https://i.imgur.com/Fe9yilS.gif

[blyat]

WHO: Cain, Markus, Fitz, Peggy, Riku, and Sora. We're doing our best.
WHERE: The Facility.
WHEN: October 12, during the sleep event.
WHAT: Continued from here. Cain went in guns blazing, rolled a crit fail, wiped out the party, and now they're going to need the power of friendship to save them.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Language, gore, disassociation/ego death, psychic death, JUST DEATH, buckets of guilt, and Disney Magic™ (including KH3 spoilers). Will update as necessary.



[The impact of their actions doesn't register at first. Due in part to the immediacy of his ability, Cain can only watch as the spear is extracted from its tangled bed of roots, blinking out of visible existence and reappearing several meters to his direct left. The weapon glints in a refraction of eerie, milky-blue underwater light. Where there would be a rush of success upon victory — moving the immovable — and where he might feel the tickle of curiosity in the aftermath, there's nothing but a peculiar emptiness. Slight and small, like he's disengaged from the part of his brain that processes raw information into higher function, a brief interim where no single thought enters his head, and he looks at his surroundings with a detached faraway appreciation. Meditative, almost, all pain and pressure from the landscape's oppressive environment gone.

And then it grows.

A yawning void eats through the peripheral of his awareness, even as he turns at last to check on Fitz and Markus. It's at that point his sense of individual self begins to slip, and the people he's looking at have no names, felt more in physical warmth and closeness. Cain extends a hand out as if to touch one of them on the shoulder — but stops, fingers spread, dark eyes lowering down to look at his own arm as if he doesn't recognize it. It doesn't feel as though it should belong to him. His gaze travels further, over limbs and torso dressed in the sleek black material of a flight suit, and that feeling of disconnect only heightens, mind elevated above the anchor of an unfamiliar body.

Slowly, gradually, another sense begins to bleed into the fine boundary of Cain's (but not Cain anymore, not Alexei, not anyone, what is he?) consciousness. Pinpricks of light at the edges of his mind, little flashes of red scales, the gauzy white outlines of humanlike shapes in the distance, and the two solid pillars of men in front of where he stands. Life everywhere. Death, too, clinging onto the dredges of what once was. Cain watches himself begin to fade from the feet up as if unattached to the process.

Death, watching Fitz and Markus now succumb to an intense and severe pain he doesn't feel at all. There's no fragment of sympathy, there's no sadness — only an impression of responsibility. The entire facility becomes a single entity stationed somewhere in his mind. And then Fitz and Markus are no longer alive, they're dead, a hot spray of blood and red guts and cooler blue mechanical shards across the surrounding area, but he doesn't feel anything beyond the understanding that it happened as the effect of a singular cause.

An imminent air of rightness overtakes the man who was there only moments ago, before he's gone, disintegrated into nothing.]

Comments

[retravel]

[ For all the fanfare and suffering that leads up to that point — dying is easy. You blink out, like all the things that came before, just as afraid to die as you were. Sleep, then. No more. Unless you don't, instead finding yourself elsewhere: A half-life as a spectre, flickering like the bulb in an abandoned hallway. Voices that aren't your own, tinny and echoing. For Fitz, the excess noise is routine, even if the tones and cadences sound strange. How can I face my son now? How can I? How can, how — isn't so different from How can she look at me? on a infinite, intractable loop.

At first, he remains still. Even a known voice isn't enough to wake someone glassy-eyed and far away. But a touch, sharp as icy water on his skin, is a bit like a static shock. There's a steady current in all of their connections, made electric by the empathy bond, but plugging into a familiar source may as well be a jumpstart, particularly when applied through a warm touch to his face.

