the damage to the android's machinery. His organic bits seemed mostly healed by the cyan mist and Cure cast, but it'd take a lot more for the rest of his circuitry. His visor, for instance... Half of it was dead.

"We're going on a field trip soon," he made eye contact with Ai's seeing side. "We'll get you to an Information Age world; one with touchscreens and stuff. They'll be able to fix you up."

Ai slowly looked up at Dado, a still-worried expression the working half of his display, but spoke confidently regardless.

"It's just a blown fuse," the Cure cast seemed to help with his voice. "I might have a replacement one with the rest of my stuff. My creator always made sure I had spares, and this is only the... Second time this has happened? I will only need someone to replace it, and I can write down basic instructions to do so even with one functioning eye."

"I can–" Dado stopped himself as he blurted the words out. What was he on about? He had no experience! He couldn't–

"I mean, I think I can try? I've been studying basic circuits while trying to learn Thunder." It wasn't untrue. "And I'm good with Shego Bricks. I..."

Escalation

"Nerina!" Dado's voice was drowned out by the pounding in his chest. Was the new guy really throwing darkness at her?!

A spiraling galaxy glowed violet and gold, scattering into a shower of Dark and Light. As stars rained down at Nerina, Vincent bore a satisfied expression.

Dado skated along the ground in wide arcs, weaving through Ai's Ragnarok absentmindedly as he approached the wielder of Darkness. The Mirage Staff, thrown aside, returned to his grasp in its original form.

"Light!" A pencil-thin beam shot from the blade's tip aimed directly at Vincent's chest.

"Waterga!" Nerina's voice rang out, shocking Dado. A torrent more powerful than any he'd seen punched through the projectiles, curling around his beam as it, too, raced towards their shared target.

Dado felt Ai and Vincent's Hearts link, and the Android was suddenly by the threat's side. A barrier took the brunt of his and Nerina's separate attacks.

Dread fell over Dado. He was entirely in over his head. Between Nerina's hitherto concealed third-tier magic, Vincent's darkness, and Ai's defense of him...

No. There was something he could still do.

"Nerina! Like we practiced!" He reached out to her Heart. She shook debris out of her hair as she rushed towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Right," she nodded encouragingly.

"Together!" Dado felt a massive surge in power as their Hearts fell in sync. A mess of glassy hexagons swirled around a Magnet cast.

"I call upon the waters of the nameless sea! Give rise to your waves!" Water flowed forth from her, spiraling inwards between the barrier shards.

"It's ready!" Her confidence flowed into him, reassuring him as Vincent and Ai prepared their Limit.

The hexagons spontaneously locked into place, forming an absolute seal. No light got in. No light got out.

"Eternal!" Vincent and Ai's voices rang out as one. Light and Darkness coiled around the duo, their stances mirroring each other.

Dado grunted, drawing on Nerina's strength to maintain the barrier as the Magnet cast swirled the Water magic, now broken down into pure energy, ever-faster.

"SESSION!" Vincent and Ai charged, their pointed Keyblades spinning around each other as they drilled forward.

"Dado, now!" Nerina cried.

"BLACK HOLE BOMB!" A single hexagon was removed from the barrier, concentrating Water-aligned Aether into a single wave of destruction directed at Vincent and Ai.

Pure chaos rippled outwards. Aquamarine, violet, and gold light flashed in violent explosions, sending shadows screaming across the tattered cliffs and castle walls. Glassy hexagons of varying opacities spiraled outwards, shattering against Keyblades and Wielders alike.

The dust began to settle.

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Friendly Spar

By the time Dado's spin stopped, Ever After had taken a new form: the Mirage Staff.

If everyone else insisted on playing defense, he'd oblige them.

"Light!" Lasers flowed from the staff's tip into a prism, refracting into other prisms throughout the area unpredictably before flying towards a target.

Nerina's dancing water pooled in front of her, acting as a shield. She smirked at the ripples against their surface.

"Good! Maybe you'll get through my water, Dado."

"That's the plan," he thought.

Ai aimed his turrets at Dado, raising his left paw upward to create a barrier.

"Calibrating... Aiming..." The turrets on Ai's shoulders began to charge. Dado mentally noted them, eyes darting over to Vincent.

"Geez..." The dark-haired man grimaced, slamming his Keyblade through redirected beams of light. "Everyone uses magic. I should've seen something like this coming."

His movements were sloppy and direct, but well-focused. Despite glancing around wildly like a cornered animal, he seemed in a comfort zone of sorts. All of a sudden, Dado found it a lot easier to believe Vincent had no formal training.

"Three... Two..." Ai called out.

"Now then..." Nerina glanced back from the android and to Dado, seemingly having made the same calculations as him. She slid her hand along Rainfell, infusing it with the water element.

"FIRE!" Both turrets fired at Dado, launching twin barrages of lasers at him. Nerina rushed forward, swinging an explosion of water outwards in a wide arc.

Ai's lasers flew towards him, punching through what revealed itself to be a Mirage.

Of course Nerina, perpetually savvy to his trickery, had accounted for this with her arc. He'd prepared a cast for her accordingly.

"Fire!" A cloud of steam erupted where her Water Strike would have made contact with him.

As the steam faded, Dado's blade to his side and off-hand stretched outwards, Nerina's hair smoldered.

