Chapter Text
Once Oliver and Venti made their way over to the breakroom, they found the door locked tight. Oliver pushed the button, but nothing happened. He squinted and looked over at Venti, who simply shrugged.
"OLIVER! VENTI! ARE YOU DOWN THERE?!" yelled a voice from behind the door—so loud now since he were so close, that it made Oliver jump.
"Yes! Yes, we're here!"
"It's you!" the voice replied. "Is Venti with you?"
"Yes! The bard is here!" Venti smiled.
"August, is that you?" Oliver asked, pressing his ear to the door.
"Yes! It's me. I'm here with Arnold and Jasper. Oh! And Claire is here with us, too!"
Mark, pressed against the door, blinked in confusion. "Claire?" He squinted. "Okay, you may wanna run who that was by me again,"
"Claire! Doctor Barclay's assistant I told you about. Don't worry, she's cool."
"Wait! His assistant!?" Oliver yelled in realization. "She's really in there with yo—"
Venti gently nudged Oliver's shoulder. "Babe, how is the door repaired? Didn't the dark creature blow this up before we left?"
Oliver blinked. "Yeah... you're right." He raised his voice so the others could hear him through the metal. "Uh, hey! How exactly is the door fixed?!"
"Oh... uh... Dad used that hammer he had."
Oliver batted his eyes for a moment, glancing at Venti. Venti shrugged. Neither of them had any clue how Doctor Barclay had suddenly turned "fictionally," as Nerraw would have put it.
Oliver leaned in close to his boyfriend. "Babe," he whispered, "can you use your wind again?"
"No problem." Venti waved a hand, gesturing for Oliver to step aside.
"Okay!" Oliver yelled toward the door. "Everyone in there, stay away from the door! Don't even stand at the far wall. 'Cause It seems like my boyfriend has gotten a power high—" he joked.
Venti snorted softly. "Oh, stop. I'm just as powerful now as I was then." He summoned his bow, letting it materialize in his grip. "Day Break Chronicles is definitely going to break this door into the next day!"
Oliver slowly looked at Venti. "Really?"
Venti giggled, covering his mouth.
"As you'd say: 'Tighnari would strangle you.'"
"My jokes are better than Cyno's!" Venti beamed.
"Actually, it was worse," Oliver deadpanned.
"Uh... is something going to happen?" August called out from inside.
Oliver gestured his hand to Venti, then at the door. The bard nodded, pulling back on the bowstring. An Anemo arrow materialized between his fingers.
"Here goes," he whispered, letting it fly.
The arrow tore through the air and embedded itself deep into the steel. A howling wind circled around the tail of the arrow, driving it further into the metal. The door groaned and ached, the heavy steel bending violently inward.
Venti raised his hand and pushed it forward gently, giving the wind a final nudge. The door blasted off its hinges, landing deep inside the room with a heavy, echoing clang.
"There we go!" Venti smiled as he stepped through the opening.
But the moment he and Oliver entered, they were bombarded by a massive group hug from the other boys.
"Woah!?" Oliver gasped, nearly losing his balance.
Venti gasped too, but quickly melted into giggles. "Aww! It's okay guys, we're all fine! I promise!"
The group reluctantly broke apart. "We're okay," Oliver reassured them. "A little shaken up, but... we're here. Haha." He looked up and spotted Claire. He had only seen her a few times, usually when waking up in the extraction chair while he was still trapped in Genshin Impact. "You're Claire..." he said.
"Yeah," she replied softly. "If you don't trust me, I completely understand."
"Well—" Oliver looked around at the other boys. "If they do, I don't see why I shouldn't either. I assume you never actually wanted to work for him. I remember something you said once, back when I woke up here."
Claire narrowed her eyes slightly. "Wait, you've been waking up in the chair?"
"Almost every night since I got hooked into Genshin Impact. Though I don't think I ever woke up when I did the stasis thingy," Oliver explained. "If I did, I don't remember." He looked closely at her. "Anyways, you sounded as if you wanted to get away from him."
"I did," Claire admitted. "Speaking of him... what happened to him?"
