Location: Spirialist Kingdom - Summoni Place
Simon now seems to be with the team and they have the Spiritalist Diary due to the fact that after going to the Academy, Shion caught them and they were forced to tell them what was going on. After meeting with the descendant of the Naturalist, Xucarr, and getting his weapon, a gauntlet of sorts with wind properies, and diaries, they decided to head to the Spirialist Castle to meet with Kalam. Many are learning whatever tomes and stuff they can find at the Spiritalist place while staying inside due to the blizzards going on outside due it being winter and this is already the cold region of Geyze, as well as trying other activities to keep them occupied. Deciding they are not findind anything definitive in the main books, they opt to go into the vault to see if there is anything in ther that might shed some light into the situation. Getting permission from Kalam, the team heads to the vault and after getting past the deaf vault keeper that gives Lana trouble, they step inside with all the relics and books that are kept inside that are deemed too dangerous.
Despite being told not to take out any relics, a few of the team proceed to do just that after some of the weapons call to them. Jaime gains a staff that allows her to teleport twice a day, Ceilia gets a wand that seems to have no powers just yet, and Alita with a book. Liana ignores the whispering however. They discover a map of Geyze that shows mysterious islands that have not been discovered yet by people - far off to the south and a bit off in the ocean. The map also seems to show people whatever they ask and it will appear on the map in great detail so they decide to bring it along in the hopes it will help them discover stuff they might need. During this Selena seems to be tugging at her clothing and seems uncomfortable and Celes seems to note that Selena is growing taller and bigger in her breast size and makes a note to get the girl new clothing before they leave.
Kalam soon arrives and is angered by them taking the relics and disobeying them and seems ready to be done with them, moving to leave. The team manages to convince her to keep working with them and they decide to bring together the Summoni and Monk with a Spirit Party with the all the Spirits that will agree to come along; the plan is to have the two sides meeting them and decide to offer a spirit they likely have not met yet - Chronos. Chronos reluctantly agrees to the plan to help out but seems very moody and Kalam puts the plan in motion.
Session 389: Party of the Spirit
Location: Summoni Castle
Kalam gathers as many of her Summoni as possible for the team while informing the team that the Monks will not come to the Summoni Castle so that they cannot scan them to see if the descendant is among them. Kalam notes the Monks agreed to meet the team at their place, especially if it meant meeting the Spirits, but they do not wish to leave their place of concentration and prayer. As they prepare, Kalam mentions she has been training Jaime and giving her personal lessons as a Summoni from Kalam since she is the leader of the Summoni, explaining why she has been getting so much better and Simon shows interest in learning and taking lessons as well. Kalam also points out this group has always been an anomaly, since most people come here to train for years to be able to make pacts with Spirits and be able to handle the trials, while the group has always been able to come across them and make pacts rather easily.
Location: Monk's Monestary
Traveling further into the mountains, the team arrives at the monestary from the blizzard going on outside, the fire spirits keeping the inside of it warm at least as Gwen collapses, having turned into a snowman along the way. While Jaime plants one of Gnome's plants here, the team is led by the Monk leader to their rooms. Selena explains as they walk along what she has learned from her tutors that they were one at one point but the Summoni and Monks split as they had different ideas how Spiritalist should work, Summoni with Spirits and Monks with Chi and Physical like attacks. Gnome, who has been summoned, freezes, not liking the cold weather and follows Jaime and the others around as they prepare for the party the next day and Simon muses on if they could get the two groups to work more closely together and Celes promises to try to use her position as Queen of Hapian to see if she can push them.
Date: 12.9.5998
Location: Monk's Monestary
The team prepares for the party with the girls dressing up nicely, many of them getting into dresses and the men making themselves look presentable. The Spirits have been summoned and used the Spirit Energy to make dresses as well as the team arrives in the main hall where the Monks and Summoni are gathered, on either side of the room. Celsius, Salamander, Gnome, Brooke, Neekito, Celsius and Shiva, Chronos - though she gives the team glares for being asked to come here, Sylph - though she is always with Ellie and the team, and two strange Teenager Spirits what look a lot like Shade, who are eating food. Erevis and Xanatos dance together as they socialize a little with the people here while letting Lana and Simon scan for the descendant in the room, trying to find who it might be amongst the two groups.
Gwen walks with Lana and escorts her while she tries to find the descendant and Celes and Liana work with Kalam and talk to the two groups, who are awkwardly talking to each other and the Spirits. Erevis and Xanatos discuss the Empress and what they will have to do with her sooner or later, and the Dark Twins seem unwilling to talk or make pacts with anyone, only interested in the food. Eventually Simon and Lana find their target - a Monk, and move over to try to convince him of his lineage and to help them with what he might have - a weapon and some papers they might could use. During all this Celsius and Shiva begin to look tired and people making pacts with a strange person that has been in the room outside the Dark Twins, the team realizes it is the Corrupted Ice Spirit and the more they make pacts, the weaker the Ice Spirits are getting.
As Simon approaches the Corrupted Ice Spirit, she notes she has been caught and makes a face. It looks like she has been touching people and taking over their pacts, co-opting the pacts Celsius and Shiva have as well as making new pacts. She notes it is a shame she did not get a chance to corrupt Simon's pact before being caught. As the twins lean on Liana for support, weak around the Corrupted Ice Spirit and some of their pacts taken over, she vanishes without a fight, apparently just there to steal pacts. As the two recover, the team realizes the danger the Corrupted Spirits can show now. The Monk seems convinced of the team and asks them to follow him to his home nearby so the team leaves the party and Jaime seems to have taken an interest in the Dark Spirits that are in the city for the food.
As they walk along and the Monk goes into his house to get whatever is in there, they run into Adeline who is in the city for some reason and Simon approaches her, since her long white hair and red eyes stand out - since her hair is now completely white at this point. Learning who she is and that she is going around Geyze on some quest, the two stand there speaking for some time while the team going to the Monk's house to wait. After talking a bit Simon expresses interest in speaking with her again as he goes to get the stuff from the Monk's place.
Location: The Academy/Alliance
The Academy Team is back at the Academy, minus a few of their number like Simon, Chelsea and Cypher, and Athena and Jennifer, they meet back to Shion to go over their assignment while they wait for the upcoming duel between Agni and Jules. Going over the upcoming Agni and Jules duel in a less than two weeks and how Agni has chosen a watery battlefield to give him an advantage, the team discusses a few things that could go wrong and what they will need to do to help counter it before moving onto the next subject. That monsters are beginning to grow in population and size the last few years and becoming a major problem and they speculate what could be causing the population increase. Shion notes that they will be holding classes for the monsters in a few days as well as Ymir arriving with new armor and weapons based off the technology they got off the Outlaws.
