Oz: Crossroad of Legends

"R-Right, okay, sorry," Yancy stammered, standing up straight again. She still felt embarrassed, but was still relieved that the princess doesn't mind the lack of formality. If anything, she could sympathize with how she didn't like people treating her differently due to her fame back home. Yancy cleared her throat. "You mean Pokemon? I do have some, but..." She looked around. "There's not a lot of space here, and a clinic wouldn't be the best place to show them off, so..."

"If I may, I think it would be smarter to wait until we arrive at the tree," Joshua said. "It would be better for the other Outlanders to be able to see how we could help too."

Talia carefully slides herself in behind Catie.  She pulls Catie's tail into her lap to stroke as they speak.  "...What is a 'Shalla...?'  Are you well, Baron?  You did not injure your head?  I can check your mind if you want me to be sure."

---

June sighs and looks at the last card.  This person looks... dangerous.  Though most of her monsters look... kinda cute...  Like rainbow-colored dogs?  She makes sure to give everyone else a wide berth and activates the card.

A woman a few years older than June appears.  She has deep purple hair carefully styled under a black beret.  She wears a knee-length white dress and a black coat and boots.  A pistol and whip are on her waist, with 6 small balls of different colors and designs.  A knife sheathe is strapped to her arm.  She's floating a few inches above the ground.  "Mmmm..." she groans and opens her eyes.  A large scar crosses over the left.  She looks around calmly for a moment.  "Uh-oh, did Corva mess up teleporting?"

"No, actually-" June begins.  Corva suddenly drops and seems to pass directly through the floor.  June's eyes widen and she jolts forward.  She stares at the spot where Corva disappeared.

"Boo!" Corva whispers in her ear from behind.  June chokes out a gasp and whirls around.  Corva's stretched out and floating in the air with a wide grin on her face.  She seems very proud of herself.  "I like your axe!  It's very scary.  Maybe Corva should try one..."

"Don't touch my axe," June warns her.  "It's cursed."

Corva's eyes light up.  "Oh, then Corva reeeaaally wants to try your axe..."

"...If you really want, you can try my hatchet, or we could find you a different battle axe..." June suggests.

"But it wouldn't be cu-u-u-ursed!" Corva whines.

June blinks and shakes her head.  "Um...  Sorry, I feel like we're getting off-topic...  So, we were all summoned to this world..."  She goes through her explanation while Corva continues to lie down in mid-air and nod along.  "You're... certainly taking this well."

"None of you are trainers, except that kid.  And he's obviously not Nova.  And maybe Corva can learn how to kill Nova better and in new, fun ways!  Corva will play with you for a while."  She glances at Marth.  "Plus, your Pokemon is so strange!  Corva likes it."

"I don't know what Nova or Pokemon or trainers are..." June says.

Corva excitedly grabs a ball off her belt.  "These are Corva's Pok- These are not Corva's Pokemon!?"  Corva exclaims.  She seems to be panicking.  She quickly grabs three of the balls and throws them.  Shade the Mismagius, Sync the Espeon, and Kon the Umbreon materialize in a flash of light.  Corva breathes a visible sigh of relief and lands.  "OK... OK, good... Yes... Everyone else is probably still in their hiding place."  The Umbreon stalks over and takes a defense stance right against her.  The Espeon runs over to June and begins bouncing around and investigating her thoroughly.

The misdreavus fades out of sight, then appears beside June.  "Maaah?" she asks inquisitively.  June twitches, then lets it go about examining her.  After a few seconds, the ghost and psychic-dog seem satisfied and move on to playing with Marth.

"So, these are your... partners?" June asks.

"Shade and Kon aren't just Corva's partners, they're her be-e-e-est friends!  And Sync was... used to belong to someone very important.  And they're really good at killing Nova," Corva says.  "Corva isn't sure who these others are, but..."  She takes one of the balls and examines it carefully.  She wears a difficult-to-read expression.  "Well, Corva's gonna go outside and make some new friends before the meeting!  Bye-bye!"

Corva pulls Kon and Sync back into their balls, then disappears.  She reappears outside, takes out the three unknown pokeballs, then picks the one she thinks she recognizes.  She tosses it and a pale-blue dog-like creature pops out.  "Glay?" it asks, startled.

"Grace...!?" Corva gasps.

"Glay!?  Gl-Glay!  Glay-Glaceon!"  Grace puts up only a token resistance to Corva's attempts to cuddle her excitedly.

Corva gasps again.  She quickly throws out the other two balls.  A blue fish-dog and a pink-and-white ribbon-dog come out.  "Sue!  Ribbons!"

"Syyyl!" Ribbons yells.  He quickly leaps in to join hugging the pair.

"Pore..." Sue says softly.  She swishes her tail and waits to be brought into the mix.

Corva quickly adds Sync and Kon into the mix and lets them all enjoy their reunion for a few moments.

