Forest

"Haruka is one of the... special cases for the Kingdom, if you will."

Queen Yukino was hinting that the Espoirs both seem to be romantically involved with the Haruka of their respective timelines.

"How any timeline of him could stand that wretch, I'll never know."

Part of Satoshi wanted to be jealous, because even in a different timeline, things followed the same path. But at the same time...why should he be? Again, this wasn't the same Yukino, and on top of that, for all he knew, his bond with Yugure had started to run even deeper since she saved him.

He shrugged. "Guy's nice. There's not much else to it." He turned and gave a casual wave. "Well, I guess I've heard all I need to hear. See you around." Satoshi took a few steps forward, then paused for a moment.

He chuckled once more. "Y'know, this is the part where you run a sword through me so I don't betray what we talked about, since you never trusted me to begin with. At least, that's how those American movies went that I saw."

"Hmph", a smug grin. "I don't care if you write a book on what I disclosed. You all knowing information about my world means nothing to me."

The imperial still didn't trust this time's Satoshi. Yet, all the knowledge in the world about the divergence point was next to meaningless. They couldn't get to her world, and if he went to tell Yugure, maybe that Chosen Failure would feel worse knowing what she missed out on. With a mischievous giggle, her wings flapped, finally recovered. The queen flew off into the afternoon sky, setting out to further her ambitions.

Quiet as he be, the oceanfront gave off a sickeningly sweet calming sound. It was like silence that produced a noise and with it, deafness. Amatsuki was being deep again today, as he lightly tapped his fingers to a battery-powered keyboard.

He was playing neo-classical pieces recently, but still really like Chopin.

The waves crashed and seagulls made their seagull noises and Amatsuki hummed lightly along to the sound of the keyboard, as well as stared out blankly into the darkening winter sky. It was getting cold out for sure... Really should've brought a jacket from his own timeline.

Xat went back to the clearing she had found and sat down on the grass lost in thought. What she heard had startled her but yet she also felt kind of lonelyness in her heart just like before she met everyone. "So now i just need to figure out who the time travlers are and warn them. But how would I do it?" She asked herself outloud.

Darren had seen some things he shouldn't have. He arrived too late to battle the Seed in Gotem City, which was probably for the best. Unfortunately for him, he was just in time to see the events at the end. Someone who looked just like Seifer killed one of them in cold blood. Was that really how to prevent the Seed from moving? Kaizard confirmed that it indeed was. That was how they were suppose to fight, they had to kill, to end lives. Darren still didn't know how to feel about that.

Darren went into the forest, trying to get the image out of his mind. Even if she was a Seeded Fighter, she wasn't evil. Noel wasn't evil... Darren wasn't evil... isn't that right? The thought of that made him shake his head as he was wandering in the forest until he stumbled into a clearing.

Xat stood up from the clearning and walked through the forest enjoying the scenery hopeing that an idea will come to her head on how to find the others.

Darren blinked as he looked out in the clearing, realizing where he was. "Xat..." he muttered lightly as he saw her. He wondered if he should talk to her. With what was inside of her, he thought she would hate him. He sighed lightly and then remembered what Yugure said to him before. No one would think him an enemy... No one would hate him... He had to believe that. He walked forward, moving towards her from behind as he hugged onto her when she wasn't looking. "Xat!" he said to her, having not seen her in a while.

Xat herd her name being called not answering to it , but felt a pair of arms grabbed her from behind. She then did a back kick to the person getting out of there arms and facing them. Meanwhile Shirayuki sent a message to Amon telling him that they need to talk.

Darren saw stars as he fell back from the kick. He held himself in pain and looked at her with a pout as he said, "What was that for?! I guess you didn't miss me at all." He brushed himself off a little before he crossed his arms. "So how have you been?"

Xat looked at Darren and sighed. "You should know better then to do something like that with out warning. I didn't know who was hugging me from behind, so instincts took over. As for how i'm doing, i've been doing good so far." She said not wanting to revel anything "How have you been?" She asked not commenting on if she missed him or not, for now he was out fighting the seeds and she was in league with one.