"Seriously," Arnold chimed in, looking at Oliver.
Jasper nodded. "Bro suddenly summoned armor over his body, like things were on fleek."
Oliver blinked, staring blankly at Jasper.
Jasper's face instantly went red. "Do people not say that anymore?" He sighed, looking at the floor. "And just when I was getting used to the word..."
"It's better than 6-7," August said.
Jasper blinked. "What?"
Oliver wanted to laugh, but there were far more pressing matters at hand.
"Where is Doctor Barclay?" Claire asked again.
"Wait, hold on! Where is Mark!?" Arnold gasped, panic rising in his voice. "Shouldn't he be with you!? He was the one who went to find you. How did you come back without him?"
"Yeah, wait!" August added. "Surely he'd be here right now with you."
There was too much going on at once, and Oliver didn't know what to address first. More than anything, he wanted to avoid talking about August's dad.
"It's so hard to talk about... literally everything," Oliver groaned. "Mark came to rescue us. But Nerraw... that damn creature we had to fight. It's half-immortal. Impossible to fight." He glanced at Venti. "Only the Keyblade that Mark had could have killed it. And the one Thomas had too... but as a last resort, Nerraw seemed to give up his dark powers and shove them all into Thomas."
The boys stared in stunned silence. "What?" Arnold finally breathed.
"Thomas? That... crystal creature man thing?!" August blinked. "He's dead!?"
"I... I have no idea," Oliver said, rubbing his forehead. "All we saw was Thomas covered in the darkness Nerraw had on him, then everything warped and we got sent back here. I still don't know if us being back is Mark's doing or... Doctor Barclay's."
August stepped forward. "Okay, but where is my dad? You must have seen him. He couldn't have just left. Also, we heard a loud noise! It sounded like thunder or something. It scared us pretty badly because it was so damn loud."
Here it comes... Oliver took a deep breath.
"August..." Oliver looked down at the floor. "Your... your father is... he's dead," he managed to say. "He's dead. He's no longer here."
August went perfectly still. He didn't move. He barely seemed to breathe.
The rest of the boys, along with Claire, just stared at Oliver and Venti. It was impossible to tell if they were relieved or horrified by how quickly it had all happened.
Without a word, August pushed past Oliver and bolted down the hall.
"Wait! August!" Oliver called out.
He watched August sprint down the corridor before coming to a complete, shuddering halt at the door to Extraction Room 1. He froze in the doorway, staring at the floor inside.
Oliver winced and exchanged a pained glance with Venti. With a heavy sigh, Oliver stepped away from the broken breakroom door and walked down the hall to join him.
Peering into the room, he saw it: Doctor Barclay, lying dead on the floor, his body still smoking and scorched to a crisp.
By then, the others had caught up. Claire let out a sharp gasp. "Oh my god," she whispered, covering her mouth.
Arnold and Jasper exchanged an uneasy look before returning their eyes to the motionless body.
Oliver sighed. "August... I... I'm really sorry."
August didn't say anything at first. He just stood there, staring down at the man who was once his father.
"Come on—" Arnold gently grabbed August's arm. "Let's get you away from this room."
August softly pushed Arnold's hand away. "No, it's fine," he murmured. He took a hesitant step further into the room. "It's fine." He stepped past his father's body and stopped near the extraction chairs. "I just... I was disappointed in him," he said quietly. "He was a good dad to me. What caused him to do this?"
The room fell deadly silent.
"I don't know," Oliver shook his head gently. "I'm just... I'm sorry."
"Don't be," August said, his voice hardening slightly. "He had it coming. For him to do all of this—" He gestured wildly at the extraction chairs. "He had it coming. No consent. No nothing... killing others..." He looked over at Claire, who was watching him with deep empathy. "Attempting to kill his own assistant... that is not the dad I knew. He changed. What you killed wasn't my dad. If anything, you probably freed him."
August suddenly hugged his arms around himself. "And why is it so cold all of a sudden?"
Oliver blinked, then looked up. Oh, no.
There was a hole in the ceiling. It was deep enough that it pierced straight through the roof, and delicate white snow was slowly trickling down into the extraction room.
