Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall "Hermione, are you willing to risk losing your heart to darkness just to get out of there?" Vexen asked her bluntly, giving her a serious look. "If so, then I will open a Corridor of Darkness much like the one over at the exit connecting where I am standing now to inside the bubble. But unlike Roxas, myself, and the rest of Organization XIII, you – all of you – lack the proper protection against the negative effects of darkness. You've also used the corridors before, meaning that you've been exposed yourself and your heart to darkness already. Further use can and will have your heart swallowed by darkness, turning your heart into a Heartless and possibly leaving behind a Nobody if you're will is strong enough to move your empty body on its own. It can happen now. It can happen fifteen corridors from now. So I ask again: will you risk your heart for freedom?" He purposely left out the fact that only the strongest of the strong willed can retain their human forms as Nobodies while the rest shrivel up into Dusks, Creepers or any of the lesser Nobodies. Then Doppelganger's fingers twitched. The demon was waking up.
Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall Upon having its defenses stripped away and repeatedly hit by two highly explosive spells, Doppelganger dropped to its knees before falling over, completely out cold. True to the terms of the deal, a Corridor of Darkness opened in front of the door leading up to the first floor. But since the demon was going by the original terms, which never specified where Doppelganger would take them, the Corridor led to the Ice Palace's throne room. Vexen took down the last details and put away the notepad and pen before clapping to the victor. "Excellent! Well done! I assumed that those wands of yours had special properties to them and it seems I was correct. 'Priori Incantatem', was it? Very interesting, indeed." The ice dome he and the exit were in shattered. Vexen stopped to the congratulatory clapping as he walked to the group. "Now before we go, there are a few issues I've noticed. One: Hermione appears to be trapped inside the magical shield-bubble. This was obviously planned by Doppelganger, no doubt. It must have realized that none of you have the capabilities to pierce something like this and took advantage of it. If she were to win the duel, which is what happened, she would not be able to leave with you all. There are ways around it, of course, but the one that comes first to mind could cause permanent detrimental effects to her heart. Two: Doppelganger isn't dead. From what it told me about its encounter with Dante, the same Dante seen during the tournament I presume, the demon could take twenty or so rockets directly in its unprotected state and still not die. Injured and possibly unconscious, but not dead. And three: could any of you relay the exact words Doppelganger used to describe the terms of your deal? This one is very important." Underground: Team Dai-Gurren Dalek Sec, who had never slept and was still in the back of the group watching everything, finally spoke up. "THIS ENEMY YOU ARE FACING. WHAT IS YOUR RELATION TO HIM?" he asked Genome. Sec wasn't sure if Genome had mentioned this before when he was around. He had purged the data in the short-term memory banks of his casing several times out of boredom while waiting with them. Killing someone would've been much preferred but he was trying to hold back the urges (or at least cut down on the body count).
Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall Doppelganger was lifted into the air and narrowly parried the two explosive spells with its wand. While they both hit the barrier and created large ripples on it from their respective blasts, the Confringo spell released large amounts of heat on the demon's face. Although it barely felt the heat, the blast wave left severe burns all across its pseudo-skin. But because its appearance as Hermione was only aesthetic the burns quickly healed. "Heat? What heat? Descendo." The demon pointed its wand at itself as it cast and dropped back to the ground on its feet. The irises of its mimicked eyes turned a bright, blood red: the demon's real eye color. It was starting to get difficult to maintain the full appearance but such is what happens when there's only has a soul fragment to work with. Pointing its wand at its opponent, Doppelganger non-verbally cast the disarming charm and the full body-bind curse in quick succession. Afterwards, maintaining its aim at Hermione, it spoke only two words with complete murderous intent showing in its eyes: "Avada Kedavra." As Vexen was watching the duel and continued scribbling down details, something dawned upon him. "Excuse me, Harold or Harry or anyone, but I'd like something answered. Since Doppelganger is using a replica of her wand, which is classified as a weapon and from my understanding the dark replicas of the weapons it mimics are, aside from appearance, completely exact down to the core, what would happen if they both cast an offensive spell at the same time?" Although his voice echoed inside the ice dome, he spoke loud enough to get his question through.
Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall "Correction: Doppelganger's body is composed of liquid darkness, much more durable than just mere shadows. Although, it does have some slight disadvantages." Vexen stopped scribbling down notes and looked up. "Haven't you all figured out my connection to the demon yet or at least how I know all of this? Use your brains and think for once, thank you." Doppelganger smiled. Its guardian melted back into the demon as its host morphed into Hermione, updating its version of her to match how she appears currently. Digging its fingers into its left wrist, the demon pulled out an exact replica of her wand. "You want a duel? Fine then. Protego Maxima. Fianto Duri. Repello Inimicum." Pointing its wand overhead, the trio of defense charms wove together to form a physical barrier encasing both Doppelganger and its challenger in a long, narrow, hallway-like bubble. "'Pro-te-go. Max-i-ma. Fi-an-to. Du-ri. Re-pell-o. In-i-mi-cum.' Incantations always make things needlessly complex. But perhaps I should take one of those wands for analysis to better understand their system of magic. Or a wizard or witch. Would any of you-" Vexen stopped himself before he would get stared down as he remembered who he was dealing with. Flipping to the next page, he continued with his notes on the battle. "Any interference and you will be disintegrated instantly upon contact with the shield charms, do I make myself clear? That goes for you too, Basco. Now shall we do this formally or get straight to the point?"
Ice Palace Vexen walked over to one of the portals. Sensing some odd familiarity on what was on the other side, he decided to check it out. Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall "Come, guardian!" Doppelganger's guardian appeared in front of its host with its arms outstretched to block the demon from the extreme light. But because of the heart-shaped cavity in the guardian's chest some of the light got through and hit the demon, rendering that small area completely defenseless. It hurled another orb of darkness at the dualcast spell to extinguish it before returning to its position behind Doppelganger. There it shot a small barrage of homing dark energy discs at the group. The exposed area on the demon's body closed back up shortly after. "Win? Please, you haven't even laid a finger on me." Vexen dropped down from a portal in the ceiling in time to hear Basco say something about "winning" and witnessed the rest. He cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention. "You do know that lighting it up is only the first step? Shine a flashlight or even a star in its face all you want. It still won't get you anywhere." After sealing off the exit along with himself inside a small dome of ice, Vexen took out a small notepad and pen from inside his coat. "Oh don't you all mind me. I'll be here keeping watch of the exit while taking some notes as you all battle it out."
Ice Palace Something was off. "They should have been here by now. All of you, go see what's happening." Vexen motioned his replicas to jump into the portals, which they promptly did. Instead of leading to Hogwarts, on the other side was... Castle Oblivion: B1F Exit Hall Spoiler: BGM The twenty or so Anti-Sora replicas fell from the ceiling in the room Doppelganger's guardian threw the heroes into. They landed in front of the door leading to the first floor. "So sorry, Vexen. There's been a last minute change of plans." Coming out from its own portal, Doppelganger rose out from the ground and crossed its arms. The guardian emerged from behind the demon and roared once again. "No more aid from your friends or from your precious school. We continue this on neutral ground. You win? I'll open the corridor at the exit over there. I win? All of your souls are mine. And is that Horcrux I smell? Ah, it's been so long..." What the demon didn't tell them was that the exit corridor it would create would lead them directly to Vexen's Ice Palace (for real this time). As if on cue, the replicas quickly glided towards the group in a bloodlust. Simultaneously, Doppelganger's guardian created a large orb of darkness in each hand and hurled them at the warriors on the other side.
