Beach

"Hoi, Cerdic. I got a juicy piece of gossip from the net you'll love. It's that kind of romantic balderdash you're so fascinated with", Valrod approached his fellow Seeker, grabbing the warrior's interest with his favorite topic...

Aoi's balance was saved with Haruka's assistance, and the mentality of kindness through his actions and the concerned voices of others, the pure lass' heart was given the strength to hold herself up. "Thank you!" She exclaimed to the boys, keeping a chipper demeanor while finally uttering a phrase that wasn't entirely lewd in and out of context. "I can walk! My legs still feel a bit like jelly, though." The girl added, feeling bits of her headache trying to resurface with a trigger word she couldn't figure out. Thankfully, healing gum already being chewed out of flavor kept the pain to a minimum.

"You guys look kind of freaked out and weirded out though. Is everybody okay? Master?"

Good Lord. Okay, at least she could walk. "It's a bit 'ard to explain, since I meself don't really know what just occurred but... Long as you're okay, I don't see much worth in talking about it again, outside of us." to late, good job Aqua Force. "I do think that we should all go rest though, at the very least. Seems we've been up all night." good job pointing out the obvious. "...That being said... I don't have a place to actually bed down for the night. Any suggestions? That or I could just follow ye wherever, mess up my sleep pattern and what not. ...Not that I had one anyway." it's true. "Also... 'Aruka buddy, ye gonna be okay?" No Aedan, he's a dead man. Maybe.

"I'll be fine. But if you don't see me around anymore, don't be alarmed. I probably went on an early vacation."

To hell.

"I'm gonna go for now. Thanks for the meetup everybody. Aedan, you have my card, Haruto and Aoi, keep it cool I guess."

Haruka brushed his hair and, stretching as he trudged out the sand somewhat defeated. The evening went in a really strange turn of events. He wasn't even going to question it at this point. He stayed at the beach literally all night. Was it worth it? Well, at least the company he kept was funny. Even if he knew that it was going to cause him a shitload of trouble in the end, he was laughing on the way to HQ.

"Huh? Why not? Master Haruka saved my life, that's something I should be telling people to boost his amazing reputation!" The oblivious China girl responded to Aeden's notion of never speaking of this again. This was very troubling. Haruka was acting as if he had done something horribly wrong, and the others are reacting as if they watched him kill someone or committed an act of terrorism. Then her idol mentions a vacation for some reason? Aoi wasn't even aware he had a job, but that business card probably made some sense for him to have one. Before noting and saying anything else, the boy seemed to slump away from them.

"Wait, what about introducing the others to Yukino?!" Aoi called out, but like the wind and his life, he was gone.

"... You guys should go follow him to meet some people, and Haruto, chin up! Just stick around friends and you'll feel better! I'm gonna go for a jog, trying to get rid of the rest of this headache!"

Like the wind, she was gone too.

The Ripple fleet stood together, hats covering their eyes cast downward toward the sea, hands held behind their backs, honoring the fall of a great hero.

"I'm not even sorry this happened", Militiades muttered.

Well that was interesting, definitely not the type of night Haruto thought he would have but it did put a slight smile on his face after what those people did for him, or at least tried to do. He waved goodbye to Haruka and Aoi as they left the area, then stood up and turned to Aeden.

"If you really don't have a place to stay, you can crash at my place for the time being I don't mind that at all." he said, scratching the back of his head.

Malice had his eyes closed, standing still as he was doing what he could to convert the energy he had already obtained into the Seed for the sake of restoration. He was about half done for each of them. He was close, closer than he thought he would be allowed to be due to the Reapers and the Heroes being around to stop him.

"Not good enough..." he said within the confines of his own mind. "My time is short... To fulfill my goals, I must act soon before Darren Shurensei complicates things. Seems I must accelerate the process myself."

His eyes then opened to see the world around him. It was nearly time for him to act.

The reversed Seifer while on his walk had made his way here, hands in pockets. Though, he wasn't alone... noticing a massive spike of energy similar to his, he glanced over to find... The guy from the shop? Oh, the "partner" to Harbinger. Okay. "What's up chrome dome?" he's not bald though? "Heard you got chummy with mom. That's cool. Got any big plans?" the insanity driven Seifer had also gotten a change of clothes while he was out... a loose fitting suit with a fedora like hat, white undershirt and a tie. While waiting for an answer, he just continued to hold a shit eating grin for some reason.