"Uhh... shit," Oliver gritted his teeth. He turned to Claire. "Do you know how much longer it'll take until this entire place freezes over?"
"Well—" Claire thought for a moment. "The heat is regulated pretty nicely in the facility, and with a hole that small, it shouldn't do much. The only difference would be a spike in Barclay's energy bill..." She managed a dark, faint smile. "A joke. He never used standard energy. Or even solar, for that matter. There's a giant reactor north of the facility outside that is currently extracting energy from multiple dimensions to keep the facility running."
Every boy's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" they yelled in perfect unison.
Claire sighed, her expression turning grim. "Multiple universes have collapsed to my knowledge. Anytime one dies, Barclay just hooked up another."
Oliver shook his head frantically. "Okay, no, no, no... we are shutting that shit off the second Mark comes back. And if he doesn't, we have to do it without him. We are not leaving without destroying that thing. Those are literally trillions upon trillions of people dying all for one fucking mortal. We can't let this happen anymore."
Venti stepped up, his expression fierce. "I've never seen a mortal with that much power before. I'm with Oliver. We stop that machine. That's completely uncalled for."
"It's more than trillions," Jasper pointed out quietly. "If universes are practically endless, there could be a number you can't even fathom of people living in them that all just... died at once."
Oliver nodded quickly. "Exactly." He looked back to Claire. "The boss is dead. Are there any other coworkers we have to look out for, or is it just you?"
"Oliver, I'm the last living coworker he used," Claire said. "He doesn't have anyone else. He sometimes used brainwashed beings from other worlds, but... I haven't even seen any of them in a month."
"Would they be walking around?" Oliver asked. "'Cause I'm stronger than I used to be." He lifted his arm and summoned his Cryo-infused diamond sword in a flash of blue light.
The boys, and Claire, stumbled back in absolute shock.
"When the hell did that happen?" Jasper sputtered.
"Yo! Is that a diamond sword from Minecraft?!" Arnold shouted.
August rubbed his eyes. "Okay, one, where did you get that? And two, how are you using it here?"
Oliver grinned widely. "As Mark said, the Fictional Leak!" He turned to Venti. "Also, Venti here deserves some of the credit! Thanks to him, I was able to get my very own Vision!"
"Vision? I don't know what that means," Jasper said.
"Wait, seriously?! What Vision is it?" Arnold asked, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Cryo! I'm totally ice-ice baby! Hahaha! Haha... haaa.... heh..."
The others just stared blankly at him.
Venti wanted to laugh so hard his ribs hurt, but he bit his tongue. He honestly had no idea what that reference was supposed to be anyway.
Oliver awkwardly cleared his throat and tightened his grip on the pixelated handle. "Anyways!" he coughed. "Uh... yeah! If there's anyone in my way, they're dead."
The other boys nodded firmly.
"But I think we should wait for Mark to come back first. At least so I can see if he's even alright," Oliver added.
Suddenly, the lights overhead violently flickered.
Oliver blinked, looking up. "What was that?"
Claire shrugged, looking uneasy.
"You heard that, right? There was a weird... drone sound for a second," Oliver muttered.
Jasper let out a heavy groan and leaned against the wall. "We had to wait for Mark before, and now we gotta wait again..."
"Well, hey! We're one step closer," Oliver said optimistically. "Closer than we ever were before."
"I'm sure you're all getting pretty tired of seeing this place," Claire offered softly. "I honestly don't blame you."
August just shook his head. "What do we even do when it's over? I know I asked that already, but tell me... what the fuck do we actually do? We're getting close to escape. We're getting close to the bridge we need to cross, but..." His voice cracked. "I don't have a father anymore. My mom is long gone. I don't have a family, period." He pointed at Arnold. "He doesn't remember a single damn thing from this world." He pointed at Jasper. "And he's a dude who's basically from a decade ago. What are we realistically going to do?!"
"I've thought of that," Oliver said gently. "Many times." He patted his pants pockets frantically. "I hope I still have it... ah-ha!" He reached in and pulled out a heavy, square, blocky gold ingot. "Straight from Minecraft!"
