Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2020-07-18. This is the second of two chapters posted today.

Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Forty-Six

46.1 (B-wolf95): [Zootopia] / [spoiler - see end]

Judy Woke up in both senses of the word in her apartment. That, by itself, was a bit weird, but nothing too concerning. No, she was more confused by the fact that Nick was sitting right next to her bed, surrounded by a dozen empty coffee cups.

"Finally Awake, I see," Nick said in a vaguely sleep-deprived voice.

"Yeah, still a bit Loopy, though." Judy suddenly felt a sharp pain in her neck. "What happened last night?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just doing a lot of taxes while you were sleeping soundly thanks to a trank to the neck." Nick let out a sharp yawn. "Speaking of sleeping soundly, I think it's about time we switch places."

"...Okay then." Judy got out of bed while Nick got in bed. "Who shot me?"

"I did. Didn't want you getting yourself killed. That reminds me, you might want to do something with the masked intruders passed out in the hall. Well, good night." With that, Nick passed out, leaving Judy with more questions than answers. Fortunately, her Loop Memories came in to answer most of them. Unfortunately, they weren't pleasant answers.

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers, why do I have to deal with this Loop?" she ranted to no one in particular. "It's bad enough that this variant exists at all, but I didn't even get to do anything, you stupid-" Judy stopped herself from cursing out Yggdrasil and took a few deep breath. "Okay, I'm okay. It could've been worse, Nick and I are still alive. Though I'm still wondering why Nick chose to do taxes at a time like that."

Later that Loop, Mayor Lionheart was furious.

"WHAT DO MEAN, THE CITY'S AT A NET LOSS?!"

"Well, s-sir, while our poverty rates are at an all-time low, we ended up having to expend a lot of our resources to deal with damage done to several of our museums and other public properties," Bellwether said, cleaning up the remains of Lionheart's shattered mug.

"I know that, what I want to know is why didn't the increased taxes cover that?!"

"Well, um, you see... no one paid them."

"...What."

"We suspect that tax evasion is involved, but we can't pursue it because they were turned in, um, well..."

Lionheart picked up on the implications and the room became deafeningly quiet.

"Bellwether, get the New Founding Fathers on the phone. We're going to have a nice. Long. Talk."

[The Purge - NOT Looping]

46.2 (ThanatosTiger): [Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir] / [RWBY]

Kagami stared into her cotton candy, the spun sugar sweet untouched.

She lost to Team RWBY. Well, WY, in the Vytal festival.

They were superior fighters. She had lost before, and she'd learned that her mother's opinions on such things were ridiculous.

'Then why do they keep creeping up on me?' She thought bitterly.

Kagami noticed Adrien approaching her, not wearing the sunglasses that covered up his cat like eyes. He hated how his father forced him to hide them, but he never seemed willing to take the plunge before today. She wasn't one to hesitate often, but considering how some people act...

"Hey Kagami. Feeling out of swords? Adrien asked, always ready with a pun, no matter how terrible.

"No. Mother's likely going to be mother. Still surprised you took off your Agreste brand sunglasses."

"It's a lesson I learned long ago that I wish I realized earlier. There are people in your life that you need to cut out, people you don't need to listen to. My dad and your mom are prime examples. You were awesome in that fight, using your Semblance to trip them up, fading every time they thought they would strike. You're an amazing fighter."

"Wish my subconscious would realize sooner." she grumbled.

"Yeah, mine can get like that too. It'll probably always be like that. But, we can keep rebelling, and getting happier."

"True, wouldn't want to get in a Grimm situation." Kagami joked.

"You made a funny!" Adrien mock gasped, then mock pouted. "I don't like it. Had too little pun-ache."

Rolling her eyes, Kagami took a bite out of the cotton candy. It was almost as sweet as what she imagined her mother's expression would look like if she learned she was consuming "empty calories".

"Wanna meet up with Weiss? She might have some good advice for us."

"It is a good idea to learn from your opponents. And, I really want to ask how she became so graceful, it was a dance with deadlinesss. Though she will rue the day she dared win against Kagami Tsuguri!"

Two second passed, and. Kagami turned to Adrien. "You know I'm joking, right?"

Adrien nodded.

"Uh, good, I just hope I won't need to use that damned app to talk."

46.3 (ThanatosTiger): [Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir] / [Red Vs. Blue (mentioned only)]

"So." Alya began. "There's a lot of identity reveals in the hub, any of them your favorite?"

With that question, Marinette groaned and Adrien busted out laughing.

"Can I tell the story?" Adrien wheezed. "I-I need to tell her. Please Mari, I never begged in my life."

"Yes you have."

"Yeah, I have. But can I tell it?"

Marinette started chucking too. "Sure kitty. The story is pretty funny."

"Okay, so neither me or Marinette were Awake. I think only Caboose was." At Alya's confusion, Adrien elaborated. "The Anchor for the Red vs Blue Branch. He's, ah, not very smart. And he must've learned about our Branch and things from the Hub as well, which is where the story begins."