Date: 12.12.5997
Location: The Academy
Ymir arrives and hands out new weapons and armor to the team made to their specs of their old armor and weapons and soon Sasha comes out to have experts ready to teach the team about the various kinds of monsters. The team is then tortured for hours by the professors and Sasha, who continues to promise them "gold stars" to those who do good and other threats, with Athena trying to claw her way out of the room and others enjoying themselves in class.
Session 391: Where The Magic Happens
Location: Magi Tower
The team has traveled to the Magi Village near the Magi Tower and are met by Erevis' family after attending Thena's wedding back at the Academy and her side story. Since most of the Magi's papers and stuff was destroyed in the battle a 1000 years ago and only Delgi really remembering that time, being one of the oldest Familiars, the team muses on how to find information on the descendant and even if they attend the new Magi school that has been formed here under Delgi. They speak with her to learn more about the Magi Tower and if there could be any hidden rooms to try to find information on where the descendant weapon and documents could be hidden, especially with everything likely destroyed or ransacked over those years. Delgi points out the Tower isn't exactly a place with hidden rooms but has them follow her inside.
While they do that, Adeline speaks with Xanatos and informs him that she has not learned anything from her parents so far due to how time moves faster here, making her muse that due to the accelerated time she likely has hit her 15th birthday already. She also hints that she is going around Geyze and collecting monster samples and Jaime seems interested in her somewhat, offering to help her a little and seems to have grabbed Adeline from the monestary to drag her along, not liking the idea of her walking from place to place. Talia, surrounded by so many familiars here, promptly makes herself the queen of the Familiars and shows them the way of the fish and shows of Gwen, still having a deep crush on him, despite Gwen and Lana having a slight romance going on.
Delgi takes them to a map of the Tower where the bottom levels have been turned into dormitories for the students, using the old Magi Rooms of old for them. However many of the passages are still caved in and inaccessible. The team begins to explore the hallways underneath, encountering some of the budding Magi along the way with maps posted to help people navigate and find the ancient exit to the mountain side near the village. While Xanatos uses his shuttle to scan the ground from above and the team explores the underground tunnels, and using the shuttle they can see how blocked the two tunnels really have become. Simon and Jaime, with Gnome's help, begin to unblock one of the tunnels so they can access it and once they are finished, Gnome returns to her area to recharge.
Exploring the uncovered rooms they find Magi Rooms they have not been touched for years and soon discover many things, not noticing Magi Children and Adeline have been following them inside curiously. Going through diaries and other stuff, they soon find a trapped desk. Ceilia attempts to disarm it but the desk seems to try to take her over but before it can Simon knocks the being off of her. Surely it will not come back and stalk her later when she least expects it. Xanatos finds a special ring that turns one invisible and the team lets him keep it, and they find a book with the hero's information and their weapon as well as one of the children watching being a descendant. With the Ice Wand weapon now discovered, Celes takes the girl, Linnet, aside and promises to catch her up and bring her up to speed.
Session 392: Runes and Card Tricks
Location: Magi Tower
After spending time with the Magi Descendent Linnet, Celes finishes catching her up on everything she needs to know about her legacy and leaves her with Delgi to continue teaching her. While Lana hurries and continues to go through what Magi books are there and downloading them to her magical device and Xanatos working on his shuttle to get through magical shielding so he can scan them and Erevis is studying magical phrases as well as writing them down. Selena muses on the fact that she has ancient blood in here obviously, even being able to go partial spirit, and wonders to Simon if Ellie has some ancient blood in her due to the fact she and Sylph were able to do their spirit combination so quickly and were the first to do it ever; anyone else who has followed in their footsteps have had to train or force it since then.
The team also discusses elements and how it seems each hero family has their own element with Simon wondering why that that is as well as the Spirits representing various elements. Jaime points out that elements have always been a thing and people are tied to the elements and brings up Erevis' Runeblade so she hands the sword over to Simon to investigate the runes. Erevis tells him the origin of the elements from what she remembers: that the elements were likely born of the tree and they represent the nature of the person when they are born. And in some rare cases a person is born with more than one element. The runes, at least the wind rune, seems to resonate with Sylph and Simon tries the ice rune and feels power much like Celsius' in it. Erevis lets Simon study a few of the runes in the mean time and Sylph holds onto the wind rune, curiously attached to it. Celes announces it is time to go to the Great Forest, much to Jaime's excitement, and Sylph warps them there.
Location: The Great Forest
Arriving at the warmer climate of the Great Forest, Sylph flies off to find Gnome while the team adjusts to the giant trees. The team splits up, some going with Sylph, Fae, and Jaime to see Gnome, while others go with Celes to see Leaf and Cassava, and Selena slips off alone with Ellie following. While Celes explains why they are there to find the descendant of the hero, Leaf notes to Simon she does not recall anything about an ancient hero being here ever and will have to look into it for the team. Selena meanwhile talks to some guards who inform her that there has been a rise in monsters lately and Selena seems to be musing on sneaking out despite the warning not to leave without escort, but is drawn back to a commotion in the center of the city. The others find Gnome observing the commotion and watching it curiously.
It seems a human girl is putting on a magic show with tricks and cards - a true performance without actual magik, at least, it seems that way. It is unusual Gnome notes since humans rarely come this far into the Great Forest, but the Ents and Venus seem enthralled by the performance and even Selena is sneaking over to watch it, as does several of the others. With everyone on the team oberving the girl performing her tricks, Simon notes he is glad that race relations are doing better here and Celes points out it helps with both leaders being in love. After the performance, and some comedy with Ellie falling on top of Selena, the group introduces themselves to the girl who is called Magnificant Mystical Nicolette.
Everyone is invited, including Nicolette, to a Tree Ceremony in a that is being held in a bit after Gnome and Jaime are dragged off. Lana opts to skip the ceremony and is taken to the archives for the Ents, being hooked up to tree roots. While Nicolette is introduced and gets to know everyone, becoming attached to Selena, Ellie, and Sylph especially who really enjoyed her performance, the three seem to get along nicely. At the end of the day, Jaime and Gnome are married finally.
