Chapter 73: The Place Where I Belong

Entry 1902
I found an empty planet today. Practically routine for me with all the wandering I’ve done in my life. And yet something strikes me as off about this place. Sure, it’s empty. But as I float around its sky, I can’t help but feel like it’s not supposed to be. The ingredients are there for life to take root. It just… didn’t.

Eternatus didn’t absorb the planet, obviously. But there are these fissures running across the surface. Perhaps something interrupted the planet’s attempt to bear life?

Hang on. I have an idea. What if I give this planet the nudges it needs to continue that push for life? If I warp a few meteors here, then generate strong storms, that should replicate the conditions other planets had when life successfully developed.

Yes, yes, I see the upside. If I’m there from the very start, I can make sure the life that springs up isn’t afraid of me. I wouldn’t have to wander anymore.

I can finally have a home.

“Well?” Nikki looked at Noctum. “We’re not really leaving her alone, right? It’s your home, too, so rift us over there.”

“Right.” The black charizard looked down at his armored belly. His connection with the Malice Crystal was back. So, the Phantom did block it somehow. “Let me just—”

“Don’t.”

A cold, rough arm grabbed his shoulder. Noctum jumped into the room and spun around. “How do you always get the jump on me like that?”

Staring disapprovingly, Valkyrie crossed her arms. “Do you really need me to answer that?”

Noctum slouched against the room’s empty bookshelf. “We should try to be there for Yuna.”

“She’s burnt out.” Valkyrie leaned against the doorway. Her blue tail lazily wrapped around it. “She did have to go chasing these anomalies on back-to-back days. Frankly, I’m impressed she lasted as long as she did given everything else she’d gone through.”

“Which is all the more reason not to leave her alone.” Nikki stood up. Her mohawk frazzled. “C’mon, Zardy, open the rift. We’re not seriously entertaining her, right? She’s got as much empathy as sandpaper!”

That one seemed to genuinely fluster Valkyrie. She bit her lower lip and looked over her left shoulder. “You can’t force her to spend time with you. Push too hard… and she’ll push you away.”

Noctum was confident Valkyrie spoke from experience. Both her own… and Igneous’.

The garchomp sighed. “Look, she said she’d come back, right? Maybe you ought to trust her on that?”

Noctum quickly glanced at Nikki. The toxtricity had a retort ready, so Noctum stuck his left wing out and shook his head. Scowling, Nikki sat back on the small, creaking bed.

“Let her have time to herself,” Valkyrie suggested. “Besides, you’re the only rift-maker in the outpost now. If you leave… we’ll be vulnerable should the worst happen.”

“Cripes.” Nikki rolled her eyes. “We got a Needle and one of Leo’s plates. Would it kill you to be a little happy?”

Bowing her head, Valkyrie said, “Someone has to stay vigilant. Besides, dividing our numbers further while Gene is injured is a bad move.” Valkyrie pointed her claws at the floor. “We need to keep as much of our group here as possible for the time being. That way we can move as a unit.”

“All right, I get it. Sheesh.” Nikki shook her head. “You keep that up and you’ll burn out.”

“I’m doing just fine, thank you.” Valkyrie snorted dragonfire embers. “It pays to have someone on guard.”

Again, it sounded like Valkyrie spoke from experience. Noctum didn’t need to press her on that. Considering everything that happened to Igneous despite her working for him, it was obvious.

“Then what do we do in the meantime?” Nikki stood back up. “Twiddle our thumbs? I don’t even have a guitar here to play.”

Valkyrie stepped out of the doorway. “Can’t decide that for you. But I’m taking a shower. And getting food.”

Noctum’s Malice Crystal jiggled in his belly. The black charizard put a hand on his armor. “Can I join you?”

“For the food part. Provided you don’t get sappy about Yuna.”

The garchomp was already heading back down the hall. Noctum shot Nikki an apologetic look and stumbled after Valkyrie.

“How do you feel about beef stew?” he asked.

A snrk came from ahead of him. “Guess there are worse things to eat.”