Hogwarts: Grand Hall Vexen grew irritated and waved an arm overhead to create a large barrier of ice to block them from the bombardment of spells, though it was quickly beginning to crack from the constant impact. "This is getting nowhere. I think it's time we had an actual environmental advantage." Placing his right hand on the face of his shield, Number IV pulled out a cube swirling with a jumbled mass of data. "Information on Xehanort's Heartless, compiled from footage of Riku's encounters with him in Castle Oblivion and from Sora's memories when I had the chance to sample them. It's not perfected, which is why I never installed it in you, but the situation demands." He threw the data core at Doppelganger and it was absorbed into him, giving the demon a bright green afterglow. Then Vexen opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Let's continue this in another castle, shall we? It's still nighttime, if I'm correct, so you should be fine there." After forming a second ice barrier under the first to buy time for the demon, Vexen departed to his ice palace somewhere near the south pole. Upon obtaining this new data, Doppelganger wasted no time to make use of it. The lance dragon disassembled and merged back into the demon. Darkness quickly enveloped Doppelganger as it was focusing on the new style before releasing the energy in an explosion. A loud, monstrous roar echoed through the bottomless hall as a completely black replica of Xehanort's Guardian emerged, clearing away the darkness to reveal Doppelganger in its newly acquired form. "Send them Vexen's way." When the ice barriers shattered from the Gokaigers' barrage, the guardian detached itself from its host and charged upwards with its arms outstretched to grab them. Much like the real guardian, anything they would throw at it would harmlessly bounce off its body. Doppelganger opened numerous portals of darkness all over the walls around the group as they continued to fall, each one leading to the ice palace. ----- Ice Palace: Throne Room Well it would be a throne room if there was an actual throne. But Vexen's a scientist not a ruler. Countless dark portals opened up along the walls as Vexen waited for his guests to arrive. In the meantime, he used his shield as a catalyst to create numerous replicas of Antiform Sora. Due to technical limitations of the equipment at hand, it had to be done one at a time.
Reserving the Black and White Guardians. I'd also add Shinryu, but I don't what I'd do with him. Graxe The Black Guardian The White Guardian
Vexen launched his ice boulders up at them, ramming into and bursting the balls of light along the way. Upon seeing the fast approaching jet of water, an idea came to mind. Taking the small bottle of Felix Felicis out of his pocket, he quickly drank an eighth of the potion before storing it back. "Now let's see if 'Luck of Luck' lives up to its name!" He reached out his right hand at the pressurized water. Before making contact, the water froze into a continually growing bowl of ice as more and more water poured down. In the meantime, Doppelganger took note of what Vexen was doing and called forth powerful gusts of wind from underneath to blow the surrounding flames up, over, and into the ice bowl. Once the entirety of the inferno was contained inside the ice bowl, the water became electrically charged from the lightning bolts striking against the ice, and the bowl itself was of considerable thickness, Vexen reeled back his shield arm and smashed the bottom of the bowl with the face of his shield, pushing against the bowl with all his strength to hurl the ice, lightning, water, and fire right back at them. The multi-attack reversal took a considerable amount of his energy and Vexen had to take a moment to catch his breath and recover, letting his shield float around him to block anything that would take advantage of this opening, such as Enkidu's surprise attack. Vexen looked over to his left and noticed Doppelganger giving him a subtle upward head gesture. Taking control of his shield and standing back up, he nodded in agreement. Doppelganger and Vexen jumped straight into the air and freefalled. Once off, the lance dragon swooped down and rose back up head first, narrowly passing its riders and positioning itself almost completely parallel to the walls. The three lances forming the dragon's head spread apart at an angle with the outer tips glowing with dark green light. Out from each light blew out black, hurricane-strength winds capable of slicing apart flesh and bone. The dragon's head rotated like a Gatling gun while firing its breath to combine the winds together into a huge cyclone, shattering the melting ice bowl and mixing all five elements together like a blender. Once the winds died off and the head steadied back to normal, the dragon swooped back down and caught Doppelganger and Vexen.
