Before The Society

(Note: The POVs jump quite a bit. It goes Aster-Chrys-Akai in order, except for at the beginning, when it's only Aster-Chrys-Aster-Chrys-Akai.)

A mother fae, sitting and listening as she hears her daughter has been chosen for the Ceremony. She will host the power of the great Moon Goddess.

A mother fae, watching as her daughter is left ripped of her soul.

A mother fae, swiping her daughter from the stand in one swift motion and running towards another universe.

A mother fae, seeing a newborn girl in a window.

A mother fae, switching those two girls and transplanting the human girl's soul into her daughter, as the daughter takes the form of the human girl.

A mother fae, handing off the human girl, now soulless, to be consigned to a horrible fate.

---

A girl grows up with a normal family with a normal life. She's an excitable, cheerful girl, albeit a little clumsy. She lives in a normal house with normal parents and goes to a normal school where she lives out her normal days.

She is normal, utterly normal, at least to her – she lives, oblivious to the secrets being hidden behind her, about her.

She is happy.

She is pleased with her life – except for one thing.

There's only one thing she wants in the whole world.

She wants to be special.

She wants to be different.

---

She has just finished her training. She has been training for six years.

She doesn't like it.

It's dull, boring, impractical.

She holds her staff close to her, one that she is accustomed to using. She walks around the fae village and runs into the Room of Portals, to other dimensions.

She is gone before the fae know it.

She finds herself in a new world and finds a school with normal children. Through a mishap involving power leaking everywhere, she convinces everyone that she's always been to this school.

Except for one person.

But it's all right. This new person is fascinated with her. She's always wanted to be special and here she meets a special person, a fae.

And the one who has wanted to escape a boring life has finally made a friend.

---

She's just moved to a new country, and she's not happy with it. It's making new friends, meeting new people. She's very indifferent towards life. She's never really cared too much about anything.

Nor has she questioned life or really cared; she just lived the way she wanted to.

She walks to school every day, takes classes, and goes home – nothing eventful ever happens, until that one day it approaches her.

It is a tiny thing, weak, frail, until she will find out the truth later. But it is an annoyance to her.

She tells it to go away, swats it away, tells it to leave.

It won't.

At first she does not like this unwelcome follower, but soon she finds ways to minorly exploit it, and she eventually learns to live with it, too.

She also learns something else – reality is not necessarily rational.

---

She'll do anything for her best friend, even if it means stalking and flying after her plane when she has to transfer to another country – and she does it.

She lives in a new place, with new customs and a new way of life, and she doesn't care – as long as she's got a friend.

And she adjusts. Slowly, but surely, she adjusts.

It's not long before she and her friend find an underground magical club. She learns to meet other magical beings, to work with them, and even to train a little herself.

Her life is now made up of these sorts of people.

But in the end, what is she, besides a fae?

She's no more than another one of those people.

Her selfish desires give in.

She wants to stand out.

---

As it turns out, she is special.

She holds fate. She has powers, she has a partner, she's got things in her past during times she was too young for her to remember now.

She holds responsibility.

She holds memories of a thousand different versions of herself, all living in different conditions.

She has just found out now how special she is, that she isn't human – a hanyou. She's a mystical being, not the human she's grown used to being all these years.

She can do magic, magic she can barely control because she's just learned it.

She has a curse.

---

She's just met two people completely unlike her yet like her.

Ever since she met the jun-akuma she's known not to trust everything anymore, and these two are proof that reality isn't the way she wants it to be.

And she learns of the dangerous world in front of her, that the jun-akuma near her has actually plunged her into further things about her life. Things that involve her.

Dangerous things. She has risked so much and doesn't even know it.

She is learning things about herself she doesn't always want to know.

And now she is about to risk more.

She's been training to fight now. She refuses to take part in using the powers of a demon, and has been practicing kendo (in Korea, it's called geomdo) lately to learn how to fight. She can't let herself succumb like this.

Of course, the worst moment is when she finds out what that jun-akuma can really do. The day it finally snaps and grows bigger into a full-fledged demoness destroying the world and everything until Mizuho puts a stop to it.

That is what it is capable of.

What is she capable of?

---

She pants.

It is because she needed to use so much power that she eventually lost it and went into that version of herself she hates. The version that doesn't care about "inconsequential things". The version of herself that will abandon her two best friends for the world.

If it hadn't been for Akai she'd be lost; she wouldn't have come back down to earth.

She doesn't like to be logical. At least, she is programmed to not be logical. She has no emotions to guide her to hate logic, but she has that empty shell, created by her powers, that teaches her that logic is bad.

She can't feel.

But she is programmed to act like she can feel.

---

She falls under mental breakdown, for she's just gained a million memories that aren't hers. Well, they are hers. But they are not the hers she wants to have.

She is doomed to never love, for every time she gets close to having a true love relationship, she splits in two – the version that loves and is in love is no longer her.

She is doomed to never find her true happiness in the end, for she is to hold this job forever.

She is doomed to never live as a normal human again.

She is doomed to never leave this world, for she is resurrective-immortal.

There is only one thing she wants.

She wants to be normal.

---

A human making a pact with such a demon, however, is able to control the demon.

However, the cost of this is not being able to use much of the demon's power.

The demon's power and dark ability will be connected directly to the human's soul from then on.

It is possible for the human to continue using emotions with a minimal amount of power and influence.

However, if the human loses control completely, it is possible for the human to go to a different form.

A merger of the human and the demon would create a full-fledged demon, with both the vices of a human and demon.

The combination will be programmed to kill anything in sight, ally or enemy.

Also, there is high risk of the soul permanently falling to darkness.

It is impossible to "purify" the user without forcing the user back into a human form.

Otherwise, the merger will lose humanity while in that form and will continue an endless stream of bloodshed.

She drops the book on her powers that she has just been reading, with only one thought in her head: What have I become?

---

A girl who has never experienced the privilege of having a soul, forever washed in an eternal cycle, suffering the consequences of a lack of emotion, torn back and forth from sanity to insanity to pain to torture. She has grown up quite a bit, but she still has to grow up.

A girl who only wanted to be a little bit special but ended up being plunged further than she ever expected. Now there is no way to break out of the curse she has involved herself in – she will never be able to progress.

A girl who accidentally encountered one small thing because of her slightly sardonic personality, but has found out she has involved herself in a dangerous and risky matter that may drain her of her soul, morality, and humanity.

None of them are free from the influences of Fate.

Insert Dramatic Rescue Here (part 1 of 3)

The Briefing Room was filled with a nervous silence, the vastness of it almost deafening and only made bearable as it was broken by the occasional squeaking of a chair as someone shifted their weight or the metallic noise of someone checking fiddling with their sword or checking that their gun was loaded for the umpteenth time in a row.

Nearly thirty Agents, making up nearly every single member of the Anti-Cliché and Mary-Sue Elimination, sat scattered around in the briefing room that was too large for them by half and again, either clustered in little groups or their preferred teammates. Nearly all of them were wearing Plot Amour and none of them in it looked really comfortable in it, some fiddling with the clasps or attempting to readjust it so it fit slightly better. Some were digging through the new equipment they had just been issued in the form of emergency medkits and were reading the instructions written on the various pieces inside the cases and hoping they'd never have to use them.

Ben was seated at the end of one row, constantly tuning Bahamut and fiddling with the strings while next to him, Lily fiddled with her pins, walking them back and forth on the backs of her fingers. Next to them, Avak was the most nervous, but didn't really have any idea of what to do and just shifted nervously in his seat.

At the opposite end of the horseshoe and across from Ben, Aimee was digging through a large case that rested on her lap, various wings of it spread open as she rearranged various items inside, occasionally reaching up to push her nurse's hat back atop her head when it leaned too far forwards. Standing a couple of feet away, Ossa was going through a series of yoga poses, looking rather calm despite the tension in the air.

A few rows back from the pair, Chrys, Akai and Mizuho sat together, the latter two trying to keep the former from panicking and only marginally succeeding, though Akai didn't seemed to helping all that much to the seriously angry expression that kept flitting on her face.

Down the aisle from the trio, Michael, Claire, Miri and Alice were all settled, the former three checking their weapons while Alice, arm in a sling from her most recent mission, looked decidedly worried and nervous, shifting and squirming uncomfortably and many similar scenes were play across the rooms with the rest of the Agents as they checked weapons again and again or tried to quash their nervousness, but the tension and worry was so thick in the air that it stifled any attempt at conversation before it began.

Then the main doors to the briefing room banged open and everyone glanced towards the front of the room as Tash, Hati and Phoenixia strode in, all with uncharacteristically grim and serious looks on their faces. No one was surprised to see Phoenixia in her Battle Dress and her guns strapped to her body, but it was a surprise to see Tash out of Adrian's trenchcoat and wearing her old clothes.

