"I bet you can't get up here!" Lily laughed from the top of the gymnastics set up in the training room. With tons of bars, platforms, and more, it was the perfect spot for any sort of flexibility, gymnastics, or parkour like training.
"Just you wait..." Amber cracked her knuckles with a grin on her face. "I'm going to wipe that smile on her face!"
She threw her hands to her sides, fire blasting from out of them as she shot into the air and heading straight for Lily.
"What the hell?!" Lily screeched as she jumped to another platform. "Did you learn that from Ken?!"
I watched Amber chase Lily around. Ever since their new rivalry a couple of days ago they've been fighting like cats and dogs.
Honestly, it's entertaining. But I need to train right now, so I painfully tore my vision away from them.
"Aw man, I was enjoying the show." Loki sighed.
"Hmm..." Medea's voice buzzed in my head. "I have an idea."
What is it?
"If we can find something which matters a lot to her, we can do a 'reset' so to speak, and boot Azeroth's control from her mind." Medea explained. "With how strong Erica's mental fortitude is, the slightest crack should allow Erica to realize and then regain control. We just need something familiar and important."
That's...super cliche.
"They do that for every movie." Loki noted.
"And it's not wrong." Medea replied. "Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't tried it yet."
I figured that if I could've done that, it would've happened when we were fighting. But maybe the control has weakened now that we're in a different dimension?
"Or you could try using an item." Medea added.
You know, I figure I matter more, and I hope I would, but I'd rather lose to an item and get Erica's head back on straight then not getting her back at all.
I looked back at the cat fighting Lily and Amber, before moving out of the training room and taking the elevator to the main floor to make it to the empty guest room in which Erica is being held.
So far, nobody has produced a possible solution to curing Erica yet. We've been looking but no possible answers have been found, other than the obvious one which Medea has supplied.
I exited the elevator and headed towards the guest room, entering it to see Erica still chained up to the chair while Aoi stood rigidly upright, her scythe in her hands.
"Good job Aoi." I smiled.
"Thank you." Aoi gave a slight bow. "Is everything alright?"
"I'm just trying something." I stated.
I crouched down in front of Erica so that we were eye to eye. "Hey, remember me?"
"Of course I know who you are." Erica scoffed. "Azeroth has supplied me with everything I need to know about you."
"Clearly not everything, since you don't remember our time together. How'd we meet?" I asked.
"In the arena." Erica replied. "Leave. Your efforts are useless. You will get nothing from me. Your time is better spent in preparing for the new world."
I bit my lip in frustration.
"Do you remember this?" I asked, cutting a rift through the air with my finger. Her eyes locked intently onto the rift as I pulled out a specific item.
The YSquare Erica and I have played many games on.
Erica gave it a light quizzical look, before turning to look back at my rift. She was much more interested in that. I quickly put the YSquare back and then closed the rift.
"Where are you? I know you're in there somewhere." I crossed my arms in annoyance.
She didn't respond.
Damn it. Is there any other way to reach her through familiarity?
"Yes, if you could enter her mind." Medea answered. "Like how we are in yours."
Do you have a way to do that?
"No." Medea replied. "Otherwise I'd have told you."
Suddenly a purple circle appeared on the ground next to me. It glowed, and with a flash of light suddenly Merlin was standing next to me.
"Ken~! You're big sis is here!" She grinned.
"Huh. I thought you couldn't use your magic anymore." I rose an eyebrow.
"Aren't you going to greet me?" Merlin pouted.
"Hi Merlin." I replied. "So...why did you suddenly appear?"
"Well, I've been doing some searching!" She laughed, but it quickly dissolved away as her tiredness took over. There were bags over her eyes and she was slightly leaned over. "A lot of searching...Ha...Ha..."
"Anyways, I've finally been teaching myself some of my old magic after finding it in the past. It was not easy." Merlin replied. "Now that I'm out of the tower I can actually do stuff again."
I suddenly had an idea. "Wait, so then that means after looking in the past you found out the solution from looking into the future and so you came here to tell me?!"