Great Hall Vexen chuckled as he watched Basco try in vain to break through his shield. He knocked away Basco's next strike and used the opening to slash him with the bottom of his shield, following that up by summoning an ice pillar from underneath the man in a girl's body. "I think it's time for a change of scenery, wouldn't you agree?" He raised his shield back up and looked over his shoulder at Doppelganger on the wall. The moment he saw Harold reach for his wand, Doppelganger quickly fired a three-round burst at his hands before teleporting to the center of the room with Vexen to dodge whatever spell or spells Harold planned to cast on it. In another bright flash, the hall's layout changed again. To add to the lack of a ceiling the floor was also removed, turning the room into an endless fall with no beginning and no end. Doppelganger morphed into Xaldin's silhouette. Three of its lances greatly extended and linked together end to end to form the body the wind dragon while the other three grew in size and attached to one end in order to form the head. The demon landed at the base of the dragon's head and caught Vexen with the lance forming the end of the dragon's tail as he fell. The Nobody stood up and balanced himself on the lances, looking around to find where everyone was. An icy aura quickly swirled around him and his shield. Five ice boulders crystallized out of the air and floated around him. The two continued on the charge downwards, spiraling down along the walls at high speeds. ----- Beneath the Ocean: Crucible Chamber A forcefield generator was set up and activated on one of the rock walls in the hole the Daleks were digging. Excavation quickly resumed. Prototype Ultima Cannon Status: Manadrives Charged, Primed
Vexen backed off, seeing how he couldn't cleanly follow up with the second swing of Slide Break. "Away you go!" He flipped in the air and brought the ice blade down on Basco, shattering it and creating a large shockwave from that. Now holding his shield correctly and in front of him, the Academic floated backwards towards the center of the hall. "Even with the help of that faceless puppet, you still couldn't pose a challenge or even a threat against Marluxia. Now I can see why." As the summoned Nobodies went in for the attack, all Vexen needed to do was snap his fingers to have them all think for a moment just exactly who they were attacking. Cue the face heel turn. "There is a reason we have rankings in the Organization, Number XIII! Besides, you don't and will never have any real friends because you lack a heart: something Nobodies as a collective do not and will never have!" He lied about that very last bit. A few days before the sudden mass warp, he performed some tests on himself and discovered that Nobodies can actually grow a new heart, meaning that Xemnas was telling everyone half-truths. "Enough of this! There's only so much cold the body can handle before the tissues and nerves freeze and die off while the rest of the body forces itself to shut down. Let's see how much you can take!" Then he raised his right arm, conjuring an icestorm covering the entire hall while rapidly lowering the temperatures even further. Doppelganger, still under the effects of Devil Trigger and now as a silhouette of Xigbar, was standing a safe distance from what was happening down below on the wall furthest from Roxas. It was holding in its hands the sniper rifle form of its combined arrowguns. Peering through the scope, the demon aimed to headshot Number XIII. "Annoying little brat." Setting the rifle to automatic fire, Doppelganger held down the trigger. A stream of dark red arrows rained down onto him.
After the Keyblade flew through Doppelganger in mid-air, it switched its ability set and silhouette to Dante's. The demon formed a magical platform under its feet and used it to jump back several feet before air dashing even further back. Once on the ground, blocking Vexen out of their view, it activated its Devil Trigger. A dark purple aura swirled around Doppelganger which only intensified its glowing red eyes. Not surprisingly, its shape while in Devil Trigger and mimicking Dante was also a silhouette of Dante's devil form. "Now this is more like it!" Pulling out black replicas of Dante's twin handguns, Ebony and Ivory, out of its sides, Doppelganger charged both guns to the brim with demonic energy and rapidly unloaded charged bullets at Roxas and Hermione. Meanwhile, Vexen bashed away the Keyblade thrown at him with his shield and spun it around so the pointed end was facing up. Taking advantage of Doppelganger putting him out of sight, the Nobody coated his shield with a giant ice blade and dashed forward at the demon, floating just slightly above the ground. Just before they would collide, Doppelganger teleported out of the way in time for to Vexen continue the charge and swing the ice blade in a wide, horizontal arc.