There was a low murmuring as Adrian strode into the room. They all knew he had returned, thanks to Aster and a whole host of other Agents running around and spreading the news, but seeing the man himself walk into the room, his coat billowing and that fierce look in his eyes was something else entirely.

Silence fell across the room as he strode up to the holoprojector in the center of the room and manipulated a few of the controls, dimming the lights as the projector activated and lived up to its name by generating the image of a good-sized mansion surrounded by a dense looking forest. "This is Einzbern Mansion in the Fate/stay Night fandom. Currently, it has been abandoned by its owner after the end of the game that is Fate/stay Night and normally, it would be of no interest to us. However, thanks to a lot of magical and technological detective work, we've managed to determine that this one of Runoa's bases."

"Four hours ago, Aster was sent on a recon mission to this location. Three hours ago, she informed us that at least one Sovereign-class signature along with at least a half-dozen signatures that were approaching Sovereign-class and multiple ordinary Sue and Stu signatures. Immediately after, we lost contact with her…" His face hardened. "We have reason to believe Runoa is at this location and captured Aster herself."

Grabbing a laser pointer, he used trace several paths through the forest." "Our infiltration strategy will be simple. The Society approaches on foot through the forest and our snipers, stealth agents and speedsters remove any guards outside the building at the same to prevent them from getting off an alarm…"

TTTTTT

The night air was still in the dense woods that surrounded then Einzbern Mansion, nary an owl or forest creature daring to break the stillness. Not that any creatures would care to live in the forest, for the mansion itself exuded an aura of darkness and abnormality that drove any sane living animal away and caused anyone who approached it to reverse direction and trying to shake a case of the shivers for the next few nights or so.

Still, there were those who could ignore such things and about a dozen of them patrolled the grounds around the mansion, armed with more tangible deterrents such as machine guns, rifles and grenades and aimed to make use of them effectively thanks to their night-vision goggles.

Two of the hired guards met up on the east side of the mansion, one of them slinging his weapon over his shoulder in order to use both hands to rip open the a ration bar. "How you holding up, Jon?"

"Bah." The other man took the moment to re-check that his assault rifle was loaded and twirl the unlit cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other. "I hate night patrol, Dan. We're stuck walking around it freakin' cold and this damn place gives me the creeps. There aren't any damn animals in this blasted forest! And I can't even light a damn cig!" He glared at the unlit one in his mouth, as if blaming it for situation.

Dan took a bite of his ration bar. "Well, this was a fast deployment, I'll give you. But the boss says we're getting paid a few cool million to guard this dump, so I'd say a few hours of cold is worth the cut we'll get from this."

Jon grunted and glanced out over to the woods, obviously not too convinced by his comrade's argument. "There isn't even any action here-someone will trip our sensors a mile out if they try to come here. And who hell would want to storm this place, anyway?"

There wasn't a response and he turned back to his buddy. "Dan? Hey, you got anything to say..?" Then his jaw opened slightly and the cigarette fell out, the last thing he saw being a silvery-haired man with what appeared to be cat ears atop his head punching him in the face. A second later, he joined Dan in unconsciousness.

Adrian ears twitched as Tash flash-stepped into sight next to him. "I take it you got yours?"

"Yeah. Hit him over the head before he knew what was happening. And Phoenixia and Ingrid hit the ones on the roof with Stun Rounds and Michael dragged his off into the darkness and you and I got the rest." She pulled out her communicator as it vibrated once softly and tapped a button on it. "That was Ben. His team is in position and he's last the once to check in."

"Good." The Librarian gestured for her follow him. "Let's start the second stage."

TTTTTT

"You are currently receiving a note on your communicators-we are placing you into teams. This is for the second stage of our operation. Once the guards have been eliminated and Phoenixia and I have finished removing any technological and magical alarms and barriers, the teams will all move into the mansion for as many different entrances and floors as possible in the same moment."

"The mission is to get in, find Aster, and get out as quick as we possibly can. Don't drag out any fights and fight defensively, putting your own safety as your top priority. If you can help it, do not engage any of the Sovereigns or Runoa and if you do, immediately call for back-up. Don't take them lightly-you all saw what Death did and he was the weakest."

TTTTTT

The doors to the mansion toppled inwards as the sounds of Bahamut slammed into it, Lily, Jess, Avak and Michael all sprinting into the mansion's large atrium. Their weapons were drawn, powers humming and ready to be unleashed, tentacles of darkness actually springing from Michael's back as charged, ready to engage whatever forces awaited them on the other side, to make most of their surprise advantage and cut them down…

…only to find that the entire atrium was completely barren and empty.

They skidded to a stop, Jess snuffing out the flame she had brought to life around, her bewildered expression mimicking those of her fellow Agents. "What the hell…? Where is everyone!"

"I don't know…" Michael made a quick gesture. "Spread out-see if they aren't hiding anywhere." Suiting action to his words, he used a tentacle of shadow to haul himself up onto the next level of the atrium as the others spread out below him.

They checked every room, every nook and cranny, behind tapestries and suits of armor, even poking their heads the windows to make sure someone wasn't clinging to the wall outside. But after a good five minutes of searching, they still had not found the enemy and more Agents began to filter into the atrium from the other parts of the house, reporting that they, too, had found nothing.

Adrian stomped down the staircase with a scowl on his face, Tash and Phoenixia behind him as the gathered Agents looked up at him. "Nothing! Not a damn thing!"

"Maybe it was a trick." Rhia suggested, idly running a hand along the knives dangling from her belt and making them jangle a bit. "Runoa could have moved Aster away from here as she soon as she kidnapped."

"Then why hire the mercenaries as guards? Mercenaries that come straight from the fandom itself? "Pete asked, folding his arms.

"It was probably to keep us from picking up Sue and Stu signatures in this fandom." Val said. "Ever since I've entered this mansion, my powers have felt funny…like they're not as strong as they usually are. She must have put a dampening field on the house, which kept us from detecting the energy signatures of her and the Sovereigns."

"But…why go through all this effort? Just to mislead us?" Jess folded her arms with a frown on her face. "And if there was a dampening field on the house, how did you guys figure out Aster was in the first place?" She nodded in the direction of Adrian and Phoenixia.

Phoenixia played with a strand of her russet hair. "The dampening field blocks signatures, true, but Aster is constantly connected to her dimensional counterparts at all times. We know one of them and thanks to her, we were able to figure out the energy frequency that link has. Since this particular fandom has three routes, which can each be technically considered their own fandoms, we simply jumped to one of them with our Aster and use the dimensional synch like a piece of string between two tin cans and followed it to this location, adjusting for the drift caused when the link slides between the two dimensions and the fact the dimensional synch doesn't exactly exist in any tangible fashion or exude anything tangible, either. However, we compensated for that using the Property of Inverse Tangibility, meaning because it didn't exist in a way apparent to the senses, we tracked through what our senses couldn't find and then triangulated it with Aster's last known location and the last detection of a Sue energy signature. " Then she noticed everyone but Adrian, Mizuho, Akai and Chrys were staring at her like she had grown two heads. "What?"

"That… that makes so much sense and yet at the same time, I'm so confused…" Ossa muttered and ran a hand through her hair. "But anyway, even if you found Aster like that, why wouldn't Runoa leave as soon as she got Aster? That woman's a bitch, but a smart one. She'd just leave a few clues to draw our attention, draw us in and waste our time on an empty house."

"There's no point in that- she can travel nearly anywhere in the Multiverse. We were here two hours after we lost contact with Aster. She was the Librarian once, she knows what kind of resources we can bring to bear to track and a two-hour head start is meaningless, especially when she has so much territory to flee to." Adrian shook his head with a scowl. Then his eyes widened. "It's a trap!"

As if summoned by his words, a golden sheen sudden surrounded the outside of the manor. The Agents reacted instantly, volleying off a series of weapons blasts and attacks through the main door, but the barrier simply absorbed them harmlessly. They were trapped.

"Greetings, Society Agents." The group of Agents scattered away as Runoa, dressed in her usual black turtleneck sweater and slacks, appeared in their midst, those of them not already having drawn their weapons doing so.

"Don't bother attacking her." Adrian grabbed Tash's wrist as the blonde was starting forwards, raising her blade. "It's an illusion-a magical message tied in with the activation of the barrier."

"By now you have realized that this is a trap and I'm afraid that the moment you said those words, you triggered the trap." She smirked at them. "Aren't clichés wonderful?"