Claire's eyes went wide at the sight of the solid gold brick.
"What..." August blinked.
"This might help," Oliver said, holding it out. "It's still gold at the end of the day, even if it's blocky. We can sell this, and we should be able to get back on our feet when we leave." He pressed it into August's hands. "Here. Just don't lose it."
August stared down at the heavy ingot. "This... this could work."
"It will work," Oliver assured him. "As long as we sell it for a good price, I mean, it's a lot of gold. We'll be able to at least buy food and find a place. And hey... if we ever need more, we can just phone up Mark and have him take us back to Minecraft!"
Venti gently punched Oliver's shoulder. "Okay, don't get greedy now. You said you didn't want to take it just to get rich."
"Hey!" Oliver defended himself, rubbing his arm. "It's not about that! Sometimes buyers can rob you and not give you full value. It wouldn't matter to us since we'd have an abundance of gold to fall back on. Trust me, I'm not gonna, like, Biff Tannen this whole thing and get insanely rich off lottery numbers or somethin' like that. I'm sensible, okay!"
Venti tilted his head in pure confusion. "Biff Tannen?"
Oliver sighed heavily. "I forgot... you're not from here." He patted Venti's back. "Gotta show you some movies from my world sometime."
Suddenly, the lights flickered once again.
"Okay, what the hell is even that?" Oliver demanded, looking at the ceiling. "Surely the power can't be going out? Especially with what Claire said about it running on literal universes." He shook his head. "This is the last power supply you'd expect to fail..."
"Maybe the snow is too heavy outside?" Arnold guessed.
"Can't be," Claire replied immediately. "The facility is built to withstand two category five hurricanes at once; it can handle snow. Besides, Greenland snow isn't your ordinary snow, especially right smack in the middle of the island. Massive blizzards rage here every hour."
Oliver stared at Claire in utter disbelief. "We're in Greenland?"
"Yep," August nodded. "According to Claire."
Venti crossed his arms. "Greenland? Why is it called that when there's snow everywhere?"
Oliver blinked. "That... is a great question." He stared blankly at the wall. "They even went ahead and called an island with barely any snow at all, Iceland. Because you know, that makes fuckin' sense."
Venti snorted loudly at Oliver's deadpan delivery.
Oliver giggled, encouraged. "Well, they got one right. Faroe Island! Because it's pretty 'far-out' from England! Hahaha!"
The other boys groaned in unison. Even Claire didn't look amused. But Venti had to cover his mouth with both hands to muffle his laughter.
"What?! Come on, it was funny!" Oliver grunted.
"Its' not even said in that way! You say it as 'Fair'oe Island!" August rolled his eyes.
Oliver blinked, and did not say another word.
"Piffttt..." Venti covered his mouth again. "Oh nooo , it's the Lie-you thing all over again..."
Oliver gave Venti a deadpan stare. He glanced over at Jasper and realized the older boy wasn't groaning at his joke. He was staring dead ahead at the back wall of the room, facing the opposite end of the door.
"Woah... dude, you okay?" Oliver asked.
"I..." Jasper shook his head rapidly, aggressively rubbing his eyes.
"I think your pun hurt him on a personal level," Arnold quipped.
"Gerk~" Venti couldn't hold it in anymore. "Bahahahaha!"
Oliver gave Arnold a playful glare.
Arnold giggled nervously. "Sorry! Haha."
"No, it's not that," Jasper said, lowering his arms, his face pale. "I just thought I saw someone standing at the wall." He wiped his eyes again. "I thought I was seeing shit."
Oliver froze. "Wait, what? What do you mean?"
"Literally what I said. I saw someone standing right over there." Jasper pointed a shaky finger at the back wall.
Oliver looked at the other boys, and then at Claire, who just shrugged uneasily. He looked at the empty wall. "But nothing is there. We're all standing right here by the doorway with everyone—"
Arnold turned around to face the hallway door. "What the fuck—" he shouted, stumbling backward.
"Richard, what's wrong?!" August quickly moved toward him, but Arnold kept backing up until he bumped right into August's chest. He pointed a trembling finger at the doorway.