"Ahaha...no." Merlin shut my idea down quick. "Remember how I told you back in the tower that you're different? That every future involving you is blurred and indecipherable? Well, this whole situation practically revolves around you."
"So you can't see." I frowned.
"No, but don't be so sad!" Merlin replied. "In looking into my old magic I saw a way to enter the mind! And look who needs it!"
"That's awfully convenient." I raised an eyebrow.
"Clairvoyance is very helpful." Merlin nodded with a joyous grin.
And OP too. "So what do I need to do?" I asked.
"I'll cast the spell. Too dangerous otherwise." Merlin replied. "Spent a whole day figuring it out again. Anyways, then you just need to find those locked memories, something that probably looks like a locked door or something."
"Makes sense to me." Loki stated.
"Alright. Let's do this then." I nodded. "Hey Aoi, please look over us."
Aoi nodded, and despite her expressionless face, the feeling I got from her felt like she was saying "duh, of course".
"So how do we-"
Merlin flicked me in the head and everything went dark.
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Oh shit..." I clutched my head, sitting up in a dark void. This looks eerily familiar. I don't suppose I'll see a wolf, will I?
No, I don't. I do see a giant blue portal thing high above that I hope doesn't lead anywhere because I don't think I could make it up there.
In front of me was a giant statue of...I actually can't make it out. A thick fog covered it. I walked over to it, tried to fan the dust away, but it was no use. All I could see was the plaque at the base of the statue.
Azeroth.
Of course it says Azeroth.
Is there seriously nothing else here? Is this Erica's mindscape now? Reduced to this? Who knows what she might've had before. I mean, Loki made a freaking castle in my head.
And then I saw one more thing as I looked behind the statue. A normal, wooden door. One with three locks.
I tried to summon Loki, but for some reason it didn't work. I walked to the door and tried to pull the chains off, but that didn't work either. I needed to unlock these with keys.
Wherever, and whatever they were.
Wait, looking closer...the locks say something. Is this some sort of damn riddle?
Well, it was less of saying something and more of saying part of something.
K _ _ _ A G _
G _ D _ _ S _
X _ _ _
Okay, first one is easy.
"Ken Kage." I spoke.
The lock unlocked, and fell off.
So it's just a missing letter game? About things important to Erica? This shouldn't be so hard then.
What about the second? G, D, and S...
"God...dess?" I wondered.
The lock unlocked and fell.
Sweet. Only one left. Not quite sure how the word "Goddess" matters to Erica though...
And this final one is...weird.
A four letter word starting with X. I can only think of one thing.
"Xena?" I spoke.
The lock unlocked and fell. The door was free. That kind of felt too easy.
And Xena mattered that much to her, that it was one of the top three? That honestly makes me very happy.
Still confused about Goddess though.
I gripped the doorknob, and with a deep breath, opened the door. And suddenly my mind was assaulted with visions.
Eric.
The train.
Lily.
Eric, Lily, and Iris.
Irene's death.
Eric, Lily, Iris, and Yui.
Eric, Lily, Iris, Yui, and Amber.
Eric, Lily, Iris, Yui, Amber, and Bianca.
Erica.
Apocalypse.
Blue.
Aze-
"Ah!" I jerked upwards as if I was suddenly broken out of sleep. I was on the ground, along with Aoi and Merlin, who groaned.
Erica was gone. The golden chains were broken.
"What happened?!" Loki gasped. "Shit! I blacked out!"
"Shit!" I cursed, jumping to my feet and running out of the room.
There she was, in her armor. Glaring at Xena, who froze upon the stairs in a confused fright. Erica summoned her sword and muttered something as she stared Xena down.
"Erica...?" Xena shakily muttered.
And then Erica rushed towards her. Running up the stairs and violently swinging her sword towards Xena.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I glared, catching the sword right in time before it hit Xena, my armor now surrounding my body.
Erica only narrowed her eyes at me, before I swung my foot and caught her in the side, sending her flying through the wall and leaving a human-sized hole.
"Xena, go upstairs and get someone." I told her. "Looks like Erica and I are going to have our first couples argument."