Room of Requirement Vexen glared at Roxas as he ran off. Putting the bottle back in his pocket, he entered a Corridor of Darkness to follow suit. ----- Great Hall Doppelganger dashed past her, leaving behind only a very blurry afterimage of where it once stood, and reappeared in the center of the room. It shifted its appearance to a silhouette of Xigbar. "Let's change things up." In a bright flash, Doppelganger changed the shape of the hall, removing the ceiling and looping the design of the walls upwards to infinity. Afterwards the demon jumped high into the air towards Hermione as a shadow of Fang with a black, dual-bladed spear aimed directly at the girl. "Nothing's gonna stand in my way." Suddenly, Vexen turned up inside the hall and blocked up the exit further with two thick walls of ice on either side of the opening. He looked at the unconscious Roxas. "I'd say this is somewhat fair, wouldn't you? Two-on-two? But poor Roxas is knocked out, so that brings the advantage to us." An icy aura emanated from him and the air in the hall dipped into dangerously low temperatures. Frost and patches of ice started to build up on every solid object at an alarming rate.
Room of Requirement "Is it now? Hmm, I never would have guessed!" Vexen sneered. Putting the bottle up to an ear and shaking it slightly, he could tell that it was almost full. This gave him an idea for a very simple experiment. All he needed was a test subject. "Care to try some, young man? Three drops, that's all I ask of you," he asked Ron, giving him his signature creepy smile. "Or perhaps you, Roxas? Either one of you would do fine." ----- Great Hall Doppelganger opened his right hand. The energy manifesting around it sparked into an orb of darkness. "Vexen said that losing your heart is much worse than losing your soul." The demon raised its right arm at her, sending countless bolts of energy at her in an attempt to rip out her heart (or at least hold her back), much like how the real Xemnas did to Sora in Hollow Bastion on their very first encounter. "What will become of you, my dear Hermione? Will your heartless body rise and move on its own? Or will it fade into darkness, never to be recovered or reunited with your heart?" ----- Mountain Hideout On a holographic model of the planet, there was a blinking red dot in the ocean far east of the savannah where the Reapers were excavating. "ACTIVITY DETECTED ON THE OCEAN FLOOR. READINGS CONFIRM THE LIFEFORMS AS DALEK." "Excellent. Send a unit down there to aid them. Now what of the Reaper situation?" The Supreme Dalek changed the scanner's parameters and range of search solely in the savannah region. Multiple dots showed up in that area, most were underground. "THEY HAVE RELOCATED INTO THE SUBTERRANEAN CAVERN SYSTEMS TO AVOID THE REAPERS' ASSAULT ON THE SURFACE." "Are there any signs of Time Lord?" "ONE ENTITY REGISTERS AS TIME LORD." "It must be Omega. So he's finally decided to return to the world now, has he? At least there is one Time Lord present. The Doctors seemed to have vanished off of the planet.