The Agents nearest the stairs suddenly backed away as a seam of light suddenly unzipped itself in the middle of the air in front of them, slowly widening to reveal a swirling rainbow of colors. "However, the fact that I knew you'd come after the moment I kidnapped Aster was actually to my benefit. Not only do I get to show-off some of my more interesting experiments and give them a field test, but I get to kill some of you annoying pests. So, good luck and try not to bleed too much on the rug, it's so hard to get out of that material." The illusion winked out of existence.

The Society backed away from the portal as a figure started to emerge from the now eight-foot portal. It was nearly as tall as the portal it emerged from, it's body thin and sleek and clawed hands nearly dragging across the carpet. Gray skin was stretched tight over its body and it's eyes were a prismatic rainbow as it stretched out a trio of equally prismatic wings and let out a screech, revealing six-inch fangs in its mouth.

Behind it, two more figures emerged, a much smaller ogre-like being who's bulging red skin looked like it could barely contain the bulging muscle beneath and diamond-like protrusions jutted out all over its body randomly and the third being was human-sized, but his hair and eyes were sea-green and, along with his clothes, were constantly ruffling and fluttering in a incessant swirl of air around him.

"What…! What the hell are these things!" Rhia drew her kodachi and backed up a few steps even as next to her Cristoph pulled a handful of caltrops and Lily pulled her pins free, Ben and Avak un-slinging their guitars.

"I think they might Sues, but the energy is so warped and twisted, I can't be sure!" Blue energy danced around Val's arm as she activated Seiryu and drew the string back while Stacey gripped her staff tightly, a brief flicker in her eyes the only thing showing that Ezra was taking over.

"It doesn't matter what they are-they're in our way, so they have to go!" Adrian was already dashing forwards, magic crackling to life in his hands. Even as the towering gray one smashed a fist down at him, he leapt clear of it and volleyed off magical blasts like a machine gun before slamming both hands together and firing one continuous blast into its face, the creature roaring in pain as the energy exploded and sent it staggering backwards. Then it's wings flared and that was all the warning Adrian has beams of light leapt from them, smashing into him and sending him hurtling into the far wall of the atrium.

"Adrian!" Tash barely had time to spare a glance at her lover before she was flash-stepping around a floor-cratering bunch from the diamond ogre. Reappearing behind it, she let out a growl of frustration as her blade merely sparked off its protrusions and then she screamed as the protrusions fired themselves at her, opening slices on her form before she flash-stepped away again even as Willie and Marcus blasted the monstrosity with Hellfire and the Dragon Talisman respectively.

Phoenixia, Val and Ingrid were already backing up as much as they could, their bullets and arrows being deflected by the wind barrier generated around the approaching man. Suddenly, Cristoph dropped into view behind him, his sword aimed for the creature's neck, only for him to be caught the swirling wind and hurtled away.

"There's too many Agents and this place is too small! It's a goddamn deathtrap!" Tentacles of shadow hurtled chunks of debris, suits of armor and even the curtains off the windows into the air to intercept the seemingly endless volley of prismatic beams that flew from the tall creature's wings. Michael growled and prepared to vanish in the darkness to attack it from behind when the diamond ogre burst from the flames Willie and Marcus had trapped it in. Roaring, it casually swatted both Agents aside with a sweep of its arm and into the Chief Agent, sending them all sprawling into a wall.

"Michael, Phoenixia, Cristoph, Ossa, Adrian and Kyle-we'll dealing with those things head-on! Anyone who's got a ranged attack get to the upper level and start shooting these things! Anyone else either try to break down the barrier to get to another part of them mansion out of the way!" Tash commanded, scooping up Monika and Danielle just as the wind being shredded the ground they were one and depositing them up on the upper level.

Adrian pried himself free of the wall even as Ben's team dashed up the stairs to the next level and growled, leaping towards the diamond ogre and slamming a kick into its head, trying to ignore the pain shooting up his leg and the fact his kicked only rocked the creature on its heels slightly. "Damn!"

Landing, he thrust his left hand out towards the creature and a beam of silver light leapt from it, smashing into its chest and shoving back a few feet, but did little else save cause a few wisps of smoke on its chest. "Impenetrable hide, huh?"

He skipped back as it charged, throwing rapid punches and firing the diamonds on its body, the Librarian's arms a blur as his magic-charged hands deflected them, his own counter-strikes glancing uselessly off its body.

A couple of yards away, Kyle and Tash were circling the wind being, their energy and physical attacks being deflected by its swirling barrier. With a cry of frustration, Tash launched into her Tairenso attack, swallowed by a tornado of flames. Flame and wind collided, clashing and grinding against one another before the Sue-being just made a knock-away gesture and his air barrier suddenly sped up and temporarily doubled in size, the flames dispersing as Tash was sent hurtling away, barely managing to righten her body in the air to land on her feet. "How are we supposed to get through that thing's barrier!"

"Aurora Grenade!" Kyle hurtled the swirling prismatic sphere and it smashed into ground just in front of the being's feet, exploding violently and sending it staggering back several steps, but even the energy and debris from the explosion was deflected by the barrier. "Blast-even if we knock it off guard, the barrier remains!"

Even as Tash unleashed a wave of flame at the creature, the scene was lost as bolts of energy ploughed the ground and kicked up dust, Michael and Cristoph darting and weaving in and out of them as they charged the creature. It roared at them and the blaze of beams intensified, threatening to swallow the two Agents until a wall of Darkness rose up between them and the beams, buying them several precious seconds to dart out of either side of it and around the beams. Then it charged faster than they thought possible, an open-palm strike nearly flattening the ninja even as beams leapt from its eyes, forcing the Chief Agent to jump back to avoid being sliced neatly in half.

"Lord Michael, can you not use the Darkness to teleport us behind it or draw it into a black hole?" Caltrops and throwing stars flew, only to be blasted out of the air by the creature's beams.

"Nope. Teleporting is too risky-I'm using too much energy at the moment and I don't have the few minutes' concentration I need to open a Black Hole!" Michael's Darkness tendrils ripped a large statue out of its alcove and attempted to use it as a bludgeon, but a swift flurry of energy shredded the tentacle and the statue just crashed to the ground.

Then both their eyes widened slightly as Ossa was suddenly behind the creature, her katana's edge glinting in the light. Sprinting forwards, she drove the weapon into its knee, a howling roar of pain escaping the monster it's leg bucked and it fell on its bad knee, bracing itself with one hand. Not skipping a beat, the Cherokee Agent ripped her weapon free and flipped onto the creature's back, a swift flash from her weapon severing two of its wings from its body. As it bucked and reared in agony, she viciously stabbed her weapon into its neck, actually retaining her grip on the hilt as it lurched to its feet and flailed wildly, screaming and its over-long hands scrabbling to dislodge her.

Bracing her feet against its back, she pushed and yanked her weapon free, flipping away to land in a crouch even as it faced her, still standing despite the fact it had a gaping hole in its neck, it's one remaining wing and eyes already powering up to unleash its fury on her.

She was already in motion before the first beams fired, darting under them and then leaping up, a corkscrewing motion that scored a series of slashes up its body before the her weapon sliced clean through its skull, trailing an arc of blood and brain matter as the top of its slid cleanly from the bottom.

Ninja and Chief Agent stared as she landed gracefully in front of even as the creature's body toppled backwards and crashed to the ground limply. Straightening, she dusted off her jeans and pulled a cloth out of her pocket, wiping it down the length of her weapon. "Thanks for distracting it."

Then the trio was scattering as Adrian was jumping away from yet another of the ogre's punches, a snarl on his face as it as it simply absorbed another blast of fire and lighting from his palms. As it threw another blow at him, he vaulted over it and formed a sword of crackling light in his hands. He unleashed a whirling slash; his weapon collided with its next punch and then shattered into fragments. Even as he skidded back and swiped his palm through the air generate a sheet of shadow in front him, the second punch ripped through it like it wasn't even there and caught him in the gut, smashing him into a pillar.

"Crap…it doesn't have an elemental weakness…" Adrian was already leaping to his feet, but his fighting instinct told him that a barrage of diamond was already nearing him and he didn't have time to get out of the way.

Then guns roared and the projects shattered in mid-air as Phoenixia flipped down from above in front him, her pistols blazing even as the ogre lumbered towards them, bullets sparking off its hide. "Lover, you've fought things that couldn't be harmed before! This shouldn't be any harder to kill!"

"Do you happen to have a dragonlance, a drill made of Spiral Power or a lightsaber on hand!" Adrian snapped back, the two of them leaping to the side as it's punch shredded the wall, magic and bullets intercepting the wave of diamonds that followed a second later.

"How about Booting it in the head?" Phoenixia tossed him her pistols without looking and yanked her sniper rifle free, the armor-piercing rounds tearing chunks of the protrusions free, but failing to penetrate the ogre's head. "That should have enough force to generate some exploitable cracks."

