Chapter 38: Alder’s Well That Ends Well

Section 592: Fallers
A term designated to individuals displaced in reality due to an EFE (see “Section 107: Entropic Fissure Event” for more information). Due to the sensitive nature of such specimens, field agents should employ the standard three-pronged classification system based on the subject’s mental state, physical state, and relative degree of space-time displacement.

Cognitive State
Class A: Subject retains baseline cognitive function with no observed limitations.
Class B-1: Subject displays mild memory impairment as indicated by recent retrograde and/or anterograde amnesia. Other cognitive elements are intact.
Class B-2: Subject meets the criteria for Class B-1 and shows at least one but no more than three additional cognitive deficits. See Appendix Y for a complete listing.
Class C-1: Subject displays significant memory impairment as indicated by retrograde amnesia stretching back at least half their estimated life cycle. Anterograde amnesia may or may not be present. Other cognitive elements are intact.
Class C-2: Subject meets the criteria for Class C-1 and shows at least one but no more than three additional cognitive deficits. See Appendix Y for a complete listing.
Class C-3: Subject meets the criteria for Class C-1 and shows greater than four additional cognitive deficits. See Appendix Y for a complete listing.
Class D-1: Subject has complete retrograde amnesia with or without the presence of anterograde amnesia.
Class D-2: Subject meets the criteria for Class D-1 and shows at least one but no more than three additional cognitive deficits. See Appendix Y for a complete listing.
Class E: Subject displays complete retrograde amnesia and greater than four additional cognitive deficits. This combination makes partaking in any activities of daily living difficult.
Class F: Subject is in an unarousable state.

(Continued on next page.)

“I’m sorry… what? Dimensions? Lorekeeper?” If Yuna’s head was spinning before, it was throbbing now. And as a drakloak, she no longer had gills to use as her indicator. That would take getting used to.

“I think it’s like a storyteller?” Leo looked expectantly at Alder.

“Excellent way of thinking about it, Leo.” The braviary applauded Leo with his wings. Yuna realized Alder had some sort of raggedy, tan cloth loosely hanging around his neck and upper chest. A necklace with the same yellow wheel as the one around Leo’s chest bounced around Alder’s neck.

“Thanks!” Leo chirped. “And I like your poncho.” He blinked quickly. “I dunno why I know it’s a poncho, but it’s silly. In a good way.”

Yuna had to interject for her own sanity. “Hang on.” She flew between the two of them. “Someone loop me in here, because I got lost before the crazy train even left its station.”

Laughing heartily, Alder rubbed the back of his head. “No, no, it’s quite all right, miss… umm…”

“Yuna.” The drakloak looked down. “Princess Yuna.” She wasn’t sure why she blurted her title out. Some inner dragon desire to outdo the braviary’s “lorekeeper” thing?

“Oh, my.” Alder raised his white-feathered wings innocently. “Terribly sorry, ma’am.”

Yuna scowled. “I’m not that old.”

The braviary flummoxed. “Of course.” He bowed his head repeatedly. “Like I said… the whole ‘lorekeeper’ thing is unofficial. Just a title I got from my teacher who got it from his teacher who got it from her teacher and, well, you get the idea.” Alder twirled his right wingtip around, whistling. “All it means is that the leader of our tribe tasked me with guarding important information.”

“Your tribe?”

“Why, the monks of Shaftra Monastery, of course!”

Yuna stared blankly at Alder. The braviary rubbed his white crest, laughing nervously. “Ah, right. You don’t know where that is, do you?”

“Should I?” The drakloak quirked a brow.

“Probably not.” Alder’s nervous laughter grew. “And, to be frank, I honestly thought the information I guarded wasn’t that important… until we ended up here. Now I’m pretty sure it’s quite important.”

Right. Here. Some sort of… distortion pocket far larger on the inside. Yuna again looked around. The crystalline double helixes in the distance gave off purple sheens that reflected off glass hexagons floating in seemingly random directions.

“Where exactly is here?” Yuna wondered.

“Well, I was kind of hoping the fact you two showed up here meant you knew the answer.” Alder continued rubbing his feather crest.

Yuna puffed out her cheeks. “You were here first.”

