The front door creaked open. “You scoundrel!” Aeris was giggling as she walked in with Vincent, Blackfire crackling on her shoulder and Keys a quiet shadow between them. Scathach, Merlin knew, would already be perched over the door; it was the Gargoyle’s favorite spot, when she wasn’t sneaking down at night to listen as he read treatises on the theory of magic. “I knew you were hiding something since the Great Maw!”
“Hmm.” Vincent didn’t deny anything, carefully shutting the door behind them. “Will you be able to handle your new guest?”
“She’s actually very sweet,” Aeris admitted. “Though she did look a little worried when… Merlin!” Aeris beamed at him. “Guess who’s staying with us?”
Oh, dear. “Did you invite Sephiroth to tea, young lady, or merely convince Maleficent to wear something other than black and purple?” Merlin inquired.
“Oh, that would be fun.” Aeris smiled. “It’s Naminé.”
“Na – Naminé?” Merlin sputtered. Surely not!
“The little Nobody girl who helped Sora?” Archimedes arched a feathered brow. “How in the Worlds did she get here?”
“Axel brought her.” Aeris cast an amused look Vincent’s way. “And you said he didn’t know when to trust people. Although he did kind of eep when I smiled at him….”
From the carefully bland look on Vincent’s face, the sniper thought eep was a perfectly reasonable reaction to being smiled at. Especially by Aeris in a playful mood.
“Who-hoo-hoo, I’ll bet he did!” Archimedes chuckled, wings pressed to his breastbone. “He lost his Heart, not his mind!”
“It seems to have been a bit more than that.” Merlin beckoned to a few chairs as he picked up his scroll. “You’ll want to be sitting down. Oh, it’s not all bad news! Not even most of it. But it is rather odd.” He frowned. “And given we can reasonably pin most of it on Xemnas, I rather think we’ve been underestimating our enemy. That never ends well.”
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
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Ah. Great. Void element to lost memories. I suppose it is easier to manipulate/ensure someone’s loyalty if they don’t remember what else they should be loyal to. It even explains why Roxas originally remembered his name was ‘Sora’ before being recruited only to forget… mostly everything early in 358/2 Days.
If my guess is right then I’m just gonna say it now, because even if I’m wrong it bears repeating: Xemnas, you’re a butt.
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Who should be killed with fire. *Nods*
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Been tried. It didn’t stick.
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>> Been tried. It didn’t stick.
Clearly the problem is that not enough fire was used.
Because in large enough quantities, Fire solves everything. Everything.
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“If lethal force wasn’t your last resort, clearly you didn’t resort to enough of it the first time.” -Schlock, hee.
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From the carefully bland look on Vincent’s face, the sniper thought eep was a perfectly reasonable reaction to being smiled at. Especially by Aeris in a playful mood.
Aeris and a certain Merciful Goddess should never, ever met. The universe just might implode. (And Sanzo just might break the light speed barrier to put as much space between himself and THAT as possible).
That never ends well.”
Quite.
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*Blinks*
*Starts backing away slowly from the twin grins on Aeris and Kanzeon*
Don’t let them see me….
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Careful, sudden movement attracts their attention.
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*Sneak sneak sneak….*
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Don’t let them see me….
*nods*
Careful, sudden movement attracts their attention.
Indeed.
It probably will help that none of us are said entity’s preferred . . . . prey? minions? victims? beloved favorites?
Of course, that is no reason not to be cautious . . .
Maybe one could distract them by tossing them one of their aforementioned preferred prey / beloved favorite (delete as you see fit)?
Of course, trying to toss someone like Sanzo anywhere he doesn’t want to do without being someone like Kanzeon tends to end poorly for the person doing the tossing . . . . and Aeris’s bunch isn’t any safer in that regard.
Okay, back to the old plan of quietly sneaking out the back . . .
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*Nod!*
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>> Maybe one could distract them by tossing them one of their aforementioned preferred prey / beloved favorite (delete as you see fit)?
An excellent idea!!
>> Of course, trying to toss someone like Sanzo anywhere he doesn’t want to do without being someone like Kanzeon tends to end poorly for the person doing the tossing . . . . and Aeris’s bunch isn’t any safer in that regard.
Now, I don’t think we should abandon a plan with such potential just yet. It’s like that scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film… It’s all about finding the right leverage.
And in this case, I think it’s actually rather shockingly easy, with appropriate bait.
Step 1). Acquire peach(es)
Step 2). Acquire Goku’s attention. (Easy enough to accomplish, just shout “Hey Goku, look what I got!” and hold up a peach)
Step 3). Toss the
baitpeach in the general direction of the Most Merciful Goddess (not directly at hir, of course. No need to test that ‘Merciful’ title, best to just take these sorts of things on faith, eh? Tossing the peach to Kanzeon Bossatsu-sama may be acceptable however. While ze knows you’re just trying to get away, playing with Sanzo is fun and so your escape is probably acceptable).Result: Goku goes for the peach, and Sanzo goes after his damn monkey. Sanzo’ll probably be moderately ticked at you – if he’s not too distracted to realize what you did – but he’ll be busy with whatever Kanzeon’s up to, and if you book it fast enough Sanzo’s unlikely to give chase. Hakkai is the member of the Sanzo-ikkou who cannot be escaped – don’t bother running from Hakkai, you’ll just die tired – but he tends to have a sense of humor about these things, so most likely he’d just let you go anyway.
With Aeris and her favorite
toystraveling companions the plan is almost as easy and much the same. Just trade out ‘peaches’ for ‘materia’ and make certain to get Yuffie (or possibly Cloud – look, he’s quieter about it, but if Advent Children is anything to go off of then he actually acquired all those crazy materia you have to work like a madman for over the course of FFVII, and you don’t do that in the position Cloud was in if you aren’t at least a bit of a materia nut yourself) to go after said materia when you toss it to Aeris.Aeris may actually be the harder one to run from though. Kanzeon’s Merciful for a reason, you amuse hir and you’ll be let you go. Aeris is a bit more stubborn though, and if was just a momentary bit of mischief she might let you get away, but of she actually has a plan then the moment you get her attention you really just need to accept your fate as doomed. Don’t worry, I promise to deliver a touching eulogy when we gather to mourn your loss.
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