---

Shade continues to float around in the tree on her own, examining the various Outlanders.  She eventually makes her way away from the main group to find someone taking a nap.  She quietly teleports behind Alyssa, then gently brushes against the back of her neck.

(Don't forget Catie and Baron)

Alyssa attacks Shade, but she is already gone.  On to new adventures, and new adventurers to scare...

Just kidding, Shade appears beside her and starts cackling.

"Oh, yes. Reading minds is already rather unpleasant for me, I would prefer you not hurt me more.  But, I would not worry too much. I am a professional, after all."  Talia reaches out to Baron and places a hand on his head, while continuing to pet Catie with the other.  "Are you ready?"

Talia closes her eyes and focuses.  She lets out a groan of discomfort as she pokes around his head.  The process takes only a few seconds before she lets go, letting out one finally sigh.  "Well.  This is certainly interesting.  Your memories were not altered, Baron.  In truth, we have never met.  Oh, you have certainly met a woman like me, with my same name and same talents - though not quite as attractive, if I do say so myself.  It would appear that we are actually from two very, very similar worlds with a few slight differences, and at very different times."  Talia leans forward to embrace Catie.  "Ah, how wonderful this news is.  I am such a lucky one, hm?  I get two Caties to befriend!"

Lana stares at the cute little water creature and lets out an awwwwww.

"Wow you sure are a cutie," Lana said staring at the Manaphy just looking at it with longing eyes.

"Sorry for asking you so many questions but I actually find everything from your world interesting,". "So thank you sir Joshua and Lady Yancy for asking all my questions,". "Since I am usually stuck in the castle all I do is read about alot of things that has to do with Oz,". "I may not be able to give you a clear answer like mom or Cia,". "But is there any questions you guys may have about Oz?"

"Mah-mah-maaaah-mah," Shade answers Alyssa.  She swirls around to whisper eerily over Alyssa's shoulder.  "Mismaaaagius."

---

Talia shakes her head.  "No, I do not think we had ever met before.  Catie just reminds me of an old friend."

---

June looks around the room.  "Does anyone else have anything else to summon?"

"That's certainly an interesting way of putting things," Alyassa said just shrugging her shoulders.

"I guess you can say that about everything in life really,". "That everything is one big Mismaguis,". "So are you trying to scare me or something, umm I guess it might work on others from your world,". "Unfortunately for you I find you more cute then scary,". "Hmm where's umm the person who summoned you is?". "They must be worried sick about you," Aylasa asked Mismaguis.

---

While Mario and Bowser were walking around with Peach a card of Marios began to slowly fade. The card of Ashley gradually grew dimmer and dimmer into faded away from his pocket.

---

Sophie was in the middle of finding a sheep that she caught from Mystic. At this point Sophie had a nice little gathering of sheep behind her. "Mmmmmmmyyyyyssssttttiicccc come and get your sheep already?" Sophie said to Mystic.

Ann and Rosalina having seen the flaming lizard turn into a ball of energy and fade into a ball like thing. "Well that's over with Mama Rosalina looks like we are all done here,". Ann and Rosalina met up with Sophie who was doing her best to herd all of Mystics sheep.

---

Poulterpup grew bored of playing with Kitty and went over to Luigi. Pup let loose a couple of barks to get Luigi's attention.

"There you are bad doggie running away," Luigi said as he scolded Pup.

Poulterpup looked at him and let loose a couple of whimpers but Luigi evetually cuddled him. Pup was feeling better and let loose a couple of licks before Luigi joined with the three ladies.

---

"Your friend must have been one heck of a person for Catie to remind you of her,". "This girl from the moment I first saved her from those bandits, I had a feeling she was different,". "Here I was her savior, then friend, then fiancee, now my wife with two kids,". "Yeah Catie is certainly very special indeed,".

"She also seems to have this incredible knack for people to fall for her,". "I wish I knew her secret, upon first meeting that girl who summoned you June,". "Yeah her and Catie are pretty good friends already," Baron said to Talia.

Catie began to smile while she was sleeping and her tail began to curl around Talia more. It was like her tail was trying to give Talia a hug.

Corva slowly raises her hand.

June glances her way.  "You aren't going to ask about my axe again, are you?"

Corva smiles.  "No, I just want to ask if Ephesians are evil and need to die.  Like Nova!"

June frowns.  "That's... complicated.  Yuelia and Ephesus have had a long history of... uneasiness, to put it nicely, dating back almost as far as I was able to find historical records.  We aren't entirely sure what's behind the sudden upswing in aggression."

"Oh.  Are they fun to fight?" Corva continues.

June stares blankly.  "...Fun?"

Marian folds her arms and speaks up.  "I think - I hope what she's asking is why any of us should care to stay here and help fight?  You had to fight to return home, but why should any of us?  We have our own problems that need to be dealt with in our own worlds."

