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

[saviorexe]

[It hits him the moment the spear is spatially dislodged, jarring and jolting. But it tears through him only a breath of a moment later, dissipating any shred of remaining focus as if it were made of vaporous haze, flung away in favor of—

Pain. Hideous, clawing pain blossoming in the core of his gut (how? it shouldn’t, it can’t, a synthetic body not programmed for it not hardwired not possible) lancing outward with its many teeth, shearing and tearing at his insides. For a harried moment still cursed with lucidity, Markus thinks he’s lost his android body again, but flashes of incomprehensible code spilling into his vision imply otherwise. It’s torture unlike what he’s ever felt before, android or human — it’s nerve endings pulled apart, it’s every atom of each biocomponent (WARNING: CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE, SHUTDOWN IN 15, 14, 13, 12_ /ERROR, ERROR, ERROR...) unhinging itself from its proper place, leaving an interlocking interior of agony on its wake. He hunches over, loses strength in his legs, crashing his knees into the ground; a hand gripped at his middle and the other at his temple, eyes squeezed shut, so tight that the hard plastic beneath faux skin cracks.

A circular, infinite noise in his head overrides the scream that falls from his lips. He wants to echo the words, form them, as if repeating the mantra might free him of how they fill his head until it may burst.

(Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart! Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart! Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart! Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart! Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart!)

Markus cries out in stubborn desperation, mauled from the inside, harassed in his own head (WARNING: MY INSIDES ARE ALL—) opening his eyes to view only briefly a fading Cain and, closer, a suffering Fitz. He strains, screaming still, reaching out for him on instinct; hopes to grab his shoulder, his arm, a wrist, anything to anchor himself to the other man, it’s what they’ve always done when fraught and frightened and in so much pain, a reliance on the one another that has always helped them, god let it help them now.

Fingertips shake and brush against the man. But the world goes a brilliant, deep black when his whole body shudders, cracks in violent paroxysm, and (WARNING: —BEING TORN APART) shatters in a cobalt cloud of blue, of scattered and ruined components, coiled tubing, and shining pieces of once-pristine white.

This mass of detritus drifts lazily in the sea, all the life gone from it.]

[retravel]

[ His knees buckle first. And Fitz thinks he screams for them to stop, it hurts — or maybe that was earlier, when Caroline had her teeth in his arm, bleeding him dry. Is this now? It's always been hard to distinguish what's said aloud and what's in his head, where and when he falls. Never felt agony quite like this, but he knows what dying feels like. And how it looks in others, when you push them beyond what they can handle and into nothing. The only motivator people need is pain, right, Dr Fitz? Drowning, gasping, drifting. Without advanced systems like Markus' own or the abstract clarity of Cain, he doesn't know what's happening, only that his hands are shaking. No, that's not quite right. His whole body's shaking. Searing pain in his gut, an impossible pressure in his head (Worse than the hypoxia, the feeling of your braincells dying like a head injury on repeat; worse than having your atoms re-arranged and memories scrambled; worse than, worse than, worse than).

What have we done? This is what we deserve for trying to be gods. He deserves it, of course he does, but Markus doesn't. Couldn't. A flicker of clarity, from his place on the ground, already down by the time Markus reaches him. The bond suffuses with empathy that threatens to magnify the pain (trapped in a howling feedback loop) but Fitz holds on all the same, hand finding Markus' arm in a locked hold. That's what they do, when they start to lose themselves.

He has to — have to get them out. Keep them safe. Has to save Peggy. No, that was Cain. No, it was Jemma, it's always Jemma. He promised. Why can't he, when he catches Cain fading through barely open eyes. Trying to get up, move, do something. Oh. I— I think my legs are broken, choked aloud, faraway from himself.

