Sell you a Bridge chapter 310

June 20th 2016 Twilight Town, 7:00 PM EDT

Del  looked, as per usual, a little spacey but generally happy to be here. I  very carefully did NOT use my aura sight to look at her. I was still  having twitching fits from seeing Taylor's gift, I had no clue what  looking at one of the Endless would do to me. Zee and Drea  looked...well, varying degrees of tense. Zee mostly seemed anticipatory,  but Drea hadn't been with us last time Del showed up, and she seemed  like she was about to freak out.

Rana, weirdly enough,  seemed to be the most excited. "Oh! You're Del! It's so exciting to meet  you." She dove forward and...hugged a primordial force of the universe.  Even Del, who was normally unflappable, looked blindsided by that, but  her face split into an uncharacteristically wide smile as she put her  arms around Rana and hugged her back.

"Well now." She  said, sounding perhaps more lucid than she ever had in my presence  except that last cryptic bit she'd told me before leaving us on New  Genesis. "Aren't you friendly. I...I'm not usually one for hugs, but  you're just so...young. This is nice." She gave Rana a long squeeze,  eyes closing in a sort of relieved exhalation of joy before she opened  them and released her, reaching up to smooth Rana's hair away. "Thank  you. Little one. It's been quite some time since someone held me in  genuine affection."

The wonder in her voice derailed all  my questions. She just sounded so awed at getting a hug from my  daughter. The implications of that made me incredibly sad. I considered  offering a hug myself, but I suspected the reason she was so at ease  receiving one from Rana was my daughter's pure heart, as cheesy as that  sounded. A brand new soul, unstained by the wear and tear of humanity.

Still,  I had important things to learn, so I forced myself to focus. "Del." I  said with a smile. "It's good to see you, though I admit we could have  used your help a little while ago. You're not wrong about talking  though. I have more than a few questions for you. " I paused. "Well...I  say more than a few, but it all mostly boils down to 'what the actual  fuck is going on?' So I guess technically I only have the one question."

Del  smiled, one much closer to her usual daze than the warm one she gave  when Rana hugged her. "I find most questions eventually boil down to  that, which is what makes it so tough to answer. In this case though, I  can make an effort. Remember those rules I mentioned last time I talked  to you? Well, they're much less...restrictive here. I'm more limited  than normal in some ways, but in other much less. I can talk about  several things we couldn't discuss before, but I can't actively help  you."

That wasn't really new, but I wasn't going to say  that, mostly because pissing off the one friendly force of the cosmos I  had seemed...unwise, especially when I was in some kind of war with  Barbatos for absolutely no reason. Which actually gave me the perfect  first question to ask. "What the hell does the bat god want with me? I'd  never really heard of the guy until the Nightside, though I did kind of  run across traces of him when I tapped into the curse on Gotham to  power a spell. Why is he after me? I've heard a lot of cryptic comments.  Am I an Endless? A future Endless? Something else?"

She  raised an eyebrow at me lazily. "Wow, just diving right into it huh?  Oh, well. I guess that's fair. Getting you here wasn't easy, and you put  in more work than anyone. I guess I can fill you in. Go ahead and give  me your guess. I'm sure you have some idea of what's been happening.  Let's see what you figured out."

That...was  pretty much the opposite of giving me answers, but I was lucky Del was  even talking to me so I figured I'd play along. "Well based on what  everyone has been saying, I figured I was tapped to be a new Endless.  Probably Deception, since the three I know of have D names for some  reason. It would explain your interest in me, am I like, your successor  or something? Does each endless need an heir?"

That  drew a snort from Del. "What? No. We don't need successors. The Endless  don't GET replaced...well, except Dream that one time, but that was a  one off." She paused. "Wait, has that happened yet? Ugh. Thinking in  four dimensions is annoying. Anyway, back to your guess. You're kind of  wrong, and kind of right. You're SORT of an Endless, but also not. Both  by virtue of not having attained your full powers and by virtue of  thinking in the wrong context."

I  thought back to things that had been said. Barbatos's interest in me,  Del's comment on rules not applying here, what the Upside Down Man had  said, and suddenly it all clicked together. Not just that, but so many  things about me, the way my power seemed to be so drawn to edgy options,  or rather, I was drawn to them, which might have been the same thing?  "Am I...some kind of Dark Endless? Are there different ones for  different multiverses? Is that why Ba- why HE is trying to get me?"

Del's  eyes focused on my intently as she blinked in surprise. "That was an  excellent guess. Yes. That's exactly what you are. Or could be at least.  Barbatos holds the majority of the power over the Dark Multiverse. As  long as he exists you won't be able to assume your role. No Endless has  ever existed for the Dark Multiverse, mostly because the place isn't  supposed to exist. It's a graveyard of worlds, a place for rotting and  decomposing universes to die. Barbatos was supposed to destroy them  originally, he was supposed to be a kind of disposal unit."