“Not entirely, my dear.” Alder raised his left wing… and stuck it right through his head. “I’m here in spirit, though! And that counts!” Though he immediately looked down at his talons and whispered, “I think?”

Deep breaths. Yuna didn’t even know where to begin untangling this nightmare of a knot. “Okay, let’s start simple, then. Do you, perhaps, have a guess where we are.”

Alder rubbed his chin with a wing. “Tough to say. Could be a small dimensional pocket. Could be an instability in the fabric of reality itself that, left unchecked, could unravel into the collapse of the entire omniverse!”

Yuna smacked her forehead, groaning. There’s nothing remotely simple about any of that! At least a few of those terms went right over her head. More questions to add to her growing list.

“But what would it be doing in Eternatus?” Leo wondered, tilting his head left and right.

Alder gasped. “Wait, you’re both in Eternatus?”

Leo and Yuna nodded in unison.

“Okay.” Alder tucked his wings in and paced back and forth. “Definitely leaning toward the latter theory, then. Oh dear… entropic fissures are not the type of thing you want dropped on your lap when you’re still getting your bearings as a lorekeeper.” He tilted his head forward and a book fell out of his head crest. Alder caught it in his right wing. “At least, if this thing’s really to be believed.”

“A book?” Yuna squinted. One thing at a time. She had to try and stick to that. “Is that part of the… important information?”

“Absolutely.” Alder nodded enthusiastically. “It’s got some of the most vital information, actually.”

Yuna was worried how much further she could press this. If the information was that important, was Alder even supposed to talk about it so casually?

Then again, if it could help her get back to Outpost R3X, Yuna didn’t care if this braviary was a blabberbeak. “And just what is that information?” the drakloak asked.

Alder looked down at the book, then back at Yuna. “I suppose… the simplest explanation is that it’s a… compendium of sorts. Probably written by the Guardians who abandoned the outpost we converted into our monastery.”

Yuna wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for a simple explanation or frustrated by how vague it was. “Guardians? Like some sort of army?”

“Tough to say. Guardians is one of… several different terms to describe this group of dimension-hoppers.” Alder opened the book and telekinetically flipped through its pages. “Cosmic Protectors. The Network. Overseers. Councilors. Eidolons. Socialites. Aegis. The Illuminati.” He rubbed his temple with a wing. “Honestly, there are multiple pages here with suggestions for what labels to use with favored and unfavored dimensions.”

Aaaaand the braviary lost Yuna again. What was more frustrating was how attentively Leo sat in front of Alder, like he was front row center in a classroom. He couldn’t seriously be getting all of this… could he?

He’s just being polite. That’s all.

… Except Leo clearly knew a lot for a literal newborn. And Yuna couldn’t just overlook that. “Uh, Leo?” The drakloak tilted her head slightly. “You’ve been very attentive. Is there something you’d like to ask the nice braviary?”

Leo enthusiastically nodded. “The Guardians… are they related to the awmiverse?”

“The ‘omniverse,’ Leo.” Alder pointed his right wing at him. “And you’re absolutely right.” He flipped the book open again. “If this is correct, the Guardians are protectors of the omniverse. But they watch over some dimensions more closely than others.”

Even though she didn’t exactly know what an omniverse was, Yuna could piece it together. It sounded like “universe,” and Alder spoke about dimensions, so it must have referred to a large number of universes. And Yuna was willing to bet that their universe was one of the ones these Guardians weren’t watching closely, given how badly things seemed from her point of view.

But the very thought of other universes was enough to make Yuna dizzy. She needed to change the subject quickly. “So, Alder…” The drakloak wrung her hands together. “I can’t help but notice your necklace looks an awful lot like the wheel around Leo’s body.”

Pink feathers glowing, Alder telekinetically lifted the necklace to eye level. “So it does!”

Why did he need to double check it? Yuna mentally groaned. She managed to keep a straight face, however. “I don’t suppose you or that fancy book of yours could tell us what Leo is? Because I don’t have a clue.”

“And I don’t, either,” Leo chirped.