Screams himself hoarse after that, the pain building inside. Higher, higher, higher, beyond the threshold of what the body normally feels before the brain deactivates to protect itself. (How can I face my son now? How can I? Forgive me, forgive me. If you ever learn about what we've done here, please … please forgive me. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive —). A deafening splatter of flesh and blood, floating in water swirling red and blue. ]

[revlon]

[ Time is an illusion, fluid, non-linear. Before being swept away by the wave of whatever this place is, nothing but shifts sands and shifting worlds, she would never have believed that beyond the theories of their best scientists at the SSR. (Or Howard Stark himself.) But she feels untethered here in a way that can only mean unreality — present one moment, flickering into he past the next, perhaps the future. One second she's in the desert, floorboards torn away by her bare hands; another, she's in the city, slaying monsters. Another: she's drowning.

No, not drowning. They didn't drown, they got out, they got home. Her and Fitz. They survived; but why, then, is she here? Surrounded by ghosts again, although none in uniform, trapped in a frigid lab instead of a forest. Peggy thought she had someone at her side, but they're gone now, and she can't place who it was. (An accent, like hers.) Fitz? No, it was Jyn. They were talking. Or no, maybe it really was — ]

Fitz?

[ She doesn't even mean to say it. The room is a cacophony of voices, so much so that her gasp of surprise is lost in the echo, but he's right in front of her, how could she miss him? They've staggered through warzones together, labyrinths icy as this one, felt water lapping at their feet in an impossible place only to be surrounded by it on all sides. They know each other better now, since enduring all that.

But they never crossed the threshold of this underworld.

That must be why he looks as distressed as she feels. No, shocked; no, that's not right, either. Staring through her, talking through her, in a way he's never — ]

Fitz.

[ She reaches out to touch him, finds it hovering over his shoulder instead. What if she can't? What if her fingertips pass through him like Dr Wilkes, incorporeal and invisible in the wake of a terrible explosion, never to be put to rights again? He's as ghostly as the others around him, a broken record — forgive me, forgive me — no, they've gone over this, there's nothing to forgive, he shouldn't be here, so why —

Another ghost at the edge of her vision, fainter, harder to make out. But he isn't dressed like the others. The features are difficult to make out, but not the profile. He'd complimented hers, once. A sketch, lightyears away. Markus. She stomach goes cold, her heart hammers against her chest. (Real or not real? It feels real, therefore it is real. No, this is wrong. Wake up.) She looks back to Fitz as though he has the answer (doesn't he usually?), voice nothing but a shock of breath: ]

What happened to you?

[lighthearted]

[ Continuation from here. ]

[ The two of them have been searching the facility for a while now, or it at least feels that way when every step they take forward is an effort, like they're waist-deep in swirling water and just trying to push through. So far they haven't found anyone other than those strange ghost figures. Much as they tried, they hadn't been able to reach those people's hearts. Whatever had happened to them, their hearts must be long gone by now.

Still, Sora refuses to believe that there's not something they can do for this place. He carries his Keyblade when he can manage to keep it manifested, but it flashes in and out, his tie to his power not nearly as strong as it should be. If they could find a keyhole, or some way to get everyone to wake up, then he'd feel like they'd actually fulfilled their purpose here.

Both of them have pulled it off before, but the rules are clearly different in this place.

As they keep pressing forward, Sora suddenly hears a voice cut through the muffled silence of the facility. It's not one of those echoes, he doesn't recognize it at all, which means it might be another person. One of the other displaced. ]

Riku. This way!

[ Sora tugs on his wrist, rounding a corner with an extra burst of speed now that they may have found their reason for being in this strange place. He sees a woman who's trying to converse with one of the specters. He can't yet tell that it isn't just another one of those scientists. ]

Hey... I'm sorry, but they can't respond to you.

[ They're beyond even Sora and Riku's reach. Or so he thinks for the moment. ]

[inherited]

[Riku is slower to respond. He's there, having moved behind Sora. Unlike his friend, he doesn't carry his keyblade. It can manifest, but when it does, he loses other bits of his control. The emblem on his back flickers, and his awareness of his surroundings slip away. It's a balance, and it's a balance that Riku's learned to accept. He'd like to be able to go all keyblade master on this place—without it sounding like he thinks he's awesome, because he definitely doesn't think that at all—but it's a matter of picking and choosing his battles. Helping Sora, helping everyone, means keeping his head.

He'd like to keep his head, even as it aches, sending a feeling of vertigo washing over him.