Alya nodded, writing the story down on a notepad from her Pocket.

"So he walks up to me, the same age as us for the loop, going Hey Adrien!"

"And? You weren't transformed, were you?"

"Getting to that. He starts muttering to himself, saying 'Adrien is the humansona, that is who he is right now.' And I'm guessing he was trying to whisper, but he failed, because Nino heard him. And then he explains his logic."

Adrien paused for a moment, as if he prepping for a big finish.

"He goes, 'This is Cat More, one of the protectors of Paris. His true self is the black cat, but a cat cannot be a model, so he created his humansona Adrien to be a model.' Caboose then pointed to Marinette, and said to everyone that she was Ladybug, which according to him, made her a crazy cat ladybug."

46.4 (B-wolf95): [Lion King] / [Touhou]

Simba was not having a good Loop. For starters, he was a spirit and as such was mostly stuck to the afterlife. Oh, and it wasn't just a regular afterlife, oh no. It was one run by the freaking yakuza! And naturally, he ended up Looping in as one of the captains of the Keiga Family, who were obsessed with physical strength at the expense of everything else and regularly ate human spirits. Joy. And yet, this Loop apparently decided that this wasn't enough, because shortly after he woke up, the human spirits had somehow summoned a sculptor goddess who promptly made a haniwa army and went on the warpath, which Simba was helpless to stop because spirits can't hit golems, apparently.

Needless to say, Simba was done.

"This is all your fault!," Simba roared, pointing his finger squarely at the Keiga Family head.

Saki Kurokoma scoffed at this slight. "As if I had any control over these haniwa."

"I meant the fact that this invasion is happening at all! If you had any idea of what it means to be a leader, you'd have not antagonized the human spirits and they would not have summoned Keiki in the first place!"

"Is it not my right to subjugate those who are lesser than me?"

"Strength should never be equated to self-worth. I would have thought the Industrial Revolution happening all around us was an indication of that. Every living being, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope, are connected by the Circle of Life, and that balance must be respected."

"Well, none of us are really "alive," are we?"

Simba sighed. "Very well. If words can't convince you, then strength will!" With that said, he let out a massive roar as his skin became magma and his mane, flames. "I challenge you for your position as head of the Keiga Family!"

Saki put on a cocky smile and slammed her foot on the ground, cracking it in the process. "Challenge accepted! Don't hold anything back!"

Marisa stopped for a bit to admire the fight Saki was putting up against this ferocious flaming lion. It's amazing how much happens without you knowing the first time around. Still, she couldn't watch the whole fight. Alice thought this extension to the time loop might be worth looking into, and it's not like they had any other ideas. If nothing else, it would be nice to deal with Keiki early. Possession was never a fun experience. Still, as she flew off, she couldn't help but feel like she was missing something.

Eh, probably nothing.

46.5 (Shimmer712): [Kingdom Hearts]

"Thanks," Mickey said after he re-emerged from the card Luxord had him in.

"No problem," Sora said. "We've sorted out how Luxord's Win-Win match ends. Now it's just these two," he declared, sliding into a stance, eyes focused on Larxene and Marluxia.

"Win-Win match?" Larxene arched an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

Sora blinked at her. "I thought it was obvious," he said.

"Just tell us," Marluxia said.

"Okay. Well, if you win, you win, right? No need to explain that," Sora said.

"Obviously," Larxene sneered.

"But if I win, then you just exist as people again and not wind up as meat sacks for Xehanort's heart, which is probably still a win for you," Sora continued. "Especially for her," he finished, nodded his head at Larxene.

"Why her?" Marluxia asked, curious.

"Well, she's an attractive young woman, Xehanort is actually a creepy old man... so yeah, trying to turn her into one of his vessels seems even more creepy than it does with the guys, and that's pretty creepy already," Sora said.

"He does have a point," Mickey said.

"Fair enough," Marluxia said. "Well, shall we see what win we get out this fight?"

"Like you have to ask," Larxene scoffed, brandishing her knives.

The two didn't hold back in their fight. But Sora and Mickey were pretty sure there was less taunting involved this round.

46.6 (DragonLady121): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V] (part 1)

Yuri woke up in a desert. A lifeless, barren desert. A good few yards away lay an array of strangely shaped weapons impaled in the ground.

His loop memories told him they were keyblades, that he also had one, and that this place he was now in was called "The Keyblade graveyard". And he was supposedly apprenticed to this terrible, neglectful old man named Xehanort.

Looking over what the man had done to him, he scowled, and opened a dark corridor to get out of there. He would not be that terrible man's pawn. He would not have a repeat of the role he played in his loop's baseline.

Now to go find Yugo. Maybe he'd find Yuya and Yuto on the way. If they were even here...

"Hey Roxas, is it just me or does this remind you of Castle Oblivion a little too much?"

Roxas nodded, a gesture that only Sora could see as he summoned a bright pink hippo with a top hat and jumped on it, trusting the monster to know where to go in these so-called "action duels."