Eyes screw shut, pain and confusion sparking across their haptic link. A hitched breath turns ragged. ]

Peggy. [ Not Carter. When did that change? Even if he barely glimpsed her, he knows her voice and the feel of her resolve, softened at the edges by their affinity for each other. His thoughts snag and stutter, but of course she's here. She's always here, finding him. Or he's there, finding her. They've been at this for hours. (Minutes, no, days). The warzone, the wasteland, the underworld. ]

We have to, have to — have to hurry. [ His hand flies first to his temple, then covers his ear, fingers curling and uncurling as if blocking a piercing sound. ] Get Markus out. C-Cain, 'cause they're in danger — [ It's as if he's come back online in the middle of the end. He crosses his other arm over his gut, fighting phantom pangs inside. ]

[ Wind blows through the ruins. Soot in the air. A tremble in the earth beneath their feet. ]

[revlon]

[ They've all travelled a great distance to reach this desolation at the edge of nowhere. The dreamscape sending them careening into each other and then sending along help right when they all needed it most, right when she couldn't reach her friends on her own. If this works, if they all get home safe, she owes Sora and Riku a great deal of gratitude — because this is something beyond her understanding or ability. (And she'll wonder at it, after.) This is monsters, magic, ghosts, portals, time travel, and everything she was never trained for.

But connecting with someone in the midst of all the madness? Drowning out the noise, focusing on the person in the eye of the storm? More than her training, that's in her bones. To read people, to reach them. She can feel Fitz meet her halfway in the bond, slowly flickering back to life. He's been unravelled by this place just like he was last time and it's hard to see the brilliance of his mind undone this way. Only, no, this is different from the last, caught in a loop of his last memory — the facility, the moment leading up to —

Cain? Oh, God, Cain was there with him and Markus? Why? What were they doing? Her stomach turns to lead: she didn't see him in the lab, how could she miss him? Was he there at all? Where was he, what happened? (If they survive this, she's going to give them all an earful.) The ground quakes, she tenses, and Peggy looks over her shoulder to Riku and Sora as if to ask them why this world is unstable, why it feels like it's cracking apart.

Are they running out of time? ]

All right, hey, you're all right, [ she's saying, turning back to face Fitz again. If she's worried, she doesn't let it bleed into her voice (the bond is another story, still anchored at his cheek). Is he in pain? ] We'll save them, I promise. But first we have to save you, don't we? [ I have to save you, he'd said. Only it had been snow swirling around them that time, not ash. Or maybe it's the same thing now. ] Can't do it without you. Markus and Cain need you. I —

[ A breath. Her voice steadies, softens. ]

I need you to come back to us. [ Her lips quirk. ] We're a team, aren't we?

[retravel]

[ Save him, when he doesn't deserve it? After everything he's done — what they did? Local insecurities and foreign cries intermingle, driving a mind to its undoing. Only Peggy's words are clearer the rest, drawing Fitz out with every promise and plea, balancing his compass. She cuts off an unspoken thought, rising in his throat, Leave him. Take the others. No, that's not right. Have to save him, first, 'cause he has to save them in turn, just like Robin foresaw in the other timeline, her visions as sure as all the history that came before them.

Time is fixed. That's basic (quantum) physics. Fourth dimensional spacetime. ]

Yeah, okay. Okay. [ Partners. SHIELD. Morningstar. The strike team. ] Wait for me, I'm just, I'm — [ Recalibrating. Still as though he's only half-listening, talking to himself and struggling to hear her over the static. He tips his head into her palm, features still pained. It's only when Agent Peggy Carter says "can't," as she never does, that every nerve alights with urgency. Takes all his strength to crack his eyes open, taking in yet another collapsing reality (one that pushes the facility into the past tense) and two blurry figures before his focus narrows to her, single-minded as he is in all things (working a theory, fixing a toy). She looks sad but not hurt. Thank god.

Agony spikes, seeking to pull him down, down, down, but he only flinches, holding fast to her and hooking shaky fingers around her arm. ]

Sorry. [ Mumbled. Another wince. ] It's in my head, but.

[ If it feels real, it's real, as he's told every one of his friends. ]

Peggy, when — where are we? [ An audible crack, somewhere in the distance, as the ground splits. Quickly — ] Now. [ That's the when. ] Need to find them now.

[ Jolting upward, standing too quickly, definitely about to tumble over on the uneven terrain. Now's the only time that matters. ]

[revlon]

[ She feels it in the heartbeat before she sees it, him snapping back to reality, to the present. The echo of the pain he feels ripples through the bond, agony in a way she's only felt once before — he's gripping her where Whitney Frost did, where Zero Matter threatened to consume her body and soul — but she doesn't wrench free. Not when he needs the anchor, the support. What happened to him to have caused that? ]

There you are, [ breathed out, head bowing for a split second in relief. And then: ] We're — Sora said you'd gotten lost, that you'd all gone deeper into the dreams.

