Sell you a Bridge chapter 294

June 15th 2016 Hollow Bastion 1:00 PM EDT

Before  we left the library to explore, I gathered everyone together. We could  have left right after that, but I made everyone stop as I turned to  Rana. "Ok. This place is teeming with heartless, I won't insult you by  comparing you to them, it would be like comparing a full person to a  single cell organism, but there is a connection, and more specifically,  there's only really one way to kill them."

Morana wheeled  on me with an expression halfway between a glare and a pout. "You're  STILL trying to sideline me? Tell me you didn't summon me to another  world to hang out with grandma and my moms will we let daddy go out and  do all the fighting."

I gave her an innocent grin. "Don't  be silly. Your mothers rarely call me daddy in mixed company." It was  mean given here little outburst earlier, but I couldn't resist the joke,  and the grimaces on the faces of Sindella and Taylor only made it  funnier.

Rana squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears.  "Ew, ew, ew. That's so gross. Please never tell me anything like that  again." She paused. "And stop trying to distract me! Am I going to be  allowed to fight or not?" She literally stomped her foot in annoyance,  and then blushed as the ground shook a bit and dust rained down from the  ceiling above us. That got her a glare from everyone else as we  nervously check the integrity of the hallway, and she averted her eyes  to avoid the stares.

I rolled my  own eyes. "Well, maybe if you didn't throw fits before I finished  explaining things, it wouldn't take so long to get through them. As for  the joke..." I shrugged. "No regrets. Your face was hilarious. Now. The  reason I mention the heartless and their immunity to most harm, is  specifically because you can do something about that." I paused.  "Probably. I think. The point is, with you here, we might have not just  one, but FOUR keyblade wielders."

Artemis  cut in. "Can you explain the math on that for those of us in the cheap  seats? Because it sounds like you're talking about a second one, which,  weird heart stuff aside, I kind of get given Rana is your daughter. But  who is going to get the other two? Because if it isn't decided yet,  dibs." She raised her hand confidently, ignoring the annoyed look Wally  shot her for not including him in that little lobbying attempt.

"That's  a good question." I said, pointing at my surrogate sister. "To answer  your questions in reverse order: first off, no. And secondly the other  two will be for Zee and Drea. As Rana's mothers, her heart is made up of  equal sections of all three of our own, kept stable and connected to  the three of us in a way that wouldn't be possible without my ability.  Heart stuff IS the reason Rana can almost definitely call a keyblade,  but what's less certain is that her heart is, as I said, connected to  her mothers' so it's possible once she gets hers they can use them from  the same logic."

Jim  made a noise of understanding from off to one side. "Of course. It's a  possibility, which is where your power shines. Uncertainty makes any lie  more believable. Since you don't KNOW they won't get one, you can make  it happen even if it normally wouldn't. Am I to assume you can manage  this? Not to belittle you, but this seems like a fairly impressive bit  of power to throw around."

I  waved it off. "I'll be fine. I'm a markedly more powerful entity than I  was last time you saw me try a trick like this. Trust me, current me  can handle much more than I used to." I didn't mention that it was still  a massive strain. Whatever I was now, be it god or ghost-devil, it  wasn't enough to easily wield my full power like I'd hoped. I still had  plenty of growing to do. It was plenty to get this done though, I was  sure. I held out a hand and conjured Tartarus, showing the keyblade to  my daughter.

"Okay."  I said calmly. "This will be the easy part. No effort from me needed.  Rana, you can feel our connection right?" She gave me a solemn nod.  "Good. I want you to reach through it. Touch the bond we share and  follow it deep into my heart. I have the keyblade summoned. I want you  to trace that connection as it pulls on my soul, and once you see how it  works, I want you to try to pull it back through the bond and connect  it directly to your heart."

It  probably sounded like gibberish to most of the people there, but Rana  understood. She closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling, and then I felt  her reach into our bond. She was much less sure of herself than I was,  or than Zee or Drea when they would send things into our bond for  reassurance or affection. Rana felt like a toddled clawing through a tub  of mud, and I probably would have winced at the crudeness if this  hadn't been such a serious moment.

Eventually  though, her hands grabbed onto the connection between me and Tartarus  and pulled. One would suspect it would feel weird or wrong to have that  disturbed. One would be incorrect. The connection stretched, pulling  like taffy out of my heart and into the section of it inside Rana, where  it seamlessly anchored itself with no real problems. It was being  stretched technically, but also it was in one piece because the heart it  was connected to was still just mine, though not only the one I had  inside me.