Location: The Ent/Venus Main City
Now in the Great Forest, the team is waking up and getting ready to try to find the descendant and the weapon as well as the documents that might be with them while Lana comes in, having spent the night in the Plant Helmet causing her to speak in the language of the Ents. While Erevis teases Jaime over her name and other stuff, the team goes to see Leaf and Cassava, discussing how the monsters seem to be on the rise lately all over Geyze, especially in the Great Forest. The two note that they have some distant family in other villages but neither have really been in contact with them throughout their lives. Simon does a scan and finds Leaf has a decent amount of heroic blood and seems to match their criteria, so Leaf decides to take them to meet her family in other villages. As they talk, Sylph remains quiet, giving Jaime looks and glare during the conversation, not her usual chatty self since the incident yesterday between them and occassionally makes snarky remains about "real" spirits, though Ellie manages to cheer her up rather quickly.
The team leaves and Selena makes sure to tell Cassava to tell Nicolette that they had fun with her show if she sees her again as they go. Sylph takes them to Leaf's first location, an Ent city close to the sea and just outside the Great Forest called Plantport. The area has a massive dock and lots ships and other things, not feeling like a normal Ent village with all the shipping trade going on here. It defintely feels more like a human city as they walk along it and it is clear Leaf does not care for it that much, especially since it provides many Ents here a viable spot to "meet" men and women to reproduce. Finding a rather large building, an Older Ent opens it that is her relative and the team is invited inside. They see this Ent likes to live the good life style, with beautiful furniture and Fauna servants who wear little to help them out. While Sylph covers Fae's eyes, the Elderly Ent tells them she has no such items they want but she can tell them about their people's histories.
She explains the folktales and stories about the first people of who lived here in the Great Forst, having not been created by Gnome despite that being the proper belief. Having come here 10,000 - 12,000 years ago, related to the Ancient Ones, they tried to live in the Forest but something happened and they evolved into the Ent/Venus along the way. Sylph points out to Simon that the Ents/Venus began to appear around 4,000 years ago, hence the belief that Gnome made them. As they leave, Xanatos notes to Leaf she did not seem to enjoy her Aunt; Leaf notes the woman is eccentric and is only into money. Heading to the next location, they arrive at the Sunflower Village, which makes the team wonder about sunflowers being on Geyze, though it is pointed out that Kumen is people from Earth in the Mirror Universe who likely brought the seeds to Geyze and planted them.
Meeting up with another Aunt, this one seeming even older and a bit senile, they are led to her house where she allows them to search the place for what they are looking for. During it Lana finally sounds normal as the Ent language programming wears off and the team begins to search the house for the weapon and paperwork. Xanatos finds the Earth Hammer being used to keep the desk balanced and so they switch it out with something else and discover some diaries as well, wrapping up at the place. Leaf finds herself unlikely to want to weigh it, holding the weapon easily, so she hands it to Simon who finds it weighing a ton, since it is not his element. Jaime has some trouble, being Dark Element, but being bonded with Gnome lets her hold it somewhat and Xanatos can hold it somewhat too due to his strength of 7.
The team finds some sort of behemonth monster attacking the Ents of the Sunflower Village and they take it down quickly. Returning back to the main Ent City, they run into Nicolette who has returned from what she was doing. Sylph and Ellie, as well as Selena, quickly chat with her, having enjoyed her company and Sylph lands on her head in pixie form. After hearing about it, Celes invites Nicolette to come back to the castle with them as a guest as they plan to head off and the team uses Sylph's warp abilities to set out, returning finally to Hapian Castle.
Location: The Academy
Celes has been sending her essential things from the Hapian Castle to a small mansion near the Academy while it is snowing and school is being let out at the Academy. The rest of the team is doing their own things from Jennifer training with Celsius, Bix patroling, Jaime building snowmen, Ellie back at the Academy to prepare teaching for the next Semester, and Simon giving Shion reports on everything that the Royals have been up to so far. Sasha prepares to relax for the holidays due to Selena hinting she would impose on Sasha's affairs more if Sasha did not relax, so Sasha and Rain close up shop and step out to walk about the Academy. Celes leads her group into the mansion and has them set up inside, talking about the Duel that will take place the next day while Shion and Simon do their own patrol and discuss things and talk about Kaylin who follows behind Shion.
Eventually, Shion meets with Celes' group and they all sit down to discuss the Duel that is coming up tomorrow; even Shinobu is there for once to discuss the Duel due to Mykel. Discussing who will attend it, Erevis and Xanatos opt out of it due to lack of interest in such violence and will look into more descendants at the mansion Celes owns. Selena, Celes, and Liana decide they should go to represent Hapian and Shion will go as the Alliance leader as well; Nicolette, Shinobu, Alita, Ceilia, Kaylin, Drasek, Sammael, and Simon go as well to represent the Alliance and to help Mykel and Jules.
After the team has left, the rest of the team explores the mansion to get a feel for it and settle in. Neekito is there to help as a maid and clean the place and Erevis wanders the place to check out the kitchen while Gwen moves his things in to find where his room is located. After learning Gwen's room is a closet basically with an evil spider trying to lay eggs in his head, Lana offers to let Gwen stay in the basement with her and makes Talia huffy so she leaves to go to Alita. That leaves Gwen admitting he knows Talia is into her, which is obvious to everyone in the room including Ellie and Jaime, but he was there when she was born years ago by Alita. But notes he will think about it while he moves down to the basement. SpoC though decides to terrify Sylph, Gwen and others with talks of the spiders laying eggs and runs many of them out of the mansion and into an arguing match with Luna.
Arriving up north in the Legion lands, the team meets up wtih Mykel and Jules, as well Agni and Adrea. After some greeting and talking with the group since Mykel has been away all this time hanging out with Jules, they prepare for the duel. The magic barrier goes up over the water to stop both of them from escaping for the next hour or using healing magik. While waiting the team notes that Hapes is stilling missing and discusses other things while watching the fight. At first Agni seems to have it in the bag, injuring Jules in several ways and depleting his strength throughout the fight but as it continues Jules manages to get several blows and gets Agni on the backfoot, until he forces Agni into unconsciousness and waits the timer out instead of killing him.
Brooke appears when summoned by Alita and goes to heal Jules. Due to having been introduced to all the spirits by Sylph beforehand, except Void and Shade, Brooke gives Nicolette a nod while she heals both contestants with Alita and Simon's help. Jules offers Agni and his people a position in the government and hopes they will work with him to make their land a better place and Agni leaves thoughtfully. Jules offers Mykel a position as his second in command in the Legion - the position Hapes once had before he vanished, though it means leaving the Academy and the Royals. Mykel notes he will have to think about it as he leaves with the team.