Room of Requirement "If the demon plunges this castle into the Realm of Darkness or, god forbid, Hell, then there will be no light strong enough to save you. Corridors of Darkness can be used to escape if that happens, but overuse them while unprotected and you're heart will succumb to the darkness." Vexen pulled out a small, dark green bottle and looked at it closely after seeing Hermione off. "By the way, what does 'Veritaserum' do and how long are the effects?" he asked everyone, not mentioning that he encased the moving stairs in ice and made his own. Should she come back with something sprained, twisted, or even broken, he would hardly be surprised. ----- Great Hall "Just you two? And here I was expecting an full-on assault. Let's get this over with then. I have other souls to collect and a swarm to regroup." Doppelganger scoffed, obviously disappointed. But a toy was a toy. It'll have to make do for now. The demon walked back to the far end of the hall pointed its wand at the entrance after waiting for Hermione/Basco to enter. "Protego." The charm formed a clear, physical barrier that replaced the doors and blocked further entry or exit out of the Great Hall. A surge of darkness soon engulfed Doppelganger as it changed its appearance again to a silhouette of Xemnas, wisps and eddies of darkness flowing off its body. Dark blue energy crackled around its hands like electricity. In a hollow, deep voice, even deeper than how Xemnas usually sounds, the demon challenged her. "Come and get me." ----- Underground: Crucible Chamber An alarm sounded as the Excavation Daleks drew closer to the surface. "ALERT. MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF WATER DETECTED ABOVE." The Daleks stopped vaporizing the dirt and rock to look at each other. "A FORCEFIELD IS REQUIRED BEFORE CONTINUING." "SENDING REQUEST TO COMMAND." Prototype Ultima Cannon Status: Charging Manadrives (80%)
The sudden burst of light coming from the magical sun in the room stunned the demon and reduced Doppelganger's appearance to its basic form of an androgynous silhouette with streaks of white in various areas. But since there was no one around to take advantage of this to deal some actual damage to the demon, it would recover without a scratch. After slamming a fist into the ground, creating a massive blast of darkness from underneath with enough force to send the tables and most of the chairs in the hall to be thrown back, Doppelganger resumed its guise as Hermione and quickly pulled out a wand from out of its wrist. "Finite Incantatem!" Before the darkness covering him faded away, leaving him vulnerable for a second time in the span of a minute, a burst of light fired from the tip of the wand and into the Enchanted Ceiling. On contact the spell lit up the entire hall, canceling all other spell effects inside. With the sun gone, it reformed its "armor" once again. Doppelganger resumed its disguise as Hermione and walked over to the doors, disintegrating them with a powerful version of the Reductor Curse. ----- Meanwhile, after picking out everything that looked interesting and useful from the hidden stash (namely Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum), Vexen met up with everyone in the Room of Requirement by following their voices echoing throughout the halls. The sound of the bottles and vials clanking against each other in his pockets were clearly noticeable with every step he took, giving his approach away completely. "Oh, I hope none of you mind with what I did to the stairway. It should melt in several days, so don't worry too much." Once inside he looked around the room, taking mental notes as he walked around. "Interesting. This room forms a psychic link with the person who calls it, yes? Yet it is always out of plain sight. Strange. Perhaps some magical form or equivalent of a perception filter is in place to hide its location? But the room can appear in multiple places, doesn't it? Hmmm. A perception filter would still be needed in that case, so it is not like it would matter much." Vexen continued ignoring everyone and muttering some more things to himself. "Oh right, there was also a loud noise coming from down below. Perhaps you all should plan accordingly for that as well as the Reapers?" He finally stopped for a moment to catch his thoughts and pay attention to the topic at hand, but continued to ramble off quietly to himself anyway.
Hogwarts As Vexen was lurking the rooms for any cracks and openings leading outside, he opened a door and found a closet filled with jars, vials, and flasks of potions and various ingredients. Intrigued from this find, he randomly picked a small bottle from one of the shelves. "'Gillyweed'. Interesting." Placing that in his pocket, another one caught his eye. The bottle was oddly shaped, like an upside-down tear with the tip cut off so it could stand, and liquid inside looked like molten gold. Vexen grabbed it and read the label: "'Felix Felicis'. Oh, there's a warning on the back: 'Time of effects vary depending on the amount consumed. Extremely toxic in large quantities.' Yes, I'll keep that in mind." He shoved it into his pocket with the Gillyweed and continued to look through the stash. Directly Outside The windows began to crack under the pressure of the flesh-eating swarm desperately trying to get in and flood the school but were quickly and easily banished. A rage burned in Doppelganger's eyes. Instantly, the demon took on the silhouette of Saix and put its hood up to cover its face. Brandishing a pure black replica of the claymore into its right hand, the demon opened a Corridor of Darkness and reappeared inside the large Dining Hall in front of where Dumbledore would usually sit. "Moon shine down..."