“Hmm.” Again using his psionics, Alder rapidly flipped through the book. “Let me see. Belly wheel. Belly wheel. Belly… aha!” The braviary slapped his white wings against the book triumphantly. “The color scheme’s quite different… and he’s much smaller, but I’m fairly sure Leo here is an arceus.”

Yuna loudly coughed. “C… come again?”

“Arceus.” Alder bobbed his head. “I’d, uh, show you the picture, but since I’m a spiritual projection, you wouldn’t actually see the book’s contents.”

“N-No, that’s not it.” Yuna waved her hands back and forth in front of her face. “It’s just—”

Leo burst out laughing. “He said ‘arse!’ That means butt!” The cosmic arceus wiggled his dark blue hips and star cloud tail. “I’m a butt! I’m a butt!” he sang.

Yuna looked away to stop herself from joining his laughter. She cleared her throat. “Well, err, anyway, I’ve never heard of arceus before.”

Alder closed the book and held it up. “Outside of this book, I haven’t, either.” He looked at Leo. “But the fact that he appeared in this…” His voice trailed off. “Huh. We really need a simpler name for this entropic fissure, assuming that’s what it is. Perhaps ‘instability?'”

“What about ‘mystery dungeon?'” Yuna offered, because this strange pocket dimension certainly lined up with what she thought dungeons were like before she began diving into Eternatus on the regular.

“Already in use for other purposes, but I admire the enthusiasm.” Alder chuckled. “Let’s go with ‘anomaly.” He nodded to himself. “As I was saying, Leo’s appearance in this anomaly, right when I discovered it through my own meditation, has to be significant.”

Yuna was about to interject and ask why she was in the anomaly, but then she remembered she was holding Leo when the anomaly pulled him in. “I suppose.” She rubbed her cheek with her hand. “What, do you think Leo can somehow fix this place?”

“That’s my assumption,” Alder stroked his chin with his left wing. “Leo, do you notice anything unusual?”

The cosmic arceus tilted his head. “Hmm.” He looked around for several seconds. Leo’s blue eyes suddenly sparkled. “Ah! There!” He dashed off to the right.

“What? Where are you going?” Yuna floated after him. “There’s no ground up ah—”

Parts of the nearest crystalline double helix flew toward the platform, forming a bridge in front of Leo. Yuna’s tail crinkled. “N-Never mind.” She continued behind him, looking around nervously.

The farther Leo went, the clearer it was that the bridge was leading to something. It was… a mishmash of floating glass and energy balls. Yuna didn’t recognize anything about it at first, but once they were only a few meters away, she realized there was a broken wheel in the middle of it.

A wheel exactly like Leo’s.

Before Yuna could call Leo, the cosmic arceus pranced toward the floating debris and leaped into the center.

“Leo, wait!” Yuna threw her arms up to shield her eyes from a bright flash. When the light faded, Leo sat in the broken wheel. “G-Get down from there, please. It could be dangerous!”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Leo chirped. “It’s like a puzzle. I gotta put the pieces back together.”

The drakloak looked around at the glass and energy balls. Nothing about them screamed puzzle. “Are you, um, sure about that?” She rubbed her shoulder.

“Positive.” Leo squinted. “I just gotta put on my thinking cap.” He squeezed his eyes shut and, to Yuna’s befuddlement, a wide-brimmed hat poofed onto Leo’s head. It had “thinking” scrawled across its brim.

Like some earlier moments, it would’ve been cute if it didn’t leave a gaping pit in Yuna’s stomach. She turned to Alder. “Should I do something?”

The braviary shook his head. “No. I think Leo led us to the core of this anomaly. Look.” He pointed his right wing forward.

Yuna glanced back at Leo. An invisible force slowly pulled various spheres and glass shards toward one another. “Leo’s… doing that?” she whispered.

“It sure looks like it,” Alder chirped. “We’d best let him concentrate, though.”

They watched together in silence for several minutes while Leo pulled the floating rubble together, forming a… mural.

A mural of a rift. Purple and spiraling. Bigger than the portals Yuna could generate, that was for sure.

Then a loud click rang out through the area. Leo opened his eyes and his literal thinking cap disappeared in a stream of blue and white light. “All done!” He hopped out of the mural, puffy tail wagging. “What do you think?”

