Yuki felt her limbs throbbing from the previous fight. Y had used cure on all of them, but it didn't get rid of the ache. She stretched following X and Y through the next landings onto the next floor. Glancing to X, a sort of bitterness blossoming in her chest. She shook her head, looking to the ground as they walked. X had done nothing wrong if anything he had helped them. She shouldn't be so angry.

Yuki looked up, coming to a stop as she saw their path blocked one again.

Zakey smiled at them warmly, her pink eyes scanning over all of them. Her purple hair was tied back in a ponytail, with braids on her left side pulled back into the ponytail. Standing from where she had been seated she clasped her hands behind her back.

"Can I guess a speech about what we already figured out in the last world to try and further confuse us," Yuki said, sighing as she put her hand on her hip. Zakey laughed, bringing her hand to her mouth.

"Not totally wrong I guess," Zakey said, pulling her hand away again. "More, I have to ask you questions about what you think you learned."

"Ask away," Y challenged. Zakey glanced at her, the smile she wore dropping for half a second before returning.

"X said something rather interesting," she began, pacing along the steps. "That we all may be the quote-unquote good guys. We're all just doing our best, after all. So our version of right is different than yours. Is that so bad?" She stopped, turning to face them again.

"I think I also said I didn't particularly like the notion of good and bad," X said calmly. Zakey nodded, taking the last steps down so she stood even with them. It did little to change the height difference they had.

"True. But we need it in the end. Because the entire world believes in it." 

"Words that can only be defined in a binary are always difficult to understand," X said calmly, his purple eyes locked on Zakey. "And as such, they leave all kinds of loopholes to operate under. The greater good forgives acts that are traditionally bad." He paused, waiting for her reaction. She kept an even face, not surprised by his words. "So, do you think you're operating for the greater good?"

"Oh, turning the questions on me," Zakey laughed. "Well, yes. They think they are. Me, not so much. I'm just here to keep an eye on things."

"For who?" Y asked, taking a step forward. Zakey smiled, wagging her finger in Y's face. Y stumbled back slightly, a glare on her face.

"My business. An old friend," Zakey said calmly. She stood straight again, hands resting on her hips. "But, I'm still curious. Are you sure you're not the heroes?" Her lips formed a small pout as she looked at the group.

"We don't decide that," Yuki said, pulling Zakey's attention off of the twins. "It's the others around us. And we stay in the shadows helping the heroes. So who cares what we are?"

"We are a lot more alike than you think," Zakey said. She chuckled as she turned her back on them, walking back up the stairs to the door. "Well, little shadowed helpers, I suppose I'll let you in on something. Your heroes are taking their test right now. Just started it. And things are already a bit messy. You might want to consider letting them win." She glanced over her shoulder, a smirk taunting them.

"Not a chance," Yuki said evenly. Zakey sighed as she turned back again, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head.

"I tried. Have fun on your next floor."

She vanished just as all the others had, leaving nothing behind. Yuki frowned, glancing at the other two.

"What do you think she meant by messy?" Y asked.

"Who knows. We'll probably know when we get back. So let's go," X said calmly. Yuki and Y nodded in agreement, looking back at the door. 

It was X's floor next. He held the card before the door. As the card disappeared and the door swung open, he glanced at the other two. Y smiled brightly, hands behind her back. Yuki smiled slightly as well, nodding. X sighed turning back to the door and leading the way into the next world.

The next world was unlike any world Yuki had seen before. It was filled with all sorts of rooms, stacked up the wall each with some sort of clear wall sectioning them off. Various platforms were rising and falling along the walls going to higher rooms. Blinking lights were all of the place, some sort of technology active.

Y bounced on her feet, spinning to look around the entire room as they walked. Beaming she laughed, not noticing both Yuki and X stop to watch her.

"Someone's bouncy," Yuki said, crossing her arms as she watched Y. Y spun back to face them, her smile stretching from ear to ear as she bounced on her toes.

"Deep Space is so cool!" she said excitedly. "I can't believe I didn't take the time to look around the last time I was here. They can turn gravity on and off! Without magic! And the computer systems, oh, I wonder how advanced it has to be to communicate across space! If we could just get ahold of their transmitters and figure out what kind of waves they use, and probably check frequency too, we could probably make phones that could communicate across worlds!"

Her words seemed to jumble together as she spoke. At some point, she had turned away from them again and was pacing the room looking at the devices that lined the walls. Her entire body seemed to bounce as she moved.

"Ok Y, that'll have to wait," X said calmly. He walked to Y, placing his hand on her shoulder. His arm moved with Y as she continued bouncing slightly. "We have a job to do."