The moment Yuna hit her cool, lavender blanket, it was like she’d flown back in time. Her bedroom was exactly the way she’d left it… save for the fact that the bed was made, of course. A small mirror hung opposite her bed, with a shelf underneath housing bottles of novelty dye Yuna would once paint her gills or the spokes around her tail with. The far right corner had a pile of stuffed dolls resembling assorted dragons. The far left corner… was a small Aeon shrine. Yuna bit back the urge to tear the drawing of Bahamut off the wall.

Instead, she scooched along the blanket toward the handknit substitute doll propped up against her one black pillow. Thanks to evolving, the drakloak could finally wrap around it. She sighed in content.

“Finally, some peace and quiet.”

And then the stone door flew open and Yuna silently cursed her big mouth. The duraludon holding his right arm against the open door stared at her. Tiny eyes full of surprise.

“Y-Yunavresca?”

Yuna looked down and realized the Soul Dew was visible. Not swarmed by shadows anymore, either.

“Hiya, Dad.” She awkwardly waved to him.

“I don’t believe it!” Calcifer rested his left hand on his head. “You’re here! And you’re big… ger!” He turned around slightly. “Does this mean your mother’s back, too?”

“No. It’s just me.” Yuna slid off the substitute doll, slumping over against her black blanket. “Everyone else is… still at the resistance base.”

“Right. The fancy… World Ender space… thingy.” Calcifer tapped his hands together awkwardly. “I’ll admit, I haven’t heard much about anything that’s been happening. Just a few things here and there from your mother and an ally in Radiance.”

“You mean the Ryujin boss?” There wasn’t any point in Yuna beating around the bush.

Calcifer stiffened. “Ah.” He shuffled awkwardly in the doorway. “You, uh, heard about that, huh?”

“Yep.” The drakloak sighed into her blanket. “Mom also admitted I’m adopted. So, you don’t have to lie about that anymore, either.”

The duraludon stumbled back a bit. He cautiously stepped through the door and shut it behind him. “I wanted to tell you.”

“I know.”

“Your mother is… the bigger decision-maker between the two of us,” Calcifer confessed, back to poking his hands together. “She’s always dealt the most with the Ryujin.”

Yuna wanted to relax, but she didn’t have the heart to chase her dad out of her room. “How deep does it go?”

“They supply us with things that we ask for,” Calcifer said. “In return, we sneak soldiers into Radiance to dispel distortion around their territory. And we accept refugees from them.”

“And we can do that because?”

“There’s an underground channel connecting Saint Zygardesberg to Scale City.”

Yuna massaged her temples. “So, all the times we’d go there for ‘a day out.'”

“Were days your mother would meet with Mr. Sakaki.”

The drakloak’s hands slid down her face. Figures. She decided to change the subject. “If I’m adopted, then why do you and Mom want me to become queen?”

Calcifer blinked. “Because you’re still our eldest daughter. It’s not as if bloodline matters. We don’t have actual blood to speak of.” He chuckled.

Yuna didn’t find it funny. “Well, what if I’m actually from World Ender? Would you still want me to be queen?”

The duraludon looked past Yuna. No doubt toward Bahamut’s picture in the far corner. “Where is this coming from?”

Sighing, Yuna rolled onto her side. She touched the Soul Dew with her right hand and pulled a pink spark out of it that formed into a tiny Cresselia.

A tiny sleeping Cresselia. Yuna loomed over her.

“WAKE UP!”

“Ahhhhhh!” Startled, Cresselia’s head shot up. Her tiny, beady eyes blinked rapidly at Yuna. “Why so loud? I don’t need such harsh vibes.”

Calcifer fell back to a seated position. “What in blazes?!” He glanced between Yuna and Cresselia. “Darling, if you’re learning about shadow puppets, you could at least—”

Yuna touched the Soul Dew again. She tossed a white speck beside Cresselia, which conjured a tiny Reshiram. “Dad, meet Saints Cresselia and Reshiram. Sages, my dad. The Aeon King.”

“S-Sages…” Eyes wide, Calcifer rubbed the side of his head. “I’m not dreaming, right?”

“Noyaaaaaawp.” Cresselia tucked her head down and yawned. Yuna treated her to an unamused look. Cresselia stiffened, trying to look as alert as possible.

“So.” Yuna clapped her hands together. “Who wants to be the one to tell him Aeonism is a sham and Bahamut turned himself into an undead, bloodthirsty daemon?”