[ She shakes her head as they both struggle to their feet; she makes sure to steady him on the way up, even with the ground shaking and rocking beneath them. She nods towards the two young men in question, softness now tempered by urgency. ]

Sora and Riku. I'm not entirely sure I understand how, but they got me here to you. And we're all going to find the others, aren't we? [ Peggy looks to them, the authorities on the situation, collapsing as it is around their heads. The ash almost makes it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead of them. ] How do we do that? [ Another sharp crack, closer now. ] The same way we got in?

[lighthearted]

[ Peggy immediately runs toward the figure crouched in the ruined dreamscape, and Sora knows that he and Riku are better off hanging back for now. It takes a moment to realize with all of the ash obscuring their vision, but it's Fitz that they've come to save. Sora doesn't know him well, but given that he's one of the first people who he met in New Amsterdam, who'd come to his aid when he was lost and confused and took him to safety, he still slots as someone important in his mind.

Strange as it is to remain on the sidelines while Peggy tries to bring Fitz back to the here and now, Sora doesn't mind giving them space. He's more distracted by the state of this dream, which has fallen into ruin and seems to be on the verge of collapse. As the ground shakes and shudders beneath their feet and the ash grows thicker in the air, Sora sends Riku a concerned glance.

He obviously doesn't know what his own dream had looked like when he'd been caught in that deep sleep, his heart under duress and the threat of Xehanort's control, so maybe this is normal. Or maybe it's a sign of just how much danger Fitz's heart is contending with right now.

Either way, it seems clear that they need to leave as soon as possible. When Peggy turns back toward them, looking for guidance, Sora nods. ]

We need to try and make it back to where we were — that facility. [ The trick is doing that without waking everyone up entirely, since diving after the others might be difficult if they travel too far. He looks back to Riku, trying not to betray any uncertainty in his gaze. ] We've got this.

[ He approaches the pair, sending Fitz a small smile of encouragement and a quick wave. ] It'll be easier if we all hold hands. [ Right now, there isn't much time to either explain or question what it is they're doing. ]

[inherited]

[Just like it was when Riku passed between the sleeping worlds, he feels no less awkward here watching this reunion. Yes, he's relieved, glad that they're back together. He also just feels like he's invading. He knows that he and Sora have to be here to help, but he's not as easy going with Sora when it comes to brushing off socially awkward situations.

So, when they do look back to him, he gives off every bit of indication that he is awkward: head down, fingers going through his hair, body language genuinely trying to look cool while utterly failing at that entirely. His hand drops once Sora's directing them to where to go.]

Glad you're back with us, [he says, informing Fitz of this. Riku doesn't know him, but he's spoken to him before. Of course, Riku has no idea that Fitz thought he was crazy before when he went on about heart business. (Remember that awkward interlude up there? Yes, that's the case here.)]

But there's one thing we've gotta figure out when we get back. If there are two hearts lost, where did the third one go? I thought we were here to save two people. [Two out of three?] Is the third heart really gone? [If nothing else, he can speak about this stuff so earnestly that he doesn't think twice before extending his hand to the others, ready to go.]

Either way ... I'll get the door on the way back. [He summons his keyblade right there and then—which looks like a giant car key. Because of course it does.]

[retravel]

[ His gaze slots to Peggy, as if asking her to confirm these two lads are trustworthy. No move to separate from her, when she's doing a bang up job keeping him upright on shaky ground. His mind's busy running the scenarios (doing the math on how far he'd gone and how much longer the others will be lost) even with these uncertain variables, hand still pressed to his temple to relieve the pain.

Until his attention snaps to Riku. ]

The third heart's not gone. [ retorted too sharply, when he ought to be grateful for their help, but his jerky movement forward and subsequent grunt of pain ensures he pays for it. They sound mad (which, great, when he's pretty sure he's already mad enough on his own), but he did almost get dragged to hell with a bloke who calls himself the Ghost Rider, so they're back on the sliding scale of nonsense as per usual. Doesn't matter, anyway — nothing does, not even the rules of the multiverse, 'cause Markus and Cain aren't gone. If Fitz can dive through a hole in the universe for Jemma (can survive the bottom of the Atlantic, can travel through time, can cross dimensions and alternate timelines), then he can go door-to-door in his unreality.