Session 395: The Hapian Family
Location: The Academy
With the snow falling and winter chill striking the Academy, school is out for the Academy and the threats for Geyze seem to be mostly over with the Outlaws crushed and seemingly gone for the time being and monsters hibernating for the most part due to the cold. Celes decides to use this time to study her castle's map and floor plans, wanting to find her family's weapon and documents since they have come back home. Worried that the weapon might be lost when sections of the castle where taken away when the Spirit Realm vanished, leaving those places inaccessible and closed off, they plan to head to the Castle to begin their search. As they head off they take Simon to help and Bix with the search, leaving some others such as Chelsea who is working on Heaven's ship, installing Spirit Tech and finishing up the final main parts.
Location: The Hapian Castle
Once at the Castle, Celes has Selena summon Aska to appear before them; she does so but seems to be leaning on her daughter Soren heavily, looking a little diminished. Celes asks Aska to finally explain what happened 12,000 years ago in the Ancient War instead of dancing around it. She states there are things she cannot tell even if she wanted and when Liana asks why that is, Aska tells them it is because she cannot remember. Aska explains that technially, no one should remember the Ancients or the war if what happened worked properly and it is due to Chronos using her powers. An Ancient used their power to try to end the war to erase it all due to the fact the two Ancients began to split in ideologies - one wanted to work with the Spirits, the other wanted to control them, hence corrupting them. The one side helped make devices to try to trap and stop the corrupted Spirits and the war began to get out of hand, so the one Ancient tried to simply erase it all; but that would have affected the Spirits to a large degree and Aska theories that is why it was only partially successful, but since she cannot remember entirely she cannot be positive, nor can Chronos tell them because her power will seal her from telling anyone else.
The group agrees that Chronos' power is unnerving and it must be why she is picky on who she pacts with and they wonder if time travel could be used to uncover the truth. Celes asks if the Spirit Realm still exists and Aska notes she does not know but if it did it would definitely make the Spirits stronger, as they could draw power from it. When she leaves, she places her head on Soren and they both leave, with Soren doing the teleporting it seems like.
Location: The Academy
Asarar stops by to visit Chelsea while she works and as they all talk, they hear racket from upstairs as Aimée runs by carrying something and heads outside. Drasek watches her go drinking his beer, not moving to stop her, and she sits down using her spirit powers to try to hatch the egg and reprogram it. Chelsea moves to walk up to her and begins to talk her down from hatching the egg and says they will do it the proper way and after some convincing Aimée hands the Spirit egg over to her. Cypher asks Chelsea if it is a good idea to wake the egg since the prototype eggs were a little off and this one especially. After Chelsea wakes the Spirit, who looks a lot like Aimée only a little different in hair color and clothing, she seems to repeat everything said back to her at first, until she finally seems to be getting the idea of words - at least an improvement of words.
Location: Hapian Castle
Celes and the others search the castle and soon they find a secret passage after doing a series of tricks to open it. Stating that who knows what will be hidden back here, since every Empress likes to hide something in the castle, they begin to walk down the stairs behind the wall.
Session 396: The Hapian Family Part II
Location: Hapian Castle
Celes Hapian leads the Royals down a staircase behind a hidden wall, using a spirit-tech lantern to lead them. Liana, Celes, and Selena discuss the various types of hidden rooms that have been discovered over the years, many rooms built by various Hapian Empresses for their own interests, some very deviant, others spirit-tech based, and others like a garden, which happens to be what this one is, though it is dried up. The spirit-tech has long stopped working and the plants died long ago, so Jaime calls Brooke to examine the plants, telling her the plants are very dangerous, able to make poison, since Jaime wanted to revive them since they are plants. Simon meanwhile examines the Spirit Tech and decides to take it with him to try to learn from it, while the others continue on, since this is clearly not the place they want. Celes lays out a map of the Castle and the team studies it, musing on where the Hapian documents and weapon could be located in the Castle and they all agree it would be at the oldest parts of the castle, meaning the lower levels. Adeline seems to follow along, observing and taking notes, having come along as Jaime's guest.
The team splits up to search the various places below with Sasha musing the castle is like an onion waiting to be peeled. Celes, Liana, and SpoC check out the library, Bix checks out the guest rooms, Simon checks the servant quarters, Selena and Sasha go to check out the armory, Nicolette goes to the wine cellar, and Jaime and Gnome go to the gardens and go through a hedge maze, while Xanatos tries to examine the castle with his shuttle, but finds the Spirit Tech is interfering with his sensors. Bix finds a secret passage that lets him look through eyes of a painting to spy on people, Jaime and Gnome reach the center of the garden and find a locket under a bench, Selena and Sasha discover nothing of note in the armory, and Simon discovers nothing of note in the servant quarters.
However, in the library, the others do discover some old books with drawings in it that has drawings of someone that looks like Ellie in it, only she has long hair and seems to be some noble. The family seems to be distant relative of the Hapian family and might explain some of Ellie's powers, making Celes ponder their connection. Xanatos also discovers a hidden wall behind bookcase but before they can discover that, at another part of the castle Nicolette in the wine cellar has figured out how to open a passage to reveal a doorway and when Selena and Sasha join her, Selena touching it makes it open up and it reveals a long staircase, so they get the rest of the team and all proceed down the dangerous staircase to the bottom. At the bottom they find find an area that seems to be a place someone once worked and stayed at long ago, as well as the Hapian family weapon - a chain sword and armor, the Hapian Battle Armor, the prototype that Liana wears now. Selena wields it and seems capable of bringing out the power in it.
The walls have paintings on it, but their faces are damaged and they cannot tell who is on it, so while they debate using Chronos, but she warns that unless they want to turn time back itself, decide it is too dangerous so SpoC agrees to restore it however long it takes. Celes, reading the books on the table, notes that it is someone who was researching the first Empress, and notes she had knowledge before her time or at least someone close to her did. And due to that Hapian was one of the fastest growing Kingdoms. Simon asks Chronos about what happened long ago but she is tightlipped, saying she is unable to do talk about it due to her pact from that time. And that they would typically not even remember it if not due to the flawed nature of the reversed time. Xanatos makes an offhand comment about going back in time to monkey with time, making the Geyze people wonder if that was common. Taking this moment, Selena and Sasha bring up that Aska is losing her Spirit powers and her daughter is becoming the new Spirit of Light, leading the team to wonder if the children are inheriting their powers due to some byproduct of having children naturally. They decide to return to the Academy for now.