The Demon Malice didn't even notice that he let his power spike without thinking. It did take quite a bit of energy synthesizing the two Seeds within him. More energy then he had gotten so far from the despair and darkness of the fighters as well as the citizens that he had terrorized with his previous display.

He turned and saw Seifer, or at least what he was now. He closed his eyes again as if he were uninterested before he said, "Most would think that you were under toe to the Reaper Queen from your display in their headquarters. Of course we both know better than that. After all, I saw the last remnants of that world of yours. Have you finally become the destroyer that you were destined to be even there?"

While walking basically everywhere with so much in his mind, Neo made his way to the beach with a black jacket and a white shirt underneath with black jeans and red sneakers on.

"So much has happened, but I wonder.."

But before he could finish his thought, Neo noticed someone in the corner of his eye.

"S-Seifer.." He said

He started walking towards him to greet him but then noticed he was talking to someone else and decided to stay at a distance to see what was going on

"Maybe, maybe not. We'll see really." another grin as he leaned forward a bit. "I'm mostly in this just to mess with poor ole Nee-San. You know how that goes." he just continued to grin, the rings around his eyes glowing a dark red. "So what made you want to team up with mom? Seems pretty unlike you Darren... Oops, you're Malice now aren't you?" Still an ass, meaning to let that slip.

Hearing him called Darren like that caused a bit of a glare from Malice to Seifer. He brushed it off with a roll of the eyes before looking at him once more. "Her interests do not conflict with mine, that's all," he said simply. "As her game progresses, the humans face more and more despair. That same despair can be used to fuel my own goals. I have nothing against assisting her in the future so long as I get my final wish granted, one you know all too well. To exist outside of my pathetic host body and as my own immortal being."

"No way, Thats Darren?!" Neo said to himself

Neo also noticed that Seifer was not acting like the Seifer he remembered..

"I was gone so long.. and so much has changed" Neo said

"He decided to keep listening to the conversation Seifer and Darren were having.

"You know exactly what she plans to do right?" a casual wave, a still stupid grin. "It's whatever though, I knew what you were after to." the blonde started scratching inside of his ear with his pinky finger. "I also like this body. Makes Yukino more pissed off. Much more fun with me. Just wish I could get rid of that annoying brat, and that stupid dragon god... Man they're annoying." he sighed, shrugging this time. "But oh well, not that big of an issue. Thanks to mom, it'll be pretty difficult for either of them to escape any time soon if at all. Well, I say mom but it was really Chris who did it. Thank Chris." he laughed shaking his head.

"Say, I'm pretty confident I know the answer, but just how did you acquire that body?" a genuine question, though and obvious answer between these two.

Malice himself couldn't help but chuckle at his statement as well as the question that came after it. He crossed his arms in front of him and said, "We both know you know the details full well, but I'll tell you anyway. Its all thanks to the one you dropped off with your Mommy. In her Seeded form she battled Darren Shurensei and when she lost, the poor fool Darren didn't deliver a killing blow. His foolish robots tried to seal me away but that simply gave me time to amass power and develop a form of my own. From there, it just too the moronic plot of the Broken Sword to kill her darker self at the cost of letting her underlings fight a losing battle. The Blaster Dark Sword of that world was enough to destroy that doll, Daiyusha and thus here I am. I took some months developing my abilities as a Seed but it was well worth it to understand my capabilities now. As an added bonus, when the fool attempted to destroy her dimensional twin sister, I was able to obtain fragments of the Seeds she had within her. That means I will have three to myself once my plans are complete."

"Judging from things, seems like... The other me..." he said that with absolute disgust. Two of him? Nonsense, there could only be one. "Ah...Ahahahaha. Alright then. Good on you." slowly the reversed Seifer started clapping, though out of the corner of his eye he noticed... Oh, him? "Seems like we have an uninvited guest here." the blonde headed male's eyes shut halfway... a menacing smile plastered on his face. "What should we do with the little lost lamb?"

Malice grinned as his eyes were closed. He raised a finger as if he didn't have to look to know where he was. "That spirit of his has been plainly visible for some time now," he said as though it should come as no surprise. "Now that the poor thing knows this much, I wonder if I can allow him to leave..." Metalborg Mist Ghost appeared on the hand of Malice in a smaller form than normal. It shot a blast out which would barely miss Neo so long as he did not move. It wasn't meant to harm him, only show Neo what he was up against as a hole in the sand behind him would be an example to what could happen to him.

