Insert Red Skies Twilight Here (part 4 of 6)

"All of this hate
 And all of this pain--
I'll burn it all down 
As my anger reigns,
Till everything burns."
-'Everything Burns' by Anastascia

Willowe strode into Adrian's office slowly, glancing this way and that as she took in the bookshelves, his desk, the picture of Tash on the wall, and several pictures of people or places she didn't recognize. "For one of the most powerful men in existence, his office is surprisingly simple..."

"Feh, who cares? He's finally dead and that's all that matters." Harold shouldered his way past the female Sue and flexed his fists a bit. "The only good thing the Librarian did was get rid of that annoying Silver for me...bastard..."

He marched to the rear of the office, casually blasting the desk out of his way and reducing it to smithereens. Stopping at the seamless, handle-less door, he drew back his fist and with one punch, sent in flying into the darkened stone hallway beyond. "There. This is what we came for, right?"

"Yes." Willowe stepped him behind him, four or five of the remaining Agent Smiths and Chi hanging back behind her. Adrian had wiped out a huge chunk of her forces, barely leaving her anything that could be called an 'army'. "The Fourth Wall should be at the end of this hallway."

"Good. Let's go already." Harold started down the hallway, even his Super Saiyan aura failing to light up the dark stone passage. His eyes flicked left and right as he passed the alcoves, growling in frustration as he heard and saw little whispers of movement in them and voices humming in his ears now and again. "What is this freaking place, anyway? Is there something alive in here or something?"

"Perhaps. It would be wise not to disturb the alcoves" Willowe said and glanced at one of the alcoves, waiting as a shadowy figure slid into view and then out of sight again. "Runoa said this is the section of the Library where the Librarians keep the things that are too dangerous to the Library's normal visitors or even things that the Librarians themselves cannot understand..."

"Tch..." Harold sneered and flicked a marble-size sphere of energy into one of the alcoves , watching as it exploded, destroying whatever was in the alcove, but strangely, the flare of light the explosion produced did not extend beyond the alcove. It stopped like it had hit a wall before it reached into the hallway. "It's all a bunch of junk..."

Then his eyes widened and he backpedaled as something reached out of the darkness of the alcove and latched onto his wrist with a skeletal hand. "What the hell!" He strained to break free, but even with his improbable strength, his caught arm wouldn't budge an inch. "Let go, you freak!"

He started to charge up an attack his other hand, but then he screamed as he saw his caught hand was decaying, bits of flesh and muscle and nerves dropping away like leaves off a tree, revealing pearly-white bone beneath. "Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Then Excalibur slashed at the grasping hand and it instantly released Harold, retreating into the shadows whence it came while Willowe backhanded Harold across the face. "You idiot! I told you not to disturb the alcoves! We've come too far for you to screw it up now!"

Harold rubbed his cheek and glared at Willowe. "Watch it. What's stopping me from killing you right now and performing this plan myself?"

Then he went pale as he realized Excalibur was pressed against his throat and he hadn't even realized Willowe had moved at all. "Ahhh..."

Willowe narrowed her eyes at him. "You had better hope that first punch kills me, Harold. Otherwise, I'm going to slice off your limbs and let Runoa do Immaculation on you." She leaned closer to him and her sword point drew a droplet of blood from his throat. "Want to see if you can regrow limbs?"

"N-no..." Harold shook his head fervently. "No..."

"Good." Willowe resheathed her sword and started down the hallway, the subdued Harold following her. "Then remember who is in charge here."

The little group made their way farther down the hallway, Harold, Chi and the Smiths doing their best to ignore the things that moved in the alcoves or the faint whispers that sounded in their ears and minds or the soft touches that had them glancing back nervously over their shoulders every few minutes.

"InTruDErs..."

They all stopped and glanced around, Willowe's hand flying to her weapon as Harold charged up energy in his fists. "Who's there?"

"IntrUDeRS...WHo EntERS ThIS PlaCE...? YoU Do NoT HaVe PermiSsiON AnD yoU ArE NoT WeLComE..."

Willowe glared at the surrounding darkness. It sounded like a hundred voices were speaking all at once. "Who are you! Show yourself!"

Shadows and light swirled around in front of them and when it cleared, something was standing in their way. In the darkness, its form was impossible to make out and they only caught the outline, shimmering in and out of sight like a mirage...a clawed hand...a spiny shoulder...a barbed tail. "We aRe ThE UnWriTteN...YoU ArE noT oF Us, InTRUders..."

'Unwritten?" Harold growled and the energy in his fists glowed brighter. "What the hell is this guy?"

"Runoa mentioned something like this to me..." Willowe murmured, hand still on her sword's hilt. "Some ideas that are never fully formed or never written into stories, but through sheer force of will, manage to avoid being pulled into the Vault of Abandoned Ideas... but she never said they'd be in here!"

"AdrIAn bAdE Us tO GuARd tHIs plAcE... He GaVe uS a NaMe AnD PuRpOSe... To PrEvEnT tHE WrITtEn FrOm CrOSsINg thE WaLl..." The Unwritten's shrouded form shifted and stirred before suddenly launching forwards and falling over them like a thick blanket. "YoU wiLL BeCome Us..."

Willowe struggled to draw her sword, but the Unwritten pressed and swarmed around her, feeling like it weighed a hundred tons and pressing against all of her senses at once. She felt rather than heard the Smith copies dissolve away and Muhammad screamed as his body started to dissolve away into mist, which was drawn into the Unwritten.

She herself felt it crushing her, sapping away at her spirit, her memories, her thoughts, her past, stripping everything that made her a individual and she felt tired, so tired...

(No!) Willowe drew herself together and felt the draining away slow, then stop. (No! I will not be taken like this! I am Willowe Foxblade! And I will NOT yield!)

With a howl, she unleashed a flare of crimson energy that blew the Unwritten away from her, the shadowy fog retreating like it had been stung. "I am not afraid of you, you pathetic shell!"

The Unwritten swirled angrily and regathered itself. "YoU WilL BeComE uS!" Then it hurtled towards Willowe at full speed. "We WilL FuLLfIll OuR PuRPosE!"

"Then fulfill it by dying!" Willowe drew Excalibur and slashed it through the air, a crescent of golden energy leaping from the tip and slamming into the mass of the Unwritten, the entity letting out a hundred-voiced howl as it was dissolved away and scattering into miniscule wisps of shadows that were absorbed by the darkness around them and faded from view.

"Erggg..." Harold got to his feet, rubbing his head. "Did you really manage to kill that thing?"

"No." Willowe replied and shook her head. "You can't kill an idea...but I hit it hard enough that it will take a very long time before it collects itself, so we shouldn't have to worry about it anymore."

"Good." The Saiyan turned and yanked Chi off the ground by her collar, causing the smaller Sue to squeak and tremble in fear as he glared at her. "What's the big idea? How come you didn't warn us there'd be something like that guarding the Fourth Wall?"

Chi squirmed in his grasp. "Xavier and I never entered the Library ourselves! We just sent Subplot Bunnies through the crack in the Wall! And none of them ran into any defenses!"

"That's because all species of Plot Bunnies are not really alive-they're just ideas." Willowe explained as Harold gruffly dropped Chi on the ground. "We're Sues and Stus-we are more than just ideas..." She glanced at the pile of empty suits that had been the Smith clones. "But if our grasp on our identities isn't strong enough, it can be stripped away from us, as Muhammad and the Smiths just proved..."

She turned and started down the passageway, the other two falling into step behind her. They had gone about a few dozen more yards and then Willowe jerked to halt, Chi plowing into and bouncing off the leader's legs.

"Hey! What gives?" Chi muttered, getting back to her feet and rubbing her nose.

"It's another defense..." Willowe replied and gestured in front of her where a set of floating words were in front of her. "It's an invisible barrier and I'm guess we have to solve this riddle before we can move on."

She took a couple of steps back and studied the riddle from top to bottom:

"I am what all want.

Use me as if I were a sword and those you slay will rise up against you

Use me as if I were armor and I will trap and suffocate you

Use me as if I were decoration and only your mirror will look upon you.

Use me as if I were a fire and you'll find my flames do not warm you.

Use me as if I were food and I will never chase hunger away from you.

Use me as if I were an enemy and I will be heavier than any chains upon you.

Use me as if I were a friend and I will devour you.

Use me as if I were medicine and I will poison you.

But if you do not use me, then I will serve you well forever.

What am I?"

"Rrrg..." Harold cracked his knuckles. "I hate riddles and we don't have time for this!" He wound up and threw a sledgehammer-like fist at the barrier with the force of a small bomb. "Let's just smash it down!"

Then he gasped as his fist disappeared into the barrier and then emerged right in front him, smashing into his face and sending him flying backwards, clutching a bloody nose. "What the 'effin hell!"

"Looks like the barrier throws whatever you throw at it right back at you!" Chi laughed at the bigger man as he got back to his feet. "Means you have to use your brain, porcupine-head! And you don't have one!"

"Shut it, little brat!" Harold growled menacingly. "Before I squish you and wipe you off my heel! And if you're so smart, then why don't you solve it?"

"Of course!" Chi stuck her tongue out at him. "And I already have!"

Willowe raised her eyebrow. "That was awfully fast..."

Chi waved it off. "We're Sues, stuff like this is easy for us." She walked up to the barrier and smirked broadly. "That answer is love!"

They all waited a few moments. "Is... something supposed to happen?"

"Hey! What gives? I know I got it right!" Chi stamped her foot. "Come on, you stupid barrier and words! Disappear!"

Then she blinked as she felt something chilly wrap around her feet. "Huh...?" She glanced down and screamed.

Some kind of light was working is way up her feet and legs, hardening and turning her into crystal. "Aggh! No, no! Make it stop! Make it stop! Stooop!"

Willowe and Harold watched with wide-eyes as the crystalline light worked its way up Chi's legs and then her torso. "What kind of power is this...?"

Chi squirmed and writhed, desperately trying to chip away at the light, but it was turning her entire body to crystal and there was no way to free herself without shattering her own body. "Help me, help me, help me! Make it stop, stop!" She jerked and gave one final scream as the light crept up over her head and it was over in seconds. Where once a Sue had stood, was now a perfect crystal statue of her, her face transfixed into a look of horror.

The other two stared at her for a long moment and then Willowe reached out to touch, but withdrew her hand as the shadows from the edges of the hallway swarmed over Chi and dragged her away, drawing into her in a nearby alcove and into the darkness.

"Now what, Willowe...?" Harold asked. "We gonna bring everyone else up here and keep guessing at answers till we're all a bunch of cheap art decorations?"

"Hush." Willowe folded her arms and studied the riddle for a good minute, trying to put herself in Adrian's shoes. He had thought it up, obviously...

Then she grinned. "I have it." Stepping up to the barrier, she spoke her answer.

TTTTTTT

"So... what do we do now?"

The question was posed by Michael, as he sat at one of the tables, Claire sitting next to him and holding his hand. Across from the couple was Kuroneko, who as idly sharpening her claws with one of her fans. The Society Agents were scattered about the room, in pairs or groups, subdued and quiet after hearing Adrian's letter. Tash was sitting in a corner, clutching the Codex of Index to her chest tightly while she just stared out at nothing, as Val and Miriku sat with her, cuddling her and trying to reassure her.

The Counter Guardians were far more relaxed, Vergil, Saito and a man white-haired man dressed in a some kind of molded armor and red trenchcoat that told them his name was 'Archer' were all leaning against various walls, arms crossed as they waited patiently and Saito smoked a cigarette. Aramayis was seating in another corner, legs crossed and hands clasped before as him he meditated. Despite the loss of one of their own, they did not seem all that affected by it.