"And shatter everyone bone in my leg." The guns glowed as Adrian charged them with magic, but the bullets merely caused tiny explosions on the creature and barely halted its advance. "And it doesn't possess any particular weaknesses I can see besides it being slow."

A volley of grenades, blue magic and fire struck the beast from behind as Val, Ingrid, Jess, Marcus and Willie struck it from behind, sending it staggering forwards as the explosions enveloped it in smoke. However, Adrian was distracted from it as Tash's pained cry filled the air and his head snapped to the side just in time to see Tash and Kyle go flying backwards, their clothing ripped and torn from the tornado of wind that the Stu-being was surrounded by, scything tendrils ripping through anything that got near it. "Tash!"

"I'm fine!" A beat of wings rightened his lover in the air while Kyle managed to turn his out of control tumble into a skid and heat swirled around her blade as she gripped it tightly. "But we can't even get near this guy!"

"Well, we can't hurt ours!" Phoenixia called back as the four fighters slowly backed together, a barrage of attacks and energy raining from the balconies in the atrium and failing to penetrate the roaring tornado or the diamond hide of other monsters while the other Agents on the ground unleashed their own attacks to equal zero effect.

"Don't worry, I got this!" The four looked up to see Jared leaping down from a balcony, drawing back the Boomhammer high above his head. The ogre barely had time to look up before the Agent slammed his weapon down upon him with a cry of 'BOOMHAMMER!'

Everyone present covered their ears as a horrible shrieking sound filled the air, the Boomhammer pouring every ounce of its power into the ogre, it's diamond protrusions howling in protest as cracks splintered all over them and many of them even shattered. A second later, the Boomhammer itself shattered into sound and Jared was sent flying backwards, a timely catch by Michael and the darkness the only thing saving him from smashing his head into the stone behind him.

The ogre howled in true pain, every movement of its shattering more diamonds and it charged forwards, but Tash and Phoenixia were already attacking, the blonde's white-hot sword slicing right through the torso while a point-blank blast from Incandescent Silverreign blew apart it's head.

Ears still ringing from the Boomhammer, Adrian turned to face the whirling tornado of scythes…only to see that last remnants of it vanish into a swirling black hole on the floor, which quickly collapsed in on itself as soon as it's job was done. A quick glance at Michael revealed him leaning heavily on his sword, panting from the exertion.

Though he could not quite hear, Adrian knew he had forgotten about the portal when he saw several Agents' eyes widen and a few more grab their weapon and start moving. Whirling on his heel, he saw another massive figure, larger than any of the previous three actually grabbing the edges of the portal to pull itself into the atrium, it's skeletal hands nearly as large his entire body.

In the next instant, he was sprinting the distance between him and the portal, shouting that it was two-way and it lead them to Aster. He felt rather than heard Phoenixia on his heels, Tash a second later and the more Agents. Then it was all gone as he slammed into the emerging creature's head and shoved it back into the rainbow of the portal, the energy swallowing up his vision.

Insert Expendable Cursed-Fate-Type-Thing Here

The planet of Pulse.

The mystical planet, in which people had lived, in which legends swirled around and chatter existed. It was the future.

Once, the swirling paradise of Cocoon, the supposedly utopian city, had hovered over the planet. The place had been a technological hub of bliss.

And it had been utterly corrupt.

The members of Cocoon had believed anything from the planet Pulse was evil and contaminated and had forced massive purges on people who had even suspicion of contacting anything in Pulse.

It had gone fine until the main characters of FFXIII had blown up the place.

The main characters, Lightning Farron, Snow Villiers, Hope Estheim, Sazh Katzroy, Oerba Dia Vanille, and Oerba Yun Fang, had been marked as l'Cie by the fal'Cie Anima. fal'Cie were godlike sentient beings made from crystals. Becoming a l'Cie meant the fal'Cie wanted you to do something for it. It would tell the l'Cie what he/she had to do through visions. If the l'Cie failed to achieve his/her goal, or Focus, he/she'd be transformed into a Cieth, a monster experiencing eternal pain. Achieving the Focus was not better either - the l'Cie would be "immortalized" by turning into a crystal when not needed and otherwise becoming enslaved to the fal'Cie forever (although the chance of ever turning back into a human was very slim)…

The team had been told to destroy Cocoon - their own hometown. But at the price of Vanille and Fang's humanity (they'd been turned into crystals), they'd not only destroyed the place but killed the two corrupt fal'Cie manipulating Cocoon: Galenth/Baldanders and Orphan.

Most of the important people anyway had evacuated or were purged, so it was fine to blow up Cocoon, but all that magical technology was destroyed.

On the bright side, after having destroyed Cocoon, the l'Cie group were miraculously cleared of their cursed fates, as well as those of Serah (Lightning's sister) and Dajh (Sazh's son), who had been crystallized previously. Serah and Snow once again were engaged. Lightning had to accept it, but her mood was better once Serah threw a surprise party for her.

And right before Serah was married, Serah and Lightning planned to go that trip Lightning had wanted to take Serah to originally in order to, ironically, get Serah's mind off Snow. The two were going to have some sister bonding time before Serah's marriage.

They were about to leave when the Sue arrived.

-

Rena Lynvale had been an ordinary young girl who lived in Cocoon when the purges had started. Although she'd had little contact with Pulse, she'd been purged for no reason - more evidence of the corruption of the fal'Cie.

After being purged, she found herself isolated away from the technological world she knew and in the wilderness, and soon ran into a mysterious, almost mythical place. She soon found herself captured by a strange thing... and fell unconscious.

When she awoke, there was a mysterious tattoo mark on her leg. It could only mean one thing.

Rena had been branded as an l'Cie.

Meanwhile, Lightning and her group were in the middle of the preparations for the trip when Rena appeared with two shocking people.

Fang and Vanille.

Needless to say, the sisters' plans were cut abruptly short.

As it turned out, Rena had not just brought back Fang and Vanille – she'd restored Cocoon back to its state. But she had not brought back PSICOM and its corrupted system. She had instead used her power to permanently freeze the members of PSICOM into crystal and use them as memorials to the corruption of the city.

People slowly moved back into Cocoon, and its former glory was restored. It became the utopia that it had once been. Serah and Snow got to see the fireworks again.

Nobody questioned Rena – for she had just brought back an amazing paradise sans horrific government and had brought back Fang and Vanille. And on top of it, she'd gotten Fang and Vanille to realize they truly did love each other, although it wasn't really that they hadn't already figured that out.

She also got Hope and Lightning to realize that they loved each other. Despite the fact that Hope was like a young teenager and Lightning was 21. Talk about dating older women. But they still loved each other.

It wasn't long until Rena revealed a more shocking secret: Nora Esthiem, Hope's mother, was also alive and well. She had somehow been turned into crystal (with no explanation) by PSICOM. Rena promptly used the powers of her summon, Freya, to bring Nora back. Hope was ecstatic.

When Rena was asked why she had done all that, she explained that it had all been part of her Focus. And when they asked her if she'd turn into crystal for finishing her Focus, she said she hadn't finished it yet. But she would. She would rather finish her Focus and be immortalized in crystal than turn into a pained Cie Corpse.

And Lightning's group vowed that they would do whatever possible to make her finish her Focus but prevent her from becoming crystal.

Unknown to Lightning's group, however, Rena had found a way to prevent herself from becoming a Cieth. And, of course, as a Sue, she had absolutely no intention of becoming crystal…

-

"Mistress," said Tato, "I have the footage you wanted to see."

Runoa looked lazily at Tato. "Do me a favor."

"Yes, mistress?"

"Don't call me 'mistress'. All the Sues seem to call me that. It cheapens my position, I'm not royalty, and I don't want those Sues thinking they're like my slaves or something. 'Mistress of All Sues'? Pfft."

"What should I call you then...?"

Runoa sat there, considered it for a bit, then said, "Don't call me anything. Now, you said you had the footage?"

"Yes," said Tato. "Yes. Um. Well, we have the footage."

She inserted the DVD (for who used tapes nowadays?) into the nearest player. Runoa watched.

The scene was Aster, Chrys, and Akai fighting against Tato in the Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne fandom, and Runoa watched the figures fighting.

"Isn't that girl Aster?"

"Yes. I noticed she had a very different fighting style than usual."

"I know. We discussed this earlier, about what's going on. I'm more interested in the girl. What did you say she was?"

"A fae. With the powers of Selene the moon goddess."

"That will be fine."

-

"Final Fantasy XIII?"

Chrys blushed. "No. Oh, no… I play video games, but… not that. Because…"

Aster threw up her hands in protest. "But Final Fantasy XIII is awesome!"