He draws his hand up to his chin, thoughtful. She's responding to them like she knows them. There are other dreamscapes, but this one hasn't seemed personal. Were they all in a personal one all along? It's hard to say. Hard to say and time to make it clear.]

Do you think they were here before? And ... I know this is strange to ask, but do you think we're inside a dream that's for you? That might be why they're here. [Riku watches as the Markus specter walks by, but doesn't reach out. He senses nothing, at least apart from how this dream, the cityscape, and even the personal have a similar feel to them.]

And why we're here. Sorry, we're new, so ... [Riku has to be the one to slow down and cover their bases. He never felt a heart in here aside from his fellow displaced. Though something feels—well. He doesn't want to reach out to it, not yet.

That balance of power, after all.]

[revlon]

[ She doesn't expect company. This place is so cold, so desolate in the way the desert wasn't, that it's jarring to hear a real voice alongside the ghostly ones. Peggy whirls to face the two newcomers, a hand reaching for her pistol and finding it missing from her hip. But they seem harmless — and corporeal.

Fellow displaced, she realises a heartbeat later. That must be it. Her breath releases in a sharp exhale, like somehow the reminder of other people like her grounds her spinning thoughts. They do, a little. But seeing Fitz and Markus this way still feels like a gut punch, her stomach twisting with horror and nausea and helplessness which she refuses to abide.

No room for that, Carter. Shoulders square, back straight. Firmness in her voice. ]

This isn't my dream, but those are my friends. I was just with them. [ Hand in hand as they stumbled through a portal to a city. Enduring a hail of gunfire, shoulder to shoulder. ] They don't belong here, I know it in my gut, and I don't — I don't know how this happened. We need to help them.

[lighthearted]

[ Sora notices the way that the woman makes to grab for a weapon that's not there, but she abandons that idea soon enough. It's for the best, as they're definitely not here to fight. As far as he can tell, they're all in this together, though he can't blame her for being jumpy. This place is weird. It's wrong.

They're her friends? Sora frowns, drawing closer to the specters to get a better look. It's only then that he can see that they're not in white coats like the others.

We need to help them. Sora turns back to the lady when she says that, nodding firmly. If these are her friends, and this just happened, then maybe there's something that he and Riku can do. Maybe their hearts are still in reach, able to be saved, unlike the others. ]

Me and Riku might be able to help, I think. They're lost in this dream, but deeper into it that we are. [ It's happened to him before, and his hand goes to his chest as he remembers that time, his Keyblade vanishing for a moment as his heart wavers. ] But we can dive after them and recover their hearts. If they're your friends, then you can reach out to them, show us the way.

[ It might not make much sense to her, but Sora's explaining it in the simplest terms he can think of. He's come a long way, being able to have some authority on this subject when he'd been clueless about the power of waking not so long ago.

He sends a quick glance Riku's direction, knowing he won't like the idea. Using this power got Sora into trouble before, but he can't just ignore what's happening here. He has to prove to himself that he can use it successfully, rather than leaving it all on Riku's plate. ]

[inherited]

[Even looking at Sora now, he can see him sitting beside Kairi, holding her hand. From a distance, he couldn't get the full depth of what was happening: Kairi's tears, the sense that this was a time to say goodbye. None of it. But he remembers Sora flickering out of existence, leaving the waking world to go somewhere else. The reminder makes his heart ache.

Not that it matters. Riku knows that what happened there can't prevent what happens here. If it's the two of them, they can work together, just like him and King Mickey. They got to the Realm of Darkness together. He can show Sora the way now that he has that power, and maybe even help balance him a little more than he had before. Or, well, he can hope.

Riku watches the specters and then crouches down, putting his hand to the ground (if the floor of the Facility can even be called that, covered in new growth and life all over).]

I'll check. Come here. [He looks at Peggy, and then extends his hand to her. He wears fingerless gloves, so if she's got bare hands right now, there's a risk of emotional contact. But in Riku's opinion, that's not a bad thing. His gaze is steady and calm, inviting yet not pushy. If she isn't interested in what he can do, that's fine. But he knows what it's like to need to save a friend, so he doubts that'll be the case here.] If there's a way inside, I'll be able to find it. Then the three of us can go together.