Hogwarts Vexen waited for Umbridge to leave before sealing the large front doors of the school with a sheet of ice several inches thick. "That should keep them out until they find some other way in here. I have never seen the Vashta Nerada first hand before. Remind me never to encounter them again." He looked around, checking the room for any cracks or open spaces where the swarm could get through. "If any of you have questions on what just attacked us outside, feel free to ask me. In the meantime, I will be around sealing up any possible places from where they can enter." Then he heard someone pounding on the door. Whoever it was, he or she was strong enough to shake the ice. ----- Outside Hogwarts Several seconds earlier, Doppelganger, back to its ambiguous, androgynous self, put a hand on one of the front doors, feeling the chill of the ice on the other side. The red crack of a smile opened up on its face. "I've got you now." The demon pounded on the doors four times to frighten them before watching the massive swarm of Vashta Nerada that chased them surround the school, blacking out all the windows and pressing themselves against the glass. ----- Underground: Crucible Chamber "BEGIN EXCAVATION TO THE SURFACE," commanded a Dalek who seemed to have temporarily taken charge. "WE OBEY." Any Dalek who wasn't working on the Crucible's engines hovered up the ceiling of the chamber and began to vaporize the rock with their weaponry. Prototype Ultima Cannon Status: Charging Manadrives (60%)
Valley As they rushed through the valley, Vexen created giant walls of ice behind them as they passed certain points to impede the Vashta Nerada. "Light doesn't stop them, it only slows them down and we need all the time we can get! And don't let your shadows cross into the swarm's! That gives an opportunity for the Vashta Nerada to attach onto their prey and they will take it!" The only light he could provide was from the bright blue energy that came from his shield. It wasn't exactly great, but better than running in the dark. ----- Mountain Hideout Davros was growing frustrated with all the waiting and doing nothing about the Reapers. He had thought about creating a paradox so enormously massive that the other Reapers would descend and eat the current Reapers from time and space. But since time's not flowing properly here, there was little chance it would work. "Any news on the Crucible's Location?" "NEGATIVE. THE CRUCIBLE CANNOT BE LOCATED ON THE PLANET'S SURFACE." "Then we need to go deeper. Set scanners to do a maximum-scale planetary search. It must be beneath the earth." "I OBEY."
Deep in the Valley "What do you think? Too small?" Off in the distance in a dark crevice, Doppelganger, perfectly disguised as Hermione sans her voice, was talking about the real Hermione/Basco to the massive swarms of Vashta Nerada that covered the entire area. "Oh, don't worry. More will come once they hear her screams. Or is it his?" The demon tuned its hearing so it could hear what she was saying. It was amused by her challenge, at the very least. But before it could approach her, the others came. "Change of plans. Dinnertime, boys." The Vashta Nerada descended upon them while blocking off where they came from in total darkness as well as the road leading further in. ----- Into the Valley Vexen noticed the area around them suddenly lightened up a bit and the path ahead turn pitch black. "The shadows have moved. I swear I've read about this in the Dalek database." He stopped and watched the others move on ahead before the path darkened considerably. A sudden chill of fear crept up his spine. "Why am I so scared to enter? There's nothing stopping me, certainly not any emotions. And yet...I'm afraid. Puzzling." If he knew how far they went ahead, Vexen would trap the Vashta Nerada in between walls of ice, but since he didn't due to the swarm blocking out all light, he might accidentally freeze someone in ice as well. Or cut the swarm off short. It would still be bad either way. Using a Corridor of Darkness, he bypassed the swarm and appeared alongside the others. "Anyone here who can generate a light source, be prepared to create as many as you can. We are going to make a run through this valley. If you fall behind, we will leave you behind; I will at least. I am not going to risk having every cell of my flesh stripped away in a less than a second just to save the rescuee who will share the same fate." He turned to look at them. "Or if any of you can teleport us all out of here, that would be even better."