Calcifer stared at Yuna, blinking slowly. “What?” He glanced at the Sages. Reshiram wilted while Cresselia’s head bobbed over.

“I tooaaaaaaahld him.” She rubbed her mouth. “He was troubled. Lot of nightmares. Really awful ones. Always refused my offer to help.” Cresselia kept rubbing her face. “Think they spread to his kid.”

“Bahamut has a child?!” Calcifer cried.

“And a wife. Who both died. Then got reincarnated. Into me. And my son,” Yuna casually declared, wispy tail lazily swishing along her blanket. “Oh, guess that means you’re a grandpa now. Surprise.” She gave half-hearted jazz hands.

Calcifer’s eyes rolled back and his head. He slumped over on his side, out cold.

Reshiram turned to Yuna, frowning. “Don’t you think that was, y’know, cold? Not to mention mean.”

Yuna looked guiltily at her unconscious father. “Yes.” And knowing that it amused her before Reshiram opened his mouth made it even worse. “I know I could’ve handled it better. I just… didn’t.”

“You sounded a bit like him, y’know.” Reshiram folded his wings against his sides.

“Like who?”

“Bahamut.”

Yuna glared at Reshiram. Of all the unflattering comparisons to make…

“Bahamut got jaded over problems we couldn’t solve right away,” Reshiram said. “He’d put more and more pressure on us to come up with solutions. I don’t know if it was paranoia over Eternatus or natural control freak tendencies.”

Recalling the Phantom screaming for Cresselia, Yuna shuddered. She absolutely, positively did not want to turn out like that. “Do you think this means Chiron’s awakening even more?” She glanced at her hands. No shadows, thankfully.

“Chiron always seemed patient.” Reshiram scratched his chin. “Though I guess she could go from zero to a hundred at a moment’s notice.”

The drakloak tilted her head. “Zero to a hundred what?”

“No idea.” The fuzzy part of Reshiram’s tail turbine wagged. “It was some human thing Bahamut said.”

Yuna flopped her head down on the blanket. “Of course.”

A yawning Cresselia’ rubbed her cheeks. “Can I go back to bed now?”

Rolling her eyes, Yuna sent Cresselia back into the Soul Dew. Clearly, she couldn’t rely on Cresselia to be much help going forward.

That left her with Reshiram and Rayquaza. Thinking about it, however, Reshiram was the best person available to ask about the shadows and Chiron.

“Did Chiron ever show off any strange powers?”

“Define strange.”

Concentrating, Yuna reluctantly located her shadows and tugged on them. “Like conjuring shadowy limbs out of nothing.” She needed to focus a bit more and— yep, there was the weird wing with red spikes. “Or change into something else entirely?”

Reshiram studied the wing that replaced Yuna’s right arm. “Can’t say she ever did.” His gaze fell. His eyes slowly widened. “Oh.” Reshiram looked back up at Yuna. “Well, I imagine I look pretty stupid right now.” He tapped his wing claws together nervously.

“Because you never brought it up earlier?” Yuna waved him off. “It’s not like I thought to ask you before now. But you can see why I’m nervous, right?”

“Yeah.” Reshiram kept fidgeting with his wings. “The others have seen some of your powers, right?”

“Not this bad though.” Yuna stared intently at the wing, willing it to disappear. It stuck around for a few seconds. Then it stretched, twisted, and rippled until it was a nubby drakloak arm once more. “I think the shadows… are related to what’s causing the anomalies.”

“And you’re afraid to tell that to the others.” Reshiram sounded confident.

Well, if Yuna was being honest…

“I didn’t even want to tell you.” The drakloak looked at her dad. Still out cold. “And then this happened. Guess it was my turn to ‘have a moment.'” Liza’s freakouts over the Learnatorium loudspeakers sprang to mind.

“I see.” Reshiram crouched down, becoming a fluffy dragon loaf.

Yuna watched him intently. “If you’re about to spout one of your teachings—”

“At least hear me out before you dismiss it.”

His expression sharpened. The last time Reshiram sounded this stern, he had attacked all those poor skorps in the poison swamp. That made Yuna’s response obvious.

“Fine.” She didn’t know how much longer they’d have until her dad woke up, anyway.

