“God...what’s Heart and Eclipsa going to say about this?” King, formerly known as Ben, grumbled in worry as he walked out of a DTN back home with Cript.
“I’m guessing ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’.” Cript said, messing with their newfound wings. “How do you even fly with three pairs of wings?”
“Very carefully I’m told.” Eclipsa said, slithering down the hall towards the two. “How are two loves of my life?”
“Oh you know...gave up my name to learn about Nulls and why End Glitches happen…” King sighed out. “I chose King, Cript picked it out and I’m unoriginal with names.” I said while hugging Eclipsa quickly.
“Woah there! I may be a starfish while the original body sleeps, but I can still die you know!” She says, her back popping from the hug.
“Alright the fuck am I looking at?” Heart asked, motioning to Cript’s new form. “Cause that’s fucking awesome.”
“Um...a lot to explain, and also sorry...I just need a hug.” King said while nuzzling Eclipsa. “So...I’m King first of all Heart.”
“Oddly fits.” Heart shrugged. “Now, about this mess that crawled out of Dante’s Inferno.” Heart motioned back to Cript.
“I am right here…” Cript huffed.
“Cript had to give up his Suppressors so...now he looks like that.” I said honestly. “But onto why Existence keeps resetting...well...Grey apparently has ‘space issues’.”
“How… What does that even mean? Grey right now is barely enough to fill the passific ocean on a normal earth.” Eclipsa asked, a little bit of hurt creeping into her voice.
The Den Mother looked worried now. “I don’t know all of it but...Jenny, a Null, yes that is a whole can of worms in an of itself, told me that after each Cycle, Grey just keeps getting bigger and bigger before it just kind of...overtakes everything. So that’s why existence Resets...if that makes sense.”
Eclipsa shakes her head. “No no that…. That can’t be right…”
“I mean...it makes sense when you think about it.” King sighed out. “Even with what limited info I have on Grey...it’s constantly expanding, slowly but surely...but apparently, from what Jenny told me...it’s been growing faster each Cycle…” King sighed out. “And I don’t know why...your the only one I know that knows all the intricate parts of Grey, and it’s also you...that’s the main answer to the solution I have that the ‘higher ups’ are too lazy to start.”
Eclipsa went over to a chair before sitting. “Every cycle I have felt grey, even the one’s where I never left earth I have felt it, maybe even used it a little in secret…. Now the very thing that defined my existence besides my family and friends… is the very thing that’s ended this reality over and over again?”
“I mean...technically no. Grey isn’t the one that’s causing it to end.” King explained quickly. “But...no matter how I try to explain it, it’ll sound like that…” The dire wolf sighed out. “So...my solution to this problem, is have Grey be it’s own ‘Storage Space’...god saying things like it’s just a bunch of computer talk is weird.” King shook his head at how silly it sounded.
“So basically it’s own hard drive or external?” Eclipsa asked
“Well, first we need to find where the damn things go out there in the machine.” Lord spoke up. Eclipsa also finds him odd looking without his armor. “Given Cript is now max power 24/7, he can go do that.”
Cript rolled their eyes. “Sure. After that, we’ll need to reopen the Ethernet portal… yeesh…”
“Okay I might as well ask, what is the Ethernet Portal?” King asked curiously.
“Think about it.” Lord said. “We’re basically programs, in a computer, we’ve seen the machine, ours, the Ethernet takes us to others.”
“Think Wreck it Ralph 2.” Cript added.
“So the Internet but… No basically the Internet.” Heart said.
“Yup.”
“Cause that’s what we need, more talk of being in the Matrix when we got out of the Matrix.” King joked.
Eclipsa shook her head. “I’m still hung up on the fact I’m basically the herald of the end… hell I’d been called a glitch countless times… guess it wasn't wrong huh?” She said with a humorless chuckle.
“Oh no, you’re not a Glitch.” King said. “I’ve seen Glitches, actually killed one...you are not a Glitch, you are...an Embodiment.” King said. “You are the Physical Manifestation of Grey, and all the possibilities it holds. Grey isn’t ‘The Endbringer’...it’s all just an Overflow, of energy, space, and a lot of other things. Could have happened with Void dozens of times.”
“Void does not self replicate.” Eclipsa sighed before her eyes turned silver. “Great, the original me is using Grey in the dream realm.”
“And...why is that?” King asked nervously.
"Fluttershy." Heart said. "Her heart is there, sleeping. In a sense."
“Ah...so you probably went ape shit against someone who might have tried to kill her?” King asked curiously.