Location: The Academy
Aimée runs by, running with her newly born sister Mélodie around the area and she seems to be proclaiming Mélodie her's. The team takes note of the new spirit deadpanned like as they watch the chaos of the scene, with everyone seemly musing on everything. Xanatos notes to Celes that he notes time travel is not something easily done, and that going back in time is not something typically done without branching new realities. If it is done, he doesn't know many ways.
Session 397: The Daemon Lineage
Location: The Academy/Alliance
Sasha has become a little ineffecient since Rain has left to return back to her the Daemon Lands since the beginning of the year, leaving Sasha with the Nymph Priestess as a part time helper; at this point Adeline also has left with Wade and Jenny back to Earth now that Earth has been liberated from the Ninth Circle, leaving only the Moon under Sunny's control. As the new Academy year has begun and the snow is falling heavily, many of the students are staying indoors unless forced to go to class or do something, as is Selena who is listening to her tutors. Jaime has made a mud bath in the Manor, despite having her own house nearby, and Xanatos notes how Jaime can transform her clothing with Selena telling him she is basically wearing Gnome these days. Celes asks after Shinobu and Mykel and if Ceilia and Alita have heard from them recently, intent on going after the final weapon. While they prepare to go to the Daemon Capital, Drasek is aiming Aimée and her sister at things Xanatos has built to smash up, earning Xanatos' ire at the two little spirits. The group agrees as they prepare to leave that Jaime has changed a lot lately from the scared Jaime of the past to a more femme fatal Jaime.
The step through the portal to the Daemon Capital that seems to be the same as ever and make their way to the Daemon Tower where the guards let them in due to Alita and Ceilia, however there is a tension in the city and the Daemons seem to be acting a little off. Shinobu greets them at the top of the Tower and when asked about feel of the city, she dismisses it and tells them if they are here for the search they can have free reign of the Tower, giving them whatever access they need. Jaime tests Shinobu and gets back that she is indeed a descendant, Shinobu busts out that Jaime has her third spirit in her shadows - Nocturne, and Erevis notes that is why Jaime came here no doubt. Mykel shows up to stand by his wives, informing them mentally on what is going on in the city while the team prepares to search the Tower. Deciding that the object might be hidden with magik, the team sends Jaime to find Simon and Ellie to help locate it.
Back at the Academy, Sasha has a fire incident that alerts Bix to help put out the fire as Jaime arrives to get Simon, Ellie and Sylph for their help in searching for the weapon. Inside they find Sasha is a mess, with her hair all wild and having trouble preparing food, helpless without a helper and the Nymph Priestess has gone home for the night. They help her get her act together to take her back to the Daemon Lands to see Rain, figuring the two seeing each other might help. They all arrive back at the Tower afterward and begin to help with the search, looking for the family weapon. Eventually they discover it in a room invisible with magik, the weapon being a ring of sorts that forms a weapon of imagination. They also gather diaries and other paperwork and take it back to Shinobu. As they move to leave and go to Rain, she watches them go and contacts someone.
Location: Rain's Mansion
The Team arrives outside the Mansion and as they knock, Xanatos is shocked to learn that Sasha's secretary for years was a High Daemon Noble. Jaime notes that love makes you do weird things as the maids lead them inside the beautiful mansion to Rain who is on a seat looking them over. As she looks down at them Rain notes they have come at a bad time with a severe air.
Session 398: Dark Underling Plots
Location: Rain's Mansion
Standing before Rain ontop of her chair, Rain stares down the team with only a vampire's stare can manage as she notes they have arrived at a bad time, though she does take the time to greet Sasha and notes it is good to see her again and comments on seeing her hair is brushed and wondering if she did it. She begins to explain that the nobles of the Daemon Capital have been being killed off or acting differently lately, turning against Shinobu subtlely or even openly. Sasha notes with Shade no longer here to keep things in check as the Daemons' Spirit, the nobles can be easily influenced and some wonder if it shapeshifters, though Rain is dubious; she mentions talk about cults and other talk, even the return of the previous Empress whose body was taken, referring to the group who took it. She also notes that it is possible it could be a family that took over briefly centuries ago from the Royal family during a power struggle during those times.
With Mykel showing up, Selena wonders if that is a good idea, since he is Shinobu's consort and if there is some group might do something. The others do not believe it will happen due to it standing out and Rain says she will have rooms prepared for them, moving off. Sasha has Simon go to alert the rest of the Alliance and Academy about the situation while they wait and during it a maid shows up to give them food, insisting they sit and eat. While eating they continue to talk and muse on the situation while the maid leaves and Mykel studies the maid as she goes. When Rain returns she asks if they had food prepared for them and realizing Rain did not have it made for them, they begin to feel weak from the food and Alita has to do a cute spell to fix those who ate the food. They begin to search for the maid and they see a maid on the floor with her throat slit and Alita uses a lot of her magik to restore her life. The food also seems to have released a dangerous gas that forces Mykel to use his TK and Ellie/Sylph to combine to use their wind powers to force the dangerous gas outside to clear it outside.
Also returning is Simon, SpoC and Nicolette who stare as the poison cloud is thrown up into the air and in the back the rest of the team sees the maid, a Lilin, climbing a fence. Sasha uses her string to tangle her up and slow her down while Xanatos shoots a stun shot to knock her down, letting the group nab her and bring her inside. With the team now united it, they interrogate her while Nicolette is filled in by Ellie, who is now seperated. The maids stand by with bats, ready to beat the assassin if she refuses to answer and hurting one of their own, while Alita and Jaime use their Lilin phermone powers to make the assassin open to suggests and to "like" them. While doing that, Erevis grabs her head and reads her mind to try to learn what is going on. During it, Ellie and Sylph explain what spirit combining is like to Nicolette, who is now taking lessons at the Academy, having decided to enroll.
Erevis states she thinks she is working for the previous Empress but never met her personally, having gone to a certain location to get her orders. They decide to have Mykel and Shinobu to go to the location to see if they can find any leads to the group, though they doubt they will find anything right away, but hopefully it will stop, or at least stall, killings of the nobles for now that they have been discovered for the time being. Nicolette meanwhile considers the power of the spirits and their special bond while the group heads to help Shinobu deal with this problem for now.