With  a grunt of effort, Rana held out a hand, and eyes still closed, she  YANKED on the connection. That DID cause me to wince, and I made a note  to teach her some finesse. But it didn't really matter. A whirl of  darkness rolled over her hand and from the dark emerged a...thing. It  was a keyblade, that was clear, but not like mine. It had a pair of  metal bat wings surrounding a purple center piece. Instead of a  cylindrical body the blade was flat and about the size of my forarm,  with a length of chain running down the dark metal to a set of teeth  that all looked like one solid shape.

Her  eyes snapped open, drawn to the new keyblade as she swung it lightly in  an x pattern to get a feel for the weight.  She stared down at the  thing with reverence. "Oblivion." She whispered. As id the sound of her  own whisper had woken her from a chance, she jerked her eyes up.  "I...sorry. Oblivion. That's the name of my keyblade. This is...wow dad,  you didn't do it justice. This feels weird. Not in a bad way but...how  do I even describe this."

I  knew what she meant. "Like it's the key that can unlock your truest  self, a pillar that holds up your heart, and a shield that will protect  it from all harm. I know. It's intense and kind of hard to describe,  which is why I never really bothered to try." I shrugged. "Other people  won't really get it. Still, that's the easy part out of the way. Now  it's time to see exactly how much my power can do. Drea, you have the  strongest heart of us all, both for god reasons and who you are. Why  don't you try it next?"

My  goddess nodded and did the same thing as our daughter. She closed her  eyes and reached into Rana's heart. Instead of going all the way into  mine, she just grabbed the connection in the section of my daughter's  heart that belonged to me and tried to drag it through to the one that  belonged to her. It was a MUCH shorter distance and should have been far  easier. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I  felt a serious strain as she tried to pull the connection, and she had  to dig in and really haul it towards her. It felt like something was  tearing in me, and I would have stopped if I'd been anyone else. But I  wasn't. I reached out with the part of me that controlled my power, so  much more durable and powerful since my ascension, and I told the power a  lie. I told it this was fine, that this was normal. It was no different  than what Rana had done and it should be good and go with Drea  obediently.

The  strain on my heart lessened as the strain on my mind began to grow. I  had been right, I COULD handle this, but it was extremely tough to  manage it. The strain was greater than anything I'd ever done. I closed  my eyes hard. "Zee, help her pull it through and then keep it going. If  we stop I don't think I can do this again." My body was shaking, muscles  trembling in effort and strain as sweat poured off my. My head hurt,  but less than it would have before even if I could have survived.

I  could feel the biggest benefit of godhood. My whole body was maid to  channel this force, not just my mind. I'd been reshaped, and while this  level of power was still an absurd amount, it was also being spread out  across much more of me than before. The strain lessened as a;; three of  us gave everything we had, first through Drea's section, then through  Zee's. Once a full circle was finally made I was barely able to stand,  but when it made the circuit something clicked and all the strain  just...vanished.

I  felt matching connections form in Zee and Drea's actual hearts, their  connection mirroring my own. All three of us connected to Rana by our  own unique keyblade connection. The last bit took a huge effort, but  once it was done the strain stopped. I fell to my knees, head still  foggy and blazing with pain. I felt something touch me on the shoulder  and looked up at Zee, staring down at me in concern, Drea was on my  other side, and I saw them look terrified until I reached up and wiped  the blood from my nose.

However,  that wasn't all I saw. Each of them had a keyblade in hand. I grinned  widely. "Fuck yes!" I Said, wincing at my own voice as I felt the shout  claw at my sensitive ears. "Ow. Ok no yelling. But you both did it. What  are their names?" I knew they would have been told. All keyblades knew  their own names.

Drea  held up hers, a white metal key that looked in some ways like the  opposite of Oblivion. It was long and white, with an angel wing guard  and teeth like a blue and yellow starburst. "Oathkeeper." She said  proudly. "It's wonderful. I've never seen anything like it. Or felt it.  Channeling my power through this thing...it's perfectly suited for  mental attacks or illusions."

Zee  held up her own keyblade. It was sporting angel wings too, though the  shaft of it was a blue cylinder of curved metal speckled with stars. The  end was a single star and moon surrounded by a half circle of purple  spikes. "This one is Star Seeker. It's a magic keyblade. Like...all it  does is enhance magic, but it does it well. It also desperately wants to  learn more magic. I love it so much!" She hurled herself into my arms,  and only her dropping and dismissing the thing in a flash of light  prevented me from being skewered.

I  should have probably been surprised by the light themes of the girls  keyblades, but I wasn't. In fact, it made perfect sense. Keyblades  didn't belong to the dark, they were balanced. While Rana and I had  darkness in our nature, the girls very much did not. Zee was an elf  demigoddess of lightning and purification among other things, and Drea  was from New Genesis. I climbed to my feet with a groan, letting my  armor flow over me as I did. We could talk about things as we walked.  For now, it was time to begin the search for our ticket home.