[revlon]

[ She's of two minds about what these newcomers tell her. Her initial and kneejerk reaction is to demand more of an explanation — for all that she's known to improvise in the field and leap without thinking when the situation calls for it, she didn't survive the war on being reckless. She wants to say she isn't moving a bloody inch in any direction until they've laid out precisely what they have to do and precisely how they plan on carrying it out.

But just as she draws breath to say it, she cuts herself off. How long have Fitz and Markus been trapped here? Do they have time to waste? She has a dozen questions, chief of all what Sora means by recovering their hearts. He's right, it doesn't make sense, even if he speaks with such surety. She's a pragmatic woman, even when her work has her dealing with the often unexplainable. Putting her faith in something she doesn't understand with people she's just met is asking a lot; because it isn't just her faith in question, it's her friends' lives.

But if she dallies any longer, then she'll just endanger them even more. Surely they ought to do whatever they can to bring them home? No man left behind. ]

Very well. [ She places her hand in Riku's, heedless of the bond (electric, iron determination on her end). She isn't afraid of the unknown and never has been. It's losing the people closest to her that's crippling. ] Whatever it takes.

[lighthearted]

[ It's a lot of them to ask, Sora knows. This woman doesn't know them, and after having interacted with a good number of the displaced, he realizes that most of them don't define hearts the same way that they're used to. They could try to explain in greater detail, but there's no telling how long any of them can stay here. He can still taste blood in his mouth.

In other words, it's now or never.

He's bolstered by her reaction, her willingness to trust them. Sora sends her a smile, one that's meant to be encouraging. As determined as she seems, he knows what it's like to lose friends and not know how to get them back. If the two of them can rescue her from that pain, they have to try. ]

I'm Sora. He's Riku. [ Because if they're going to do this together, introductions seem important. He reaches out for her other hand, trying to send calm determination over the emotional bond that opens up between them. His free hand brings forth the Keyblade again, in a flash of light, and he reaches up to point it toward the specters. ] Concentrate on reaching out to one of them, okay? Just focus on finding them, on bringing them back, and we can try to open up a path.

[ Between Riku's skills as a Dream Eater, Sora's experience with chasing down and waking hearts, and this woman's connection to her friends, they should be able to find the way. ]

[inherited]

[When Sora introduces both of them, Riku gives a small nod of assent, making a "mm" sound soon after. Riku isn't as sociable as Sora, so it's likely no surprise that he hadn't managed that step himself. He's focused on helping her. Gripping her hand like that, his chest glows ready, and his mind clears. Any prickling emotions of worry might be there underneath an earth-solid focus. He knows what needs to be done. He knows they need to help.

Looking at Sora, he worries more than he should. But that doesn't keep him from believing in their end goal here. He just hopes that they can handle it.]

Try not to let go of either of us. If we can reach them, the ride won't be what you expect. [Direct and to the point. Riku tries to think about how to describe it.] It'll be less like finding them ... or feeling them, and more like a dive. [For Riku and Sora, it won't be strange. They've never had to consider what it's like to bring someone else along with them. Not even Kairi has taken that trip, not really.

And then he closes his eyes, focusing. He inhales deeply, reaching both into the Facility, the specters before him, and everyone else. More than that, he focuses on Peggy's iron determination. She could be hurt at the loss of her friends, but ... she's strong. Knowing what she has to do helps her.

All she has to do is keep focusing, and Riku knows Sora will see and open the way.]

[revlon]

[ If the keyblade surprises her, she doesn't show it. What are physics in this place? What does it matter? ]

Peggy.

[ It's a curt introduction, manners and warmth only curbed by her urgency and focus on the mission at hand. This is the sort of thing that got her through the war. The mission trumps all. She doesn't know how any of this is meant to work. But the rules of this world don't function like the one she knows; the shifting terrain is uncertain, nebulous, and none of it is real in any true sense of the world. (Feels real, is real.)