Location: The Academy
The Academy classes have resumed and snow has cleared, the weapons found and all Ancient Heroes' documents found, allowing the teams to rest and spend time doing their own things. Selena practices her swings and techniques outside the Manor on the campus while Heaven and Chelsea finish her ship, the ship now having Spirit-Tech and Cam'Dee to help fly it; Lana is reading and working on her magik and Nicolette is studying for the classes she is now taking at the Academy, Simon and Ellie are teaching classes again, Gwen is packing his bags to return to the Amazons, Athena and Thena are playing in the fields, Jaime is building stuff, and Xanatos is washing his shuttle. Sylph sits on Nicolette's head in her pixie form and asks for a story, having grown attached to the Maka; she even swings little flowers as pom-poms. Meanwhile Talia chases Gwen and hits on him, while Shion calls the group together to tell them about something up on Kumen regarding Ymir; apparently there is someone trying to make a bid on Ymir's corporations and do a hostile take over of sorts.
The team decides to fly up there and check out the situation, going to Kumen to see if they can learn more since Ymir controls a lot of of the Kumen Corporations these days. Nicolette notes that the city feels so different these days, with only the top level having people the majority of the people these days and some on the middle and lower levels. They run into Asarar who leads them to a new Club on the Top Level that was once a Theater, designed like their old one, where they find some of the old NetRunners inside. There the two groups sit and drink while watching the dancers and listening to the music while Ymir talks about who is trying to take over the Corporations, some group from the Deep Regions with a Cross Symbol. As they promise to look into it, many of the team decide to relax and catch up and even dance to the music, with the Runners and Geyze people trying to figure out who might be trying to get a foothold into Kumen.
Timeline: 10-639.6.14 / 2.7.5998
Session 400: Hands of the Serpent
Location: Cheryl's Mansion
Lemon has gathered the team for a meeting to go over everything that has occurred over the past few months and summarize what all they have been through, as well as somethings they may face in the future; during this up in the yard they can hear Dias battling a pre-teen Fate, who is knocking Dias around with ease and keeping up with him easily, unlike her bigger form. She states the first problem is the Shapeshifters will always be a problem unless they nip it bud and while this may not deal with all of them, referring to the outliers like the Hunters, she hopes the sympthatic one Cole talked to who looked like X might be open to negotiations. The question being if EarthGov and Dias will give what she wanted - a planet of their own close to Earth and Dark One technology, but as Lemon points out that is for Dias and the politicians to deal with when the time comes.
The other problem is the Ninth Circle and while it is completely smashed with no hopes of being a problem, they did not capture all the members and that means the few members that did manage to escape might be a problem one day in the far future. She believes it'll likely be petty attacks and they'll remain hidden for a long time, but they probably will not forget the team ended their dreams. On the good news, she notes the leader has given up a lot of information and proof that the Ninth Circle has had it's fingers in a lot of programs that has been affecting their lives, such as Chad's clones as well as stuff to do with Adeline, which gets a look from her, indicating Adeline has some secret that only Lemon and Kane know at this time with Kane noting that there is a lot of information to go through. Lemon also notes offhandedly that Rea has left the team to search for Zayne for sometime now for some reason only he understands and hopefully doesn't anger her, since Fate stated she would not seek the team out.
X leads the team to where she thinks the shapeshifter X might be located and trying to get off planet since the teleporters would be set to detect her right now and sure enough they find her posing as a pilot. After having Cole talk to her and other stuff, promising to have Dias open dialogue, she agrees to come and meet with Dias about her people.
Location: The Aquarius
While the Aquarius nears Geyze, Kumen, and Yggdrasil, Taiga goes over the reports from the aftermath of the incident with Harbinger taking Kaelan, noting that is not the only thing missing, stating that Leon McTreggor left secretly shorly afterward, as well as Cersei with him. As they talk, Zegretta arrives, her hair cut from it's long length down to it's shoulders and she appears to be depressed over Kaelan and withdrawn, rebuffing attempts to talk about it from others like Michelle. While Cookie tries to block out the negativity around the ship due to her powers, Erica and Yuki muse on the situation and what it means when Mireille announces they have arrived at Geyze as they exit hyperspace over the planet. The two note it feels nice to be home again as they gaze at the two planets below and even the kids study the tree, with Durt noting to the kids they're "sort of" home again, with Valen rebuffing that idea. Yuki goes to contact Shion to let her know about the situation so they can prepare to go to Yggdrasil to protect it from the shapeshifter who has the Cartel weapons, lest a disaster befalls the universe.
Location: The Alliance / The Academy
With the snow mostly dried up outside now, Shion sits at her desk and listens to Yuki and Erica, as well as the rest of the Aquarius' crew, tell about the threat that is coming from space. While Shion muses over the information, the kids snow fight with what snow is left outside and the Alliance people. Kellin looks for Ako and finds her and Athena in a heated conversation over something but Athena stops when she sees Kellin, pushing Ako over to him to talk and moving off in her pixie girl mode and the two catch up, Ako glad to see Kellin and nothing she is worried Athena will do something rash sometime in the future. Shion contacts the EarthGov team for extra help to cover this as well as the PAX for protection around Yggdrasil and a meeting is held quickly between the teams, including some of the Royals.
Shion notes that only she and a few others can give out permission to go to Yggdrasil, such as Ymir, so one team will go to Kumen to check on her to see if the shapeshifter has impersonated her to try to trick her. During this Shion will stay down here and try to contact her to let her know the situation. The kids will go to Yggdrasil and wait to see if the shapeshifter manages to slip past everyone and attacks it directly and will provide protection there. And another team will search around Kumen for Samson, who has been sighted there, to see what he has been up to and what his agenda is in all this, as well as see if they can find the shapeshifter. The three teams split up into three new teams to handle their missions while Shion helps coordinate down below and Yuki notes Erica will definitely want to help with the Samson situation, as Thena shows up with appears to be Cheryl, much to everyone's surprise, but they learn that Cheryl is her duplicate. Ren and Yuki show how they can split themselves in half but that makes themselves weaker doing so and it is believed that Cheryl did that to keep Samson from using Cheryl's full power, but it appears Cheryl's duplicate has gained her own personality from being split for so long. Ren and Yuki both admit they have never heard of such a thing happening before and some on the team wonders what this will mean for Cheryl's psyche while Orihime suggests they be called Cher-A and Cher-B from now on.