“The truth can hurt,” Reshiram said. “But so can withholding it. Or obscuring it with lies. If you want your friends to, well, stay your friends, don’t you think you should tell them what’s going on?”

Yuna grabbed handfuls of blanket and squeezed. “What if that makes them afraid of me?”

Reshiram’s expression didn’t soften. “What if your secrets hurt them before you admit the truth? Or what if they end up learning the truth from someone or something else?”

Yuna swallowed hard. Those were good points. No one berated her when she admitted she was Chiron’s reincarnation. The only muted response came from Gene. And at least he had the excuse of linking her with awful memories like the loss of his boyfriend.

Sighing, the drakloak released the blanket and laid her head back down on the bed. “Guess I look pretty stupid right now.”

Calcifer finally stirred. Yuna grabbed a squawking Reshiram and stuffed him back into her Soul Dew. Groaning, the duraludon sat up, rubbing his head.

“Wh… at…”

“You fainted, Dad.” Yuna scooched to the side of the bed, dangling her head off it.

“No snide remarks this time,” Reshiram cut in.

Right.

“I see.” Calcifer looked up at Yuna.

“What do you remember?” she asked.

“You said… that you’re the reincarnation of Bahamut’s wife.” Calcifer spoke slowly, like he was trying to avoid overwhelming himself again. “And that he… might actually be a wicked soul?” He pressed his hands together nervously. “But he did create our planet, right?”

Yuna shrugged. That part of the whole Aeon mythos hadn’t really come up.

“Then what about Cosmic Blessing?” the duraludon asked. “Why would he bestow us a means to fight back against World Ender’s corrosive energy?”

“Even a wicked person can do a few good deeds here and there,” Yuna responded.

“Wow, that was almost sagely,” Reshiram mused. “And, truthfully, I don’t even remember Bahamut bestowing any of his light onto anyone. Us Sages existed cuz of continuously recycled light blessings.”

Could it have been a complete accident, then? Perhaps a side effect of Bahamut losing his light when struck by a devastating Eternatus attack?

Maybe that was worth eventually investigating.

“You can try to get a hold of Mom and talk to her if you don’t believe me,” Yuna continued. “She thought I was lying, too. But now we apparently have Bahamut’s journal. And it paints him in a much darker light.”

Calcifer stared at her blankly. Yuna then realized the atrocious pun. She squished her hands into her face. “Ugh. Sorry. Accident.” The drakloak shook her head. “Point is, his Phantom is actively antagonizing us and I expect it to continue doing that.”

“I see.” Calcifer slowly stood up. “But what do you expect me to do with this information? We’ve heard about the things happening to Radiance. Entire cities under attack from World Ender’s forces while we’ve remained safe.” He looked toward Bahamut’s picture again. “Our people need something to believe in so they don’t lose their resolve.”

It wasn’t unreasonable. Yuna doubted telling the whole kingdom their religion was a bunch of lies would do anyone any good right now. Still, there had to be something she could offer.

… Wait, the attacks!

“The attacks? Yeah, we stopped those.” Yuna clasped her ectoplasmic chest. “Radiance’s leaders haven’t done much of anything. It was all us.“

That last sentence looped in Yuna’s head.

All us… all us… all…

Ectoplasm rippling, Yuna shot into the air. “That’s it!”

Startled, Calcifer almost walked back into the door. “What’s it?”

“Yeah. I’m in your head and I’m still lost,” Reshiram said.

“If we want to get ahead of the empire and these stupid anomalies, then we need numbers.” Yuna darted toward Calcifer and hugged his left arm. “Thanks, Dad.”

“For what?” Calcifer blinked slowly. “I’m still not even sure what’s going on here!”

Sure, Yuna had come home to take a break, but she had an idea. A spark. And it didn’t involve fighting, either. Just a few conversations. She’d figuratively kick herself if she didn’t follow it now.

“It’ll make sense down the line,” the drakloak promised, flying back toward her bed. “I’ve gotta get going. But I should be back, uh, soonish!”

“But I still don’t know how you got here in the first place!”

“All in time, Dad,” Yuna assured him. This was the most energetic she’d felt in a while, so she had to seize the momentum. “See ya later.”

“Yunavresca, wait!”

