Descent [Dark Data]

[Simon]

Emerging in far from the most graceful of exits, Dante coughed and sputtered as he hauled himself up from the ground. His many experiences through his mission had taken a toll on his form, his clothes almost completely charred black from the ordeal. He had prioritized everyone else getting out before himself, and paid for it in Nebula Space's last resort.

On his elbows and knees, Dante looked up shakily. "Everyone alright?" he asked innocently. The sudden silence of the vortex behind them, and the sight of a forlorn wheel rolling past him, answered the question grimly.

In direct spite of Dante's own best efforts, Desman didn't make it.

He had tried, Omni knows he did, but that last cackling Cyberman had given Dante one last spiteful grip. Jak and Morene stood heartbroken. Zedd seemed as dismissive as ever. Without anything to say, the devil hunter slammed a frustrated fist into the factory floor, cracking the material under his anger.

They were so close, too.

Nothing you could've done about it.

It could've been better. Regret seeping into Dante's forethought, imagining if there were only something else he could've done. If he had finished off that Cyberman in the first place, maybe, instead of leaving it be.

Stop whining. You need to worry about yourself more-

Dante didn't realize it just yet, but he was crying. There were indeed tears streaming down his face, painful memories brought to bear. All regrets, all things we wanted to change, all things he couldn't quite forgive himself over. Desman was just another of these memories, lost to the tides of time.

You idiot! It doesn't matter here! You're bawling your eyes out over crap that was never your fault! Suck it up, and use some god-damned spine-!

"Dante...?"

The devil hunter shrugged away. He didn't deserve to be seen as such a vulnerable wreck. He shouldn't have a weakness to be so easily exploited. Dante pulled a sweat-soaked hand up to his face and rubbed at his eyes until they stung, gritting his teeth the whole time. Everything hurt right now, all the little aches and pains catching up and wracking his body and mind. For a moment, he wanted to just lie down and immerse himself in isolation.

But that too would be weakness.

"I'm sure it'll be okay," Morene said again, trying to reassure herself as much as the forlorn half-devil. "I mean... he'll just return to life again, like Omni said. Right?"

Dante pushed himself upright, to his knees first. Taking a deep breath and releasing it with a sigh, he willed his body to stand, moving from his knees to his feet with a muted groan. He took a glance over himself, somewhat disgusted at the current state of his outfit. "Right," the hunter replied finally.

The son of Sparda looked up, seeing Morene, but not seeing the others. His concerns over Desman began to be pushed away as curiosity took hold. "Where's Jak?" Dante asked, glancing over to the armored woman.

"Uhh..." She looked over, across the old factory they still stood in. "He mumbled something about an abyss, and then left. I don't know what he's up to."

Dante hummed in thought, the rumbles rattling his throat. He needed a drink, and a change of clothes. "We're done here anyway. Let's skip." The devil hunter started walking, his red coat trailing weakly behind his steps. The soldier followed suit, silently eager to leave this old place behind.




They made it outside when Dante spoke up again, "Hey. Morene."

The motherly soldier looked over to face Dante. He held a serious expression on his face, but once of concern more than scorn. It was a show of vulnerability Morene had yet to see from the hunter, and so she prepared to hear him out.

He took another deep breath. "Thanks for having me," Dante began, "But I'm afraid I won't be sticking around. I know you don't owe me anything, but I'd like a favor from you anyway." His gloved hands shoved into his pants pockets, looking quite disarming in his proposition. In fact, the half-devil's very tone nearly suggested that this was something he didn't want to resort to, or burden the Liberators with.

Regardless, she heard him out. Morene spoke up, "What is it?"

"Nothing big," he replied vaguely, before elaborating, "Just watch yourself around this Dr. Regal guy. With how that last robot cried out his name, I feel like there's something he's not telling us."

The soldier paused, recalling back to that finishing blow in Nebula Space. It was pretty awesome, with Morene impaling Laser Man from one side and Dante from the other. The poor sucker never stood a chance. But in his final moments, he let out a final scream for Dr. Regal- and not the kind that a villain would use to decry a hero. Morene found himself agreeing with Dante, nodding solemnly.

"So, where are you going?" She asked, partly out of concern and also out of curiosity. It was tough to discern Dante's exact character, perhaps due to his aloof nature of coming and going as he did. Retracting his hands from his pockets, the devil hunter brandished a Dataverse Device, already looking to the task of locating his contacts.

"I'm going to follow Jak. See what he's getting himself into," Dante answered simply. There were no clear hints of concern in his tone, but Morene inferred from the recent events that he wasn't intent on losing another ally so soon. It was a shame he wouldn't join her on the hunt to finish off the rest of Nebula's scum, but his decision to look out for Jak should be respected. "Maybe we can keep in touch."

It was as if Dante had read her mind. Or perhaps he had, and the Prime therefore held some telepathic power Morene had not initially been aware of. She pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the priority at hand. "Yes, please," She agreed, fishing for her own device, "You're pretty good at this whole 'hunting down monsters' thing."

Dante couldn't help but smile- warmly, at that. "Nothing quite like the thrill of dominating a battle," he explained with an odd fondness that the fellow warrior couldn't help but resonate with. Getting to really be a badass really was quite fun, they agreed subconsciously. "Makes a good living, too."

"Yeah..." Morene trailed off, adding the devil hunter's account to her own list of contacts. As Dante finished up his own work on his device, he pocketed it and turned on his feet. They were at the gates of the factory's yard now, each of them now about to go their separate ways. Hopefully sometime in the future, their paths would cross again for another epic mission.

"You take care out there, alright? Give Nebula hell for me."

Morene nodded firmly, beaming underneath her mask. He would better believe she would.