If they're diving deeper into the dreamscape, she can understand that. Bodies here, minds elsewhere, or something like it. Just because science can't explain it doesn't mean logic can't apply at some point, but the luxury of analysis will have to wait until later. So she orders her buzzing thoughts and narrows them to a laser's point: Leo Fitz, first and foremost. Colleague, partner-in-crime, friend.

Thank you for trusting me. Reckon we'll make a good team. No, she's not losing this one. ]

[lighthearted]

[ Peggy. Sora knows the name, they've spoken before. She'd been the reason that Sora and Riku had boarded that train to New Tokyo in the first place, before all of them had been yanked down into this deep sleep. Now isn't the time to point that out. They can talk later, once Peggy's friends have been recovered.

With all of them holding hands, their emotions are shared along a conduit between them, and that means that Sora can feel when Peggy starts to focus in on her friend, on how she wants to bring him back.

Between that and the groundwork that Riku's able to set, the road becomes clear. A bright, thin beam of light extends from the end of Sora's Keyblade, shooting toward one of the specters, and then their vision is completely flooded with light.

That light is soon replaced with darkness as they find themselves seemingly floating or falling through a dark tunnel. The light they need to chase down and rescue is far off in the distance, but they've zeroed in on it and now all they need to do is dive toward it. Sora knows how dangerous this can be, but it doesn't feel that way now that he's got two people on the journey with him. ]

You're doing great! We just have to keep moving toward that light.

[ And so the three of them travel down toward it, hand-in-hand. ]

[inherited]

[The closer they get with their dive, the more apparent it is that what lies ahead isn't in good shape. Bits of ash start coming down, obscuring their vision. It blocks their path, and Riku moves swiftly, tugging his two companions off to the right in a carefully composed spinning motion that takes into account their horizontal positioning. How he does this is anyone's guess, other than Riku is Just Fancy That Way.

(That is really the only guess. Stupid Riku.)

A burning smell fills the air of the dive as the ash continues to accumulate. More and more, until they reach their final destination. He looks across to Sora and Peggy, nodding.]

We're here. [Riku doesn't bother to point out that something's wrong. Like when he dove to Sora's heart, it eventually got worse the closer he got. The dark Soras started attacking him, causing problems. He thinks the ash is this world's version of that. Not surprising, all in all.

Eventually, they hit the light at the end. It envelops all three of them, and brings them standing in their "final" destination. Riku lets go of Peggy's hand, reaching up to brush some of the ash off his silver hair, moving it away.]

Follow your heart. It'll show you the way. [It does not occur to Riku that "follow your heart" doesn't sound like anything other than sappy nonsense. Because, well. Kingdom Hearts.]

[revlon]

[ She's been to Fitz's dreamscape before, but it didn't look like this. It had been full of sharp angles, rigid structure, greyed out and bleached of colour and warmth but not utterly devoid of life in the way this place is. It's blanketed in ash and soot, buried like a town at the foot of a volcano and just as disquieting — thick ash swirls in the air and she squints in it, immediately releasing both boys to take a step forward into the devastation.

Follow your heart, Riku says, but it's background noise to her. She doesn't need the guidance, perhaps because it's just another way of framing what she already knows in her gut. Calling out Fitz's name in this place seems pointless so she doesn't do it, but she picks a direction and sets off with determination. She tries not to think of what it means for the dreamer to be trapped here, or the state of their mind. Failure isn't an option to her. She isn't particularly chatty; not uncharacteristic, per se, but her single-mindedness is telling.

It's either minutes or much longer that they spend searching but then she comes across the only silhouette in this barren wasteland and her breath catches. It must be him. Peggy jogs up ahead and drops to her knees alongside him, a hand to his shoulder. ]

Fitz. [ Low, urgent. He's slumped where he sits, like a marionette with cut strings. She swallows tightly then reaches with steady fingers to feel for a pulse at his throat, murmuring under her breath. ] Come on, mate, don't do this to me. Been through too bloody much to — [ There! God, faint, but there. Her hand flits to his cheek, tipping his face up to look at her. Soft, imploring, ] Fitz, wake up.

[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. ]