But Yuna had already formed a rift with familiar, muggy tar pits on the other end. With a final farewell wave to her confused father, she flew into it, ready to put her idea into practice.

It was surprisingly easy for Noctum to get Guzzie to agree to let him use the kitchen. The guzzlord was too focused on some argument involving Igneous, Scarlett, and Vegna. Noctum was more than happy not to get involved and Valkyrie seemed quite keen on getting far away from the dusknoir.

What was less easy was actually using the kitchen. Not only was Noctum not familiar with where things were, but some of the equipment was guzzlord-sized. The black charizard flew around to reach the necessary shelves. It was just extra work when he was already tired. But he managed to find the ingredients for the stew and had it all boiling in a thankfully normal-sized pot after poking around long enough.

“I don’t know how you do it sometimes.”

Noctum glanced at Valkyrie. The garchomp had her back do him, dorsal fin resting on a metal table that probably served as a place to cut ingredients.

“Do what?”

“Keep wanting to help people.”

Noctum slowly stirred the stewpot, saying nothing. They’d treaded this ground before. He wasn’t really sure he could offer anything else to Valkyrie.

“I guess I can understand it for Yuna’s family,” she continued. “They got you off the street and all that.”

“And I really don’t like being reminded of it,” Noctum growled, eyes fixed firmly on the pot. The contents simmered and the steam was nice on his snout. “I’ve moved on.” He tightened his grip on the ladle. “It’s not worth comparing our pasts.”

Valkyrie didn’t respond to that at first. There was only metallic clicking. Probably the garchomp’s claw against the table.

“I wish I could turn it off like you could.”

Noctum raised a brow, but kept slowly stirring. “Turn what off?”

“The instincts. My, uh, assassin’s drive, I guess,” Valkyrie mumbled amidst her clap tapping.

“I don’t… know?” Noctum wasn’t in Valkyrie’s line of work.

Tap. Tap. Tap. “But you go from battling to… doing menial chores like it’s nothing.” Judging from her tone, Valkyrie didn’t approve of Noctum’s response.

Sighing, Noctum rested the ladle on the side of the pot. “I do care for Yuna. And I want to try and keep her safe, sure. But it’s not like I’m some skilled warrior or anything. Baraz is actually the better fighter.”

Is? Was? Things might’ve changed thanks to Noctum’s stupid belly crystal.

“I guess it’s easy for me to turn off those ‘instincts,’ because my first inclination isn’t to fight.” The black charizard grabbed the ladle and resumed stirring. “You were trained for that sort of stuff. Honestly? The best person to talk to is Gene.”

That got a growl. And faster tapping of claw against table. “Yeah, but he had some stupid emotional support dogbirdfish thingy to ‘deprogram’ him or whatever. And was also conveniently banging him on the side.”

Noctum’s tail flame sparked. He stepped back from the stove, inspecting the oven underneath and the floor to make sure he hadn’t burnt anything. No scorch marks, to his relief.

“Well, we do have Widget.”

Something thumped behind him. Now Valkyrie was leaning her front side on the table. “Who was built by the guy we’re trying to stop,” she growled. “I don’t care what fancy voodoo Yuna’s kid did, he could still turn against us.”

“Right…” Noctum doubted it was that simple anymore. He stepped back up to the pot and resumed stirring. He couldn’t keep this conversation up. Was there an easy exit?

Glimpsing his dirty, rippled reflection in the stew, he realized there was. It was a nasty option, though. Did Noctum really want to go there?

“Don’t space out on me, dork.”

Okay, fine.

The black charizard sighed. “So, you don’t want to talk to Gene because you think you know what helped him.” He paused. The ladle lightly dinged against the edge of the pot. “But you’re dismissing one of the options.”

He swallowed hard. “Guess that means you should start sleeping with someone.”

Claws scraped against the table behind him. Noctum stirred a bit faster, trying not to flinch.

“There is that salazzle wandering around the place,” he continued. “I bet she could make it so you don’t even remember. And she and Igneous hate each other’s guts, so I doubt he’d get mad at—”

Valkyrie’s head struck him right between his shoulder blades. Yelping, Noctum accidentally flung the ladle out of the pot, striking the black wall opposite him. The ladle fell into a gap between the stove and the wall. He spun around and his heart rate spiked. Poison dribbled on the tip of Valkyrie’s raised claw.