Kuroneko held out her claws and looked at them carefully. "We wait. Counter Guardians could travel to the Library and fight them there, but against such powerful enemies, we risk destroying much of the information and knowledge stored there and it would take centuries to regather it all, if it would be even possible."

"Wait?" Michael narrowed his eyes, obviously not happy with that idea. "Adrian is dead, Willowe has the Library and she's going to invade here at any moment and you want us to wait?"

Kuroneko fixed him with a sharp look. "I just told you we can't invade the Library and it will be easier for us to fight Willowe on our own terms here than letting her pick the battle ground. And you Society Agents are here in an advisory capacity only. You are not going to fight."

"What!" Michael stood up, slamming his fist on the table and knocking his chair over, as everyone in the room (sans Tash and the other Counter Guardian) fixed their attention him. "How can you say that? Adrian sent us out of the Library so we would have a chance to fight back! He gave his life for us! And you expect us not to do the same for everyone else!"

Kuroneko's glare hardened." Adrian was an extremely powerful Counter Guardian and the Librarian and he sent you to the Real World to save your lives! Do you really think that you're going to be able to fight against the Sues and Stus as ordinary humans? Willowe, Harold, the others? They could probably wipe out entire human armies out by themselves! What hope do you have, boy?"

Michael didn't back down. "I refuse to sit by and do nothing while our world is taken over!"

As the two glared at one another, a door burst open, halting the rising tension before it could burst and Stacey, who had gone with a few others to try and distract themselves by watching TV, poke her head in the door. "You guys better turn on the news. You'll definitely want to see this."

Saito detached himself from the wall and picked up the remote from off an end table, flicking on the TV with a press of a button. "This should be interesting..."

Everyone watched as the image jumped, jerked and then settled down, where a news reporter was standing on a rooftop with what looked like Big Ben behind him...and an ever-growing cloud for red twilight growing in the background. "Scientists and meteorologists around the world today can other no explanation for the mysterious spots of red twilight that are appearing world-wide..."

The image switched to the Eiffel Tower, where a second cloud of red twilight was growing, then the Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, The White House and the Hollywood sign, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, the Pyramids, the Vatican...all of them with growing clouds of red twilight in the sky. The people the Agents could see on the cameras reacted in incredible extremes, some running away in a panic, while others fell to the ground and prostrated themselves or prayed or screamed about the end of the world. Others tried to ignore it, some were taking pictures and some were rioting and looting, swept up in the world-wide panic of the fear of the unknown.

It switched back to the reporter. "Everywhere, people panic and riot, some claiming the end of the world or the Rapture or an invasion by aliens. Some claim it to be the arrival of the devil and world leaders urge their peoples to remain calm and that this mysterious phenomenon will be explained by scientists soon. But we have heard theories ranging from meteor showers to alien race. One scientist, Professor Ron Hamilton of NASA, a different theory..."

The screen split, showing a bearded man with glasses and dressed in a lab coat. "Well, I believe it is merely the light from several stars that have gone supernova in distant galaxies eons ago finally reaching us. The odds of several of them going supernova and reaching us at the same time, let alone being visible all over the world, are indeed very high, but not all that unlikely given the fact that many of the stars in our sky are already long gone, but their light will be reaching us for centuries to come.."

Saito muted the volume. "It looks like it's beginning, then..."

"What is it?" Hati asked, the look of confusion and fear on her face mimicked to varying degrees by the other Agents in the room.

"It's a Red Skies Twilight..." Archer explained from his position against the wall. "In comics, it's a term used when major crossover events happen that threaten the whole of that Universe all at once and the skies turn red to signify this, hence the name." He gave a small smirk. "Fitting, considering we are about to be invaded by super powerful fictional creations..."

"That's not all..." Aramayis stood up. "I can sense the energies coming from those spots of twilight and it's becoming much stronger as they grow in size. That energy is what will let Willowe and her cohorts enter this world at full power. Once the world is completely covered by them, the invasion will begin..."

All of the Society Agents all seemed struck still by this realization...then Michael bolted for the door and vanished through it outside and all the others followed him a split second later.

TTTTTTT

Willowe stood in front of the Fourth Wall, the mishmash of building materials that looked like had been built by a child who merely squashed everything they could find together. It looked decidedly unstable and like a good push would knock it over. Hard to believe such a mishmash of construction represented the ultimate barrier for beings like Sues and Stus.

A barrier that was now a barrier no more.

Behind her, arrayed in a semi-circle, seven pedestals bearing the Necrominicon, Fountain of Youth Water, Spear of Destiny, Tabula Rasa, the Holy Grail, Rosetta Stone and her Excalibur, stood. The seven items glowed the colors of the rainbow and their energies leached into and through the Fourth Wall, connecting to their Real World counterparts on the other side. The energies blended together and formed a swirling portal of red that was their hole in the dike, so to speak.

She watched as the Sues and Stus and the Smith copies poured through the portal, one after another. It had a been moment she had longed for, planned for and now it was finally here...the Real World would be theirs and they'd be able to complete any fandom, any story, any myth or legend, however they wanted.

Willowe was almost disappointed. It wasn't as grand or epic as she had imagined it...just stepping through a portal, like every Sue and Stu did when they traveled from place to place. It was so simple...and in this case, it was everything. Quite the irony...

"I can't wait..." Harold smirked maliciously and flexed his muscles. "The first thing I'm gonna do is use my energy blasts and carve my name across as many States as I can..."

"That will have to wait." Willowe told him. "We still have to worry about the remaining Society Agents and by now, the Counter Guardians will have caught wind of us and probably be waiting."

"So what?" Harold smirked and his Super Saiyan aura flared brightly once. "We're Sues and Stus. We're perfect! There's no way those guys could beat us!"

Willowe nodded in agreement after a moment. "Destroy them all, Harold. All the Counter Guardians and all the Society Agents. Destroy them, kill them, blast them, crush them, it doesn't matter. Once they are gone, there won't be anyone to stop us."

The Saiyan-Stu smirked. "My pleasure." With that, he stepped through the portal and was gone, leaving Willowe completely alone.

She remained still for several moments, then turned and grabbed Excalibur from its pedestal, slung it over her back and quickly stepped through the portal before it winked out of sight.

There was no turning back it. It was truly victory and total domination of the Real World... or death trying.

TTTTTTT

The Agents burst outside into the hotel's parking lot and gasped and stared in awe as the crimson light spread out over head, overwriting the starry night sky with ease. From horizon to horizon, it was nothing but a Red Skies Twilight.

"Oh my god..." Valerie shivered at the sight. Despite the fact being in the Real World toned down her empathic abilities sharply, the eerie sky still felt incredibly unnatural to her. "It's like... like the sky is bleeding..."

"You think that's bad, just look around us!" Ossa said, pointing across the street. A man was frozen like a statue, clutching at his hat as he ran away, one leg in the air.

The Agents glanced around and realized she was right. Everything around them was frozen in time. A car driving through a puddle of water, and they were able to count every droplet of the spray. A boy waiting to catch a ball that would never come back down. A woman falling as she tripped over her heels, stuck at an angle that no human should have been able to hold. Birds frozen in mid-flap, squirrels pausing in mid-leap, dogs and cats chasing one another in a race that they would never finish.

"What... what's going on? Why is everyone frozen?" Hati murmured, reaching out to touch a nearby pedestrian and immediately yanking her hand back. "They feel so cold... like they're covered in ice... or dead..."

"Not everything..." Miriku reached out and grabbed a bit of the nearby water spray. She shook out her hand as soon as she grasped them, drops of water flying off. "It's just everything that's alive is frozen... if we touch something that's not alive, it seems to become unstuck or thawed or whatever..."

"I don't get it." Marcus folded his arms. Out of all the Agents, he seemed to be taking this whole thing the best. "Why freeze time? Why not just invade? A show of force by destroying some kind of major landmark or capital would definitely show the world how powerful they are..."

"Because Willowe's a lot smarter than that, fools!"

The Agents gazes fixed on the center of street as a form landed their gracefully and twirled about a bit, their dress swirling with the motion. "Hehehe... ah, it's amazing! I feel so powerful here!"

"Mary-Ann Twilight..." Michael murmured and positioned himself in front of Claire. "They're invading faster than we thought...and how'd she even get here? Even Sues and Stus can't just teleport themselves around!"

Mary-Ann giggled and stuck out her tongue. "Foolish fools! We're Sues, we can all flash-step if want!" She danced around a bit. "We're all more powerful here, too. It's incredible...to breathe real air and to feel real water on your skin..."

Then she pouted as she noticed the Counter Guardians all filing out from the hotel and pushing their way to the front of the Agents. "Well, crap... we were hoping that you guys and the Society wouldn't have hooked up yet...guess Adrian was more thorough than we thought..."

Aramayis fixed Mary-Ann with a sharp look. "Indeed he was. Though I will admit none of us anticipated the spell you used to crossover freezing time across the world..."

"Hehehe, that was Willowe's idea." Mary-Ann smirked. "Instead of having to make a statement or do a lot of fighting, Willowe is going to simply freeze the world until she's finished with her entrance statement. She's going to alter the world to the point where, when she unfreezes everything, they'll have no choice but accept she's the new ruler of the world!"

"Hmmmph...quite a lot of arrogance, if you ask me..." Saito smirked mockingly at Mary-Ann. "And just where is your beloved leader, child? You are outnumbered by quite a lot, in case you aren't perfect at math and even a single Counter Guardian is more than enough for you."

Mary-Ann scowled at him. "You're an annoying man... and Willowe's in the Sahara Desert, if you must know. Not that you'll be able to do anything to stop her..."

"The Sahara?" Kuroneko blinked in surprise. "Why go there? She's just wind up getting sand everywhere..."

"You see, you are foolish fools." Mary-Ann giggled. "Where better to prove your power over reality than the Sahara? Willowe's going to turn it into the site of her capital and create a giant castle and make the entire Sahara a paradise. There is no way anyone can ignore that or deny that her power is that great!"

She put a finger to her lips, as she had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot this...it's almost an afterthought..." She pulled something out from her sleeve and flicked it towards the group of Agents, where it bounced and skidded to a halt at Tash's feet. "Willowe thought you might want this... it's all yours..."

Tash reacted for the first time since she had finished reading Adrian's letter and knelt down, picking up the object. It was small and attached to a broken chain. Her eyes went wide when she realized what it was. "It's... his... no..."

It was Adrian's pendant, cracked and chipped and top left portion of it missing completely. Originally, it had been a way to store Hoshikuzu, but he had switched methods and so Tash got him a replica for their six-month anniversary. Tash ran her thumb over the pendant and it smeared red and it was only then she realized it was covered in blood. Adrian's blood.

"We don't know how it survived the fighting and his death...but did." Mary-Ann shrugged and then grinned evilly. "Do you want to know how he died? It was rather sad, really... he fought well for a while, but then he started weeping and begging for mercy and calling Tash's name over and over... it was so pathetic... like a little child crying out for mommy..." She laughed. "Willowe slicing off his head was probably the most merciful thing she could have done... that way, even he didn't have to listen to his own mewling!"

"You bitch!" Michael clenched his fist and started to step forwards, but Claire's hand on his other wrist stopped him.

"Don't... you can't fight her, you know that..." she whispered. "And I don't want you to die, too..." Then a blur rushed past her. "What?"

Ossa bolted through the Counter Guardians before they could react and leapt towards Mary-Ann, fist cocked back to strike. "Shut up and die!"