"There was someone... standing right there."
Oliver blinked rapidly, looking wildly between his friends, his confusion turning to genuine dread. "W-What's going on?"
"There was someone standing literally right there at the door!"
The lights flickered again, longer this time. The hum of the facility dipped ominously.
Everyone in the room snapped their heads around, searching the shadows.
Slowly, Oliver's gaze drifted downward. Back to Doctor Barclay's dead body. His eyes narrowed, his brow furrowing. As the lights danced crazily overhead, he kept his eyes locked on the corpse.
An icy, unnatural chill slowly slid up the back of Oliver's neck. His eyes went wide.
It couldn't be...
Then, a sudden tear in the fabric of space ripped open right in the middle of the room. Nearly everyone screamed, jumping out of their skin as a portal of light materialized.
"Hello! Glad you're all still here!" Mark smiled brightly, stepping through the portal. "Ah! I see Claire has joined you all." He did a quick head count. "Yep, all of you. So let's see—"
Mark froze mid-sentence, finally taking in the room. "Uhh... why does everyone look like they're in terrible distress?"
Oliver practically tackled him, desperate for answers. He had a million questions about the terrifying energy in the room, but one thing took priority. "Mark! How is Thomas!? What even happened to Nerraw?!"
"Oh! Is that why everyone looks so stressed? I'm terribly sorry. I had no idea why you and Venti suddenly left. I was going to chase after you, but I had to deal with the absolute mess Nerraw left behind, and I was completely distracted for hours." Mark rubbed his temples exhaustedly. "I'm so sorry I kept you all waiting."
"N-No! Don't be sorry! You had Thomas to take care of. Is he okay?" Oliver pleaded.
"He's doing perfectly," Mark assured him.
Oliver let out a massive sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
"It's a long story on how the darkness from Nerraw left his body, but thankfully, even the power of the Holder has left him too. He no longer has the power of his universe. He's just little young Thomas again, no longer a dimensional anomaly." Mark rubbed his temples harder. "As for Nerraw, he's now a weak, pitiful excuse for a human. He used his power as a last resort, trying to turn Thomas into him."
"Thank goodness it never worked," Oliver breathed.
"Tell me about it," Mark agreed. "So don't worry about him. I know Oliver must have told you all about the situation, and I assume that's why you all look so panicked, so I assure you, Thomas is fine. I'm fine. Nerraw is powerless. We're all good."
Oliver swallowed hard. "Mark... that's not really the reason we all look like this."
Mark frowned, looking down at him. "Hmm? What's the matter?"
The lights flickered violently above them.
Mark blinked, his eyes darting around the room until they locked onto the empty doorway. "Huh... there was somebody standing there."
"See! What did I tell you!?" Jasper and Arnold screamed simultaneously.
Mark took a cautious step forward, and that's when his foot nearly clipped Doctor Barclay's corpse. "Wooooahh... who the hell is..."
"I-It's Doctor Barclay..." Oliver stammered. "Uh... Venti, uh..."
"Fried him to a crisp," Mark observed flatly.
August stood in the corner, holding himself tight, refusing to look.
"Hmm..." Mark turned to Arnold and Jasper, his expression turning deadly serious. "Judging by how you two reacted when I said I saw someone at the door, you must have seen it before I got here, yes?"
The two boys nodded frantically.
"Have you seen this event before this?" Mark asked, pointing down at the dead doctor.
They shook their heads. "Trust me, I would have seen that," Arnold said.
Oliver was quickly piecing together what Mark was getting at, but it defied all logic. "Mark... are... are you getting at... that person they keep seeing is...." He slowly pointed a trembling finger at the dead man. "Mark, that can't be! Ghosts don't... exist..." He snapped his head up to the older man. "Do they?"
"They never used to be in our realm," Mark explained grimly. "But thanks to the Fictional Leak, we now have souls that can manifest into ghosts. Though it's quite strange.... Normally, in stories, it takes a soul a while to accumulate enough energy to haunt. I assume you just killed him in the last few hours, so there hasn't been the required time for a haunting." Mark waved a hand thoughtfully. "Then again, if the Fictional Universe's energy is too concentrated in one place, it could severely accelerate the process. Considering we're in a facility that directly interacts with the Fictional Universe, it wouldn't surprise me if the ambient energy here is off the charts."