"Okay."  I said slowly. "But if that's true how am I an Endless, or how will I  become one? Whatever. The Endless are some kind of function of the  universe right? If the Dark Multiverse isn't a real multiverse how does  it even have Endless? It sounds like its just some throne of skulls HE  cobbled together to lord his power over everyone else. Hell, if the  worlds are rotting what am I even supposed to do? Is my whole purpose  just to destroy it all?"

She  rolled her eyes. "You're not paying attention. Sure, every world in the  Dark Multiverse is doomed...but what if they weren't? The Dark  Multiverse is a lie, it's one big piece of fiction, a multiverse that  never existed, but you know better than anyone that the longer something  pretends to be true, the closer it gets to reality. Barbatos missed  that. He kept slapping on dying worlds to pad his false kingdom, and he  accidentally made it a real boy."

That  was a lot to process. "So you expect me to what? Fight him? Take  control? Because I'm strong, but he IS this multiverse. He has all the  power that I assume I would need to beat him. This isn't some movie  where the power was inside me all along, I'd have noticed that. He's  just stronger than me. Unless you can come help me kick his ass out?  Because that would be super convenient even if I somehow feel like its  unlikely."

Her  smile this time was sad. "Sorry Morgan, this isn't my rodeo. I can't do  anything in the Dark Multiverse, and until he's gone, you can't take  your place as the first Dark Endless. However, your power is part of  this place, and it's been working harder than you might expect to give  you what you need. The Dark Multiverse might be real, but it's still  mostly dead, the worlds are sick and rotting and while you could  theoretically fix them once you Ascend for real, until you do Barbatos  still has access to block you. You need a way to jump start the creation  of a multiverse, a REAL creation event."

"The  keyblades!" Shouted Zee, making everyone except Del jump a foot into  the air as we turned to look at her in shock. "Sorry. It's just...I did  research on plenty of stuff when we were in Hollow Bastion, and one of  the books I read had this old origin story for the keyblades. It said  that originally the keyblades were all one piece, some sort of  primordial creation spark called the X-blade. After some big war the  X-blade got split into pieces. Seven light and thirteen dark." She spun  on Del, so excited she was basically vibrating. "That's what you meant  right? When you said his power gave him the tools?"

Del's  lazy smile became a blinding grin. "I knew there was a reason I liked  you. Yes. I couldn't just give you the answer, but I can confirm it at  least. The X-blade could repair the worlds of the Dark Multiverse and  banish Barbatos's influence, allowing you to take your proper place. Of  course, you need to actually cobble the thing together, and it's kind of  a pain. Even if you give your whole crew keyblades you're going to be  short. You'll need to recruit a few others. Luckily, I can ALSO confirm  that at least two of them are here in Twilight Town, and they can lead  you to at least two others."

I  did a mental tally. "Ok. We have four, if I give the other ten people  in our group access, assuming I even CAN, and we find those four, that  leaves us missing two. Hopefully they can lead us to the last two.  Though that begs the question...why should I do this? Why not  just...not. I could go home right? He needed to lure me to the Nightside  before, if I just go back to Gotham he can't touch me right?"

"Afraid  not." She said sadly. "Gotham is HIS. Always has been. The whole  Nightside thing was to confirm what you were, and now he knows. Sure,  getting you in our territory would be rough for him, and he won't do it  right away, but you can take what he thinks is his. He won't be able to  ignore you forever. It's in his nature. He has to consume, has to take.  He'll never leave you in peace. He'll keep sending minions until he goes  mad from the suspense of waiting and comes for you himself. He might  die in the process, but you might too."

I  sighed in defeat. "Damn it. How did I know it was going to be some shit  like that? And I'm guessing he's going to try to stop me from gathering  the other wielders? Neron knows I have a keyblade, which means HE does  too." I buried my head in my hands. "Nothing can be easy huh? Plus now I  have to figure out how to give keyblades to the other ten members of  our group." I paused. "Although, I've always been able to give at least  one power to anyone. Most of them haven't used up that slot. I'll have  to brute force Artemis, but the others I could probably just buy with  enough points."

Del  stood up, stretching like she'd been sitting still for far too long.  "In any case, I need to get going. I've stayed here longer than I should  have. Even though the edges of my territory make concealing myself here  easier, if I stick around too long someone will notice." She shot me a  kind smile. "Good luck little brother. This is a big job, but it needs  doing, and you're the only one who can." She reached down to ruffle my  hair. "Make me proud kid, you always have so far." Then, between one  breath and the next, she was gone. Huh. No pressure right?