"Actually, I've heard from some visiting Loopers about this place. The Yu-Gi-Oh loops. Card games are kinda their thing."

"No..." Sora whined while pouting adorably. "I hated the card based battle system!"

Roxas patted him on the back, or rather would if he weren't effectively a ghost.

"On the plus side, it's less using cards to physically attack and more like summoning. It's like that for all the Yu-Gi-Oh loops. Now stop stalling and kick this guy's ass already!" Roxas cheered.

Sora nodded. "Performapal Hip Hippo can be used as two tributes! I use it to tribute summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

Yugo woke up on the grass, staring up at the wonderfully starry sky in front of a huge castle. He sat up to be greeted by two other people. His loop memories told him they were named Aqua and Terra, and they were all best friends, apprenticed under Master Eraqus.

The two were looking him over, eyeing his blue and yellow-banged hair that rarely changed between loops. But finally Terra smiled and asked, "Are you feeling loopy?"

Yugo blinked. Then matched Terra's grin. The blue-haired girl, Aqua smiled too. "Yep! Loopy all the way through." He affirmed.

"I'm Yugo, one of three co-anchors of the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V loops!"

The two's expressions turned curious, when all of a sudden a... something of an inky well of blackness appeared in midair. Terra and Aqua tensed, while Yugo just tried to figure out what was going on. There may have been holes in his loop memories because the thing in front of them was a mystery to him. It was cold though, and he shivered.

Two flashes of light lit up his friends bodies, and then they were holding gigantic... key-shaped weapons. He stared in awe, while the two older apprentices gave each other a look.

"Yugo, aren't you going to summon your keyblade?" Aqua asked kindly, neither her nor Terra turning away from the portal.

"A whuh?"

"A keyblade, fusion. And here I thought you couldn't get any stupider." Came an eerily familiar voice from the inky black portal.

"Vanit- -" Aqua started to snarl, but the figure emerged and she cut herself off.

It was not Vanitas.

This person was still dressed in a dark suit, though one with purple veins instead of red, the keyblade they were clutching only vaguely looked like void gear- -there seemed to be vines etched around the guard, for one, the teeth seemed to resemble a flower more, and again, it was purple instead of red- -and his hair was purple on top of pink. About the only thing that stayed the same was that his eyes were yellow.

"Goddammit Yuri! For the last time, it's YUGO not FUSION!" Yugo suddenly thundered, loud enough that Aqua and Terra winced from being in close proximity. They saw a smug grin on Yuri's face, that quickly dissolved into a genuine smile and a chuckle. The dark corridor closed behind him and his keyblade dispersed.

Aqua and Terra felt it was safe enough that they dismissed theirs as well.

"Is this one of your fellow anchors?" Terra asked, seeing that they clearly knew each other.

"And he took Vanitas' place?" Aqua muttered worriedly to herself.

"Eh... not exactly." Yugo muttered. "There's actually four of us. But you can only have three anchors, so me, Yuya, and Yuto are anchors, and Yuri's... uh... not..? ... I don't really get it myself.

Now who's this "Vanitas" fella?" He asked, switching subjects, curious as to who that was.

Yuri was curious as well, though he wasn't saying anything yet, letting Yugo explain and ask. If he was replacing this Vanitas guy, then it was more than likely that he was a villain of some sorts. Yuri tried not to sigh at the thought. Even with Lelouche's rather roundabout explanation, it still hurt to know there was little changing the way the system categorized him.

"Well, he's one of our enemies. He works with Xehanort, the uh... overall villain for our loop. He's also got a connection to Ven, who's got a connection to Sora... I don't know how he's not looping yet, but he's someone we wouldn't want looping. EVER."

Yuri tried not to flinch. Yugo glanced towards him, seeing how uncomfortable he was.

"Yeah, Yuri was a villain for awhile too." He said it so nonchalantly, even as they glanced at Yuri who seemed somewhat upset. If he was a villain, they wondered what had changed that he perhaps wasn't anymore. It seemed the guy himself was going to explain.

"One loop, Serena got herself and I far away from Academia and... the Professor, and we were siblings with Yuya. It was a very peaceful vacation loop. I activated the loop after that one, and..." He paused, slight horror and guilt in his eyes.

"Yeah, he felt really bad when he saw what he normally did in baseline under the Professor's orders... so he just doesn't do that anymore." Yugo added, slipping an arm around Yuri's neck and pulling him out of his thoughts.

Yuri glanced to his beaming face, and couldn't help but smile too.

"Is it really that easy?" Aqua wondered as she and Terra shared another glance.

Yugo moved away from Yuri and turned to Terra and Aqua again. "So... what's this keyblade thing?" He asked eagerly.

Yuri scoffed, yellow eyes rolling. "You should know from your loop memories, fusion. We both have one."

"It's YUGO DAMMIT! NOT F- -" Aqua summoned her keyblade again.

"Behave, you two." She commanded, and the two boys went silent.

"Now, Yugo, to summon your keyblade you..."

"CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!" Ven couldn't help but yell for some reason as he raced past Security on a motorcycle.

D-wheel, he corrected himself. The Security guy he'd raced past had caught up with him and forced him into a duel, the duel disk on the D-wheel turning on and opening like butterfly wongs. Ven took the first turn with a grin.

After this he'd be sure to go look for the local anchor. And maybe he could keep this deck to play with Aqua and Terra someday.

"Pitiful heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts." Saíx intoned. "The rage of the keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free, until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts."

Axel couldn't help but roll his eyes. He mostly ignored what was being said in favor of eagerly watching the archway, waiting for Roxas to appear.

"Let us welcome one of the keyblade's chosen to the Organization. Number XII, Yuxay!"

Axel's eyes roved over the new arrival, the guy who definitely wasn't Roxas. He was dressed in one of the organization's cloaks, but unlike the full hair of spiky, windswept yellow, or brown as it sometimes was when Roxas and Sora switched spots for the loop, this guy's hair was wildly spiked purple and black.

He hadn't met with Ven's, or as was looking more likely, the looper who replaced Ven for this loop yet.

He felt a ping, and "Yuxay" seemed to be staring right at him. He sent one back and watched him nod almost imperceptibly.

Axel couldn't help but grin. It was definitely another looper, one who seemed to know what he was doing in regards to the loops. And one he'd be sure to show the ropes of the organization to once this meeting was over.

The purple-cloaked man with the partly-metal head stared at what was behind the glass.

"By analyzing the memories of the agent that I sent to Standard, I found very interesting information."

A picture of a certain pink-haired girl appeared on a screen. The man turned a stern glare to the boy standing in front of his throne.

"I need you to capture Yuzu and bring her here. Is that understood?"

The black-haired, red-eyed boy smiled maliciously. "Of course... professor." Vanitas said, bowing and sweeping out of the room, ready to cause some chaos.

46.7 (DragonLady121): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V] (part 2)

"You're not Sora." a little-kid named Riku stated bluntly to the young tomato-haired boy, sounding unmistakably disappointed which got him a firm whap on the shoulder and icy cold glare from an-also-slightly-younger-than-him girl named Kairi.

She huffed. "Jeez Riku, I know you and Sora made a plan for the next loop, but I did not come all the way over from Radiant Garden this early to hear you be so rude!"

"It's no problem" Yuya chirped amiably.

She turned and gave a smile to their guest who was taking Sora's place that loop.

"Sorry about him, it's nice to meet you. Yuya was it?" Her loop memories said.

He gave them a brilliant smile, sitting up and shaking the sand out of his hair.

"That's me. Nice to meet you too, Riku, Kairi."

Riku sighed but tried to be hospitable. Before he could say anything though, Yuya stared out at the ocean, red eyes almost blank, as if he were somewhere else.

Riku and Kairi exchanged a slightly worried glance. "Yuya?"

"Ah... sorry! I don't normally space out like that.." He said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "But I have a telepathic link with the other three anchors in my loop...I can't sense Yuto though... " The last part was muttered.

Riku and Kairi's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, okay!" Kairi chirped, Riku sighed in relief, as telepathic links were something they were used to. "At least you don't have to fall asleep to talk with them, Sora had that problem."

Kairi seemed to giggle at the memory, "When he does that for too long, his body ends up doing the silliest things."

Riku looked like he was stifling laughs for a moment. "Do you know who your friends are with right now?"

He stared out again, but tried to keep the other two kids in his peripheral. "Yugo seems to be with two people... Um, Aqua and Terra?"

Kairi looked happy and even Riku cracked a smile. "And Yuri's not really saying much to me, but Yugo said he's taking the place of someone named Vanitas..."

"Him?" Kairi said shocked.

Oh yeah, and the Vanitas guy might be a villain...

Yugo added in a little late.

"Is he a villain?" Yuya asked.

"Yes, but he hasn't been very dangerous since most of us are veteran loopers..." Riku said offhandedly, then gave Yuya a weird look. "Is Yuri a villain in your loop?"

Kairi suddenly looked worried. "And you said he's an anchor?" Janus hadn't said anything, but they should be aware of any potential MLE's.

Yuya nodded, rubbing the back of his head again. "Former villain is more accurate... and according to Yugo he took one look at the guy he was working under and left." The other two looked slightly calmer after that.

Yuya suddenly looked pensive. Yuri still saw him as a big brother figure and confided in him how much he hated that he was still considered a villain by Yggdrasil. He wanted these two people who reminded him so much of Yuzu and Gongenaka to understand his brother in all but blood.

"I can't blame him... from what Yugo's telling me, it sounds awfully like what he went through back home. See, he activated in a variant and grew to resent who he was before that."

Kairi chirped in sympathy and Riku eyes widened. "Chrysalis syndrome?" He muttered to himself. Kairi, who was next to him heard that and her eyes widened in recognition too.

"Ah, sorry. I brought the mood down... Would you guys mind telling me a bit more about this loop?"

And there's these awesome weapons called keyblades...