Yeah, okay, yeah. That's the plan. ]

Well, there's no time to get back. [ said simply, with a lift of his shoulders, as much of a shrug as he can manage. ] Could feel myself — going when I was under. [ and that's without considering the ash that threatens to fill their lungs and cracks in the earth hoping to swallow them whole. ]

We need a shortcut. Two of us, [ he pulls away from Peggy, steadying himself apart from a hand on her shoulder. ] two of them, Markus and Cain. [ gesturing to Sora and Riku ] Two of you means two doors. [ firmly, despite his questioning gaze (please, please say this is possible). ] Cut out the limbo stage.

[ no facility 'cause there's no time. ]

[inherited]

Sorry. It doesn't work that way. [Riku does genuinely sound sorry. He also knows that it could, if it were just a matter of Sora and Riku going alone. But even so, there's inherent risks involved: the Power of Waking is dangerous, and they're already risking things by doing this at all. They have to bring their friends along, which makes it hard.]

The deeper you go, the harder it is to come back. That doesn't just go for us. We may not be able to make sure that you and your friends resurface once we go into a deeper dream. If you wanna guarantee your friends are getting back, we have to go up and come back. [As a keyblade master, he knows that he has to put his foot down about this. Ideally, it would work exactly as Fitz described: they just go deeper from here. But they have no reason to believe their dreams are linked, so it would be a matter of layers.

(Think Inception: Nomura probably did when he came up with this nonsense.)]

Getting out will be quick. So will getting back. I promise you that.

[Though he keeps one other catch to himself: that he doesn't want Sora going alone. He had told Riku that he knew that he could handle this as long as Riku was there, but this plan involves separating them.

One thing at a time. And if they take the safer route ... he'll feel more at ease about splitting up. The other route is questionable. Riku doesn't even know if their powers will keep working. They can't risk this for something that may get them all permanently lost. That, too, is a decision a master has to make.]

[lighthearted]

[ What Fitz is suggesting is technically possible. It's something that Sora did himself when he'd gone to rescue the hearts of all of his friends, scattered to so many different corners by the Seekers of Darkness. He'd followed the lich deeper and deeper, past layer after layer, not giving any consideration to the danger he'd been putting himself in, or how he'd be able to get back.

And while he had succeeded, it hadn't been without paying a price. Young Xehanort's words to him had proved true. He'd been abusing that power, and after his return, he'd also been living on borrowed time.

He's still technically on borrowed time here, and so Sora can see why Riku's putting his foot down in this case. Sora realizes that they need to be quick, but that's all the more reason to not argue this point any further.

There's another shake of the ground, and a distant rumble far beneath their feet. It's as if this place is folding in on itself, starting at the core—but it could eventually reach them. If there's anyone who can defuse a situation like this quickly, it's a kid like Sora. He motions for Riku to follow him as he approaches Peggy and Fitz. Fitz still looks like he might topple over, so it's better to make this easier on him. ]

The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get to Markus and Cain, right? [ Both names he recognizes, both people he'd spoken to, if only briefly. The connections have already been formed, even in this small amount of time. ] I know this is asking a lot, but you have to trust us. [ He looks from Fitz to Peggy, a self-assured sort of smile on his face. ] Peggy did.

[ With that, he reaches out for Peggy's hand, then for Riku's free one, just like when they made the first trip. All Peggy has to do is grip Fitz's hand in turn, and then they'll be ready to go. Once everything's in place, Sora nods to Riku, who lifts up his Keyblade and opens the path back.

Another brief trip through a dark tunnel, and all four of them will find themselves back in the facility. Fitz's specter is gone, naturally, but Markus' still remains. And still no sign of Cain, but if Fitz believes he's still out there, then Sora has no reason to disbelieve him. He heaves out a sigh of relief, and then turns to face Fitz and Peggy once more. ]

From here we can split up. I can go with one of you, and Riku with the other.