Then Mary-Ann's hand flashed out and snagged the Cherokee girl by the throat. Despite the fact she was several inches shorter than Ossa, the Sue easily held her off the ground like she weighed nothing at all. "That's not very nice... and it was very stupid, too..."

She took a step back and held the struggling Ossa out in front of her like a shield when the Counter Guardians all reached for their weapons. "Ah! Don't move! Or I'll snap her neck right here!" To prove her point, she shook Ossa like a ragdoll and then let out a yelp of pain as Ossa's foot smacked into her cheek. "That hurt!"

"It... was... supposed... too!" Ossa clawed desperately at Mary-Ann's hand even as she glared death at the Sue, but it was impossible to break her grip. Mary-Ann had her in a vice and she wasn't letting go. The Cherokee girl coughed and struggled harder when she realized blackness was forming at the edges of her vision. (Damn... damnit...)

Hati, who had been keeping one eye on the situation and one eye on Tash, ready to leap to defend her friend if Mary-Ann should target her for some reason, paused she when realized Tash's shoulders had stopped shaking and she had stopped crying and had gone very quiet. (Uh-oh...) "Everyone, scatter!"

Most of the Agents and even Mary-Ann shot her a bewildered look, but the British founder pushed the nearest people away from Tash to emphasis her command. "I said, scatter! Now!"

As the Agents hurried to do so, Tash stood up, her head still bowed and clutching Adrian's pendant and the Codex in her hands tightly. "You took him away..."

"Beg pardon?" Mary-Ann blinked at her, pausing in her strangling of Ossa.

"You took Adrian away..." Tash's hand clenched hard around the pendant, so much so that blood began to trickle out between her fingers. "You took him away from me..."

"Well, it wasn't me personally, but I would have liked too..." Mary-Ann gave Tash a smile. "Maybe I would have played around with him first...he might have made a good toy..."

"I loved him..." Tash's shoulders trembled and she clenched her fist tighter. "I loved him and you took him away for me!" Her head snapped up and Mary-Ann took an involuntarily step back at the blazing emotion in them. "SO NOW YOU ALL HAVE TO DIE!"

Then the air around her ignited into a roaring inferno of flames that swirled around her like a tornado and hid her from view as the Agents all shielded their faces and shied away, so bright was the light and so intense was the heat.

The flames roared and twisted, contracting around her as the spun until it was a narrow fiery pillar that reached skywards for what seemed like forever, scorching the concrete and melting a nearby letterbox into slag. With a flare of blazing sparks and a wave of searing heat, a pair of wings snapped free and blew the pillar apart.

Mary-Ann lowered her arm and then burst out laughing as she saw Tash. "That's it? All that yelling and fire and heat and all you got out of it was a sword?"

Indeed it was. The fire-orange blade was nearly four feet long and the silver hilt was shaped like a phoenix, the wings curving down towards the handle to form a guard. Light glinted off the faint gold-etched name just above the hilt on the blade: Nephthys.

Tash's wings, now made entirely out of burning orange-and-red flames beat folded against her back as the British girl gripped her great sword with both hands and twirled it around in a series of maneuvers, little sparks dancing around the blade and trailing it's wake as she did so and she fixed Mary-Ann with a cold stare, her blue eyes nothing but ice.

The Sue was still laughing when she blinked and realized that Tash was behind her. "Huh..?" She looked over her shoulder and saw that Tash was holding Ossa in one arm. "But... I've got that girl, here in my hand..."

She looked to at her hand, as if expecting to see Ossa magically appear there... only to realize there was no hand. And no arm.

Tash dumped Ossa on the ground as the Native-American Agent yanked the Sue's now limp arm off her throat and gulped down air before turning around to stare coldly at Mary-Ann.

"H-hey... that... that's my arm... give-give it back..." Blood pouring from her wound, Mary-Ann reached her other hand towards the pair, her eyes wide and a bit disbelieving. Then there was a 'fwoosh!' sound and she glanced at her stump of an arm, realizing it had caught fire somehow. "Oh... how odd..."

Then the flames roared and washed over the rest of her and she screamed wildly as she was burned. There was one bright flare of flame and heat that forced everyone save Tash to shield their eyes.

Aramayis lowered his hand and stared in quiet astonishment, for where Mary-Ann had been, there was now a tiny pile of ashes. (I don't know how she managed get that blade... no human should be able to do that, yet she did... and the blade was so hot it ignited that Sue's body on fire and incinerated her in seconds...)

Tash watched the pile of ashes that had been Mary-Ann blow away and her wings flared open and with a single flap, she launched herself skywards in a shower of embers and sparks.

"Tash, wait!" Hati yelled after her, helplessly watching as the streak of flames that Tash had become arced towards the south, becoming smaller and smaller.

"Holy crap... just how fast is she going?" Kuroneko asked, helping Ossa to her feet.

Saito brushed a few embers off his sleeve casually. "She's probably pushing just below Mach1... and is probably heading for the Sahara to fight Willowe."

Michael frowned. "It'll take her hours to get there!"

"Much less, actually." Aramayis said. "She's flying in an arc, not a straight-line. She'll fly as high as she can and then arc towards the Sahara and hit Willowe like a meteor...at the most, her trip will probably take half an hour."

"We've got to go after!" Valerie said, grabbing Aramayis' arm. "There's no telling what she'll do in the state she's in and we can't let her die, too. Besides, Willowe is the threat you Counter Guardian's have to deal with!"

"I know. But only two of us will be going after Willowe. The rest of us and all you Agents will be going to Stonehenge." Aramayis explained calmly and then smiled at the confused/surprised looks he got from the Agents. "Stonehenge functions as a gateway between Earth and other places. It's the strongest type of that signal on the planet and the obvious location for Willowe's forces to finish arriving."

Kuroneko dashed for a car, gesturing for the Agents to follow her. "We'll use the vehicles. Stonehenge is only twenty minutes away from this village by car. And don't mind the traffic laws, kids. No one's aware enough to give you a ticket."

As the Agents all scrambled for vehicles, Aramayis made a few gestures with his hands, trails of shadow in their wake and then he and Saito were swallowed up by it and he tried not to dwell on the fate of Earth and a massive portion of Multiverse came down to these two battles... and if they lost, there would be no tomorrow.

Only a twilight of red skies...

Insert Red Skies Twilight Here (part 1 of 6)

 Note: Here it comes, the beginning of the end! ...of Season One. =P


Hold on to your hats, dear readers.




"All the whispers, the warnings so clear.
I see the angels. I'll lead them to your door.
There's no escape now. No mercy, no more.
No remorse, 'cause I still remember...
The smile when you tore me apart."
-"Angels" By Within Temptation

Somewhere in the world of 'Twilight', Bella and Edward were falling deeply in love and trying to reconcile the differences between human and vampire, while Jacob was attempting to cope with the fact that he had lost the woman of his dreams and come in second place in the game of love and somewhere else, both vampire and werewolf forces were planning their next moves, all centered on the fact that a vampire had fallen in love with a human girl….

But this story is not about those people and events, for they are some else's story to tell.

This story is about another young woman, one whose destiny was just as grand as Bella's, but whether it would be dark or light had yet to be determined.

This young woman knew very little about Bella and Edward and all the things that those two entailed and if she did know everything about them, she would hardly care at all. Because in the grand scheme of things, this little fandom out in the corner of somewhere would be nothing be a minor conquest, a footnote on her way to greatness.

You see, this young woman was a Mary-Sue by the name of Willowe Foxblade. There used to be more to her name, but it was gone now. Not that she minded, as Willowe had never understood why Sues and Stus had a fascination with such long, fanciful names that were also so hard to pronounce. So she relished the fact she had a much simpler name now, one that rolled off the tongue fairly easily. When one intended to become an empress and have slaves to speak your name, it was best to have a name that everyone could say.

Willowe was, however, far from becoming any sort of empress at the moment. Though she still possessed her fine looks and gorgeous hair, they were…plain. No longer was she able to exude the natural aura of perfection of a Sue that magnified their beauty and made them irresistible, thanks to the four Prohibitors clamped around her wrists and ankles. No longer was she able to call upon the powers of the fandom and Plot Holes to twist reality to her whims. Instead, she was forced to languish in this horrible, overly-cliché fandom full tragic romances and a strange variation of vampires.

She'd been in the world of 'Twilight' for several weeks, unable to escape nor find a way to remove the Prohibitors, either. So Willowe was forced to wait.

But today… her waiting was about to end.

Willowe settled back on the park bench and reached into the bag by her side, pulling out another handful of breadcrumbs and scattering them in front of her for the pigeons to eat. She smiled softly as the gray birds fluttered about, cooing as they pecked at the ground for their meal.

"I did not think you would be one for bird-feeding, Willowe."

The Mary-Sue didn't bother to turn to face the speaker who had suddenly materialized behind her, leaning back against the bench and facing away. "I'm a Sue, not evil. I appreciate many things that are already in existence for what they are. I do not wish to have every little thing under my command, like so many other Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus."

"That is why you remained free for so long…" The speaker folded their arms across their chest and continued. "But then, unlike the other Sues and Stus, who are by-products of canon storylines have unfulfilled gaps or loose ends, you had a completely original story… though it took place in a canon world, you had the center stage all to yourself, didn't you? Until dear mummy decided to stop writing…."

The bag crinkled and crumpled as Willowe's fist tightened around it. "I know how it happened, Runoa. I was there. She put me away and forgot about me, leaving me stuck in the same damn pattern over and over again… there was no ending… just an endless circle…"

Runoa glanced back over her shoulder to look at her compatriot. "So all of this…the plotting, the scheming, the conquering… all of it is for revenge on that one woman?"

"No…" Willowe scattered another handful of grain as she spoke. "In fact, I thank her for it…she taught me several important lessons… that there is no such thing as 'fate'… that if you want to change something, you must do it with your own two hands… that in the end, the only person you can count on is yourself…" Her hand clenched into a tight fist.

"Hmmmph…" Runoa closed her eyes briefly. "Well, it's no business of mine what you want to do with your life, Willowe. I have no interest in conquering fandoms or twisting canon…"

"I know…" Now it was Willowe's turn to glance out of the corner of her eye at Runoa. "All that matters to you is your precious research on Immaculation…" A small smirk crossed her face. "That… and making up for all those you couldn't save…"

Runoa's eyes opened and she glared at the auburn-haired Sue. "Don't push your luck, Willowe…I may be indebted to you for saving me from the void between dimensions, but that is all. Don't think I harbor anything like sentiment or affection for you or any other Sue. Push me too far and I may just decide to leave you here…" Her eyes narrowed dangerously, lethally. "Or I could save the Society the trouble and destroy you…"

Willowe's confidence didn't falter in the slightest and the smirk broadened a little. "My apologies, Runoa…" She stood up, brushing breadcrumbs from the front of her dress. "I take the rest of our plan has gone smoothly, then…"

"Yes…" Runoa turned to face her and reached for something inside her robe. "Cassie Anora was captured by Adrian and Tash before she could complete the transfer ceremony and I did not receive all of her powers. And thanks to her author, Cassie's powers have sealed beyond our reach… it was as we expected."

"I never liked Cassie… she was too arrogant for her own good." Willowe raised an eyebrow as Runoa pulled a blue-and-gold sheathed sword from out underneath her robe, handing it to her. "You brought Excalibur with you?"

"You will need it if you are going to fight the Society. Though I gained a portion of Cassie's powers, enabling me to remove the Prohibitors, I cannot restore your powers to you…" Runoa raised her own eyebrow. "Unless you wish to attempt the Immaculation process?"

"No...unlike the others, I earned my fighting skills the hard way. Coupled with Excalibur's powers, they will suffice." Willowe grabbed the weapon and slid it into the belt around her waist. "I assume you can get me into the Library one last time?"