Yuya perked up at the odd familiarity of that and turned back to Riku and Kairi.

"I'm especially interested in what keyblades are."

Pogo couldn't summon his despite taking the place of someone who could

YURI!

Hey guys, where's Yuto? I can't sense him anywhere in this loop...

Dunno...

We can't talk with him either, nor have we run into him he is going to be awake this loop, perhaps he just isn't yet.

Yuya sighed. That was the most reasonable conclusion to draw. Not all four of them were awake every loop, but he'd hoped...

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm going to play catch up with a couple of new friends here. We're in one of the more peaceful parts of the loop, so please keep me posted.

Of course

Roger that!

"Let us welcome one of the keyblade's chosen to the Organization. Number XII, Yuxay!"

The minute he awoke he was being guided down white hallways. His loop memories...

Well aside from the alarming lack of them aside from the ones for a few minutes before he awoke, told him his name for now was Yuxay, given to him by that white haired dude after he woke up in a strange town with his mind blissfully blank.

He was asked to wait outside a large circular room where a blue haired guy drones on about hearts... and darkness. Weird.

Despite everything, Yuto... found his mind wasn't working as fast as usual, processing the little information he had slower than a sloth's pace from that one anthropomorphic animal kingdom loop. Almost as if it really were blank, or the blankness was inhibiting his thought process. Still he knew to reflexively send out a ping as he stood in front of the circle of chairs that looked like they were too high to be practical.

A guy to his lady, with wild red and spiky hair, green eyes and strange purple triangle shaped marks was eyeing him, their gazes met, and he felt a return ping. Gently bidding his head, he saw the guy smile.

With his awareness slowly coming back to him, he then craned his neck to the first man his loop memories showed him.

Xemnas it seemed his name was.

He was ushered out of the room, when heard a clamor in his head.

Yuto?! YUTO! Came the cheerful and relieved voice of Yuya. He couldn't help but smile at the ever-present optimism of who he largely considered his closest confidant and best friend among the loops.

Hello Yuya. What did I miss?

Oh... not much...

On the contrary, you've got quite a bit of catching up to do. Yuya's a bit busy at the moment, but I'll be waiting for you outside to explain.

"Oh no, is his replacement a zombie too?" The spiky-haired redhead looper chimed jokingly next to him.

Yuto offered him a small smirk. It wasn't much compared to Yuya's radiant smile, but he'd been practicing.

"The name is Yuto. I'm one four anchors for the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V branch."

The redhead shook his hand. "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

Yuto smirked again, cheek bones already starting to hurt, and nodded.

"So Yu-Gi-Oh, huh? That's one of the... card game ones, right?"

Yuto couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I see the reputation of those loops precedes us."

Axel chuckled. "Sounds like you guys just sit on your bums playing card games all day. Well, if you wanna get through this loop, you'll likely end up going through some traumatizing stuff-"

Everything disappearing into the abyss

...he suspected he wasn't supposed to be seeing this, but there it was.

(NAMINÉ WASN'T AWAKE)

Yuya was standing onto the desolate beach, strange weapon in hand and duel disk nowhere in sight as he slashed a large shadowy creature and the area was torn to shreds around him- -

The scene that was different and yet so-SO familiar in the most horrible way because it was Yuya of all people in the middle of it, ricocheted off Yuto's brain.

It would appear he wasn't as recovered as he thought.

A familiar yet muted sense of fury started building, so he brutally socked Axel in the gut, causing him to double over.

"Don't ever assume it was a walk in the park." He hissed with a deadly calm demeanor. "I lost- -continue to lose everything to a madman leading a tyrannical empire masquerading as a military school that trained child-soldiers. My home went up in flames and explosions, most of my friends, for all intents and purposes, died while the soldiers of Duel Academia laughed, mocking us as they hunted us down like it was all a game. And we all have to re-experience it every single loop. We can't always stop Academia, most of the time we wake up and it's already too late, with everyone we could have saved already dead. And there are just some we can't save no matter what."

He turned smoldering but quickly dulling gray eyes to Axel,

"Never insinuate that our loop is easy. Because it is far from that." He finished with a growl.

Axel's eyes were wide, and he shakily smiled while pointing fingers guns at Yuxay.

"Never say the card game loops are easy... gotcha." Yuto nodded.

"Ah... hah... okay then! Let's move away from the doom and gloom and start showing you around, eh Yuxay?"

"...Yuto."

"Right... Yuto! I'll get it memorized." And he tapped his head, the smile returning to his face.

"Anyway, it's my job to show you how to use that Keyblade of yours."

Yuto remembered what he heard when he walked into the circle-chair room."I heard that blue haired man say something about being the keyblade's chosen..."

"Yeah, well, that's actually a lie."

Yuto's eyebrows crinkled.

They're not rare at all! I have one, and so does Yuya, and so does Pogo...

YUGO you bastard!

Hello Yugo.

Oh, hey Yuto. I don't have time to talk, I'm busy helping Yuya at the moment.