Darren had to think about how to answer that for a moment. For having a manifestation of pure evil inside of his body which one of his units was now holding caged at the cost of his own consciousness... he was pretty alright, but the whole manifestation of pure evil thing was pretty bad. He still wasn't sure if he should tell her about it or not.

"After I fought the future Noel, I lost track of where you were. I was worried something might have happened." That was a good place to start. "I won against her, but..." He didn't know if he should continue or not.

"I see sorry to make you worry, but i had stuff that i need to attend to." She said not wanting to give to much away. "I'm happy to hear that you had won your match, however don;t be to hard on yourself." She said as she looked to the sky, ever sence her dream she was not the same.

"Its not really about being hard on myself..." Darren said lightly. He looked at her again as he gulped lightly. It was probably better to say it now, like Daikaiser told him before. "After I beat Noel... whatever was in her... her Seed or whatever it was... it went inside of me. I... have one of them now. Daiyusha sealed him within me but he's gone now because of it..."

"I see, just becareful you don't want to end up being killed due to having a seed." she said as she looked at him already losing someone once was tough on her.

"Being killed?" Darren didn't even realize that was a part of the situation. "I don't really care what happens to me... I just... I don't wanna be something that ends up hurting my friends. That's what's bothering me about this." At this point, he wondered if she was threatening to kill him for having a Seed inside of him.

"You shouldn't through your life away like that so recklessly." She as she turned around looking through the trees.

Darren looked at her, frowning before he said, "Not like it'd matter much... compared to people like Tsubasa or Seifer or Noel. Not really the point though... I don't know much about these Seed guys... but if people are really trying to kill them like you said, maybe I can just take their Seeds in me too. If Daiyusha is sealing them, then they wouldn't have to die."

Xat turned and looked at him. "You are not fit to have all the seeds." She said as she restraned her anger.

"Its not like I want them or anything!" Darren said, then turned as he gave a sigh. "Its just... they don't deserve to die. I know you probably hate them for being a part of the Reverse, but I don't want to see them die. If that means taking all their pain for myself by having all their Seeds, then I'll do that. I'm the only one who'd have to die after that..."

Xat walked up to him and slaped him. "Do you think your alone in that feeling. I dont want them to die, but to get eh seeds in you just so you can die. Its stubid how do you think your friends will fell if you died. Your not alone, you have freinds. So don't be so shelfish as to die when you have freinds. There will be anouther way" She said trying to hold back tears.

Darren looked at her after the slap, looking into her eyes and seeing the water in them. His weren't different. "And you don't? You came here all by yourself. Why aren't you with your friends?" He walked closer to her, his hand going onto her shoulder. "I made a promise to Seed Noel that I won't die, but if I take them all in me then they can just take them out of me later and deal with them... no one will have to be hurt since I'm from this timeline anyway... We can fix everything and still have time to end this without killing anyone... And if we can't then at least I'm the only one that will go. Better than letting all those worlds lose their heroes."

Xat glared at him. "I need time to be alone and to gather my thoughts. If you take all the seeds then you will fall into darkness. No one will be happy with your death. Tsubasa's death was hard on them, how do you think your death will be?" She asked stepping out of his reach.

Darren glared back at her, walking up and hugging onto her tightly. "I said it before and I will say it to you... I promise I won't die... There's still things I need to do here. I can't go anywhere as long as you're gonna worry about me... So, don't think that I'm just throwing things away... If there's really darkness in my future, I'm not dealing with it alone. I've got Daikaiser and the Dimension Police... and I've got you and my friends..."

Xat froze as he hugged her. "Idiot don't go making promises you can't keep." She said as she was about to hug back but stopped and stepped away out of his hug. "I hope you are right. Be safe." She said as she turned and walked through the forest continuing her stroll