"It's okay," said Chrys. "I think I'll play it when they've fixed all the bugs… I heard some weird reviews about bugginess and all."

"But you have to play it!" said Aster. "Snow and Serah are an engaged couple, and… well, Snow's voiced by Ono Daisuke and Serah by Kotobuki Minako."

"Huh?"

"Ono Daisuke. You know, the guy from Lucky Star… and he plays Koizumi in Haruhi, remember?"

"Yeah…"

"And Kotobuki Minako plays Mugi in K-On!. Now think about it. Ambiguously gay Koizumi and, well, Mugi, together…"

Chrys took a few seconds to register this.

Then both of them burst out laughing.

"…but I never actually played the game," said Chrys.

"Hm," said Tash. "Because I'd normally get Aster, but…"

Aster had not improved. She was in fact getting worse – laughing mirthlessly for no reason, talking about how "stupid" everything was, muttering under her breath, and going off on tangents, talking about random subjects.

"Stars are really beautiful, Aramayis," she'd said to the Counter Guardian once, "but it's always like they're teasing me…"

And the Counter Guardian had walked off, feeling somewhat sorry for her.

"Well," said Tash, "it's official. I have to assign all of Aster's missions to you, because it's neater if I do that instead of disperse her missions…"

"Right," said Chrys. "Well, I'll do the best I can."

-

"Ugh, Mizuho," said Chrys, "this plot is really linear…"

She ran once again into what seemed to be an invisible wall. "No towns! Very few side-quests, practically nowhere to go, and almost nothing to do!"

"Don't complain," said Mizuho. "Although the developers may have been stupid in making this game, there's one thing good from this."

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed your health goes back to normal after every fight you have with a monster?"

Chrys blinked and registered it. It was true. Because of the game's idiotic design, after every battle, no matter how beaten up or bruised Chrys got in any battle, she always walked out unharmed and in perfect health.

"Hey, that's true," she said.

Normally, this kind of thing in a game would bother her. Of course, Aster didn't care about the technicalities of a game as long as it was a reasonably non-sexual game, and this author here thinks the gameplay is stupid, but the plot is awesome.

Still, automatic regeneration of health was handy, and Chrys soon found that she could use the game's idiocies to her advantage. The linear plot made it nearly impossible for her to get lost – and this was saying a lot, in terms of Chrys – because she didn't have to look for Rena in places she'd already stepped; the boring calm battle music didn't stress her out when she fought; the nonexistence of MP made it much easier to use spells and magic without worrying about regenerating; automatic health regeneration was always a plus. In the real world, materialism was actually better.

"…but the gameplay is still pretty silly," said Chrys.

The city of Cocoon was beautiful – Chrys had to compliment Square Enix on their beautiful and stunning visuals in the game. The technology, the nature, the fireworks. Everything.

It was difficult to find a stunningly beautiful Sue in such a stunningly beautiful environment, but she eventually found her. Rena was raking away leaves and enjoying the beauty of nature, as if she was a lowly peasant and not the girl who had just risen Cocoon from the ashes.

"Aren't you worried that you'll fail to complete your Focus?" said Chrys. "Or that you'll fulfill it and become a crystal forever?"

Rena turned around to face Chrys and smirked.

"I'm not stupid. I know you're a Society Agent."

"...Oh."

Rena snapped her fingers and suddenly a figure emerged behind her - Rena's Eidolon, Freya, which took the shape of a dragon. Two people stood behind her, and Chrys realized she was facing not just Rena but also Fang and Vanille... who could summon Ragnarok if they wanted.

"Oh..."

Chrys gulped.

"All right," said Mizuho. "Let's get this over with."

Wielding two Copyrights, she sprang.

Hecatoncheir and Bahamut appeared behind Vanille and Fang.

Apparently the two considered Mizuho enough of a threat to go immediately into Driving Mode (which was theoretically impossible since Driving Mode was the equivalent to the previous FF games' Limit Breaks). Hecatoncheir became a mech and Bahamut a flying beast.

"Time to play," said Mizuho, and materialized a purple ball of energy, which she used as a sort of shield to blast away the attacks of the Eidolons.

Rena, who was riding Freya, swooped down closer to Chrys and attacked her, but Chrys frowned and aimed a few bursts of magic at her.

"Chrys, arm," said Mizuho. Chrys duly linked her arm with Mizuho's and both of them glowed with a faint tint, then exploded a ton of power towards Bahamut and Freya. Their manuever worked - the two flying Eidolons were successfully pulled to the ground. It also dragged Hecatoncheir downwards.

With Vanille and Fang facedown on the ground, Mizuho was able to spring up and jam Copyrights on Vanille and Fang.

Hecatonheir and Bahamut disappeared. Both Vanille and Fang's eyes closed and they rose up through the air. A blue glow spread through their bodies as they hardened and became crystal, and floated further into the air until they were at the position they were originally.

"It's a shame," said Chrys.

Rena got up from the ground from where she had fallen and scowled.

"Don't you realize how the other characters are Sues too?" she said. "I mean, the main character's name is Lightning."

"Well, to be fair," said Chrys, "her name's Éclair, but she wanted to get herself a new identity for her sister, and éclair is French for lightning..."

"Don't you realize how much power resides in this fandom?" Rena was clearly angered, but she was focusing her energy on provoking Chrys; she was holding Freya back.

"Apparently," said Mizuho, "it's enough for you to gamble on being turned either into a Cieth or a crystal."

"Oh, that's no gamble," said Rena proudly. "I've found a way around that. See, my Focus is to kill Freya with my own hands. Of course, I'm never going to do that. And I can't become a Cie Corpse, because I have too much willpower not to be one." She smirked. "Remember how Lightning and her friends escaped being Cieth?"

Chrys didn't know the plot too well, but she knew this probably meant something bad.

Rena leapt back on Freya and flew off. "Good luck getting that Prohibitor on me!"

Mizuho got up, cursed, then blinked. "I might have an idea."

-

"I don't like holding daggers. They're dangerous..."

"Shut up," said Mizuho. "It's necessary."

Rena was in the middle of a speech on "How to Cope When You've Become an l'Cie" when Chrys and Mizuho burst in, both wielding daggers.

"They're going to assassinate me!" yelled Rena, and summoned Freya.

Other than the ones who hadn't been given the chance to tame their Eidolons yet, all of the l'Cie sprang at Chrys and Mizuho.

But the two had another trick up their sleeve.

The two had taken Oneshots, enabling them to get Eidolons without being turned into l'Cie. The hard part had been actually taming the Eidolons, but Mizuho had taken care of that with a few grenades and a long, agonizing magical battle (which shall not be described here due to the fact this fic is pressed for time and needs to be released soon; we'll leave it that Chrys was very, very thankful for automatic health regeneration at the end of the battle). Because the two had not been branded, they couldn't get new Eidolons, so they got the ones identical to the ones canon characters had: Mizuho had the Shiva Sisters (Snow's) and Chrys had Alexander (Hope's).

"Aw, I wanted Ragnarok," Chrys had said. "It has the same name as that video g- "

"Shut up," said Mizuho. "We're pretty Sueish to begin with and we don't want to make it worse; besides, Ragnarok can destroy the world, like Fang and Vanille almost did, and we don't want to crystallize ourselves, like Fang and Vanille did do."

"You seem to know more about this game than I do..." said Chrys.

"Only how it ended," said Mizuho. "Usually that's the important part in fandoms."

Anyway, Chrys and Mizuho summoned their Eidolons. Alexander, which was nothing really but a big fortress that shot bullets at people, was a perfect match for Chrys, who cowered behind it in fear of the charging l'Cie.

Mizuho expertly handled her command of the Shiva Sisters and unlocked Driving Mode in five minutes. For those who have seen pictures of Mizuho...just imagine her in a motorcycle. Wearing Final Fantasy-esque clothes.

At one point, when she saw an l'Cie trying to kill Chrys from behind Alexander, she slammed the l'Cie with tire marks to the face.

After slamming down a good amount of l'Cie and aided by the bullets Alexander was shooting Mizuho turned to go get Rena, dagger in hand. Alexander stopped shooting and Chrys ran, flailing, towards Mizuho and Rena.

"You two are going to murder me, eh?" said Rena. "Looks like the Society's changed from its peaceful aims..."

"Unless you come quietly, this is our only option," said Mizuho.

"I expected you to come up with something more creative," she said, and charged at the two. As Freya, the Shiva Sisters, and Alexander duked it out, Mizuho, Chrys, and Rena fought, Rena with a sword and Mizuho and Chrys with daggers.

Each side was keeping the other at bay, until Mizuho yelled...

"Chrys, now!"

Chrys launched the move Mizuho wanted. She plowed straight into Rena with her body in a canine-like manner.