Claire cautiously raised a finger. "It probably is, since Doctor Barclay has a massive reactor outside that extracts raw energy from dying dimensions to power this stinkin' place."
Mark nodded slowly. "Yep, that'll do it—" He froze mid-nod, his head snapping toward Claire. "Run that by me again?"
Oliver sighed angrily. "Yeah. Some new shit we just learned from Claire. Doctor Barclay purposely killed worlds just for energy."
Mark put his hands on his hips, his face darkening with fury. "That would explain the random, massive loss of certain dimensions on my scanner. I could never find the cause. Entire worlds were just vanishing left and right, and I stayed up endless nights trying to protect the ones I was close to..." Mark looked from Oliver to Claire. "So it was all this doctor's fault?"
"We are destroying that reactor," Oliver stated firmly. "Whatever it takes."
Mark sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "New shit after new shit. Anyways, as I was saying. Since the leak happened—which started from my house accidentally—Kingdom Hearts has officially joined the party. That means all of us have Hearts."
"I think you told us this," Jasper murmured.
"I did?" Mark blinked. "Trust me, I say a lot of shit to a lot of people, I forget." He glanced back down at the dead doctor. "So, let's just be glad that with all this negative energy, his heart didn't succumb and turn him into a Heartless, because that would have—"
Before Mark could finish his sentence, Doctor Barclay's dead body was violently swallowed by a bubbling, inky darkness. The shadows writhed, looking terrifyingly similar to Nerraw's dark flames.
"Ah!?" Oliver screamed, leaping backward and clutching Venti's arm.
The others scrambled frantically toward the back wall.
Mark just stared. "Well, that's not good."
"Mark!? Is that Nerraw again!?" Oliver yelled in absolute terror.
The corpse levitated completely off the floor, swamped in pitch-black flames. Slowly, a glowing red emblem burned its way into the center of the creature's chest: the outline of a heart with a pointy shape from the bottom heading downward.
Oliver's stomach dropped. He recognized that symbol instantly.
"It is not Nerraw. Doctor Barclay has officially manifested into a Heartless," Mark stated coldly. "All of you! Get out of the room!" In a flash of brilliant light, his Keyblade materialized in his grip. "I'll handle this. Just one damn thing after another..."
"Come on, go!" Oliver shoved Venti, the three boys, and Claire out into the hallway as fast as they could.
The second they cleared the doorway, Mark lunged, slashing his Keyblade heavily into the Heartless. The creature shrieked, stumbling backward and crashing into the far wall.
Mark wound up to deliver a finishing blow, but the massive Heartless recovered with terrifying speed. It shot out a clawed hand, grabbed the metal shaft of the Keyblade while Mark was still holding it, and hurled him across the room.
Mark slammed brutally into the steel wall. He crumpled to the floor, his Keyblade clattering uselessly out of reach. "Ahh..." he groaned, clutching his ribs. "Whoo! That is a strong bitch..."
He scrambled to his feet just as the monster lunged. He summoned his Keyblade back to his hand in a flash, instantly throwing it up to block the Heartless's heavy, sweeping claw. Mark dug his heels in, parried the blow, twirled the blade fluidly, and slashed upward, knocking the creature flat onto its back.
Mark spun the Keyblade around, aiming the tip squarely at the monster's chest. "STOPZA!!!"
A massive clock face materialized in the air, chiming loudly as time around the Heartless ground to an absolute halt. Mark gasped heavily, the high-tier spell draining the absolute last of his magic.
Refusing to waste the window, Mark launched into a furious, relentless combo. He battered the Keyblade into the frozen monster repeatedly, sparking bursts of light with every brutal impact.
Slash!Hit!Spark!Bang!
The clock ticked down. Time violently sped back up, and Mark delivered one final, devastating swing. The massive Heartless went flying across the room, smashing into the doorframe before spilling out into the hallway.