[ A turn to Riku then, as he sends him a silent look which is meant to be reassuring. He knows that Riku won't want him to go alone, but Sora also feels that he has to prove he can do this the right way. That he'll come back safely this time. Not to mention, they can't waste any more time. ]

[revlon]

[ Peggy Carter is no expert in the mechanics of dimension hopping and she is a woman who views trust as a rare currency, hard won and rarely spent. But she is also a soldier with a keen mind for strategy and doing what it takes to see the mission through and everyone home safely as quickly and efficiently as possible. Far be it from her to go on blind faith with people she's just met but farther still that she'll put the lives of her friends in jeopardy on a moment's hesitation or time wasted in an argument when the situation is as dire as it is — and time running out. One does what one must.

Her first impulse is to press the issue, it always is. She and Fitz have tumbled in and out of dreams all day — week? Time is fluid — with his portal ability as advanced as its become in this world so it makes perfect sense to her that they utilise it here and now. Even more so with Sora and Riku's emphasis on having a connection to the ones they've lost; Fitz is closest to both Cain and Markus, it's likely he could zero in on their positions from here (logically; as much as logic can apply in this mess). But this world is unravelling and its rules with it so she bites her tongue with a sideways glance to her fellow agent and gives a brief, sharp nod. They've been boxed in by circumstance. And the military woman in her says that taking a half step back from the line to regroup before charging onwards is sometimes a necessary concession.

So she reaches up for Fitz's hand at her shoulder and back up the rabbit hole they go, Alice. ]

That's fine, [ she says firmly, once they're clear. ] We'll mark this as the rendezvous point, return here once the missions are complete. Fitz, find Markus, you know him best. Sora, you're with me. We'll get Cain. [ Fitz's hand is still in hers and she folds it between both palms now as she turns back to him. The bond glows between them, burning determination, urgency, confidence. No room for anything else. (She takes what she can of the pain he feels, this echo of how he must have ended up in that place. No time to ask questions. Later. Always time later.) ] He must be here somewhere.

[ Nothing in the world — any world — is created or destroyed. That's science. Just because she can't see him, feel him, doesn't mean he isn't there. She won't accept that. A breath, steady, certain; she glances to the boys, then back to Fitz. No nerves in the bond, not when she knows they'll make it through all right. Gut feeling. ]

We'll all be back in Kansas before we know it. [ That's to everyone. And more softly to Fitz, brow quirked. ] And try not to kill anyone on the way. Including yourselves.

[ Again. ]

[retravel]

I don't trust either of you. [ still sharp, knowingly unyielding (and petty, to be sure). Fitz wants to vocalise where they stand, given that there's still work to be done as a team. His ability has facilitated horizontal travel between dreams numerous times before now, sideways transitions rather than plummets deeper in the unknown, so he doesn't agree with the assessment, and if Peggy weren't urging them forward, he wouldn't follow their plan — ] But I do trust her instincts.

[ And when they have little time to argue, that's enough, for both the journey outward and the revised plan to split their forces. By the time they're back in the facility, hovering among the spectres, he can stand on his own.

As soon as Peggy takes his hands, all uncertainty has gone from him. Resolve flows between them, shared goals and conviction both. ]

Hope you won't tell me off for promising we'll find our way back, then. [ muttered low, a dark joke when he's been promising not to die all damn day. He knows this is the part where they go their separate ways now, and while he isn't afraid (not of what he might find with Riku, or for how Peggy will fare with Sora), that doesn't mean he wants to leave her or divide their collective forces. ] But we'll find our way back. [ slowly unlocking their hands, he holds on until their fingertips brush and drop. ] All of us.

[ The boys with them now, Cain, Markus, and themselves. ]

[lighthearted]

[ That harsh response from Fitz throws Sora off for a good few seconds as he stares across the room at him, unsure of what to say. When they'd first met, Fitz had come across as both kind and helpful. He'd bought food for Sora and explained things to him when he hadn't had a clue of what was going on. This feels like a jarring change.

It's not something he can take to heart, though. Fitz has just been through something terrible, and on top of that, he's worried about his friends. That's probably making him lash out. Besides, not everyone comes to trusts others as easily as Sora does. He has to remind himself of that, too.

Hopefully it's something that can be smoothed over after this is done, after the others are rescued and they all make it out of this nightmare. If there's one thing that they can all agree on, it's that they will find their way back.

This is the point where they separate. Sora shoots Riku a crooked smile, something he can hope will set him at ease, before moving over to Peggy. ]