At the same time, in a masterstroke only Mizuho could have planned, Mizuho flew up and launched at Freya. She pushed Freya down near where Rena was being plowed.

Now, Chrys had to time her plowing so that Rena would not stab her with the sword, and so Chrys reached under where her arm was and the sword flew out of Rena's hand. Startled but ready to get back, Rena took the opportunity to swipe the dagger from Chrys's hands.

That was her mistake.

As Freya was briefly plowed down Rena also tried to take the opportunity and grab onto Freya, which Mizuho had predicted. Chrys then threw herself onto Rena's arm. The arm shoved right into Freya's body, and as Freya flew up away in pain, it created a large, jagged, bleeding cut that would kill her.

You guessed it - Mizuho had caused Rena to kill Freya in a big Xanatos Gambit.

Mizuho smirked. "I told you it'd work, Chrys. Sues are predictable."

Chrys stared at Rena.

"No," said Rena. "No. This can't..."

Her hands glowed blue.

As Rena rose up in the air, her legs and limbs glowed blue and her body turned translucent, and Rena's eyes closed as her body became crystal.

The crystal statue hovered in midair as Chrys stared at it.

"Should we leave her there?"

"No," said Mizuho, "we need to get the Sue out of the fandom."

"All right."

Chrys reached up and grabbed the statue. It then became weighted and smashed her flat on the ground.

"...ow... crystals are heavy..."

-

The Society had no use for Rena's crystal, so it became used for decorative purposes. So, there was a nice pretty crystal statue in the main room.

"So it's like getting turned to stone but with a lot more dignity," said Akai to Chrys over the phone.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Chrys.

"So how was the game?"

"The automatic HP regeneration was nice and it was convenient to not be limited to MP..."

"So you'd play the game?"

"Absolutely not. It ruins my pride as a gamer..."

"Hm," said Akai. "Amusing. I probably shouldn't play it either. Especially since they got rid of the victory music."

"I hated that!" said Chrys. "I missed it so much!"

There was a long pause.

"You'd better take care of Aster," said Akai. "It's a shame she's missing it."

"...I need to get to that," said Chrys.

-

"I'm sorry you have to go through all this, Aster," breathed Chrys. "I'm really sorry."

She went up to Aster and hugged her while Aster rolled her eyes in delusion.

And then a shiver passed through Chrys's body.

-

"Don't scatter the manga everywhere," said Chrys, "or fa'den will get mad at you."

Aster scoffed. "You're actually going to use that language he taught you to call him that?"

"We are planning to make this a language someday."

"Yeah," said Aster sarcastically, "and we'll use this to pass secret information that the Sues can't tap into."

"Oh, come on…"

"What are you two arguing about?" Adrian walked into the room, smiling. "And remember to put that manga back, Aster."

"Yes," said Aster, scowling, "fa'den." Despite the fact her accent had lessened while being around the Society, it still muddled up the pronunciation.

Chrys laughed. "You're using that after all?"

Adrian patted Aster's head, grinning, and said, "So I guess you're ty'dal now."

Aster gave an exasperated look.

"See, you really are tsundere."

"I am not!"

-

Chrys blinked. She remembered that scene. Why had being close to Aster triggered it? And she didn't get it just by touching Aster – she'd had to really open up her emotions.

At first a strange, confusing idea came up to her. Then suddenly she had a realization of what must be happening. In shock, she ran over to Tash.

"Tash! Tash!"

Tash looked up from her paperwork. "What?"

Chrys stared at Tash. She looked like she was about to cry. "There's something… strange in Aster."

Tash tilted her head. "Huh?"

"I got really close to her and… well, I can't explain it… but… I… saw this memory of Adrian. And I was thinking… maybe there was… something in there… trying to comfort her."

"Uh-huh. I think I see where this is going… I've felt like that too sometimes."

"But… but… it's worse than that. See, you know how she went insane recently… see… remember how Death… was a lot like Adrian? Well… see, I think there's… something that looks like it's comforting her. But instead…"

"…it's driving her crazy…" Tash stood up. "We need to get Aster to Val. Now."

-

They went over to Aster and told her where they were going. Aster complied without an argument, although they heard her muttering things under her breath. Neither of them wanted to know what she was saying.

Valerie lay Aster down and inspected everything about her, but finally shook her head.

"Aster's channels are all blocked."

"What does that mean?" said Chrys.

"She's not letting anything in or out of herself. This means I can't get into her to see what's wrong with her. Of course, it's very likely she's doing this herself, but there's always the possibility…"

Tash turned to Chrys. "Get Aramayis. He's the one who knows how to handle this kind of thing."

Chrys dashed out quickly and returned with said Counter Guardian. After listening to the story, he nodded.

"The only thing I can suggest is to try to get her out of her shell," he said, "but it's not something that urgently needs to be solved right away unless she starts blowing up things. Of course, I don't like seeing her going through insanity, but what can we do?"

Tash and Valerie nodded.

"I'm sorry about all this," said Chrys. "But… Aster… is usually very nice. And I know you probably don't think well of her, but…she's really nice."

As Tash and Valerie left, Aramayis watched them, then turned to Chrys. "So… what is she really like? Because I can't understand her, but…"

-

Runoa went through the tape one more time.

"I'm sure now," she said. "I'm absolutely sure. You." She pointed to the pseudo-Tash. "Get information on this girl's fandom and her history. I don't care about the girl, but I want to see her information and her capabilities. If she's what I think she is… this should be interesting."

"Yes," said the pseudo-Tash, and ran off.

"Do you really trust her?" said Tato, frowning. "Isn't it obvious she has a double agenda?"

"I'm not stupid. I know she has a double agenda. But her boss is not powerful enough for me. I can strike her down easily, and by the time my plan is through it won't matter."

"I see," said Tato.

There was a long pause.

"You are faithful to me for the most part right?"

"As long as Chrys dies."

"Good enough. You seem like a good candidate. Come here. I have something I want to show you."

Tato was afraid of whatever was going to happen.

She had good reason, too, because she ended up screaming quite a bit that day.

Insert Emotionally Trading Religious Motifs Here

"You're not needed," said Aster.

She frowned at the person standing in front of her, whom she obviously was not taking a liking to. He'd only been in the Library full-time fora bit over four months, which had been a somewhat agonizing experience on his part because he'd received angry smacks on the head, random kicks, and a flood of scoldings from Aster.

"And what do you mean by that?" replied Aramayis.

"The Library's fine without you," said Aster. "Tash-san came back from her time away and we're fine."

"What if you get attacked – "

"Then we'll call you. Right now we don't need you."

"I see," said Aramayis.

"Right now you just cause problems. We don't need you around. So can you go now?"

"I don't see why I should," said Aramayis. "Okay, so you proved you don't need me around... I don't see any reason why I should still leave."

"You're annoying!" said Aster, and ran off, dissatisfied.

-

"Has she recovered yet?"

"Not to any point we can see."

Aster looked sadly at Chrys, who was sitting on the couch, reading a manga volume and doing nothing else. No "Squee!" or "oh no oh no oh no" or any of that.

Just… sitting… there… reading.

For the first week after Adrian's death, Chrys had broken into despair. Complete, unleashed, terrifying despair. It was like her last resolution had been snapped.

In an attempt to make her feel better, Tash had sent her on a mission to one of her favorite fandoms, Phoenix Wright. Somehow, Tato had gotten rid of her Prohibitor, and was wreaking havoc. Chrys had certainly experienced severe mood whiplash, and had gone from downright depressed to sparkly-cheerful in a matter of seconds…

…until after the mission, a failure, Chrys had gone into the Library and remembered what had happened. The desu-sparkles literally fell off her in a little pile waiting outside the plothole.

Eventually Mizuho had decided to put Chrys out of her misery – in a way. She suppressed the emotions inside Chrys and caused her to be unable to feel the extreme grief she was in. Chrys, however, was the kind of person to only feel one emotion at once.

Meaning she was now blank.

Mizuho still had her Peacekeeper duties, and since there weren't two to take care of the problems (Chrys was in no condition to do anything, really, at this point), and was absent more often, so blank-shell Chrys was left around all day.

"I have to get her back to somewhat normal," said Aster.

"It's rude to do that, and you'll probably make it worse," said Valerie. "Let her sit."

"I know Chrys-chan. She'll never get better by sitting."

"Well," said Valerie, "make sure you do it right. You'll break her spirit if you do it wrong, and you have to be very careful with someone like her."

"I'll try."

-

The next mission released was a fandom Aster knew.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne – a manga the two girls had both pored over for weeks. Most of the Society had never understood what the hype was over it.

For Aster, it was perfect.

Aster went up to Tash promptly and requested that she get the mission now, that she do it with Chrys, and that she get this mission before Mizuho got back. Tash was too flustered to deny the request.