“I think you’ve fixed the anomaly!” Alder clapped his wings together. “Oh, well done, Leo. I daresay you can soundly handle them.”

Yeah, but how? Yuna wondered. She blinked a few times, then frowned. “Wait, them?’ Like… there are others?”

“Absolutely.” Alder looked up. The double helixes and pokémon silhouettes in the distance were fading away in multicolored streams. “I fear we’re on the brink of a dimensional cataclysm. And the only way to stop it is to seek out the anomalies and repair them.”

Seriously? I don’t have time for something like that! Things were bad enough with the Needles and Eternatus. Yuna couldn’t handle something even worse getting piled on top of that. “So, what do we do?”

“The anomaly’s fading.” Alder folded his wings up. “Find me on Planet Chakran and we’ll talk more.”

“Chakran?” Yuna looked around in a panic. “Is that in Eternatus?”

“No.”

“Then how are we supposed to get to it?!” Yuna growled.

It was too late for an answer, however. The anomaly finished dissolving away and purple light swallowed Yuna and Leo up.

“So, let me get this straight.” Noctum stopped pacing and looked at Jade. “The princess just… disappeared inside that pillar of distortion?”

“Eeyup.”

“And you made no attempt to stop her?”

Jade shrugged. “She got sucked in. Like shed scales down the drain.” The salugia twirled around, making gurgling noises.

Valkyrie grunted from her position leaning against a glass tube with a hydraulic pump inside. “And we already heard the distortion’s been repelling people when they try to approach. Asking the same questions over and over won’t get you anywhere, hotshot.” The garchomp shook her head. “Face it. Nothing we can do right now.”

Noctum couldn’t brush Valkyrie off this time. Not after all the things Yuna had said. About his failings. About their culture. About Bahamut. Even though Yuna insisted he shouldn’t blame himself, something burned inside his gut.

The black charizard turned toward her, snorting purple fire from his nostrils. “At least I’m trying to do something to help the princess.” He pointed a talon at Valkyrie. “What kind of bodyguard abandons their charge on a whim? I don’t think I’ve even seen you two together for more than a few minutes!”

“The fake kind. Duh,” Nikki scoffed from her vantage point atop a stack of crates. Noctum glared at her with a look that screamed she wasn’t helping. The toxtricity raised her arms in surrender. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. That was rhetorical. Shutting up now.”

Valkyrie didn’t move from bracing against the tube. She kept her gaze trained on Noctum. “Don’t take out your frustrations on me. Not my fault your obsessive doting over your precious princess isn’t good for anything.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “I warned you about this. Maybe this’ll help get the silver spoon out of your—”

Noctum moved without thinking. Before Valkyrie could finish her insult, Noctum Phantom Warped directly in front of her… and socked her right in the snout. The back of the garchomp’s head hit the glass tube, leaving a small crack. Noctum pulled his hand away. Bits of blue and purple dragonfire faded to show red stains on his normally black knuckles.

“The hell?” Valkyrie staggered away from him, forearm pressed firmly to her snout to stop the blood oozing from her nostrils.

“Oh ho!” Nikki rubbed her hands together. “Now this is entertainment! Birdbrain, get me some popcorn!”

“Do you see a popcorn maker around here?” Jade responded. “Wait, what am I saying?” She awkwardly waddled toward Noctum. “Heya, buddy, maybe we should calm down and—”

Noctum snarled at Jade. The salugia hopped back with a frightened squawk. Her tail flaps curled up and released some pink smoke. Noctum ignored her antics and turned back to Valkyrie.

“Don’t you dare—” He stomped his foot on the ground for emphasis, “—act like you know anything about me or what I’ve been through.”

The Malice Crystal in his belly flickered with purple light. Noctum didn’t care. He was so, so sick of taking grief from Valkyrie. He’d tried being patient. That was what the Sages preached. But if Bahamut really wasn’t as benevolent as the scriptures made him out to be, then to hell with patience! The black charizard didn’t care if Valkyrie was stronger. It was past time he stood up for himself.