“Do you want to die?” The garchomp was completely straight-faced. “Because keep running your mouth and we might see an unfortunate accident.”

Noctum’s hungry lizard brain was in control. He pushed Valkyrie’s right arm back. “We both know you won’t do that.” He matched her serious expression. “You asked for help, then rebuffed my answers. I thought you wanted fluent sarcasm.”

The black charizard raised his hands innocently. “So, can I take this off the pot now or do you want to threaten me some more?”

Valkyrie’s jaw slackened slightly. She stepped back. The poison disappeared from her right claw. “Yeah, sure.” She pivoted away from him. “Just full of surprises, huh?”

Blinking slowly, Noctum shut the stove off and grabbed the pot. His fire-typing meant he didn’t have to worry about any heat in the handle.

“I guess I am.” He set the pot down on the large table opposite the stove. “And I’m sorry. I just wanted an out from the conversation. Thought that… if I went to unmentionable territory you’d back off.”

Valkyrie snorted. “Unmentionable?”

“W-Well, those sorts of things don’t make for proper conversation, so…”

Shoulders sagging, Valkyrie shook her head. “You are such a dork.”

Noctum tittered. He looked around the kitchen. “I’ll see if I can find us some spoons.”

And then a psychic force flung the kitchen door open. A familiar salugia hopped in through the doorway. “Hate to interrupt your, uh…” She glanced at the duo and the pot of stew. “Training for a couple’s cookoff?” Jade shrugged. “Eh, sure. Let’s go with that. Anyway, uh, we might have a bit of a situation?”

Valkyrie looked like she suddenly aged a decade. “What kind of situation?”

“Apparently Yuna’s recruiting new resistance members.” Jade laughed nervously. “En masse.”

Scowling, Valkyrie stomped up to the door, shoving the squawking salugia aside. Noctum started after her, then doubled back for the stew, then flew out of the kitchen.

It was a lot more crowded in the restaurant than before.

“Razim, eh? Nice to meet’cha. Name’s Skorp! And this here’s Skorp, Skorp, Skorp, Skorp, Skorp, Skorp, Skorp, and Skorp.”

Most of them were familiar skorupi. The mutant incineroar hands on their little arms and tails weren’t any less creepy than before.

“Officially, eh, we’re neutral in this whole business,” Skorp continued, walking across one of the tables. “But unofficially, Gene’s a bestie, so you bet your bippy we ain’t aboot to sit still. Got plenty o’ skorps around to maintain the tar factory and keep the emperor happy while the rest of us help out here.”

Noctum looked down. “I think we’re gonna need more stew…”

“And a heaping load of painkillers for my aching head,” Valkyrie growled. She’d pulled her X-transceiver out of her ear frill. “Guess who’s not picking up? Cyril.” She glared at the device like it would somehow send her anger over to the zoroark. “Oi, Cid. Get that lazy fuzzball up here. We have, uh, new recruits.”

She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. “I thought Yuna said she wanted a break.”

“I did, too,” Noctum mumbled. He wondered what could have happened to turn things around so quickly.

The black charizard was also struggling not to drool into the stew. Its smell was getting too hard to resist. And he wasn’t even trying his best with cooking this!

“Seriously?” Valkyrie barked into the X-transceiver. “No, fine. It’s whatever.” She scowled at it. “Yes, I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on. Great. Delightful. Happy for them. I’ll kick both their asses when they’re done.” The garchomp angrily put the X-transceiver back in her ear.

“Looks like we’re on our own, here.”

Noctum gulped. “Cyril’s not available?”

“He’s busy taking a ride with Seifer.”

“To… where?” Noctum blinked slowly.

Valkyrie stared incredulously at him. He looked back in confusion.

“Seriously? After what we just discussed?”

Noctum tilted his head.

“God, you really are a special kind of dense, huh?” Shaking her head, Valkyrie stomped back toward the kitchen. “Bring the stew. Let the guzzlord corral the newcomers.”

Noctum turned around, biting his lip. “Wait, but you still haven’t told me where they went!” He flew after her, silently hoping that, wherever Yuna was, she knew what she was doing.