"Of course I can…" Runoa said calmly and handed Willowe a small syringe. "This is an acid I've been developing. It should be strong enough to remove the Prohibitors on the Sues and Stus captive in the Library Basement… a few drops for each one. But this is all I have and as it requires essence of dead Sue to make, I doubt I will be able to mix anymore, so do not waste it."

Willowe nodded, slipping the syringe up her sleeve before holding out her wrists. "Now then… if you'll so kindly free me?"

Runoa reached out and touched one of the Prohibitors before closing her eyes and concentrating. For a moment, nothing happened… and the all four Prohibitors gave a great cracking noise and crumbled apart, clattering to the ground. "There you go…."

"Thank you." Willowe smiled and let out a soft gasp some of her power flooded back into her, her hair becoming shinier and her skin becoming fairer and paler while her eyes acquired a soft sparkle to them. "That is much better… you have no idea what it felt like to be so powerless with those Prohibitors on…"

The former Librarian made a non-committal noise. "Indeed… now then… I have acquired some assistance for your proposed takeover."

As if summoned by her words, the flock of pigeons on the ground suddenly took flight, cooing and calling as a man strode forwards in their wake. He was tall, with a square-jaw and dressed in a dark suit and tie. A pair of sunglasses was on his expressionless face. "Miss Foxblade…"

Willowe glanced at him skeptically. "And just who are you?"

"He is Agent Smith…" Runoa smirked softly. "He's something of a Stu from his home fandom…very nearly took it over, in fact. But he was defeated and supposedly destroyed… I managed to bring him back, though at greatly reduced power."

"Then what good will he be to me?" Willowe folded her arms across her ample chest. "The good number of strong Sues and Stus captured in the Library Basement will be more than enough to takeover the Library."

"Willowe, you will need his help." Runoa said sharply. "Especially if Adrian is present when you start your attack… there is much more defending the Library than just the Society's agents."

"Fine…" The Mary-Sue slid another glance at Agent Smith and then smiled brightly, cunningly. "It's time to go… are you sure you do not want to come, Runoa? This may be your last chance to get into the Library so you may finish your research on Immaculation."

"No." Runoa turned and started to walk away, cloak flapping behind her. "I have told you, Willowe, that I do not care for conquests or revenge… I will reclaim what is mine in due course…" Then she faded away, vanishing like a mist…

Agent Smith watched her go. "She hates you, doesn't she?"

Willowe only smirked. "She does…she hates all Mary-Sues, Gary-Stus, the Society, the Library… her hatred for everything is only outweighed by her hatred of herself…" She readjusted Excalibur and her smirk grew bigger. "Now… it's time to go… and take what is mine…"

She laughed and in a flare of white light, she and Agent Smith vanished…

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"It's not that I don't appreciate your work… it's just that I don't appreciate where you put it…"

"But you said I could paint any of the rooms I wanted so long as it had a large blank wall!"

"I know I said that, but I didn't think you'd take it literally…"

Emily Smith folded her arms across her chest and pouted up at Adrian. "But it's one of my best pieces! And I thought you'd like it…" She pouted more and her lower lip began to quiver.

The Librarian sighed and looked down at her. (She's giving me the puppy-dog eyes… I must resist… I must resist…) "Emily… I love it, really I do. But I would have really preferred it on canvas or something, so I could frame it and hang it or something. Not have it painted onto the wall of my office."

She pouted and her eyes got real big and sweet. "But I had this really cool idea and I wanted to try it out right away! You're a writer! You know you can't suppress the creative urges when they come!"

"Did you have get a creative urge that would give my girlfriend reason to kill me?" Adrian glanced over at the giant mural that took up one of his office walls and moaned softly. "I'm so dead…"

Done in a beautifully bright style of paint was a full-length mural of Tash, lying on a bed of what appeared to be clouds. She was smiling happily and was bright-eyed, little flames dancing around her form while a great pair of fiery wings stretched from her back and her staff was in her grasp.

She was also completely naked.

Luckily, her wings and the clouds were strategically positioned to cover everything necessary, but it was still very little coverage…

Adrian started it with a mixture of awe at Emily's talent, desire and appreciation for Tash's wonderful, sexy form and dread at what his other half would do to him when she found out. "Emily… why do you do this to me…?"

She looked at him, the complete picture of innocence. "What?"

"Nnnnnn..." Adrian found his anger and frustration at her slipping away at the sight the sweetness and puppy-dog eyes on her face. "Next time, Emily...will you at least please ask me if you going to paint in one of the rooms I use often?"

"Okay." The ten-year-old nodded her head and then blinked as blur of some sort hit Adrian in the head and floored the Librarian. "Ummmm..."

"What the-?" Adrian muttered to himself and tried to sit back, only to feel a weight on his back keeping him down... and it felt like someone was nibbling on his ears. "Chrys!"

"Nomnomonomnomnom..." Chrys giggled and continued to nibble on Adrian's kitty ears, her own ears flicking back and forth while Adrian just sighed deeply and propped his chin in his hand.

Emily stared at the sight, tilting her head as a question mark popped into existence above her. "Why is Chrys trying to eat your ears?"

Adrian pushed himself back to his feet and stood up, dislodging Chrys from his back. The hanyou let out a small noise of irritation and, despite the fact she was only a few inches shorter than Adrian, climbed him like a monkey and continued to nibble his ears. "She got into Tash's chocolate again..."

"So?" Emily, despite the oddness of the situation in front of her, also found it rather cute and endearing, as occasionally desu-sparkles would appear around Chrys. "British chocolate has more sugar than American, but it's not enough to cause anything like this."

"Not British chocolate, Tash's chocolate." Adrian corrected and squirmed a bit as Chrys shifted her weight to nibble his other ear. "When she's being devious, she likes to make me some and mix in a little catnip to uh... er..." The Librarian blushed red as he realized what he had about to say. "Well, she never gets any sleep when she makes me chocolate, let's put that way. Anyway, when Chrys eats it, she kinda goes a bit loopy..."

Then he blinked as he noticed that Emily had whipped out her sketchpad and was already hard at work. "Hey! Don't draw this!"

"But it's cute!" Emily's drawing hand was nearly a blur and then she grinned and flipped it around. "See?"

Adrian felt his eye twitch a bit. The picture showed his ears being nibbled on by a chibi-moe Chrys and there were several desu sparkles around them both as well. "I think I felt another piece of my dignity die..."

"Sorry, Adrian..." A slightly-out-of-breath Mizuho appeared the corner of a bookshelf. "She got into the chocolate and before I knew it, she gone after you..."

"It's fine, Mizuho." Adrian replied, reaching behind his head and plucking Chrys free, the hanyou whining a bit and grabbing desperately for his ears. "I just wish Tash would label her chocolate ..."

"At least this wasn't as bad as last time..." Mizuho said, grabbing Chrys around the arm. "That was a bit of a mess.

Emily looked back forth between the two. "Why? What happened last time?"

"Chrys surprised Adrian as he getting out of the shower...he was clothed, but still..." The sprite tightened her grip, as Chrys was starting to eye Adrian's tail intently. A devilish smirk appeared on Mizuho's face. "You look pretty damn hot shirtless, Librarian.."

Adrian blushed while Emily giggled at him. "What is it with women and teasing me? Honestly..."

Then his ears, as well as Chrys' pricked straight up.

In the next second, Adrian had taken two swift steps forward, Hoshikuzu appearing in his grasp even as he slammed it onto the floor, a wave of violet of light racing around the floor just in time to intercept the blast of silvery light that blew through his door like it was paper.

As the two attacks pushed against one another before dispersing away, Adrian positioned himself so that he was between the doorway and other three Agents in the room. "Silver..."

An arrogant chuckle sounded as the Soul Reaper Stu stepped through the ruined doorway, his robes a bright white and his sword's blade gleaming glowing with light. "Hello, Librarian. I'm here to kill you. I hope I'm not interrupting."

The kitty-eared man narrowed his eyes slightly. "If you're free, I guess that means Willowe has made her move..."

"So what?" Silver flicked a bit of hair behind his ear. "You should be worried more about me, for how can you hope to defeat a perfect being like myself?" He smiled and a tooth glinted with light.

Adrian squinted a bit in the light, swearing that Silver's skin was sparkling. "You sparkle more than a Twilight vampire..." Then he blinked as he felt something blur past him, ruffling his coat. "What...?"

Silver blinked as he felt a shadow fall over him and lifted his head, jaw dropping. "Holy *$#%!"

"NO! NO EVIL DESU!" Chrys slammed into the Stu and floored him, Silver flailing around as she attacked him. "RAWR!"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Okay… now concentrate again… don't try to force it… just let it happen…"

Valerie nodded at Tash's words and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright…" The bracer attached her right arm began to glow blue softly and then twin beams of blue light shot up and down, forming into a large energy bow in her grasp. Reaching up her left hand, she grabbed the bow's 'string' and pulled it back slowly, a large arrow the same color as the bow forming there. She took another breath and let it out, aiming her weapon down the range… and let fly.

The arrow shot down the range towards the target… but at the last second, it suddenly flew to the side, missing completely and striking the floor as it releasing a small spark of power and left a tiny scorch-mark.

"Nuts…" Valerie sighed and then yelped as the bow suddenly flared briefly, doubling in size before vanishing completely with a 'zzzz-shiwsh!' sound. "Damn it!"

Tash smiled ruefully and shook her head. "You're concentrating too hard, Val… you can't make the bow and arrow happen… you have to let it happen."

Val nodded and glanced down at the bracer on her arm. "I'm trying… but it's difficult… the bow either gets too much power or too little… maybe I'm not opening my shields enough."

"That's not it…" Tash said as she walked over to her friend. "Adrian said that it didn't matter how much your shield are open. What matters is how firm your resolve is… That's how the Seiryu works."

The Seiryu was designed for empathetic people, to help give them an edge in fighting. Because empaths routinely avoid conflict so as not to overwhelm their spirits with the strong emotions battle produces, they make weak fighters. Empaths posses a stronger spiritual pressure than most individuals and this is what makes them sensitive to the feelings of those around them and as such, they develop 'shields' to keep most of outside forces at bay. With the Seiryu, it wasn't necessary. Normally just a bracer, to an empathetic individual, it was a weapon of great power. Because the bow requires a flow of spiritual energy to work, the empathetic user was forced to devote most of their energies to making it work, thus enabling them to fight and avoid being overwhelmed by the pain and fury of the combatants.

In short, the Seiryu kept the empathy busy enough that they did not have time to be overwhelmed by battle's emotions. At least, that how it was supposed to work…

Valerie glanced down the range, where a few dozen scorch-marks all over the floor and the wall, but not the target gave testament to her struggle to master her weapon. "I think I'm going to need more practice…"

Tash nodded agreement and then glanced over towards a second target, which was now nothing more than a smoking ruin. "Adrian made it look so easy…"

When demonstrating the weapon, Adrian had channeled his power into the bracer and it instantly formed into a metallic longbow of white and violet and quickly volleyed off several shots of violet energy arrows, all of them thin and sleek and all had exploded with great force on impact with the target. However, when he was done, his fingers were bleeding a bit and he explained (as Tash scolded him for hurting himself and wiped his hand clean) that though he could use the bow, he lacked the open empathy that prevented his own energies from backlashing on him.

So Tash and Val had spent the last two hours trying to get the weapon to work for her, but their success had been minimal.

Val winced and flexed her fingers a Seiryu for so long was making her hands hurt. "I'm starting to get blisters... since Seiryu is pure energy, I'm surprised that it just doesn't burn my fingertips off."