It hit the floor with a terrible thud. Almost instantly, its dark, shadowy body began to dissolve into black mist.
From the center of the fading darkness, a brilliant, glowing red Heart floated upward, seeking the sky.
Mark's eyes widened in panic. "No!"
He lunged forward, thrusting the tip of his Keyblade directly into the floating Heart. A beam of light locked onto it, anchoring it in place. "I can't let you go to Kingdom Hearts!" he strained, gritting his teeth as the Heart pulled with immense force, desperately trying to tear through the dimensions to find the Heart Moon.
Mark gripped the hilt with both hands, boots sliding against the floor as he fought to keep it steady. "Come on... come on..." he growled. Pushing with every ounce of effort he had left, Mark violently twisted the Keyblade in a locking motion.
CRACK!
The Heart shattered, exploding in a thick, explosive red mist that splattered across the sterile walls.
Mark collapsed to his knees, stabbing the Keyblade into the ground and leaning his full weight against it. He let out a ragged, exhausted sigh. "That's over."
Just then, Oliver cautiously poked his head around the corner to check if it was safe. He gasped at the bright red splatter coating the hallway walls. "Uhh... Mark? Are you okay?" He blinked nervously. "Is... is that blood?" He looked up at the fading black mist still hovering in the air.
Mark shook his head, breathless. "No. It's the Heart. The raw essence of it. You play Kingdom Hearts, right? When a Heartless is destroyed, the trapped Heart is released to rejoin Kingdom Hearts. But Kingdom Hearts isn't in this dimension. It would have had to violently cross dimensions to get there, and I'm not entirely sure a corrupted Heart could even survive the trip. It likely would have just manifested into a new Heartless somewhere else in the multiverse, and I couldn't let that happen. We all know who this Heart had belonged too," He looked up from his weapon. "So, I destroyed the Heart entirely. I normally would never do that... but we can't risk the essence of this terror of a man winding up somewhere else."
Oliver swallowed hard, nodding. "S-So he's really gone?"
"Yep." Mark forced himself to his feet, dismissing his Keyblade with a wave of his hand. "Now, onto the new shit. What were you saying? Something about a power plant?"
"Yeah," Oliver spun around, pointing down the hall. "Come on, everyone's waiting in the breakroom."
"I might actually need a break first," Mark admitted, limping slightly as he followed Oliver. "If you guys have any of the food I brought, please, toss me something. I wasn't sure how tough this Heartless would be, so I threw Stopza at it, and it completely drained my mana."
Oliver managed a small smile. "Well, that's why we're heading to the breakroom! To have a break!"
As Oliver and Mark approached the shattered doorway, Venti was waiting for them just inside.
"Wow," Venti shook his head, looking at Oliver. "You are really on a roll with the puns this hour, huh?"
Oliver just giggled, rolling his eyes playfully as he stepped over the ruined doorway.
Venti looked past him to Mark, his expression softening. "Is... everything okay out there?"
Mark stopped in the doorway and nodded slowly. "The doctor is permanently dealt with," he said. "Though, I can't say I've ever seen someone turn into a Heartless in the Honmono dimension before. This is a terrifying first." He shook his head grimly. "It's not good. Heartless are incredibly dangerous, and even though this universe has a massive Fictional Leak, the people living here aren't equipped with magic or Keyblades to defend themselves. It's as if this world is pulling all the apocalyptic threats from fiction, but none of the heroes or weapons needed to fight them. It's ridiculous."
Venti sighed softly, listening closely. "Well, uh... it's a good thing you're here to help them, right?"
"But there's only so much one person can do," Mark replied, rubbing his neck. "And I cannot ask Sora and his friends for help every time something goes wrong. They already have their hands full world-hopping and saving their own dimensions. They shouldn't have to constantly babysit mine."
"Hey! Mark, are you coming in!?" Oliver called from inside. "I thought you were starving!"
"Coming," Mark called back.
Venti smiled sympathetically and followed Mark into the room.
Mark walked up to the break table, looking around at the exhausted group. "Come on, let's all just eat something. Once we catch our breath, then we can worry about this power plant situation,"