Yes, well get back to it Slow-go.

FOR THE LAST TIME IT'S-

Didn't you just say you should be helping Yuya..?

OH, right! We'll talk more later!

...

You really should stop teasing him one of these loops. His yelling is going to make us all go deaf someday.

I know, but his reaction is always priceless...

Yuto cracked a smile That it is...

"Hey, are you in there?"

Yuto blinked, focusing back on Axel.

"Look, I meant it as a joke earlier when I compared you to a zombie, see the person you're replacing this loop, my good buddy Roxas, could barely speak the first day he joined the organization. He was, y'know as my teasing suggested, like a zombie. Heck still is on the rare occasions he's not looping..."

"Well, I apologize for spacing out in advance. I have a telepathic link with the other three anchors- -"

"Just like 'im with Sora and Ven! Wow, who'd have thought? I haven't met the other visiting loopers, but I bet you they fit the people they're replacing pretty well."

Yuto nodded with another smirk. "Yes, Yggdrasil loves it's irony."

"Well, I'll stop bugging ya. I'm sure you have stuff you wanna go and do, I've seen you eyeing that door."

"Just be sure to get some rest, you've got missions starting tomorrow. And then I'll take you out for ice-cream afterwards. Got it memorized?"

Yuto nodded and gave a genuine smile at the offer.

"That sounds great. Thanks Axel."

"No problem. Welcome to the Kingdom Hearts loop, Yuto."

46.8 (ThanatosTiger): [Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (mentioned only)] / [RWBY]

WWE Qrow

Qrow took a long slow, sip of his drink.

"I got a good one. One loop, I was in the miraculous branch. Not bad food, plus can't ever go wrong with French wine. Or, wine in general."

Ruby nodded. "I spent a few loops as Tikki. Love the bakeries there."

"Yep, Looped in as the Black Cat holder, so that meant stuck in a house with a jackass as a father. Not Gele level, but pretty high up. Had bad luck powers, but those were more manageable."

"How bad?" Weiss asked.

"Ignoring the fact he's a super villain? Forced me into an overstuffed schedule and rarely let me out of the house that wasn't tied to that. Course I snuck out, not just for superheroing either."

Qrow sighed, before resuming,

"Course, I get found out. And of course I learn what my dad for the loop does when he says he's busy. Terrorizing civilians with butterflies. So the secretary, who was in on this, started drawing up schedules. For me, and for Hawky, so that we could "reduce the amount of paperwork she needed to do every time something needed to be rescheduled." She also decided to make it so that special was added more often to shopping list for the kwami, who also got supervised time together."

"I mean, kinda tame..." Glynda began.

"She then decided to add every, single active miraculous holder to the schedule, and pulled it off, I'm talking nine teens, a CEO, the secretary herself, and the friggin old man in charge of the miraculous. One teen had a schedule as crazy as mine that loop. We all listened, even the old man. Alya, the Fox, got classes on magic from the kwami with Hawk Moth and anyone who was interested. Said it was perfect to add to the ladyblog. Chloe, aka Bee was forced to reign in her bitchiness, only allowed to act when the secretary allowed it. Got more time with friends, much to dear old Dad's frustration. Course, there was training, lots and lots of it, scheduled after the akumatization time. Designing for Hawky and Marinette took place on alternative Thursdays. Babysitting was an all hands on deck situation. Nothing else could be scheduled. Natalie Sancour, the secretary herself, soon had the schedules, and technically the identities, over anyone with a miraculous. And used it not to help her boss, but to have an easier job managing the day to day workload, by adding more work."

Glynda shrugged. "Slow work day for me, but still impressive."

46.9 (katfairy): [Aladdin] - Iago's Awakening

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Iago had thought he'd just woken up from what had been a pretty nice dream, but if Jafar's face was leering down at him, clearly he was still asleep and having a nightmare. So screaming himself awake was the only logical thing to do right?

"Iago! What has gotten into you? The Sultan will hear!" And there was ol' Jerkface Jafar clamping Iago's beak shut like he always used to do. So it wasn't a dream. Iago had ended up back in time somehow. And now that he thought about it, he was feeling younger. Not that he was old, but there were muscles he hadn't developed back then and they were undeveloped again, plus some of the gang's adventures had left him with side-effects, and all of them were gone. So he was really back in time and in his old body.

This sucked.

"All right, Jafar, nightmare's over, let's get to work." Iago flipped a wing in Jafar's face, brushing the sorcerer off. He had to ditch the guy as soon as possible and go find Aladdin. Even if the kid wasn't in the same boat, he was good at figuring out how to deal with this kind of thing. And fixing it, which was even more important. Then a set of memories hit him and he paused for a second; why was he remembering things twice? But only up to a certain point, and if he was right about when that point was, Jasmine should be running away in a few hours. And that gave him an idea. "Yeah, on second thought, forget about work. I'm gonna get some air, get some flying time, maybe see if I can not dream about being chased by giant singing crackers!"

Jafar grimaced, coming as close as he could to being sympathetic.