Tash nodded. "I was worried about the same when Adrian taught me Jurai-Ken. I kept thinking I was going to light my clothes or my hair on fire, but it never happened. He said it was something it being our own natural energies and so they wouldn't hurt us..." She grinned a little as she remembered how her training had gone. "Of course, that didn't stop me from lighting other things on fire..."

Valerie chuckled. "I seem to remember treating him for burns on his tail a dozen times during the first week or so..."

The British girl's grin grew bigger. "He kept getting annoyed that I kept 'accidentally' burning his trenchcoat and clothes off...not my fault he looks so hot with his shirt off..."

Val just shook her head, smiling. "Do you ever not think about him bedding you, Tash?"

Tash gave her a look of mock-indignation. "I'll have you know that I do not always think about him bedding me..." She dropped the look and giggled. "I think about him taking me everywhere else, too!"

Both Tash's giggles and Val's sighing and smiling were both interrupted as a golden blast of light burst through the floor nearby, both women leaping back as bits of debris rained down where they had been. "What the hell!"

There was a heavy crash and a figure landed at their feet, rolling to halt and moaning, their body covered in cuts and bruises and they spat out a globule of blood as they managed to sit upright and lurch to their feet. "Kyle?"

"Hehehehehe..." A deep chuckle filled the air as a golden-glowing form rose slowly through the hole, his spiky golden hair sticking up and to the back. Muscle atop muscle bulged as Harold flexed and cracked his knuckles. "So... who wants to die first?"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Drake…"

"Yeah, Tyler?"

"How you doing?"

"Considering my position, pretty well…" Drake was currently eagle-spread against the wall upside down, a hail of arrows and knives having pinned him to the stone wall by his clothing. "What about you?"

Tyler, for his part was dangling from the ceiling, a lasso having snared his wrists together and hauled him high. "Okay… though my wrists are starting to hurt some…"

They both glanced down below, where several packages of Oreos and chocolate lay scattered on the floor and Drake commented. "You know…we should have known it was a trap when he left it out in the open like that…."

"Yeah…"

"Oh my god!" A high laugh echoed down the hallway and both of them glanced to see the blonde-haired form of Chi skipping towards them. "You guys are really idiots if you actually fell for that kind of trap!" She snickered and laughed and clapped her hands. "Of course, it makes destroying you both so much easier for me!"

"What the hell!" Drake managed to free himself as Tyler did the same and both Agents readied themselves for battle, Drake tapping his wrist controller and his arm activating around him while Tyler whipped out his Ping-Pong paddle as it morphed into it's staff form. "How did you get out of your cell!"

"Oh, just a secret!" Chi giggled and stalked towards him. "But you're going to die, so I won't tell you…" Then she paused as she heard a 'CLICK!' noise from underneath and glanced down. "Oh… no…."

A trapdoor dropped open beneath her feet and she fell, screaming into the darkness below. "Noooooo!"

Both Agents blinked. "Well, that was... anticlimactic..."

Tyler paused. "Wait... you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounded like a 'sproing!' sound... like a giant spring launching something..."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Chi screamed she rocketed up off the trapdoor and smashed into the ceiling...then started fall back the way she came. "Daaaammmmmmmiiiiit!"

Drake and Tyler watched, their heads going up and down like bobble-heads as Chi kept bouncing off the spring, up through the trapdoor, into the ceiling and back down...only to hit the giant spring...

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Aster blinked slowly as a shadow fell over the manga she was reading, blocking out her light and preventing her from seeing the page. "Eh...?"

She lifted her head to see a man dressed in a suit-and-tie, wearing dark sunglasses standing over her. "You're blocking my light..."

Agent Smith smiled darkly. "I'm sorry. But don't worry, it won't matter much in a moment." Then his hand came up and he knifed it straight towards Aster's chest. "Just relax…"

Then the man felt his arm stop instantly and glanced down to Aster's hand clamped around his wrist like a vice. "Wha...?"

"You blocked my light..." Aster summoned her moon-staff and her eyes narrowed in irritation. "Now I'm never going to know how Gai-Rei ends!" She cracked Smith across the head with her staff and with a twirl of the weapon, followed it up with a powerful gust of wind magic that blew him across the hall and through the wall... and the next wall and the next wall...

The fae sighed. "If he's here, then Adrian-kun was right..." Shifting forms, she beat her wings and took off, casting a forlorn glance at the massive pile of manga on her bed before darting down the hallway. "Now I need to go find him..."

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Michael sighed and buried his nose in the Lovecraft book he had, desperately wishing for a way out of the room he was in.

(I could always teleport you out...) The Darkness offered from inside his head. (I don't like being here much more than you do…)

(Thanks, but no thanks... do you realize what they'd do to us if we disappeared?) Michael replied. (And I don't think you'd like Claire getting at you with those pinecones again…)

The Darkness made what sounded like a soft whimper. (I didn't even know you could do that with pinecones...)

Across the boy and his parasite, Claire and Miriku were seated on a couch and digging through the piles of dozens of wedding magazines, occasionally pulling one out and flipping through it and animatedly chatting about the upcoming wedding and the dresses and everything.

Michael was there solely to go 'Uh-huh.', "Whatever you want, love. I'm happy if you're happy." and 'Yes, dear. That would look good on you.' whenever he was asked a question. And so far, neither his fiancé or little sister had noticed that he had occasionally mixed up his answers.

"So, Michael, what do you think?" Claire held up a magazine and pointed to a picture of a flower arrangement. "Should we stick with this color set up or switch to white and purple?"

Michael flipped another page in his book and continued reading.

"Michael!" Claire got to her feet and loomed over her other half. "This is our wedding we are planning! Only the most important day of our lives and how can you-"

As Claire ranted at him, Michael casually lifted his head and said the two words that he had developed in response to when she was like this. "Claire Wasson."

Instantly, the British girl stopped ranting, got a dreamy look in her eyes and rocked back and forth on her heels, sighing happily.

Miriku poked her brother with a rolled-up magazine. "That's not playing fair, Aniki."

Michael grinned at her. "All's fair in love and war."

"Quite right." A laser blast came out of nowhere and seared off the top of the magazine Miriku was holding. "Including an ambush."

As more laser blasts zinged their way towards the trio, Michael leapt forwards and tackled Claire, two Darkness tentacles lanced out, one yanking Miriku down while the other flipped the couch over, making it an impromptu barrier.

Mytheus Primal stomped out from behind a bookshelf, laser rifles in each hand. "That's not going to hold for long..." Then he opened fire and the hail of laser blasts began to eat away at the couch, making the trio's shield smaller and smaller...

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Marcus ducked a knife swing and then skidded back to avoid a foot in his gut. "How did you get in here!"

The False Tash grinned and walked her knife along her fingers. "I walked!" Then she cackled insanely and charged again, the Society Agent catching her arms and they grappled, the knife flashing dangerously close to Marcus' neck.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Cristoph and Doug coughed and waved the smoke from the explosion away even as they grabbed their weapons, Dough pulling out a pistol and the ninja flipping his sais into his hand.

"Hi, boys." Mary-Ann Twilight grinned cheerily at them as she stepped through the rubble that had been a wall only a few moments before. " Can I join in on the training? I know I don't fight well..." She hefted up a rocket launcher larger than she was onto her shoulder and took aim. "But I make up for it with a really, really big gun!"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Aimee, Ossa, Jess and Jamie all sat in Hati's office, sitting in a neat row in front of the Society Leader's desk.
Hati assumed a serious mien. "As your leader, I would like to bring to your attention a very serious situation."

All four of them nodded as one.

"It is something that we must remedy at all costs, as it concerns the welfare and comfort of the Society's Agents and as we all know, a stressed and irritated Agent is an Agent that will fail with missions and generally be crabby and bitchy."

All four of them nodded again.

Hati slammed her fist on her desktop in frustration. "We need to persuade Phoenixia to sell the tapes of Adrian and Tash doing each other to us! They're the hottest things around and after seeing that brief clip she let us watch that night, they are most definitely worth getting our hands on! Any questions?"

Jamie raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Why am I here? I didn't even see the first clip and to be honest, it doesn't really interest me at all."

Ossa shushed him. "You're one third of the Ossa Power Trio and this is the only way you'll get a cameo in the movie." Nobody paid any attention to the rumbling of the Fourth Wall.

Aimee blinked. "I thought we were Ossa-tachi..."

Jess frowned. "No, I thought you guys were Team Ossa or something like that..."

Ossa sighed. "I'm Ossa, I write the stories and I say we are Ossa Power Trio. And because I can beat you all six ways from Sunday, do you really want to argue with me?"

Then the door to Hati's office exploded inwards and threw all four of them forwards as a second concussive wave of energy hit the room and blew the desk and flooring apart.

Harriet moaned and stirred, brushing off debris and dust that had been the door to her office and her desk as she stood up weakly, coughing sharply. "What…"

"Hey, Mummy…" Willowe strode through the door, Excalibur still glowing from the power she had unleashed. "I'm home…" She raised the blade and smiled evilly. "Want to see how happy I am to see you?"

Insert Inappropriate Time Agent Here

CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK

"What is that noise?" Michael asked, entering the Library rubbing his head. Recovering was not easy when there were a series of loud metallic clanging noises ringing through what was usually a silent zone.

"That would be Tash, sitting inside a steel cage," Adrian explained, not looking up from his book. "She tried to make off with my ice cream."

Michael blinked a few times, before asking. "Can you let her out? My head hurts from the racket she's making… not that it didn't hurt already."

Adrian sighed and got up from his seat. "Alright, but I'm hiding behind you if she's mad."

Tash had in fact given up being mad. Instead she had eaten her fill of ice cream, and was now rattling her spoon against the bars, trying to get the attention of anyone nearby. Her team listings were sitting by her side in a disorganised heap.

"Adrian!" she whined. "Lemme out! I've eaten your ice cream, my butt is going to sleep sitting on this floor and even after pressing the empty tub against my cheek, my wisdom teeth are planning a rebellion in my mouth! I want my pills!"

"You know…" came an amused voice over the comlink. "Whining doesn't become you Tash."

"Isn't there a hedgehog you should be chasing Blake?" Tash sniped, before shutting down the link and opening another channel instead.

"Emma. It's been two hours and you haven't returned. Come in please."

There was a crackle of static, and a female voice with just a hint of a Welsh accent came through.

"Sorry Tash. We're having problems…"

In the background, two voices were arguing loudly.

"She's your dog!"

"You were holding the plothole generator! That makes it your fault!"

Tash was about to ask what had gone wrong, when a loud bark joined in the argument.

"Emma," Tash said sternly. "Tell me you didn't…"

"Well the reason we're taking so long," Emma breezed over. "Is because we opened up the plothole in the wrong point and landed on the wrong side of Cardiff…"

"Emma!" Tash cut in. "Was that barking Meg, or was it not?"

"...why do you ask?" Emma sounded a little worried now.

"Because at the bottom of your team listing," Tash said, holding the relevant file before her. "It specifically states in big bold letters "Do not under any circumstances let Emma take Meg on missions"!"

"Ooooh look, there's the Torchwood team, gotta go!"

"EMMA!"

The line went dead.

OOO

Meanwhile beneath ground, a young girl sat in the cells of the Torchwood hub. She looked as though she had been pretty once upon a time, but that prettiness was marred by sadness, and she now had the appearance of someone who had had their beauty drained away by an unseen force. She paid no attention to the Weevil in the next cell, even as it rattled around and moaned from time to time. She occasionally raised her wrist and glared at the device attached firmly to it.