With that, Dante exits from the saga and pursues Jak into Dante's Abyss.

[Lord Zedd]

Zedd stumbled to his feet in the aftermath of the carnage. He was still alive. He shook his head and recovered his bearings as best as he could. A visual scan of the group gave him the next development: Desman hadn’t made it.

It was tempting to say something mocking the small robot's fate, but he knew these people well enough. They were at their limits in patience, and Zedd himself was weakened from the ordeal. With no mutual adversary, the chances were that things could deteriorate within their fledgling alliance if he wasn’t careful.

So, the dark lord merely stumbled away from the mourning, reminiscing, and regret. He had time for none of it. He cast one last look at the remnants of his scattering team, not being one for farewells, either. He ripped his liberator aid from his arm as he walked, and looked it over. He was no fool, and he would not cast it aside. There was still a great deal he could learn from Regal’s devices.

But for now, it was time to get back to the upper world. The stormtroopers were likely aware of the chaos on the lower levels, even if they didn’t particularly care about it. He would make sure his involvement in saving their great city was known, and that he would be rewarded by his own people as well.

Small steps towards ultimate power.

Zedd has checked out of the Dark Data saga.

[Morene Fellon]

All of them were gone now. They left before Morene even knew.

Even Dante, who she had spent some time solacing had left.

Looking down, she was the only one with a Liberator Aid still tightly strapped onto her wrists. She looked around, finding the factory's ruins getting darker and darker by the moment. Yet, even as she stood there in silence, there was still light creeping through a lone crack in the roof. Once again, the huntress found herself staring at the peaceful swaying of dust particles flying in the sky to contrast the darkness behind.

She stood there for a moment. Morene knew she'd have to continue her work here. The woman could almost feel the evil remains of the Darklings in the air, even if there were none to speak of. Her Liberator Aid was silent, but her ears still rung gently in the isolation of the trembling building she found herself in.

No use to talk to myself, Morene thought, walking over to the only thing that remained of Desman; that lone wheel.

With any hope, that poor guy would be dead by now, waiting to hopefully be revived. She wasn't sure if Omni's words were meant to be taken seriously still. Even then, her lip quivered at the thought of him being trapped down there, undying and in torment.

Slowly, she picked up the remains of her fallen comrade with all the care in the world. Idly, Morene stared at the floor the lone light of the room shone onto. Another crack, this time on the ground.

Some tiny plant was growing down there. Nothing like she'd ever seen before. Even if it was rather underwhelming in color and size, only standing at a foot tall, it mesmerized her all the same. Not a single flower on it, barely any sunlight to sustain itself, and living off of the water leaking from some rusty old pipes and a tiny slit on the roof denying it of fresh air; yet still it stood.

Morene walked over to the only other living thing in the room beside her, and laid rest to the dead. Or, what remained of the dead anyways; she placed Desman's wheel gently beside it, glistening in the illuminating ray of sunlight.

As she walked out of the factory itself, Morene looked back. She noticed how that light was the first thing she would have seen if only just walking in. The huntress wanted to smile, but she couldn't. Either way, the woman knew one day she'd come back here again, and it would serve as a reminder to her, and only her, of her first true accomplishment in the Omniverse.

Morene will continue the Dark Data saga, seeing it until the end.

[Morene Fellon]

Idly, she walked on, staring intently at the Liberator Aid still on her wrist.

The screen flickered slightly after a while, but that was it. Even as she walked by the first few alleyways her and her comrades fought those darkspawn creatures from before. Eventually, she ventured forward into the uppermost tiers of Coruscant, pulling out her journal as she did so. Skipping a few pages, Morene had a fuzzy feeling in her hands encased by gauntlets as she took out her pen, indicating they were numb for whatever reason.

It mattered not, for she began to write.

THE OMNIVERSE - Journal Entry No. 1

It's been a few days, I believe.

Certainly, it wasn't the first time I've ever been caught up in some case of divine intervention, but this was unique. Of course, I must give context, in case I perish one day and this is the only thing I am remembered by.

I don't remember too much before I was pulled into this plane of existence by Omni, the being controlling the strings here. I do know however, that I was victorious against my foe. I shall not go into detail now, for there are more pressing matters to note.

It's been a few days, and already I've gotten myself stuck in what I'd usually consider a contract. I would debate with myself as to whether or not I did what I did as a contract, or part of my own supposed sense of common human decency to not let an army of monsters devour a poorly maintained city.

Either way, it interests me that I myself didn't think far enough to truly ponder why this Omniverse is the way it is.

I've thought plenty of times about the existence of extraterrestrial life, which undoubtedly exists in my own realm, but beings of another dimension only slightly alluded me until now.

It's funny how that works out too; I've been in plenty of different planes of existence. Except, in those times, concepts we ironically believed to be concrete didn't seem to exist in many of those realms. Time, sentience, gravity; I could go on and on.

Here, however? The Omni character that seems to maintain the Omniverse knows of these concepts, and things seem strikingly similar to as they were back home, in which I can only assume is coincidence.

Things are not all the same here, however. The Primes, as denizens here like to call them and myself, seem to come from backgrounds such as my own. Even if this plane of existence is like my own in ways, I feel even less at home because of that. Strangely, I feel trapped, and the sinking feeling in my gut tells me even I'm not sure where I'm going.

I can't go back, however. That would be too easy.

The huntress ended it there, looking at Dr. Regal's office as she passed by, putting both her writing utensil and notebook back within her pouches.

A sigh left her lips, and since then, the woman had checked her Liberator Aid enough times to know where she'd need to go next, for the influence of Nebula still resided; the Ashen Steppes.


So, to the Nexus she wandered once again.