“Well she is a Nexus general…. One could say THE nexus general.” Eclipsa said with a frown. “And no, not yet at least. She demanded to know If I finally achieved the power I was after. And I showed her.”
“Sounds about right.” King nodded.
"That can only go as well as one can expect." Heart said.
"And it most likely did." ng said simply.
Eclipsa sighed sadly. "Back onto topic, what do we do?"
“Well what I was thinking, is what if we made Grey it’s own Storage Device? Keeping itself contained by it’s own energy, and also increasing it’s own space by the exact same power it’s constantly producing.”
"It's possible but we'll need to study Grey more, and with the limited info we have, a lot of tests have to be done." Cript said.
"Alternatively we can try and build a new storage device and move It there or find one out in the ethernet." Lord added. "doing all three gives us better odds. Not great odds but better than zero."
“Well either way.” King shrugged. “It’s better than doing bad things...and it’s better than Eclipsa being sad.”
"Heh, sorry King. I won't be much help, I haven't even discovered half of what grey can do." Eclipsa said, ignoring the slight sound of cracking glass as small cracks start to appear over her body. Everyone else in the room could feel Eclipsa was going all out in the dream realm if it was affecting a starfish like this.
King gently put a hand on Eclipsa’s shoulder as he poured energy into keeping the clone from breaking. “Your not breaking on me...and don’t worry, I barely know half of it either.”
Eclipsa just as gently took King’s hand off. “Don’t worry, its gonna hurt like a bitch later, but I made sure the babies are okay. I’m not die-” She cut off as for a moment, no powers could be felt from Eclipsa. Then they all felt it. Then they saw it as a tear in reality formed, showing those gathered just what was happening, of how herself in the dream real as well as countless others all having the glowing silver eyes and a white dot on their hand started pooling grey from all the deleted timelines, all the cycles, all the grey in the system they call reality. It was so overwhelming that even the physical world began to shake, tremors being felt across the system they call reality.
“Jesus fuck!” King yelped in surprise at the overwhelming amount of power. "Not good…" King winced as he tried to keep his realm up and the barriers protecting it holding.
"Well, that's concerning." Heart said.
"No shit…" King grumbled.
They saw through the tear Eclipsa's smirk, saying something before she dashed towards someone and cut them clean in half, nothing else affected as the tremors suddenly cut out. Then they watched in horror as the starfish disappeared into a wisp of grey and Eclipsa fell, blood spurting from wounds on her chest before the tear closed.
The starfish clone then poofed in a huff of grey.
"... She'll be fine." Cript said.
King slowly looked at Cript. No words left their mouth as he opened a portal and dove into it, straight to where Eclipsa is cause Eclipsa was most certainly not okay.
King arrived just in time to see Fluttershy, carrying Eclipsa's body as a portal closed behind her. Suddenly everyone got an alert on their assistant. It read: ECLIPSA, EMBODIMENT OF GREY. LOCATION: Nexus, ???
“God damn it!” King shouted in rage. “I could have done something…” The den mother muttered sadly.
Cript pulled King back through the portal they had just came through. "I told you, she will be fine King. My Foresight ability has never been wrong yet."
“‘She’ll be fine’, she was just fucking captured by Scotch after pulling all the Grey from past Cycles.” King frowned. “Tell me, what part of that is ‘she’ll be fine’?”
"The part where Scotch was bothering with her." Cript pointed out. "If Scotch didn't care, she would have just left Eclipsa there. Trust me, this will all work out."
“And you magically know how?” King asked, really scared for Ecilpsa’s safety.
"Admin of Love, remember? While it was brief, I felt Scotch's love for Eclipsa, still there, just in conflict."
“I...still could have done something…” King sighed out.
"Relax, this will all work out fine. Until then, let's focus on what we can do for now." Cript said, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "Lord and I will reopen the Ethernet portal and finish up some work here before we start heading out to explore it. I'll explore the different…. Let's call them Servers, to see if they have spare Storage Drives, Lord will look through the machine and find where ours is. After that it will be a simple matter of scanning the damn thing to… see how long we have til it fills up. That will tell us how long we have before the next major glitch to reset everything will appear. By then Eclipsa will be back and we can study Grey more and work on that self expanding storage idea of yours King."
“Alright…” King sighed out.
"So, you're a X-Blade too now King?" Lord asked.
“Yes I am.” King nodded.
"Alright then. Let's finish up your weapons then outfit you with one of those Gems like Heart has." Lord said, opening a portal to his personal white void world and motioning for Cript and King to follow.
"Time to get back to business." Cript said.
King sighed out. “Alright…” The den mother said, worried about Eclipsa and even more worried about his little ‘side project’ in Grey now.