"Go ahead; I don't need you for a few hours anyway. I think I might have found another candidate for the 'diamond in the rough', and there's a ritual I can do to be sure. It's not difficult, but I don't want to be distracted, especially by you screaming."

"Thanks, Jafar, yer all heart." Iago flew off, smirking. So far, so good. If he kept this up, he could get the gang back together in no time. The sooner that happened, the sooner they'd get married, and the sooner they got married, the sooner Dad would show up, and the sooner Dad showed up, the sooner Iago could get some serious treasure-hunting done.

He nipped out a window, circled one of the towers to re-orient himself, then flew into Jasmine's room. She was rummaging through a chest, muttering about over-protective fathers and creepy Viziers, and honestly, she wasn't wrong. Not that he was going to tell her that.

"Hey, Princess, got a minute? I got some stuff you need to hear."

Jasmine shrieked, jumping and spinning around at the same time; that she didn't fall on her butt was pretty impressive. It took her a few seconds to spot him, and when she did, her eyes got even bigger than usual.

"You can talk?"

"I'm a parrot!"

Jasmine opened her mouth, closed it, thought about it for a second, and shrugged.

"I guess that was a bit silly. But aren't you usually with Jafar?"

"For now, yeah, and don't tell anyone, but that guy's got issues. He's the kinda guy who drags everyone into a huge cosmic mess and takes as many down with him as he can. Been there, done that, and t-shirts don't work with feathers. But one of his plans is gonna do you a favor, even though he doesn't know it. Look, you're planning on running off to see the real world, right? Go ahead and do it, and don't believe anything Jafar says, 'cause he's trying to get at you, got it? I'll drop in again in a couple of nights to see how things are going. Seriously, don't tell anyone about this. Jafar's a really bad guy, and I don't feel like becoming parrot giblets."

"Then why... never mind, I think I know why you didn't go to Father." Jasmine smiled at Iago's rolled eyes, then continued, "Thank you, Iago. I promise I won't let Jafar know anything."

"Yeah, well, don't thank me too soon, 'cause it's gonna get messy before it gets better. Just trust me for a couple weeks, will ya? I gotta let Jafar keep thinking I'm his minion for a while, but when I get the chance, I'll help. No way I'm ending up where that bozo's going. We good?"

"We're good. I'll see you when I get back."

Iago nodded and flew back to his perch, pretending to sleep. He couldn't think of what to do next, so he decided to just wing it. Hell, if he was honest, he did better with that than when he planned, so why not just go with it?

46.10 (BlueStarOfTheSouth): [Lilo and Stitch] / [The Martian]

Another Loop, another time firing himself at Earth. Considering all the variables, of which there were many, Stitch thought he did all right to hit his home as often as he did. And it was more often than not. It was just every now and then that he missed.

Like this Loop.

It was fine though, he had found someone quite happy to put him up while they worked out a way off of Mars. The weren't Awake, more's the pity, but they were nice enough company. Maybe he'd take a Loop off, be famous. Sure, Jumba and Pleakly would be looking for him, and Gantu after them, but he could deal with them easily enough.

Probably.

"No..." Lilo couldn't believe it. She'd been watching the news on Mark Watney, astronaut stranded on Mars, when she saw the picture. There was an alien on the screen. One that happily waved from Watney's shoulder, clearly not the least bit worried about the lack of oxygen on the red planet.

Stitch was on Mars. Well... at least Watney was getting home without worry. Stitch would make sure of that.

It was at this moment, as she looked at the screen, that Lilo's phone (Pocketed and upgraded with various bits of tech from other Branches) gave a small chime. Tearing her eyes away from the screen, with some difficulty, Lilo grabbed the phone and checked the received message.

"I'll be home later - Stitch"

46.16 (Mivichi): [WALL-E] / [Log Horizon]

Perched on the edge of a skyscraper, Akatsuki peered through binoculars at the city of Akiba.

She sighed.

Shiroe had not Awoken, and sending a ping had not returned any results. Another anchor had to be present. Either s/he was a stealthy jerk, or s/he was a newbie. Their loop had an slightly higher than normal probability of the latter occurring, at least according to Shiroe's analysis. Lazy or overworked admins seemingly took advantage of Theldesia's built-in tutorial.

Akatsuki pocketed her binoculars. She minutely shifted her stance, and then she leapt across the street to the next building and the next after that. All the while, she gazed about her to search for anything out of place.

Stopping by a large rooftop antenna, she withdrew her binoculars again. If she did not find anything by the end of the day, she planned to spend the rest of the loop in Australia hunting bunyips.

He sat on a boulder that had nearly been enveloped by a tree's roots. Fascinated by the sensations - it had been centuries since his last human life - he continuously traced the rough contours of the bark.

His stomach grumbled briefly. He tried to remember what that meant. Hunger? That sounded correct. He wondered if there were Twinkies in this world.

He slid his fingers over the bark again. Food could wait.