He stepped toward her again. “Yes, I ‘dote’ over Yuna, because I owe her family.” Noctum snorted out dragonfire. “They saved me from years of wandering Aeon’s cities and wastelands, begging for any little scrap of food I could get my claws on.” He bared his fangs at Valkyrie. “Some of the things I did — the humiliation I endured — I’d only wish on my worst enemies.”

Valkyrie’s arms slackened. Blood dribbled down her snout and dripped onto the metal platform.

“Wait,” Nikki whispered. Noctum almost didn’t hear her over the ringing in his ears. “You were homeless?”

Noctum nodded.

“A… as a kid?” Nikki swallowed hard. “What about your parents?”

“Never knew them,” the charizard said. “My egg… hatched on the outskirts of some sulfur pits. Alone.”

Valkyrie looked ready to say something. Noctum wouldn’t let her. He jabbed a claw into her chest. “So, no, you don’t get to stand there and judge me or my choices. Because if it wasn’t for the Aeon royals…”

Grimacing, Noctum stepped back. His tone dropped to barely a whisper. “… I might not even be here.”

Silence followed, though Noctum’s ears still rang. Louder than the whirring and humming of tubes pumping tar up from the pits below the outpost. He saw a few skorps out of the corner of his eye, nervously whispering amongst one another.

“… geez, dude. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

Noctum held his right arm up, blocking Nikki from his view. “Don’t.” His tail flame shrank. An awful gnawing tugged at his gut. No doubt the Malice Crystal was reacting to this. Had it… amplified his anger in some way? Noctum wasn’t sure… and didn’t even care. He just wanted to see Yuna. But she was dealing with that distortion pillar.

“I’m sorry. I need some space.”

The black charizard walked off, dragging his tail across the hot, sticky metal platform. A warmth that should’ve comforted his natural fire, but instead left him feeling even emptier.

He always figured he’d have to broach the subject with the others eventually. A part of Noctum even wondered if Yuna would let those details slip out on accident. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Instead, Noctum had ripped that figurative bandage off himself. And it stung… in a way the charizard couldn’t properly put into words.

In times like these, Noctum would’ve fallen back on the Aeon scriptures. But what good were those? How many were nothing but empty platitudes?

Noctum grimaced again. That’s not right. As… upsetting as that possibility was, the charizard couldn’t use it as a scapegoat. Not after he had told Yuna to focus on the present.

He didn’t need Valkyrie’s respect. Yuna still cared for him. That was what mattered… right?

Noctum was so lost in thought, he would’ve walked right into a metal pipe had he not heard shouts several meters to his left. The black charizard blinked a few times and turned to see Seifer leveling his horn at Gene, who stared at it with a mixture of boredom and amusement.

“What do you mean you couldn’t send them all back?!” the keldeo barked. “You can open portals same as Yuna and Noctum!” The prosthetic horn flickered with red energy. “What’s the point of all that bragging about your strength when you can’t deliver on it?”

Evidently, Noctum wasn’t the only one having a row with someone. Not that the charizard found Gene all that sympathetic. The mewtwo hadn’t tried to endear himself to anyone in the group.

“The tar fumes giving you selective hearing or something?” Gene rolled his eyes. He reached a glowing index finger out to Seifer’s horn and pushed it, tilting the keldeo’s head away. “All those guys that got schlorped up by the oversized garbodor? Yeah, they’re dead. There’s no going back to Venish for any of them.” The mewtwo’s gaze sharpened. “Not unless you want them all eroding into Phantoms.”

Seifer drew his lips back in a snarl. “But we saved them. You destroyed Exodes!” The keldeo stepped back, legs shaking. “Th… that’s supposed to fix it. To fix them.“

“Yeah, sure.” Gene crossed his arms and lazily flicked his tail back and forth. “Maybe in whatever magical fairytale land you got trained in. But the fact of the matter is Exodes pumped that garbodor full of Malice and then he suffocated all those crew members.” The mewtwo looked at the crystal in his shoulder. His eyes flickered violet. “There’s no reversing that. They’re part of the Qliphoth now. The sooner you accept that, the better it’ll be for everyone.”

Noctum’s tail flame shrank. Even if Gene was telling the truth, there wasn’t an ounce of sympathy behind his words. Almost like he didn’t care.