"So you decided to play with fire, I see." She grabbed a lock of her own hair, crushing an ember with a bare hand. Dado paled as an especially cold-looking bubble formed in at the tip of her Keyblade-

"GAAAH!" And yelled out in pain. Ai, seeing his dropped guard after his exchange with Nerina, had remotely detonated a Holy cast directly beneath him.

For a fraction of a moment, violet smoke trailed from his left eye.

"Petal Surge!" He clenched the eye shut and dashed towards Ai. A maelstrom of golden petals swirled around him.

The furry robot friend attempted to sidestep the storm, only to underestimate its breadth. Clipped by the petals, he backflipped into the air, his turrets returning to their Keyblade form. He twirled the weapon in a Windmill before him, an orb of light forming tangent to its center.

Dado knew a Shotlock when he saw one. He surveyed the battlefield, planning out how he'd evade it.

Nerina, for her part, had spared him earlier, redirecting her ire at Vincent. For her troubles, she was flattened against the ground by a Gravity cast. Vincent hovered over her, Keyblade enveloped in violet mist. With a bemused smile, he pointed the demon wing at her, Darkness building at its tip.

"Ragnarok!" Ai shouted, scattering the orb into countless beams of light.

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Staredown

With minimal convincing, Ai gathered the gang for a good free-for-all spar at the Summit. Dado, Vincent, and Ai were the first to arrive.

Dado eyed Vincent as the latter gave his angeodemonic blade a few unrefined test swings. His wariness and curiosity battled each other. Something was off about the man; he could feel it in his Heart. But Ai took to him quickly, and Nerina trusted Ai...

Ever After shimmered into his palm, golden dust floating around it. Similar golden dust trailed from his heels. A breeze buffeted his cloak, concealing a slim figure within the billowing layers of cloth.

Ai, likewise, began to summon his typical energy blade. His arm glowed with a brilliant light.

When the light dimmed, he was holding something new. The blade was short and colored a light grey, with white LED bulbs going down the center of the weapon in a perfect line to the hand guard. The hand guard itself was simple, a pair of angelic wings curling inward to protect Ai's paw. The "teeth" of the blade were small plasma emitters, which immediately turned on and ignited into small pillars of light as he gave the weapon a few practice swings.

"Wait," Dado was surprised. "Since when are you a Keyblade Wielder?"

"Ah," Ai seemed nonplussed. "So this is a Keyblade."

He swung the weapon a few more times, jabbing forward in preparation.

"Maybe I always was, but didn't know it. All I know is... If I was indeed one before, this isn't the right Keyblade."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dado was shocked. How could someone's Keyblade be 'the wrong one'? How could one even be sure?

"I'm not sure myself," Ai shrugged. "But something in my Heart tells me this isn't the weapon I used to use... But it will do regardless.

Dado cursed silently at the android's cryptic words. Ai had been a strange case ever since he showed up a few months ago, but ever since Vincent arrived earlier that week, he'd been even less communicative.

He jumped as Nerina pat his shoulder, arriving just in time to interrupt his thoughts. She flipped her hair back, calling Rainfell to her hand.

"Come now, Dado," she teased. "Even you should realize that the heart is a tricky one.

"Perhaps this new looking keyblade could be formed from bonds you no longer recall," she suggested to Ai. "Or a testament of the trials you overcame before we found you."

"Still: nice to see that if something happens, we can rely on Ai, right Dado?" She placed a hand on her hip, pointing her blade at Dado with a grin.

Pointing a Keyblade directly at someone was the universal sign of a challenge. Dado, out of habit, stanced up: blade held overhead pointed towards Nerina, with his empty left hand front and center. The stance was common in duels, focusing on wide swings complimented by defensive magic.

After a beat, he changed his stance. He first brought his feet together, crossing his arms over his breast, blade held upwards in an intermediary pose. He then pushed his right foot forward in a gentle lunge, holding the blade in a diagonal commonly seen in fencing. Unlike the non-magical version of the sport, however, his left hand was held at his hip, like Woody reaching for his trusty revolver.

He knew Nerina would recognize this stance. It was deceptively defensive, with an emphasis on deflection and trickery. Every time he used it, he ended up pulling out something "non-traditional".

Nerina kept her eyes on Dado as she hopped into the air. Her magic held her just above the ground to grant her quickened evasion. Watching Dado's change of stance, she willed Water to dance around herself. It seemed to move with a mind of its own: a testament to Nerina's control.

Ai continued to twirl his weapon, finally tossing it into the air before catching it in a new form: a pair of plasma turrets. They mounted themselves to his shoulders. One of them misfired in Nerina's direction, a laser passing her face by a margin of inches.

"Apologies," Ai blinked. "Recalibrating..."

As Fiora arrived and took a seat outside of the splash zone, Vincent finally seemed to settle on a stance. He held the Keyblade in front of himself in a single-handed guard, reaching with his off-hand similarly to Dado. He rolled his eyes.

"Well, Dado?" Nerina's voice was a singsongy taunt. "Who shall strike first? Or shall we wait for the others before joining in on the fun~?"

"So..." Vincent started to make awkward small talk. "I guess you two have fought with each other for quite some time? Hope I don't end up throwing a wrench into your dynamic here."

"Hmph." Dado grinned.

No one wanted to make the first move. Everyone seemed to take a defensive stance.

He leapt backwards into a spin, dust trailing his boots as prisms flew around the area.

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