Location: Kumen
The Ymir team finds themselves walking along the streets of Kumen only it is strangely empty of people, despite the top level having a lot of people still. Ren, Zephyr, Kaori, Selena, Reikana, Angela, Bix, Wyrd, Celetrias, and Truth walk along the streets feeling like they are being watched when suddenly figures wrapped in cloaks and all wraped up attack Kaori with a poisoned dagger, making Truth and Ren deflect the blade. As more come out, the two battles them, Bix even sending one flying off team rocket style, and Selena unwraps the face of another after the fight ends to see the face of an old man that looks scaley and a bit serpenty, with a snake tattoo on their body.
However the battle draws attention to two of the corrupted spirits, the Corrupted Fire and Water Spirits and Bix is immediately set off by the sight of them, itching to battle them. As Bix and the Water Spirit trade verbal blows, with Angela having to physically hold him back lest he start a battle with them, the team tries to diplomatically talk to them lest they get into a fight with the two. Selena and Angela seem to note it odd how the two Spirits are on Kumen and near the Macross Corporate HQ building and Kaori talks to them, asking if the cult people were bothering them as well. Kaori points out they are just here to talk to Ymir Macross and not here to fight or with the snake people and suddenly jerk and peer at each other and when Truth asks why they are out in the open, they state because they felt like it, leaving suddenly. Kaori notes they seem very tsundere with Selena noting they seem to be hiding something to her as they go to see Ymir, who thanks them for helping out and states the PAX will be here soon. She also reminds them about Airell and how the Serpent claimed to be returning in 15 years - or 14 years at this point, meaning those people might be connected to him. She also notes she has not seen any shapeshifters or given any permission to anyone to go to the tree lately.
Elsewhere on Kumen, Heaven guides Thena by comm to a sighting of Samson/Ben, so Thena leads Adeline, Marcus, Cole, Chad, Xeres, Cherry, Rio, Jennifer, Erica, Yuki, and Tabetha through the streets toward where Samson can be seen on a roof, looking up at the sky. They also discuss Ben's power of being able to control dragoons, especially female dragoons, up to 3 it is believed, like the old days of the dragoon protocol. Adeline takes notes as Erica and Thena approach Samson to try to talk to him in giving Ben back and to knock this nonsense of giving his reality back. Samson and Erica have a moment, since Erica and Samson go way back, and Samson admits he is not sure - that overwriting things was always his last resort and Thena has made things a bit more difficult. Stating his body died on the tree in the last incident Thena and Erica try to get him to accept a new body that they could prepare and Samson listens and muses, before stating he will think on it. At that moment Cheryl and Chii fly in in their dragon form and pick Samson up to fly off to Yggdrasil, forcing Erica and Thena to leap onboard. This causes Yuki to freak out as they fly off and she tells Chad next time to not hesitate to take the shot that he was lining up, despite protests from others like Jennifer, promising Chad will be "gentle".
Location: Yggdrasil
Lorelei's team is on the tree waiting to see if the shapeshifter appears, with Lorelei, Rachael, Valen, Durt, Zegretta, Sabrina, Michelle, Si, Cookie, Pepper, and Moira. After some pacing by Rachael and teasing from Valen, Sabrina arrives from her scouting via her magical girl powers to announce she spotted Kaelan on another branch, which means she spotted Harbinger, so the team, minus a few of them staying behind to keep an eye out for the shapeshifter, to confront Harbinger. Zegretta leads the charge and after passing a village full of familiars, they find Harbinger and pre-teenager Fate arguing about something. Asking which Fate this is Fate seems thrown by the question and states there is only one Fate - her and to excuse her if she was not placed into their plane of existence properly.
Turning their attention back to Harbinger, he states he will fight them if they really want but he is there to witness a serious of events that are important to what will come, making Durt call it. The team draws their weapons and Moira notes maybe they should priortize things if something big is coming, but they seem intent on fighting Harbinger and freeing Kaelan. Lorelei notes she cannot do it until Harbinger has been weakened some before in other battles with the Gods. The fight breaks out and it seems Harbinger can forsee their attacks somewhat like Spde/Adeline/Cookie, and it takes them throwing everything they have at him, with Zegretta grabbing him in a bear hug after the others do enough attacks at once to make him stable and Lorelei attacking him, trying to draw Kaelan to the surface. It fails somewhat and Harbinger throws them all off, retreating and Zegretta howls to the sky and Rachael nurses broken nose from the fight. The team decides to head back to the others and their lookout point, despirited and hopeful at least some of Kaelan was brought to the surface.
Location: The Alliance
Shion speaks with Dias about the situation while the PAX orbits Geyze, heading to set up a parameter near Yggdrasil and the Aquarius joins it, as well as some Kumen ships. The other two teams from Kumen arrive as they discuss the situation, when a brand new fleet that no one recogizes appears in space, not even the Empress. It seems massive, outnumbering the combined Suisen Empire fleet that was brought and the Kumen Fleet. Kaori suggests bringing the Maka along and so Shion gets on contacting them while the others move to go to the Aquarius to get it ready for a space battle. They see the fleet is a Templar Fleet, led by Leon McTreggor and Cersei is with him, both wearing armor that is a lot like the God Armor in the previous alternate timeline the kids were from before.
Leon states he is here on orders to protect Yggdrasil from the shapeshifter at all costs and the team is dubious a little, due to the sheer size of the fleet. He sends the coordinates of the shapeshifter, apparantly their fleet able to find it as well as that of Samson. Angela warns Taiga to becareful of the Templars, as they were bad guys in that alternate future timeline and Taiga, who remains behind as acting Captain as Yuki plans togo down to Yggdrasil to find Erica, notes she vaguely remembers them from when she was a child, says she will keep an eye on them. Reikana ponders where did they get so many ships from if they came from the deep regions of space and Ren notes that is a good question.
Location: Yggdrasil
Rachael's team heads to the coordinates provided by the Templars while reinforcements come down in the form of Selena, Kaori, Jaime, Angela, Thena, Jennifer, Cole, Chad, and Yuki and while everyone runs, the two teams begin to pass each other, Rachael's team going after the Shapeshifter, and the other team heading after Samson. Selena, Kaori, and Jaime join Rachael and Valen the entire time seems to be completely baffled that Leon is in charge of that massive fleet up in space. Chad notes to Angela that her powers might be useful in freeing Cheryl and Angela notes she hasn't tried to use her powers in years as the two teams run toward their destination. As the Samson team soon fades from sight, the kids near the Shapeshifter, who has bioweapons all over the large tree branch and the begin to approach from various angles.