She promptly ran over to Chrys.

"Mission," she said. She stared straight at Chrys. "Come on. Let's go."

Aster looked at what Chrys was reading. It was Ga-Rei. Aster suddenly got the feeling that Chrys wasn't actually reading it, but taking random manga volumes off the shelf. When Aster has suggested that Chrys read Ga-Rei, she'd recoiled and decided to go for it later (for Ga-Rei was quite known for its penchant for violence).

"Mm?" Chrys turned her head to face Aster. She blinked a few times. Aster wondered if Chrys was thinking anything emotional at all.

Then Chrys nodded.

Not a good idea, Aster, said the voice.

You, shut up. You don't need to talk to me.

-

Nagoya Toruta was the hero.

She was the second child of Nagoya Chiaki and Maron, three years younger than Nagoya Natsuki (or, as she was in her past life, Fin Fish).

When she turned thirteen, she learned she was a kaitou (demon-thief) and was destined to purge the world of evil from Maou, despite the fact that Maou had, you know, been properly destroyed by Kami. Yeah. Something like that.

Anyway, to become Kaitou Eugenia, which was her name, she now had a jun-tenshi (half-angel) familiar. Actually, not two jun-tenshi familiars, but two.

And those two were none other than Toki Haiyar and Celcia Form.

With rosary, pin, ribbon, and sword, she purged the demons from the works of art people found "beautiful". She began to purify the world of its evil, and collect the chess pieces that sealed the demons.

Eventually Toki and Celcia revealed the terrible secret to Natsuki (who was dating Minazuki Shinji). She was the reincarnation of Fin Fish, the jun-tenshi who had not only betrayed their mother, Kusakabe Maron (otherwise known as Kaitou Jeanne), but also eventually sacrificed herself to save Jeanne and thus, the world. And Shinji, was, of course, Access Time, her lover. When Natsuki asked Shinji if this was true, he confirmed it.

And her memories came back to her in a flash.

(Despite the fact that the mangaka had specifically stated Natsuki would never get her memories back, even if Shinji did.)

With the help of Eugenia, Natsuki gave up the precious power of reincarnation, the one Maron had given her, back to Kami, eventually giving Kami the power to defeat Maou (and the author had conveniently forgotten all of Fin's compassion for Maou). Toki and Celcia turned Natsuki and Shinji back into their "true forms", as angels. They became reunited together forever as sei-tenshi (pure angels).

And what about Noin? Noin had returned to rape the next reincarnation of Jeanne d'Arc, only to find that she didn't exist – Maron had given her power of reincarnation to Natsuki (which was now Kami's). Noin was angered, but then Toruta informed Noin of an important fact: it didn't pay to be bitter about Jeanne's death, and the power of reincarnation was now Kami's – and while the reincarnation of Eve/Jeanne d'Arc/Kusakabe Maron would never exist anymore, he could live in happiness.

The story moved Noin to tears, and later he took on a human identity and started dating Toruta.

"You're both evil, deceitful, and wicked. You two make a great pair."

Toruta turned around in shock from where she was kissing Noin and saw Chrys and Aster.

Tato (what, you couldn't have guessed it was her? Her giveaway name, the fact this is a Chrys-centric fic, and the reference to her above?) smirked and approached the two.

"I see we have – "

"I'm not letting you screw around," said Aster.

"Hehe," said Tato. She winked and walked towards Chrys. "And how's my little Chrysie?"

"Stop it," said Chrys, rather nonchalantly.

"Toruta?" said Noin suddenly. "What's going on?"

Tato smirked.

"They're possessed."

The battle began.

It seemed the fight was split – Tato, Fin, and Access against Chrys, and Noin, Toki, and Celcia against Aster. It was an extremely difficult fight – one person against three super-powered beings.

Chrys was nonchalantly fighting without putting any real emphasis into anything, but Aster was a vicious woman.

Still, Aster was having issues holding her own against the three and Chrys was fighting a kaitou, a powerful one at that...

Tato was wielding Plain Jane pins, the ones Alyana had used in the Uglies fandom, instead of Jeanne's exorcist pins. But it didn't matter. The effect was the same - it'd rob Chrys and Aster of their identities as characters, and Aster had a sneaking feeling it'd turn them into chess pieces if Tato used the word "checkmate" (which she was using every time she threw a pin at Chrys).

Tato, unsatisfied, pulled out the magical kaitou ribbon (it was probably a modified version of her whip). She jumped up into the air and tried to twirl it around Chrys's body. Chrys evaded.

It eventually became too much for Aster to handle and she grabbed Chrys's hand and ran out of the fandom. Tato pulled an akanbe at them as they ran through a plothole.

-

That wasn't a good idea, going to your world.

I know, but I can't lose my pride and retreat like this. This would be the first failure in the history of the Society. Tato still has the fandom. I need to regroup. And you're getting awfully talkative today...

I'm just trying to help.

Chrys was not much better. Aster was tracking her condition as slowly getting worse. Chrys was starting to become unresponsive or indifferent about anything Aster said.

Aster contacted Tash.

"Tash-san, I know this is running a risk, but I ran out of the fandom to regroup."

"I saw."

"I know, and... well, I need to ask you a favor. A really big one. I know it doesn't follow Society protocol, but I think it's the only thing that can help Chrys."

Aster rang the doorbell.

It took a long time, but eventually the door opened to reveal a very irritated girl rubbing her eyes.

"Aster," she said with every hint of possible restrained pissed-off anger in her voice, "exactly WHAT is so important that you have to wake me up at one in the morning?"

Aster handed the girl one of her Copyrights. She immediately understood.

"You're the Society version?"

"Yes."

"And this is Chrys?"

"Yes."

The girl sighed and rubbed her eyes again. "Man, why do things always happen at the most ungodly hours of the day?"

-

Aster had very good timing. Akai's parents had been off on their summer vacation (Aster would not have contacted her had it not been for this fact). They did seem to be absent very many times - and that, in fact, was Original!Aster's fault, for she'd used some of her memory-stuff to get them to do it more often. It was to prevent them from getting involved in the magical stuff the three girls were always doing.

Akai, being a friend of Aster and Chrys, was of course not normal. She constantly had a strange demon following her everywhere in the air, no more than three inches tall, and rather cute. Aster had christened it the "jun-akuma" (after the jun-tenshi of the very series she had just been in). The things of its kind were constantly known to feed off humans by turning them dark, warped, and evil in exchange for immortality and a few side-powers, and feeding off the resulting negative emotions.

But then there was Akai.

Akai's natural personality didn't seem to be tainted at all. She had no desire to rob banks, extort people, or take over the world. All in all, she did have a rather good morality alignment. There were several theories for this, but the jun-akuma couldn't confirm or deny any of them because it couldn't speak (although its random attempts at doing things gave a little bit of clue). Either the thing was just stupid, or it was waiting for the right moment, or it wasn't powerful enough. When Aster had asked her author, the reply had been, "It's a crack thing. Don't think on it too much."

It also helped that Akai was a bitingly sarcastic cynic with enough negativity in her personality to supply several demons. Aster even thought sometimes Akai was a bad influence on the demon, not vice versa. And so, Akai and the demon did nothing, although Akai occasionally told the jun-akuma to materialize a cup of water or a plate of cookies (which it duly did).

Akai also had the unique abilities forbidden to man: being able to yell at Aster and Chrys and get obedient responses from them, as well as (temporarily) fizzle out Chrys's desu.

"Well..." Akai listened to Aster's story. "I... I'm sorry. A friend of yours... died?"

"Chrys-chan hasn't been quite like herself lately," said Aster. "Look at her. It took her ten minutes to say hi to you..."

"Don't...don't say that," said Chrys, staring at Aster negatively.

"I see," said Akai. "I... I see."

There was a long silence.

Then Akai said, "I'm thinking of joining the Society."

Aster blinked. "You? But - Adrian- "

"I know he died. I know I'm putting myself at risk..."

"Please don't. It's dangerous."

"You said this thing," said Akai, pointing to the jun-akuma, "gives me immortality if I want it."

"If you take up the offer," said Chrys nonemotively, "you'll see your non-immortal friends die, and your parents..."

"Yeah," said Akai, "but you're the only close friends I have right now and you're immortal too; I've lost contact with pretty much all of my other friends. No need to worry about that. As for my parents and relatives, I'm younger than them. In my natural lifetime, won't I see them die anyway?"

Aster remembered that this was one of the most jarring things about Akai: she could say awkward, strange, or sometimes even horrible things with a straight face.

"I..." was all Aster could say.

"And I need something to do with my life... so dying while beating up a Sue sounds awesome."