The door to the hub opened, and another girl walked in. She was inexplicably beautiful and innocent looking, and her sapphire blue eyes shone of pain and a tragic past, but were strong as she looked in at the prisoners. The girl in the cell turned her head and her eyes widened as the figure stopped before her door.

"I knew it…I knew there was another of us here!"

The girl outside the cell shook her head sadly, her waist length auburn hair swishing as she moved.

"The Society did this to you didn't they?"

"Yeah…" the girl in the cell nodded. "My name is Mary-Ann… and the Society… they put this Prohibitor on me… I came here hoping I could get it off."

The auburn haired girl smiled slightly, and opened the door of the cell.

"I've managed to convince Jack that you're harmless… which wasn't easy I might add."

"Why?" Mary-Ann asked, confused. Normally Mary-Sues could get canon characters to bend to their every whim at the drop of a hat… well, ones that weren't prohibited like herself. With said device on her wrist, all her Mary-Sue abilities had faded away.

"I'm only fifteen," the other girl admitted. "My Sue powers have not fully developed. Added to which, a Sue has been in this fandom before, and Captain Jack was in contact with her. He's forgotten it now, but its harder when you're trying to twist their canon personalities for a second time."

"I see," Mary-Ann said, understanding dawning now. "So are you going to let me go?"

"Not till we get that Prohibitor off your wrist," the other Mary-Sue stated firmly. "The team are convinced its alien tech, and I'm sure you're dying to be free of it. We might have some technology here that can get it off."
Mary-Ann grinned. "That's what I came to this fandom for. So, what's your name?"

The girl smiled. "I am Holly Geraldine Ruby Jacaranda Ophelia Foxblade. And right now, I'm supposed to be working."

"You're part of the Torchwood team then?" Mary-Ann guessed.

"Wasn't hard," Holly shrugged. "They needed another team member, and with my perfection, I fit the bill despite my age."

Mary-Ann smiled. "And once the Prohibitor is off my wrist, I'm more than willing to help you."

Holly just smiled sweetly. "We'll see. For now we need to get that thing off…"

"And hope the Society doesn't catch us…" both of them thought.

OOO

After five loud arguments, three wrong turns, and Meg almost causing an accident at a roundabout, the Society agents arrived in the Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay. All of them were annoyed at having to walk, and determined to catch the Mary-Sue so that they could all go home. The truthful reason for their delay was that upon arriving on the wrong side of the city, Meg, Emma's insane border collie, had sat on the team's plothole generator and broken it. On the wrong side of the city, and with no way to get back, tempers had hit the roof.

Meg, overexcited by the journey, was currently alternating between chasing her tail, and trying to sit on Beth's feet. Beth and Emma were staring at the giant water tower, and wondering which way they should attempt to enter the hub. Kate on the other hand, had another agenda…

"So long you useless excuse for tourist information!" she yelled, throwing the map into the water. The shop she had stopped in had run out of English maps, and so she had been forced to buy one in Welsh.

"Kate stop littering!" Beth shouted. "And come and help us…get off me Meg!"

The collie just barked happily, and Emma held tightly to the lead.

"I say we go down the lift. They'll never expect it."

She pointed to a paving slab beside the water tower, where all three girls knew lay the invisible lift down to the hub.

"The lift is far from subtle!" Beth argued. "It drops right into the middle of the hub! We'd be seen! I say we just go in through Ianto's office."

"He'll never let us through!" Emma retorted. "Let's just go in through the lift and no one can stop us!"

"If it's all the same to you Emma, I'm with Beth," Kate admitted, pointing to her look-alike. Beth looked smugly at her sister.

"Ha!"

"Well…Meg is with me!" Emma said triumphantly. Meg, upon hearing her name mentioned, barked madly and tried to push Beth to the floor.

"Of course she's with you!" Kate rolled her eyes, as Beth fended the dog off. "You feed her!"

"Okay how is this?" Beth asked. "Emma, you and Meg can take the lift. Kate and I will take the office, and we meet up inside?"

"How about," an American voice interrupted them. "You all take the lift. It is the tourist entrance after all."

All of them whirled around to see Captain Jack Harkness standing just a few feet away from the aforementioned lift.

"Jack?" Beth said suddenly, and Emma and Kate quickly grabbed her.

"He doesn't remember us!" Emma reminded her. Beth immediately fell silent, and went back to staring at the handsome Captain.

Jack could not explain what had prompted him to watch these three girls on CCTV. At first he thought it had been because they were cute, but getting a good look at them, he was completely positive he had seen them before, but he could not remember where. When they had started discussing Torchwood loudly in the middle of a public plaza, he had grabbed his coat and raced for the lift.

"This way," he jerked his head, and the three girls (plus one dog) made their way onto the lift.

"Not a lot of room," Emma noted, as they squished onto the paving slab. She couldn't help but notice that Beth didn't seem to care that she was pressed into the hot, charismatic American, as the lift slowly began to descend into the hub.

OOO

Mary-Ann and Holly sat at the latter's desk. Holly was holding a handheld scanner, very similar to the one Toshiko had owned when she had been alive, and was currently scanning the Prohibitor on her new friend's wrist. So far, they were turning up naught, and as Holly sadly shook her head, the lift began to appear, catching everyone's attention.

"Oh no!" Holly gasped, seeing the familiar figures. "It's the Society!"

"What is he doing, bringing them in here?" Mary-Ann demanded.

"That's her!" Beth shouted unnecessarily loudly, pointing an accusing finger at Holly, who immediately yanked Mary-Ann across the hub towards Jack's office. Gwen and Ianto, who were moving about the hub doing their own various tasks, stopped to see the new arrivals.

"What's Mary-Ann doing here?" Emma demanded. "Tash just said one Mary-Sue!"

"Who cares?" Kate demanded. "She's prohibited! We can catch them both!"

"You're after Holly and our prisoner?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Believe it or not, yes," Beth nodded, as Emma jumped off the platform before it had even landed, and began racing after Holly and Mary-Ann.

"You're both under arrest for fandom manipulation!" she shouted. Meg leaped off the platform and landed in the water below the walkways, and scrambled onto the metal, shaking her fur out, before scrambling after her crazy mistress. Beth and Kate scrambled down, but Holly was quick, pulling out her gun from somewhere in her belt, and levelling it at the two similar looking girls.

"Take one step closer and I shoot!" Still aiming, she grabbed another gun and threw it to Mary-Ann, who also aimed it, this time at Emma, who skidded to a halt before she could reach them.

"I have a gun!" Mary-Ann warned. "And this prohibitor doesn't affect my aim!"

"Well…" Emma floundered for a bit before a metaphorical light bulb appeared above her head. "I have a Plot Device!"

She brandished said device, and both Mary-Sues took a step back in fear. However before Emma could activate the device, a black hole appeared behind the lift, and spat out two figures and a large black Napoleonic looking cannon, which landed with a loud clunk. The hole then sealed up behind them.

"We miss the party?" Tash asked, picking herself up. By her side, Harriet was also getting to her feet. Mary-Ann, seeing the two infamous Society leaders, panicked and a shot rang through the hub.

"EMMA!" Beth and Kate shrieked in unison. Meg wriggled out from under her mistress's grasp, and Emma screamed. The bullet had caught her shoulder as she had dived in front of her beloved pet to protect her from getting hurt.

Jack, Gwen and Ianto immediately had their weapons out, but a shrill beeping caught everyone's attention. Emma had landed painfully on the Plot Device and accidentally set it off. The device fizzled and spat a bolt of energy at Jack, sending him flying off the lift and into the water, before it blew up in a little puff of smoke.

"What did it do to him?" Gwen levelled her gun at Tash, who pulled out a small, hand held computer, and began tapping away.

"I'm okay…" Jack pulled himself to his feet, seemingly unharmed. Tash paled.

"No you're not," she gulped. "My Plot Summary is registering M-Preg…"

"…Jack's pregnant?" Ianto's gun went limp in his hands.

"Oh not again!" Jack groaned.

"That Plot Device was defective!" Emma hissed, pressing as hard as she could against her shoulder to stem the bleeding.

Kate and Beth glared at Mary-Ann, who was smirking at her successful shot.

"So in attempting to catch us," Holly said. "You make the situation worse! There is nothing you can do now! This fandom belongs to us!"

"Really?" everyone turned to face Harriet, who stood behind the large cannon with an angry look on her face. With a flick of a lighter, she set off the fuse.

"I would say a snappy one liner here," the brunette mused. "But all I can really think of is this…"

And her face split into a grin.

"Bye!"

And the cannon exploded.

Rather than fire a cannonball, what seemed to be a seismic shockwave detonated from the end, and Jack, Gwen and Ianto all froze where they stood, with their weapons poised in mid air. Above their heads, the pterodactyl that lived in the hub was frozen in mid-flight. Most people had fallen over. Holly was unconscious, having been blown off her feet and into the nearest wall by the blast. Harriet looked up and found that her large heavy weapon had blown itself backwards and become embedded in the wall of the hub.
Kate and Beth were on Holly immediately, slapping a prohibitor around her wrist.

"One down," Kate said happily. "Now where's that…?"

She didn't need to go any further. Mary-Ann had managed to stay conscious during the explosion, but she was not going anywhere – Meg and marched purposefully over and sat on the small of her back, rendering her unable to get up.

Everyone blinked slowly.

"Well at least its not me," Beth sighed eventually.

OOO

Five minutes later, the three members of the Torchwood team began moving again. All their memories of meeting Holly and catching Mary-Ann were gone…so they were at a loss to explain why there was a huge dent in the wall of the hub, or why the place smelt of wet dog.

After checking the CCTV three times, and finding only a big blank space where five minutes of footage was missing, the team had called it a day. This wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened after all.
It was not until Gwen had gone home, and Ianto had left the hub, that Jack sat down in his office, and felt a note crunch in the back pocket of his trousers. Puzzled, he pulled it out and read it.

"9 o clock, under the water tower. See you there – x."

OOO

"How are you feeling Emma?" Tash asked, sitting down next to her friend.

"Fine," Emma said, looking at her bandaged and slinged shoulder. "Bullet didn't do much, thank God."

"Good," Harriet grinned. "I've been and checked, and Mary-Ann and Holly are safely locked up. That's one of Willowe's sisters down!"

"What WAS that giant cannon thing?" Emma asked.

"The canon cannon," Harriet explained. "It freezes the fandom and all the canon characters in it, and returns them to normal after five minutes. Anything not canon – like us and the Mary-Sues – can still move. It wasn't fixed down though, so that's why it blew itself into the wall. Not the easiest things to carry around either."

"And it can be very destructive to things that aren't canon," Tash added. "We all got blown off our feet."

"So no using it in the future," Harriet said firmly. "Unless its an emergency."

Emma nodded. "And the Plot Device. Was that rectified?"

"Oh yeah," Tash nodded. "The cannon will have restored canon, so Jack is no longer pregnant…though that would have been interesting to see."

"You're filthy," Harriet informed her.

"I blame you," Tash shot back.

"Hey guys," Kate came wandering into the room. "Have you guys seen Beth?"

"No…" Emma shook her head. "She came and saw me and then she left…said something about an important meeting. Can't imagine what."

"Just as long as she isn't chasing Captain Jack again," Kate muttered.

"Oh what are the odds of that?" Harriet shrugged. "Come on. We've got work to do."

Insert Horrible Sephiroth Immitation Here

"Hey, Adrian!"

The white-haired librarian, dressed in fresh black shirt and pants along with a sky-blue trenchcoat and fresh from his latest adventure in chasing down Stus and Sues (with little success this time around), lifted his head from the stack of books on his desk as his comrade-in-arms Blake skidded to a stop in his doorway. "Ah, there you are. I was waiting for you."