“How can you say something so heartless?” Seifer huffed, nostrils flaring. “Those sailors had families and friends. People who deserve to know what happened. Who may very well need help because of this.” The keldeo gestured toward the smog in the distance with a foreleg. “The Radiant Guard helps the people of Radiance.”

Gene pinched his brow. “But you’re not Radiant Guard anymore.” The mewtwo shook his head in disbelief. “In fact, the very people you claim to serve made you into the fall guy for their failings. So, why are you still preaching like you’re one of them?”

Noctum thought about interjecting… but Gene did have a point. If only that point didn’t make the black charizard so… uncomfortable.

“It’s the principle!” Seifer huffed. “Besides, you have no right to complain when you callously tossed that fact out without my permission!”

“I’m not complaining.” Gene flicked to his right. “I’m saying you need to reevaluate your priorities.” The mewtwo tapped his right index finger to his right temple. “I sifted through some of the sailors’ memories. That Crowne Minister they were with got evacuated in time… while they were all left behind to get swallowed up by Eternatus.”

Noctum swallowed hard. In the moment, he was too busy worrying about the tranced garbodor to think about it. A pang of guilt struck his crystal-filled gut.

“So, let me ask you this.” Gene stepped toward Seifer, scowling. “If a Crowne Minister can’t be assed to help his own ship’s crew, why the hell should I believe your precious Radiant Guard is any better?” His eyes glowed deep blue. “And, on top of that, who do you think the Radiant government really serves?”

Seifer’s eyes widened with every word Gene said. The fight drained out of the keldeo’s face, along with his tan color. His eyes darted around as if the answer to Gene’s questions was somewhere amidst the haze of Planet Bogdan.

Noctum looked down guiltily. He should’ve spoken up, but after chewing out Valkyrie earlier, a small part of him felt some satisfaction at seeing Seifer utterly flummoxed by Gene’s logic. And the charizard resented himself for that. He might not have known Seifer long, but the keldeo was at least making an effort to be nicer toward him than when they first met. Which was more than Noctum could say for Gene.

“Seriously?! Do you get some sort of perverse joy out of kicking a ‘mon while he’s down?”

Noctum jumped. His tail flame doubled in size. “Y-Yuna?!”

He looked over his shoulder and watched the drakloak float toward Gene with a frown etched on her face. Jade waddled after her with Leo wrapped up in her wings. Nikki and Valkyrie brought up the rear, the latter still trying to stop her snout from bleeding.

How had Noctum missed her return? What about the distortion pillar? No, that would have to wait, because Yuna was squarely focused on Gene.

“I was hoping you trying to choke the spirit out of Reshiram was some freak one-off thing,” Yuna growled, drawing startled looks from the others, including Noctum.

“He did what?!” The black charizard’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Oh, yeah. He knocked me into the swamp, too.” Jade puffed her cheeks out at Gene. “Meanie!”

“We get it,” Yuna growled, before turning back to Gene. “As I was saying, I wanted it to be a one-time thing. Clearly it wasn’t. I didn’t think I’d prefer it when you treated all of this as a joke, but here we are.”

Noctum swore he saw something black and… inky in Yuna’s hands and the sides of her head. “Princess? Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” Yuna waved the black charizard off. “He’s the problem.” She pointed at Gene. “What kind of leader are you? Brushing off civilians. Threatening and talking down to allies. It’s… it’s pathetic!”

A tense silence followed. Noctum cautiously spread his wings out, ready to leap to Yuna’s aid if Gene flew off the handle. The mewtwo narrowed his eyes at Yuna. There were black sparks dancing around the Malice Crystal in his shoulder. It made Noctum’s crystal stir. His gut squirmed and he was thankful it didn’t audibly gurgle. In some regards, he was proud of Yuna for not backing down, but still worried for her safety, given what she just revealed Gene had tried to do.

However, though the mewtwo clenched his dark gray fists like he intended to attack, the ultimately turned away from Yuna, shoulders sagging. His tail dropped against the metal floor with a defeated thud.

“… you’re right. I’m not much of a leader.” Gene looked skyward. “Because I was never meant to be a rebel leader in the first place. I’m only here… because the real leader is missing.”