Descending from the air in a whirlwind, Alvis approached Alexus after scanning the mountain. "Is it time?"

Alexus looked across the field, into a valley. A legionnaire lookout posted by the upper cliffside lit a torch in response. The general nodded. Alexus turned back into the tree while Alvis spoke into a radio. "All clear. Ready in five."

-----

Glinda handed the radio back to one of her guards. She, her guards, Lana, and the two Outlanders were gathered around the bed, where Cia was loaded onto a stretcher. She still wore the purple ceremonial robes she picked out for the ritual. Glinda had made sure to prepare another set of clothes for her, seeing as her current attire was dirty and about to be drenched.

After giving Alvis his five minutes, Glinda raised her staff to open a portal. Joshua put his mask on as a cautionary measure.


------

Alvis held up a purple necklace with an Ametyst stone, allowing Glinda to conjure a rift within the immediate vicinity. Naturally, the first to pass through were some of the royal guards, making certain that the immediate area was secured. After a moment, the guards took posts to form a protective square around the rift as the queen herself stepped through next. Following her were more guards, Lana, and two familiar Outlanders.

Once Glinda and Lana stepped through, the Yuleian soldiers capable of moving faced them and bowed, with the exception of the wounded, and the legion. Glinda raised a hand to told them to be at ease, so that they may continue to treat the wounded. Yancy looked around, only briefly being distracted by the tree's interior being nothing like she had in mind until her eyes settled on the soldiers. She tossed out the Pokeball containing Togekiss as she rushed over for assistance. John Doe, meanwhile began to feel out of place and merely walked off as to not be in the way of official Yuleian business. The queen noticed a few faces among the group of Outlanders gathered to the side. Seeing June, she warmly smiled and nodded in acknowledgement and silent gratitude.

The doctors carrying the stretcher holding Cia were the last to pass, as the portal closed behind them. Alvis put away the pendant and joined Glinda.

"The fountain?" she asked.

Alvis pointed further into the tree, and the Yuleians followed in that direction.

Glinda looked around. "I have never seen Dalish architecture quite like this before."

"The murals and the methods in construction appear to be old-fashioned. By Dalish standards, more specifically," Alvis said. "Perhaps dating back to the time of the very first pilgrimages. Perhaps the Ancient King himself would be able to tell us more, were he more... sociable."

Passing through an open gateway, the fountain of life came to view. A stone fountain with Dalish influences, with the flow of sparkling, cyan-colored water that possessed a faint, radiant glow.

The doctors laid Cia on the floor adjacent to the fountain.

Glinda took a deep breath to compose herself. Her grip on her staff tightened. "Now then... How should we...?"

"I believe it is best if I do it," Alvis said. "We do not know much about the waters here. I doubt there are some side effects that could arise from coming into contact with the water, but perhaps it is best not to take unnecessary risks."

"That sounds... fair." Glinda gulped. "Very well. The honor is yours."

Alvis nodded, signaling for everyone to stand back. The breeze within the room suddenly swelled up, steadily increasing in intensity as it flowed directly behind Alvis. A green, mist-like gas began forming, slowly taking the shape of a humanoid's upper torso. Eventually, the wind burst away from the mist, which had completed its transformation. Behind Alvis hovered what could easily be described as a spirit. Large, armored, lacking a mouth, nose, or ears, two glowing orbs where its eyes should be, and claws befitting a beast more than a human. It looked down at Cia, hovered to her side, appeared to look over her to see where the best place to grab her would be, then reached underneath her and carried her over to the fountain.

Alvis looked over the water. "First, I will try submerging her for no more than five seconds," he explained. "Truth be told, I had neglected to learn more about this procedure..."

The spirit descended, the water reacting to the soft, passive breeze the spirit gave off. It positioned its arm so that his hand could support Cia's head, then submerged the slumbering sorceress, making sure that her nose remained above the water for oxygen.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Fo--

The spirit quickly brought back up when Cia's eyes shot open and she opened her mouth for a sharp gasp, inadvertently inhaling some of the fountain's water. The sorceress turned her head to the side to cough and eject the water, gasping. Once she regained control of her breath, she looked up with disorientated vision to see Alvis's familiar gently setting her to the floor, sitting her so that her back could rest against the fountain. She blinked a few times and saw a few familiars faces looking at her; Alvis, the royal guard -- some ones she personally knew -- and... Lana and Glinda.

"Are we...?" Cia said weakly, her strength and senses slowly returning to her.

"Yes. Yggdrasil," Glinda said, smiling and trembling slightly, only barely able to control her joy.

Cia then looked down at herself and only then noticed her robes and hair dripping wet with a strangely colored liquid. "Then... That means..."

Tears welled in Glinda's eyes. "Yes... Y-You're back."