Aster could only sit there and think...Akai was just... difficult to be around.

But Akai was her friend. And Chrys needed someone other than Aster for help at the moment...

-

"That," said Akai, "is a Sue if I ever saw one."

The three were in the KKJ fandom again, watching Tato from a distance away. Tato knew they were coming, but just stood there.

"That K girl has a damn lot of creativity to create a thing like her."

"Quiet. K is awesome. She just didn't think her Chrys parody would come to life."

Tato only smirked. She was obviously prepared. She had turned herself into Kaitou Eugenia in advance, with Toki and Celcia flying around her head. On the side were Noin, Fin, and Access.

Akai, who had suggested an absolutely brilliant plan beforehand, grabbed three Copyrights and leapt at the three on the side. She had the element of surprise - the three had not expeced such a small girl (she was quite a few inches shorter than Aster) to leap at them. She managed to nab the Copyright on Noin's face (talk about subtlety) and on the two jun-tenshi floating in the air (the sticker was bigger than each angel).

Noin collapsed (he'd probably been sleeping, which he did a lot nowadays, before Tato's arrival) and Fin and Access fell to the ground, turning back into Natsuki and Shinji. Shinji got up, opened his eyes, saw what was going on - and grabbed Natsuki's hand and ran. He was not about to lose her again to a fight about angels.

Tato did not seem fazed. She grinned and her ribbon snapped its way towards Chrys, but the hanyou merely side-stepped and it struck the cement, cracking it. "Poor little Chrysu, all broken inside... and no Librarian to save you or comfort you… what shall we do with you?"

She twirled and the ribbon followed motion twirling around the Sue before arcing at Chrys again, the hanyou leaping clear and landing a few feet away, darting towards the Sue.

"Aww, look at you, trying so hard to be strong!" Tato mocked and easily slid around Chrys's punch, flexing her wrist and the ribbon responded again, winding some of it's length around Chrys arm and Tato jerked it, yanking the hanyou off the ground like fish on a fishing pole. "Too bad, you aren't strong. You're nothing but a little doll now, not even ranking as a pet… and you know it!" With a twirl of her wrist, she sent Chrys hurtling away towards a building.

Then the Sue raised an eyebrow as Aster zipped down out of the sky and caught Chrys, Akai appearing alongside the pair. "Oh, and the other half of the Failure Duo shows itself and it seems you've brought a guest."

Akai raised an eyebrow at Tato's outfit, the Sue twirling her ribbon like a ribbon dancer and offered a snort of amusement. "This is the girl that's been who's been making Chrys miserable? I'll kick her ass…"

Aster deposited Chrys next to her and shot a dark look at Tato, staff appearing in her hand. "How dare you hurt Chrys! I'm gonna make you pay!"

The Sue just smiled sweetly at them. "Hurt her? This isn't even a fight, it's like a puppet show! And besides, I can't do anything more than what's she done to herself! She's weak and helpless, but she got into a situation far beyond her pathetic skill level and now she's nothing more than deadweight, a little, broken pet that no one can bear to put out of her misery because she look so pathetic! If it wasn't so depressing, it'd be funny…" She burst into mocking laughter. "Oh, wait, it is funny!"

"...you seem to have improved your insults," said Aster darkly. "Let's get her, Akai-chan."

The two lunged at her. Chrys walked forward but stopped and did nothing after two steps.

Tato laughed and held up her ribbon. Bringing it down, she tangled Chrys and Akai in it. The end was going to strike one of them... although the ribbon was absurdly long, it would take only one hit and a "Checkmate" to kill her.

Aster watched it approach...

Grab the ribbon at your waist and push yourself downward, said the voice in her head.

Huh?

Just do it!

Aster did so and the ribbon gave way. After pulling it off -

Okay. Now keep the end away from you and hold a side of it, then pull it away from her. If you can't do that, at least use it to keep away her advantage.

Hey, you're kinda useful. Can you tell me what'll happen at the end of the next chapter of Hayate?

...I'm here to guide you! Not answer inane questions!

Shocked at Aster's sudden useful move, Tato was vulnerable to the move the voice had suggested. Aster managed to jerk the ribbon away from her.

"Smooth," said Akai.

...then Tato grabbed the ribbon's handle again in midair, and pulled it out of Aster's grasp.

"Speak of the she-demon kaitou cowgirl thingy."

"Shut up."

The voice however was still talking to Aster. Use your staff and fire ice shots and pin the ribbon to the wall. Make sure you fire several. You could miss.

You're awfully talkative today.

Just trying to help.

Aster swung the staff forward and fired a rain of ice against the ribbon, which tangled and got caught.

Angry, Tato sent a barrage of pins at the girls. Akai managed to push Chrys out of the way while Aster flew up and avoided them.

Tato growled.

"Idiot."

She pulled out her trump card: the sword. Aster remembered seeing it the way Maron had produced it out of her rosary; the only thing Tato would have to do to checkmate Aster would be to touch the tip of it to Aster and say that magic word…

Sword-point against staff, Aster and Tato duked it out while Akai stood nearby trying to snap Chrys out of it.

"You don't know what Aster's doing for you?" yelled Akai. "Can't you get off your ass and do something? Don't you get it?"

"It's worthless!" yelled Tato while clashing her sword. "She's just being dumb! Can't accept that her dear Librarian is dead!"

Aster registered the words.

Adrian's dead.

-

He's not coming back.

He's really dead.

-

Aster threw all logic out the window and grabbed Tato's blade with her bare hands (Tato had not swung the sword yet; I'm aware MythBusters disproved catching a sword in a middle of a swing). She managed to pull the sword out of Tato's hands. Her own hands were bleeding.

"If you dare try to hurt Chrys-chan like this again," she said, "I'm going to murder you and burn your body down and scatter your ashes to the wind. Chrys-chan is my friend and I am going to do anything at this point for her."

Chrys's eyes got wider and she opened her mouth.

Akai came from behind and landed a kick on the back of Tato's head. The tie holding up her hair dislodged and fell out. The magical-girl Jeanne hairstyle was knocked off.

"Stop giving people the illusion you're magical. You're not."

And Aster, with the blood on her hands, punched Tato in the face… but Tato plowed Aster away. Aster fell to the ground, scratches on her face, blood on her hands.

And Chrys came and hit Tato in the face with the flat of her own sword.

Tato turned around with malice in her eyes.

"No matter what you do to me, you can't face the fact. The Librarian's dead. And, of course, the Mistress of All Sues will honor me when you're dead too."

She turned to Celcia. "Distract them."

Celcia gave a blast of light and when it faded, Tato was gone, and Celcia and Toki were confused as to what they were doing.

"I'm sorry," said Chrys. "I should have done something…but I can't kill her. But I'm sorry. And I'm glad you came, Akai…"

Aster was staring off into space.

"Aster?" said Akai. "Aster?"

"You're my best friend, Chrys-chan," said Aster, "and don't you dare forget that."

And Aster listlessly opened a portal and went in without saying anything else.

"…Aster?" said Akai.

-

Aster slumped on her bed.

Adrian was dead, that was a sure fact.

He was dead and he'd never be back, he'd never be the person he was, he'd never do his normal Librarian things and be his Librarian self and do what he did…

What did Adrian mean to Aster? No, not her close friend – he was above her, although she'd never have enough respect to change the honorific. Adrian was like her older brother who monitored everything she did. And he was dead. He was dead and she'd never apologized for all the things she did to him or gave a proper goodbye.

She hadn't accepted it until now.

Calm down. Don't stress too much about it, the only thing to do now is –

Shut up. I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to hear from you ever again. There's nobody who can help me now. Shut up and don't talk to me. I don't need to hear from you. Ever. So shut up. Forever.

She cried.

There's only one person who can help me now. And he's dead.

Of course, I, as the author, know she'd regret that choice, but I have to grant that request.

The voice never spoke to her again.

But Aster never quite forgave herself…

"You raped Tash-san?" Aster yelled at Adrian. "You raped her and tried to kill her?"

"You don't understand, Aster, it's not Tash, you don't know, that Tash is a fake, you have to – "

"Don't give me lies! I'm more genre savvy than you think! I trusted you!" And she lunged at him, holding her staff, ready to slice open his throat, wanting to kill him, murder him, rip him to pieces –

Aster wanted to die, she wanted to die and know what it felt like, but she couldn't kill herself, she'd never be able to.

She wanted to die.

But life wouldn't let her die.

"Life is stupid," she said to herself. "And isn't it just meaningless? What's the point of anything I do anymore?"

And she laughed.

Laughed through her tears.

And she laughed for several more hours until she became tired and went to bed.

She'd traded her happiness and well-being for Chrys's.

And now she couldn't think straight anymore.

One could say she'd lost it...