"Right. Sorry. It's just so cool," Y said, her bouncing finally ceasing. X chuckled, ruffling her hair before turning his back on her.

"I'm glad you're excited, really. But we can't afford distractions."

"Ok. So, how many are we looking at?" Y asked, watching X pace around the room. She cast another glance around the room. Yuki followed her lead. All of the rooms to the side of them were small and cramped with only beds in them. "And why does it look like we're in a prison?"

"Me and Terra were kinda arrested so, this was the first part of the ship we saw," X admitted, chuckling slightly as he turned to look back at Yuki and Y.

"Always knew you were trouble," Yuki said. X glared at her, a smirk on his face as he put his hand on his hips. Yuki grinned at him, hands behind her back as she glanced around again. There was no one in this prison. "So, who should we see here?"

"Terra, Stitch, and that scientist guy," X said calmly, his eyes scanning over the room. His smirk dropped as he seemed to reach the same conclusion Yuki had. "Weird. They're not here."

"Should they be?" Y asked, turning to look at X.

"I guess we can try finding the room they held Stitch in. That would make sense too," he suggested. He frowned taking a moment to survey the room one last time. "But why start us here?"

"Make it take longer?" Yuki suggested with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess," X said absently. He shook his head, beginning to walk towards the exit of the room. Yuki and Y exchanged a look before following him.

"X!"

The familiar voice stopped them as they reached the door. X sighed turning and looking behind the girls. He stepped around them, their eyes following him as he stood in front of the shadow of Terra.

"Terra, hey," X greeted.

"You got out of that cell pretty quickly," Terra said, a slight grin on his face as he looked down at X. X shrugged, holding in his own grin.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," he said. "Where to?" It was a pointless question. They would lose the shadow soon enough. But, the way he looked at Terra. It seemed he was already forgetting it was just shadows here to lead them astray.

"There's an alien who says they're keeping one of his creations hostage. I figured we could help him," Terra answered. X nodded, glancing over his shoulder at Yuki and Y. Y nodded slowly, while Yuki didn't move.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," X said, turning back to look at Terra.

"Do you think there's a reason we're here?" Terra asked suddenly, his cheerful tone lost and replaced with something very different. It was almost hollow.

"Um, get rid of the Unversed?" X said, though he didn't seem certain himself. Terra chuckled slightly and shook his head.

"I don't mean this world. But, you know," Terra trailed off looking at the ground. X gasped slightly, taking a step back.

"Reason we're alive, right," X said softly. He hesitated for a moment, watching Terra. The older wielder gave no sign he was going to acknowledge X's words as correct or not. But he didn't need to. "Weird time to be asking, don't you think?"

"Are we all like that creature, created by someone for a specific reason?" Terra asked, looking up at X. Yuki held in her breath, trying not to gasp. Somewhere in her mind, she could remember that feeling. That question that seemed to have no answer.

"Getting really philosophical on me here," X said with a nervous chuckle. "You can drive yourself mad with questions like that. So let's try not asking them, ok?"

"Right," the Terra shadow said before fading away. X let out a relieved breath, staring where the shadow had been. Yuki glanced at Y. What were they supposed to say?

"That was so out of character for Terra," Y said, crossing her arms. She huffed slightly brushing her hair out of her eyes as she watched X for his reaction. X shrugged not looking at Y.

"I think these shadows are just mouthpieces for the organization. They're trying to slow us down by confusing us and making us question pointless things," he said calmly. Yuki frowned looking down at her feet. She had spent a lot of time asking questions not so long ago. Had it really been over a year since their escape? Since Yuki had last been angry enough to question their leaders. She gasped suddenly a realization striking her.

"They're targeting things we used to think," she muttered. X and Y both turned to look at Yuki, eyebrows raised. She felt her face flush and bitterness fill her mind. She shook away the feeling again, looking up to meet their questioning gazes. "I once asked Tayressa why we existed. And now, now a shadow asking the same question. They're playing with our thoughts."

"Great," Y said sarcastically, running her hand through her hair. "Just great."

"Well, they're doing one thing wrong," X said calmly, his hands shoved into his pockets. Y looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"What's that?" she asked.

"We've all learned a lot since they were last in our heads," X said simply. He smirked slightly at the shocked faces of his companions. "Let's keep moving."

Yuki and Y nodded, following X as he led the way deeper into what Yuki realized had to be a space ship. A few times X had to pause, muttering under his breath as he tried to remember the way to wherever they were going.

They reached a room that looked like some kind of holding cell, giant robots on either side of a hole in the ceiling. There was a depression in the floor underneath it as well, but Yuki wasn't sure if there was a real purpose in that.