"I'm always glad to help out a friend. " Blake said, then noticed the stack of books that were on Adrian's desk and a good number of them were actually floating in mid-air behind the Librarian. "Ummm… what are you doing? And why are the books floating?

"Oh, since I'm the primary researcher for the Society, I'm trying to figure out why Flare is hanging out in Metal Gear Solid and why he wants only you and what trap he's setting." With a frustrated huff, Adrian slammed the book he was reading shut. "But I've turned up nothing so far." Sighing, he gestured absent-mindedly and the floating books all zoomed off and re-shelved themselves. "As to why the books float, it's my library, so I get to do that kind of thing. It's…" He struck a dramatic pose. "Cooler that way!"

Blake just stared. "…right…" He re-adjusted his sword. "You ready to go?"

The Librarian ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "Almost, Blake. I've got a food bill to sort out, tons of reports to file and find some way to finally get Silver to shut up about his 'perfection.' The dynamite I used last time didn't even muss his hair up."

A blink hid Blake's eyes for a moment. "You… dynamited him?"

"Only recently. Before that, I dropped a five-ton safe on his head, which just bounced off."

"Why would a Library have dynamite?"

Now it was Adrian's turn to shrug. "Why shouldn't it?"

Blake opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as a loud 'thwang!' sound followed by a startled yell filled the hallway. "What was that?"

"That-" Adrian said smugly. "Would be Tash falling into the booby-trap I set around my cookie supply. She should currently be hanging upside down by her ankle."

"You booby-trapped your cookies?" Blake asked incredulously.

"They're good cookies." Both them paused as Tash's yells reached their ears.

"WHY THE BLOODY HELL WOULD THERE BE LASERS IN THE WALLS! THEY SHOT MY HAT! I SWEAR, WHEN I GET DOWN FROM HERE, I'M GOING TO-"

Adrian and Blake listened for several minutes as their immediate superior in the Society rattled off a very impressive list of British curses and swear words as well as threats as to what she would do to Adrian.

"You know…" The white-haired boy said slowly. "I'd probably be more impressed if I understood half of what she was yelling."

"Probably." Blake agreed.

"And I shouldn't have denied her sugar so soon after she took that nasty knock to the head in the Card Captor fandom."

"You shouldn't have."

"And the lasers were a bit much, now that I think on it. Especially since they shot her new hat. She's very fond of her hats."

"She is."

Adrian looked at his comrade. "Blake, she's going to kill me, isn't she? And then bring me back to life and do it again?"

"Most definitely."

The Librarian leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingers together thoughtfully. "The mature thing to do would be to is cut her down, buy her a new hat, let her have some cookies and apologize profusely to her on my hands and knees."

"It would be the right thing to do."

"My only other option is to go to FF7 and face-down a potentially dangerous Mary-Sue who will more than likely have several extremely powerful video game characters to back her up. All of whom could crush me without much effort."

"That's the only other option."

Silence reigned in Adrian's office for a long moment, broken only by Tash's furious yells that Adrian was going to pay for denying her sugar and delaying her essay.

Then the white-teen vaulted over his desk, grabbed his staff and bolted past Blake and dashed down the hallway, yelling: "I'm coming for you, Sephiroth!" at the top of his lungs.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

In the world of Final Fantasy 7, everything was perfect.

A year after the removal of Geostigma and three years after the destruction of Meteor and the saving of the world, Sephiroth, that awesomely powerful god-like swordsman who was forever cursed to have bishie fangirls pairing him almost every other male character in the game and then some, returned from where egomaniacs with god-complexes go after being killed twice and attempted to take over the world again.

And it looked like he was actually going to succeed. The members of AVALANCHE attempted to stop him, but with only Cloud, Vincent Valentine, Tifa and Yuffie being able to actually fight well, the remaining members of AVALANCHE (who consisted of Red XIII, Barret, Cid and a stuffed cat/moogle robot named Cait Sith), quickly had the snot beat out of them by Sephiroth while the remaining four members engaged the silver-haired swordsman in a long-drawn out battle that leveled several buildings, involved impossible acts of defying physics such as fighting on pieces of falling rubble while ignoring gravity, took the better part of fifty minutes and involved Sephiroth asking them the rhetorical question: "Shall I give you despair?" and then answering it himself by laying the smackdown and cleaving large skyscrapers apart for amusement.

The world's greatest heroes lay defeated at his feet and the world was in his grasp…

Then she appeared.

With a perfect figure in all respects and solidly beautiful brown eyes and with long hair (long then Sephiroth's, even.) that swished gracefully with step she took, Mary-Ann Francesca Amber Holiday Twilight Yana the Third (and ½) arrive on the scene, sword in hand and ready to stop the violence.

After battling her for a good six minutes, Sephiroth realized that she was just as good he was and could probably beat him if she tried.

But that never happened as Mary-Ann launched into a very impassioned speech (including tears and puppy dog eyes). No one could really remember what is was actually about, but somehow by the time she was done, the members of AVALANCHE felt better about themselves and Sephiroth was feeling very ashamed for what he had done and so desperately wanted to make up for it. (There were no tears from Sephiroth, though. He was too manly.)

During the next several weeks, Mary-Ann managed to help repair the shattered world. She, after several strangely logical arguments and impassioned words (with a few tears), managed to convince even Cloud that Sephiroth had reformed and was a good guy again.

Then, she made Cloud and Tifa realize their love for one another after gentling explaining to Cloud that Aerith was gone, but she'd live on in the Lifestream and in his memory and it was okay to move on while somehow convincing Tifa that it wouldn't hurt if she emphasized her already impressive bust once in a while.

Following that, Mary-Ann did the unimaginable and got Vincent to accept that Lucrecia was gone, it wasn't entirely his fault and even got him to smile. Amazingly, once that happened, Vincent also accepted his feelings for Yuffie while Mary-Ann simultaneously got the young ninja girl to stop stealing everyone's materia as they slept.

With those three major problems out of the way, she quickly introduced Barret to solar power as an alternative source of energy and helped him start up his own power company, thereby making him the second richest person on the Planet, with the first being Mary-Ann.

She found Red XII a mate of his own species.

Cait Sith - and the man who control him - Reeve, she gave them the necessary information and technology to make the Word Regenisis Organization live up to its name and heal the Planet of its wounds, including the North Crater.

Cid… got a pack of cigarettes. (Lucky Stripes.)

Then Mary-Ann moved out of Edge and began to date Sephiroth, who was now running a dojo for those who wanted to learn swordsmanship and honor.

Yes, all was perfect in the world of FF7.

And yet… deep down, in a dusty corner of their minds, all of the characters felt that something was amiss, that something wasn't right. It taunted them like a dream, dangling off the tips of their tongues, but with no one able to put voice to it.

If only someone would come and tell them what it was.

Someone must know what was wrong.

But who is this someone who will tell them?

TTTTTTTTTTT

"Run, dammit! Run!"

"What do think I'm doing!"

Blake and Adrian ran at top speed across the expanse of desert, their strides eating ground at a ferocious pace and kicking up sand in their wake. Now, due to the lack of water and extreme heat, its common sense that you walk in the desert to conserve energy and hydration.

But common sense also says that when you are being chased by a twenty-story, biomechanical Weapon colored green and armed with enough firepower to level a city, you run like hell if you want to live.

The two Society Members' ducked instinctively Emerald Weapon unleashed a barrage of lasers from its shoulder-mounted cannons, peppering the ground with miniature mushroom clouds of sand in the air and pelting them with grains of sand.

"Why the hell is it chasing us!" Blake called to his companion as he leapt a sand dune in a single leap, Emerald's feet pounding after them. "And why is it Emerald Weapon? I thought that thing was supposed to be underwater!"

"How should I know!" Adrian yelled back. "All I did was lock-on to the strongest energy source I could find! I didn't think it would be a Weapon!"

"Can't you boot it in the head!"

"Are you joking? Who do you think I am, Chuck Norris! I'd shatter every bone in my body!"

"Then how we supped to kill it!"

"W- Summon Knights of the Round with HP absorb linked and mime until its dead." Adrian looked confused for a moment, as if he didn't know why he had just said that.

"What was that?"

"Never mind. Let's just keep running!"

"Fine. And that's a cheap strategy!" Now it was Blake's turn to look confused.

"What?"

"Let's just run!"

Adrian gripped his staff near the head and snapped it up like he was holding a sword. "Fall forever in my dreams, Hoshikuzu!" The staff glowed and morphed into an elegantly shaped one-handed long sword with a rapier-like hilt that fit perfectly in his grasp. Skidding to a stop, the Librarian thrust the blade at the giant Weapon chasing them. "Take this!"

Lighting shot from the length of the blade and struck Emerald Weapon, arcing and skittering all across the Weapon's body as it slowed to a stop and shuddering wildly from the attack, twitching and jerking.

Blake slid to a stop. "You're actually beating it?"

Adrian didn't respond, but instead planted the blade point first in the ground and made a series of gestures as a sphere of light began gather above the end of the hilt. Completing the gestures, he thrust both hands forwards and launched the sphere of light straight at Emerald Weapon.

The sphere exploded on impact with force far greater than its size would suggest, actually rocking the ground at bit and launching a mushroom cloud of sand smoke into the air and obscuring Emerald Weapon from view.

Smiling, Adrian shouldered his blade as Blake walked up to stand next to him. "Guess I'm more powerful than I thought."

On cue, a laser bolt lanced out from the cloud and zipped over Adrian's shoulder. Both Blake and the Librarian watched silently as a few strands of white hair drifted to the ground and shoulder of his trenchcoat smoke a little. Then they glanced up unison as the smoke cloud cleared to reveal Emerald Weapon still standing, looking no worse for the wear, but very irritated.

"Guess I was wrong." Adrian deadpanned.

"I guess you were." Blake said, equally deadpan. "Want to keep running?"

"Why not?"

Then the pair tore off again, the angry Weapon stomping right behind them, firing lasers all the while.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Tifa Lockhart hummed softly to herself as she walked down the streets of Edge, a bag of groceries in each hand. Life was good. Cloud had finally fallen for her and she couldn't be happier! Every moment was treasured when they were together!

Rounding the corner, she smiled to herself when she noticed Cloud's motorcycle, Fenrir, parked near the 7th Heaven's front entrance. That mean her favorite spiky-headed warrior was tending the bar like a good little boyfriend.

"Hey, Tifa!"

The martial artist turned to see Mary-Ann, dressed in pants and shirt and still-looking gloriously beautiful with her high cheek bones, ivory skin and big eyes, running up to her as Mary-Ann's hair swished gracefully behind her, Sephiroth walking behind her with an slightly-amused look on his face.

"Mary-Ann!" Tifa set the groceries down and greeted her friend with a hug, trying to ignore the feeling that something was… off… about the girl. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you kidding?" Mary-Ann smiled. "There's no way Sephiroth and I would not want to come to the 7th Heaven to see our favorite barkeep!"

"Aren't I the only barkeep you know?" Both girls laughed as Sephiroth caught up with them.

"Miss Lockhart." The former hero general-turned-god-complex-maniac-turned-good-guy greeted her with a slight bow at his waist.

"Sephiroth." Tifa didn't hug him, though. She was still wary of the silver-haired swordsman.

"I trust you and Cloud are doing well."

"Yes. We are."

"Did you get the Wutai Liquor shipment in?"

"I did."

"I'm looking forwards to having a glass."

"I'll be sure to save one for you."