Neo didnt move when he saw the blast coming his way. When it landed he looked behind him and saw what could have been him, but he didnt scare him at all.

"I guess your aim isnt that good. Im not afraid of either of you" Neo said with a determined look.

"They have changed.." he said

Neo slowly started to take his deck out, he knew it was the only way to get some answers as to what was going on lately. So he asked the question: "So who am I facing first?" He said

"Oh, he wants to fight us? That's cute. You want first dibs? Or should I?" Seifer asked Malice his preference, when honestly he probably didn't care. Then again... "Outside of as my unreversed form, I don't think I've seen any of your power in your current state. Why don't you take first dibs Malice?" Seifer offered the poor Dogebuster up as a sacrifice to his new friend.

The grin of Malice widened as he took a few steps forward. One hand went behind his back as the other hand was waved. Two table-like platforms of metal rose up from the ground in front of the two as he said, "I haven't needed to do this myself in some time, but I suppose I can play with you a little. Since you don't have one of those fun little devices that the Broken Sword made, I can have a little more fun with you than normal. We'll see if you can handle the pain."

Neo saw the two metal type Vanguard tables rise up.

"Well this is a new one.." Neo said

He took out his deck which glowed a bright orange and he put it down and was ready to fight.

"Bring it on!" Neo said

The battle raged as Malice used his Metalborgs to combat Neo's Brawlers. Malice himself was able to take an early lead but he seemed to be extremely lax about his hand. He called units recklessly, very unlike him, as he allowed Neo to do as he pleased. From the deck, Metalborg Sin Buster appeared. It attacked and the strike was stopped. It was an unlikely event but it did happen.

From there, Neo used his own Legion. A devistating four strikes of Lightning from Big Bang Knuckle Buster and Big Bang Slash Buster. It struck his units but never Malice himself. Malice told Neo himself what he had missed, that his friend Darren was now being used by him as he had become Seeded by a Link Joker survivor and hero. Of course, Malice was no hero. He WAS the Seed given form. He was a being that would end this Universe if allowed, or so he said.

Neo had the chance, the choice to end Darren and Malice's life once and for all. As a final test to Neo's resolve, he changed his face. It became Darren. Acting innocent, the Darren appeared to know nothing of the situation. He told Neo he should attack the unit so they can go. Neo did this. Had he attacked the fighter as Malice was doing to him the whole time, Malice may have died. Neo couldn't do that. He refused to do it. As a result Malice lived.

More than lived, the energy from Knuckle Buster and the passionate battle of Neo helped to get the Seeds within him further along. To Malice, his final goal was much more important than one win. If it wasn't, he would have used more than a minuscule percentage of his power in the battle.

"And so our game ends. Maybe next time I can be a bit more serious... since there will be a next time."

Neo was in his first important cardfight in a very very long time. It was a painful one as all the damage felt real to Neo and he actually felt the pain, but it didnt stop him from going all out with his Brawlers. Fighting off the Dimension Police, Neo was told of the story of Link Joker and the Seeds. He was told in order to stop Malice, he had to kill him along with Darren but Neo couldnt do it. No matter what Neo couldn't kill one of his friends. The cardfight ended with Neo's victory, but to him it didnt seem like one. After the fight Neo was holding his body in pain from the damage he took. While in no condition to do a second straight cardfight, he looked in the direction of Seifer

"We have unfinished business, dont we?" Neo said to him

"Nah, you're far to weak kiddo." the blonde laughed at Neo's power expenditure. It was a waste. Hopping down from the shack he'd decided to sit up on. "Pretty sure Malice here was holding back against you the entire time. That's pretty cruel dude." he spoke to Malice, slapping him lightly on the back. "You're almost as big a dick as I am. Maybe even bigger. I'm proud of you man." he gave a laugh before giving Neo a wave. "Scurry on back to your den rat. You don't have enough energy left to take me on."

"Im not as dumb as you think. Im aware at what happened" Neo said

Neo then walked up to Seifer, almost face to face to him.

"I guess this isnt the best time or place right now but dont worry, we will fight" Neo said with a determined look as he started walking away heading home.

Malice gave a grin as he had gotten what he wanted, more than he expected even. He started to walk away as he said, "This was far more fruitful than I expected. It seems the boy will see the world changed by his actions after all. As reward for allowing me this close to my goal, I'll let you live to tell the Broken Sword and her underlings that I will finish things with them soon." Now that he had this much energy, he needed to use it to synthesize the Seeds within him. Even aside from that, he had no reason to stay now.