"Fren..."

Yuki turned to see the shadow that had joined them. It was a small creature that was blue and looked something like a dog. It had a few extra limbs and spines down its back. It wore a bright orange jumpsuit.

"That's right Stitch, we're your friends," X said calmly, kneeling down in front of the creature. 

"Oh my god he's so cute," Yuki muttered. Y chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"I know."

"What are you doing free buddy? Thought we were supposed to rescue you," X asked. Stitch sat back, going into a string of words Yuki couldn't grasp. It took Yuki a moment to realize it wasn't gibberish and there were a few words she could understand thrown into the mix. But whatever the entire meaning was she had no idea.

"Uh, sorry, didn't catch that," X said, chuckling slightly. Stitch huffed and pouted slightly, Yuki held back a smile at how cute the scene in front of her was. Stitch opened his mouth to repeat whatever he had just said, but he was interrupted before he could begin.

"Not important. Clearly something is wrong with him."

Yuki turned to look at the new shadow, though X hadn't moved from where he had knelt down. It was a large alien of sorts, with extra eyes and grey skin. He wore a white lab coat, so Yuki figured he had to be a doctor or scientist of some kind.

"Really? And what makes you so sure," X asked from where he knelt. The Stitch shadow faded in front of him, leaving no trace it had been there. X still didn't move, waiting for the alien doctor to continue his explanation.

"He was made with one purpose. To destroy everything he touches. Now he is talking of friends," the scientist scoffed. X clenched his fist, slowly rising to his feet.

"What gives you the right to decide his purpose?" X asked.

"I am his creator! I designed all his instincts!" the scientist said.

"You tried to," X said softly. He slowly turned to face the other alien, eyes narrowed into slits. For a moment Yuki thought his eyes might have been glowing yellow. "You tried playing god, and now it's biting back. Everything that breathes has its own will. And no one can force anyone to be who they're not."

"But do you believe that?" the scientist asked. A grin spread across his face sending chills down Yuki's spine. "You are just like 626. Creatures created for one purpose. You try to fight and see where you are. Lost, unwanted. Pawns to be used and thrown aside."

Yuki felt her stomach twist into knots as white-hot anger flooded her veins. Who the hell did this guy think he was? That wasn't true. There had to be more. They had to have a way to be saved from such a miserable existence.

"No. We're just us," X said calmly.

"You will always return to what you were designed for!" the scientist snapped. X sighed and shook his head, looking down at the ground again.

"I suppose you're right."

"What?" Y snapped, looking at X.

"X," Yuki said, the anger still in her mind. It felt strange though, oddly detached from herself.

"We do return to what we are designed to do because we design ourselves," X said looking up again. He took a few steps towards the scientist a coy smile on his face. "We choose every day what design we follow. What we become is our choice alone. No one can take that from us. And maybe sometimes, we do choose to be what others wanted us to be. But, the best of times is when we prove them all wrong. So maybe you set him on a path, but you can not hold him to it. You certainly failed there."

"Failed!? Ridiculous! I will show you I am not a failure!" the scientist snapped. He pulled a beaker from behind his back and some sort of marble. He dropped the marble into the beaker, laughing as a light flashed blinding them for a moment.

When they could see again the scientist was gone, replaced by a small creature like Stitch. It was bright yellow and had long antennas. Yuki, X, and Y exchanged a glance eventually turning their attention back to the small creature.

Before they could move towards it, it sprung to life. It moved around as a current of electricity, taking control of the robotic arms on the ceiling and shooting at the three on the ground. In no time they sprung into action.

Y hung back as always, casting spells on the machines to draw out the creature. X and Yuki waited patiently for the moment it reappeared. And when it did they struck, keeping it down on the ground as long as they could.

By the time the battle was done all of Yuki's fingers had gone numb from the shocks. It had been hard to convince herself to fight the small creature. This wasn't something it had chosen for itself. All the same, she sat panting beside X as the battle ended.

"You ok?" Y asked approaching the other two. X sighed and shook his head.

"I'm really getting tired of people trying to tell us who we are."

"I agree," Yuki said. She smiled as X's eyes met with hers. "So let's prove them wrong."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*<3* ~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: One would think with a quarantine in effect I would actually get these chapters done ahead of time. But no, I'm still waiting until a few days before I'm supposed to upload before I even start working on them. The next couple of weeks are filled with deadlines for university shite, so the next chapter might be late. Depends on how well I can keep to my time management. Thank you all for sticking with me, hope you all are staying safe and healthy.