Mary-Ann glanced between the two as they carried on their polite conversation and frowned, smooth forehead creasing. (I don't understand. I'm a Mary-Sue! My powers should have made everyone happy and cheerful to one another! But I can't even manage that or get Cloud to fall in love with me!) Mary-Ann had only helped the characters find their 'loves' so that it would be more painful to them when she took them away, thus leaving them wounded and unable to fight back against her influence. (Why aren't my powers working as well as they should?)

She pulled out of her evil-Sue-type thoughts as the sound of an engine filled the street. All three of watched as motorcycle with a pair of riders on it roared around the corner far faster than it should have been, skidding wildly. But the driver managed to keep control of the vehicle and shot down the street and braked hard, jerking to a halt in front of the 7th Heaven and leaving a long stretch of melted rubber behind them.

The driver, a teenager dressed in a sky-blue trenchcoat and with white hair, killed the engine and smiled to himself. "Its good thing we managed to get the Gold Saucer into loaning this thing to us. We'd never have made it out of the desert, otherwise." He glanced at the bar's sign and nodded. "And I got us here in record time."

His companion, a second teenage boy with black hair and a sword strapped to his back, staggered off the back of the bike, his face as white as his friend's hair. "By nearly wrecking and killing us at least a dozen times, Adrian."

"Oh, it wasn't so bad, Blake."

"Are you kidding? My life flashed before my eyes! And I wasn't even in it!"

"Well, it builds character. Now, let's go. We have to fix this world up before that Sue causes too much damage."

Mary-Ann scowled beautifully when she noticed the logo on Blake's shirt. (It looks like he's a member of the Elimination Society…but who's the other guy?) Then Adrian lifted his head and she swore softly under breath when his violet eyes met her green ones. (The Librarian? I didn't know he joined up!)

"Sephie!" She shouted, using her pet name for Sephiroth and pointed at Blake and Adrian. "Those two are here to cause trouble and hurt me! You need to get rid of them!"

Both teens looked towards them as Sephiroth pulled out Masamune, his eight-foot-long nodachi, out of thin air and leapt towards the pair, ready to cleave them half with a single swing.

Adrian was first to react and launched himself towards Sephiroth, sparks flashing as his Hoshikuzu blocked the Masumune halfway down its length, but even blocking Sephiroth's blow nearly threw him off his feet. Gritting his teeth, the teenager pushed hard against the blade-lock. "Blake! Hurry up and take out that Sue!"

"What! But I can't let you fight alone!" Blake's hand was already going for his sword. "Not against Sephiroth!"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Adrian danced back as another of Sephiroth's swings lashed over his head and countered by thrusting at Sephiroth's exposed chest, but the former general stopped the blow with hilt of his sword. "If you get the Sue, I won't have to worry about fighting him!"

Reluctant to leave his friend behind, Blake turned to face the Sue was nearly bowled over as Mary-Ann zipped by on Fenrir, disappearing around the corner. Swearing to himself, Blake leapt back onto their borrowed bike and quickly started the engine while muttering a few quick prayers that he didn't wind up killing himself.

The Librarian leapt high and thrust down at Sephiroth's head, sparks flying as the blow was blocked and Blake disappeared around the corner after Mary-Ann. Landing on his feet, Adrian leapt up again and landed atop a nearby rooftop, Sephiroth seconds behind him and his sword slashing.

"Librarian Art 2: A Thousand Words in an Instant!" Adrian suddenly vanished and Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. Then he was moving again, sword a blur as something lashed out at him from every direction, so many sparks flying that they actually obscured the silver-haired swordsman for a moment.

Adrian reappeared in front of Sephiroth in the next moment, looking disappointed that his attack had failed. Then he glanced down at his coat and frowned as several small rips and tears appeared all over it, indicating that Sephiroth hadn't just been blocking his thousand blows, but counter-attacking as well. "Dang…I don't think I've ever had a coat survive a mission…"

"Hmmmph." Sephiroth raced towards Adrian, moving so fast that it looked like he was gliding across the ground, Masamune raised to skewer the interloper.

"Librarian Art 6: Shield of Silence!" Adrian held up his hands and suddenly all the sound in area vanished, Sephiroth's blade glancing off an invisible wall once, twice, three times without a single noise.

The former general glared darkly at his opponent while Adrian just smiled and waved at him.

Then a wave of blue energy raced across the rooftop and slammed into the shield, blasting it part and sending Adrian bouncing and skidding wildly across the rooftop. Groaning, the Elimination Society member got his feet and saw Cloud Strife standing next to Sephiroth, an angry look on his face and the large First Tsurigi still planted in the ground from the Blade Beam attack. "Oh, c'mon…"

Both Sephiroth and Cloud charged Adrian and the Librarian quickly leapt away, bringing Hoshikuzu into a guard position as the master swordsmen came at him from the left and the right. (Hurry up, Blake!)

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Mary-Ann Francesca Amber Holiday Twilight Yana the Third (and ½)! By order of the Elimination Society, you are under arrest!" Blake shouted loudly over the roar of the engines to make himself heard.

"Not a chance, copper!" Mary-Ann glared at him over her shoulder and revved her engine, pulling ahead by a couple of feet.

(How cliché can you get?) Blake pushed his bike harder as they played a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse through the streets of Edge, ducking and weaving between cars, mailboxes and pedestrians who weren't quite fortunate enough to get out of the way in time.

Now, Blake is not the best driver in the world, a fact he freely admits. And as anyone will tell, driving a motorcycle is much harder than driving a car. But the streets of Edge were wide and there were few obstacles in way, so he was doing better than he normally would have. But the bike he and Adrian had borrowed wasn't quite up to par with the Fenrir Mary-Ann had stolen and she was slowly pulling away from him.

But Blake had an edge up his sleeve. The Reality Wand recently created by a Harry Potter author. Using it, he could temporarily freeze the reality, save for anything that didn't belong in it, like himself and a Sue. But the Wand had a limited range of effect and if he used it, there was no guarantee that he'd be able to catch Mary-Ann. Meaning Adrian would still back fighting off Sephiroth.

Then an idea came to him and he smiled grimly. (I have to time this just right…) Pulling the wand out, he gripped it tightly and waited for his chance.

It came a moment, as Mary-Ann began to round a corner a little faster than she should have. Blake slammed on the brakes to his bike and activated the Wand.

Instantly, all motion around them stopped. Birds paused in mid-flight, people froze in their desperate leaps to get out of the way. A child waited to catch a ball that would never come. Water droplets hung suspended in the air.

And Mary-Ann's bike stopped instantly, all the momentum hurling the Sue over the handlebars with a surprised yell and across the street, straight into a dumpster.

Blake smiled to himself as he dismounted and walked over to the dumpster, deactivating the Rod as he did so. Pulling a Prohibitor out of his pocket, he slapped it onto the Sue's wrist as she crawled out of the dumpster, covered garbage. "You are under arrest for attempting to conquer this fandom for your own ends."

Mary-Ann muttered a string of curses under her breath. "You Elimination Society members… you think you've got it all…."

Whatever Blake was going to say in return was cut off as a loud yell filled the air.

"Librarian Secret Art: Boot to the Head!' SSSSCH-FWOMP!

Both of them turned to see Sephiroth crash-land in the street behind the, gouging out a crater as Adrian landed nearby. But the silver-haired swordsman pulled himself free of the debris and shook himself, apparently unharmed save for his hair being badly mussed up.

"What's going on!" Blake shouted at Adrian as Sephiroth launched himself at the white-haired teen, Adrian disappearing as the Masamune slashed through the space he had just been and shredded the concrete street as it did so. "Once a Prohibitor is on a Sue, it should have reverted the affected reality back to normal!"

"It did!" Adrian reappeared next to Blake, covered in sweat and blood, trenchcoat nothing so much more than tatters and a pair of sleeves. "And that's the problem! Sephiroth's a murderous psychopath again!"

"Oh, that's bad…"

"You think?!" Adrian unleashed a arc of lighting from his sword, but Sephiroth just smirked and twirled Masamune in front of him, dispersing the lighting with greatest ease.

Then the ex-general leapt towards them, but stopped and threw up Masamune in a block as Cloud came crashing down from above, the ground shaking as the two warriors collided.

"C'mon, we're getting out of here!" Adrian pulled a smoke pellet to perform his Mystery Vanish and then glanced around. "Hey! Where'd Mary-Ann go!"

Blake glanced around and swore. "She must have gotten away while we were talking."

Both of them were forced to duck a stray energy blast struck the building nearby, raining bits of debris and rubble on them, Adrian knocking a larger piece away with his sword. "She's still has the Prohibitor on her, though! And there's no way to remove it without the key! We can catch her later! Right now, we leave!" He through the pellet on the ground and white smoke swallowed the pair up. "Librarian Art 7: Mystery Vanish!"

The smoke cleared, revealing the space they had been in to be empty… but the wall was now sporting some new body art in the form of two teenagers embedded in the brick.

Adrian twitched a couple of times before pulling his head free. "I've got to work on that…"

Blake just collapsed into a twitching mass of bruises. "…ouch…"

TTTTTTTTT

Back at the Library Aracnium

"Thanks for your help, Blake." Adrian said after the pair had treated their wounds and cleaned themselves up. They were now sitting in one of the Library's numerous studies. "I really needed it."

"Don't thank me too much." Blake muttered grimly. "She still got away from me."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Adrian slid a plate of cookies across the table after taking a couple for himself. "A Sue's powerless with a Prohibtor in place, so she's harmless for now. I just wish I could have been more helpful in finding out what Flare wants with you. But all my research has turned up nothing."

"Hmmm…" Blake nodded after taking a cookie. "But I've got confront him sooner or later."

"Well, since none of us can go with you, I'd figure I do the next best thing." Adrian stood and walked over to a closet, pulling out a black trenchcoat. "Take this. It's a special material that I've managed to develop. It's as light as a feather, yet stronger than steel. It won't block bullets, but it's impossible to cut through and it'll protect you from most magic. And for just kicks, it's frictionless. But just remember that it's not perfect. Rely on it too much and it'll crumble apart."

"Thanks." Blake took the coat with an appreciative smile on his face. Then it turned to a questioning one. "If you can do that, why don't you wear one? Or give one to all the Society members?"

"Because making this stuff is incredibly expensive and I'm using up most my budget for the food bill and all the strangely necessary, but still useless paperwork that we all do in our off time." Adrian explained. "Also, it's dry clean only. And all of mine are out at the cleaners. As for the others, it's their choice. I figured you might need it, since you're going to Metal Gear Solid. And that's chock full of danger."

"It's not exactly my style, but I'll consider wearing it…" Blake glanced at Adrian. "But isn't kind of cheating? I mean, clothes that never rip and work as armor?"

"No." Adrian spread his hands. "Haven't you ever seen an anime? Most of the time, the character's clothes will never rip or tear or even burn, despite how heavily wounded the character might become. It's the same thing."

"Okay…" Blake sounded skeptical, but slung the coat over his shoulder. "By the way, Tash is looking for you."

Adrian paled until his face matched his hair. "Was she mad?"

"No. In fact, she sounded quite cheerful…" Blake told him. "So I'd better watch out if I were you."

"Oh, Addddriiiiannnnnn." Tash's overly-cheerful voice sounded down the hallway. "Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

"Librarian Art 7: Mystery Vanish!"

Blake watched as a cloud of white smoke enveloped his friend and when it cleared, Adrian was gone. "Hmm… he actually got it to work." The bits of debris fell in front of his eyes and he glanced up.

A giant sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head. Adrian had somehow embedded himself in the ceiling. "I'm not sure I want to know how he did that…"