As they launch an attack, they begin to do battle with the Hunter type Shapeshifter, which so far has proved very difficult to take out in battle. Si'Chii and Selena use their various powers, Selena going partial Spirit, and Si'Chii using her fire powers, Michelle using her arrows, Cel her electricity, and Moira and Valen slashes to try to take it down. During all this, Kellin begins to deal with the canisters so it won't hurt the tree and with Si'Chii they begin to deal with them one by one. As the battle finally wraps up as the team deals a Michelle deals the final blow with an arrow after the team does enough damage, it looks like all the canisters are destroyed.
Samson meanwhile lands with Erica and Thena as Cheryl and Chii turn back to normal as the three observe space, full of space ships of the Templars. A moment later Yuki launches an attack on Samson, punching his face rapidly due to her surprise attack until Erica calms her down, stating she was not kidnapped and apologizing to Samson and chides Yuki stating that they are suppose to deal with things diplomatically. As Cole notes to Chad that they are going to try to do the talking thing again a quake hits and a canister hidden away here knocks it over and it leaks into the tree, suddenly transforming the branch into something dark and twisted, making it something out of nightmares. Samson frees his control over Cheryl and Chii as the branch begins to mutate and emerging from the branch emerge healthy and young versions of the people who attacked the team on Kumen earlier, the serpent cult people. Dozens and dozens of them begin to appear as Chad opens fire without waiting to see what happpens, earning a comment from Erica.
Thena asks Fate if they can cut this branch of Yggdrasil and she notes they could but it could have consequences on reality. As they begin to edge away as the corrupted branch begins to grow mroe and more a dark portal opens and cuts the halt and falling through is Vyvy and Shade; taking this moment the Serpent people leap off the branch and escape as Shade and Vyvy lay there weakly and the portal floats there. Through the portal they can see what appears to be the Spirit Realm, apparently still existing in this universe and not having been eaten by the tree as believed and Shade went looking for it as her powers began to fade. Kaori arrives at that moment, having been called to help deal with the branch due to her powers and she studies Vyvy and studies the portal while it's still open. She is asked to stay behind to see if she can help stop this corruption or better yet reverse it.
Chad and Zephyr muse on where the hand could be and they deduce it is likely the center of Yggdrasil, the only control portion down in the center middle area. Zephyr simply jumps off after them, earning a mumble of Zephyr being insane from Yuki before she grabs Erica and follows, turning them into flying forrm. Samson seems to have snuck off with Cheryl and Chii during the commotion and as the others begin to follow one by one, leaving Kaori behind to fix the branch problem, the team falls down to the bottom. The kids watch them fall by from their branch and shake their heads in dismay as they go by, focusing on their own clean up except for Sabrina who uses her magical girl powers to follow. As they all land outside the cave leading to the control room, the team begins to enter slowly where they are ambushed by the Hand once more.
They find Cheryl and Samson inside as well, helping to defend it as they join them and the team works together to take care of the enemy; the enemy uses poison to try to throw in the team's face and other tactics. They even crawl along the ceiling like some sort of snake and try to drop down on them with daggers, when some new magical girl shows up, wearing a mask and cape to attack the last Hand before it can strike. Getting nicknamed Tuxedo Mask by Reikana, Sabrina looks surprised and happy to see another Maka aiding the team and the team takes the moment to catch their breath; also during the fight after seeing them all fighting so hard, Samson lets his control of Ben go and Ben finally wakes up and is freed, though it leaves the question of where Samson's spirit has gone.
However, before the new magical girl can fully introduce herself and they learn how Ben is doing, the communications are cut out and it looks like something is happening in space. It looks like the Templars are moving to cut Yggdrasil off from the rest of the fleet and take it over. The team vows to dig in and protect Ygddrasil from whatever is going on in space; Thena also calls her mercenaries to help out.
Location: The Aquarius
The Empress is heard cursing on the communication, very unlike Erevis, while Taiga has Marcus, John, Dias, and Tabetha get ready in the Gears to help protect Yggdrasil and deal with the launching fighters from the Templar Ships. While the PAX and the Templar Capital Ship are slugging it out, and it looks like they are standing toe to toe with the PAX's power boost, it looks like the Templars have the upper hand in power still, and the number of ships. With the Makas still not here yet, it is up to a hail mary. Leon apologizes to them all through the comm but states his leader feels that Yggdrasil is in danger with them and is safer with the Templars. As the battle continues, John comes up with a plan to attack the capital ship less they are all destroyed, in the hopes that if they lose the capital ship the enemy might retreat with the loss of their leader. The three, with Tabetha providing support, launch an attack, Marcus attacking and dealing with the cannons and laser fire on the ship sides as John and Dias blast their way into the ship itself, working their way to the core.
Along the way to the core, with Tabetha also making her way inside, Leon and Cersei battle the two's Gears and while Dias asks them to step side, the two refuse. They two do massive damage to their Gears, taking out John's legs, and even damages Dias' Gear where it can't move as well, but Dias also manages to take out Cersei and hurts Leon a bit. Allowing John to hop his way to the core where his Gear his no longer able to move, he sets up the explosives but cannot get out easily. Leon, predicting that is about to happen, orders his people off the ship and throws Cersei over his shoulder, ignoring Dias saying he is using her as a shield as he escapes the ship. As the ship begins to explode, Tabetha pulls the two out as a countdown begins on top of the core being damaged. As the three barely escape, the ship implodes on itself, causing no outward explosion to the ships nearby. During the battle, a ship from Geyze also flies up and enters the PAX, unnoticed.
Location: Geyze
After the battle, the three teams are back at the Academy recovering, with Sabrina all over the masked girl and asking her questions and Adeline pondering the new snake cult enemy and the Templars. It turns out the girl is actually Nicolette, it seems, who is a Maka. Sabrina seems fascinated in learning more about her and the two begin to talk about their own experiences so far. Cheryl and her duplicate seem to be sizing each other up and the duplicate refuses to be reaborbed and the Kellin notes she asked for this, before walking off, earning a look from Cheryl. Angela suggests calling her Lime in honor of Lemon as they all consider what to do with her. Chad catches Cheryl up on what happened to Earth and how they lost her house for a while and Shion also announces she plans to step down as leader, feeling she hasn't really done much for the Alliance that much and will find someone who can do more for them. And that she was really there to help intregrate them into the policies/world of the Prime Universe which she thinks they all have begun.
Location: PAX
When the Empress walks up to her room, Athena along with her two wives ambush her, stating she is there to take back her home finally, making the Empress narrow her eyes.