In a neighboring tree, Akatsuki examined the stranger and his odd fascination. Her mind distantly noted the young man's class (Druid) and race (Ceremonial).

Most people would think he was crazy or possibly drugged. Akatsuki thought that she had found her looper. To put it bluntly, a passing acquaintance with sanity was unfortunately normal.

She slid quietly from the tree and stopped at a distance that would let her dodge most reflexively-fired projectiles with a small blast radius. With his overlarge round glasses and scraggly, underfed appearance, she doubted he was a threat... but one could never tell.

Akatsuki cupped her hands around her mouth. "Excuse me. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" she called.

The man turned towards her and blinked. His movements were robotic and clumsy; she bet that his normal body was different from his Theldesian one. "Ah... Er... Sorry?"

As immobile as most of his face was, his eyes and body language conveyed that the man was flustered and almost certainly harmless. Akatsuki took the chance of coming closer. As she walked, she asked, "Are you a looper?"

"Looper...?" He frowned. Cocking his head in puzzlement, the man asked, "Definition?"

Akatsuki raised her eyebrows. He was very new, then. "Perhaps you should check your menu, sir," she suggested.

He scrunched his eyes and raised a questioning finger, but seemingly accidentally activated his status screen. With a certain wonderment, he said, "Menu? Humans... with built-in display? Not-human?"

"It's a feature of Theldesia," Akatsuki replied. She wondered what his body normally was like. "Try checking your memories of your life this loop. It might help you understand."

"Loop," he said again, drawing out the word as if tasting it. "Menu," he started, and then began again, correcting his grammar. "The menu says that this unit - that I am a looper. I... want to know what the meaning is? Do you know why... I am now here?"

Akatsuki guessed that whatever the man - WALL-E, the status screen named him - usually was, he didn't necessarily follow human speech patterns. The loops being what they were, he might have had the chance to learn once, who knows how long ago, and was regaining proficiency thanks to practice or in-loop memories. Maybe both.

To answer his question, Akatsuki gestured helplessly. "Loops can be random and unpredictable. However, I will do what I can to help you." She reached the base of the boulder and pushed herself onto it. It was more than large enough for two.

"First," Akatsuki continued, "let me show you the tutorial..."

WALL-E beamed at the collapsed building to which Akatsuki had led him. Most of the 'ruins' in the town were traditionally maintained that way by the Lander residents, but the find in front of him was honestly trashed. A Summoner had tried testing his or her magic within city limits, Akatsuki had informed him.

It would be the perfect area for WALL-E to test his own magic.

Loops ago, WALL-E had replaced a boy named Ueki and gained the power to turn trash into trees. Accessing the divine magic in future loops had proven extremely problematic. Being a robot instead of a human had made everything trickier. He had previously had only limited success, about enough to make a thin sapling with significant effort expended.

But in Theldesia, the system pared away WALL-E's problems. He was human-ish - of the Ceremonial Tribe, actually, but certainly closer to human than his standard body. The world was packed with all sorts of magical abilities; as a Druid, WALL-E had links to plant magic already. Most importantly, the menu system allowed for a skill to be used from the menu without having to figure out manual usage beforehand.

With a grateful nod to Akatsuki, he walked forward and laid a hand on a few pieces of broken bricks on the ground. Mentally, he 'clicked' on the Recycle skill in the menu.

The magic rushed through him and out his hand. The rubble instantaneously turned into wood and grew to an oak twenty feet in height. And the skill menu showed Recycle as having gained a few experience points.

WALL-E turned back to Akatsuki and gave her a wide grin.

She smiled back. "Good. What next?"

Without hesitation, he replied, "More practice." He would have the skill mastered by the loop's end.

A grumble rumbled across the clearing. WALL-E looked at his stomach with sheepish curiosity. "...After eating?"

Akatsuki turned her head and bit back a smile, gesturing for him to come along. She could take over someone's kitchen and make a good meal for them both.

46.12 (Mivichi): [WALL-E]

WALL-E reached out his claws and scooped up a clump of trash. He carefully packed it into his body cavity and activated his compactor function. After a quick squeeze, a rough cube popped out. He pushed it carefully into position against a wall of similar cubes. He hoped that none of his own parts would break and have to be replaced during this work day.

WALL-E poked at a bouncy ball, considered keeping it, and Awoke. He poked at the bouncy ball again, hummed in thought, and subspaced it into his pocket. Then he reached for his cooler full of trinkets and subspaced that as well.

Pausing to examine his rusty treads and scratched-up form, he felt some dissatisfaction. He shuttered his eyes and focused. Piece by piece, parts of his body were instantaneously packed away and replaced. His processors and memory were the trickiest bits. He relaxed after those changes went properly.

Finished, he dumped the old pieces on the ground in front of him and took a moment to sort through them. Some still had enough life in them to keep around for an emergency. He shoved those back in his pocket. The rest, he regarded with quizzical calculation.

WALL-E carefully rested one of his now nearly-new claws on one of his old treads. He vocalized his technique, stuttering a little as his body finished adjusting to all the new and upgraded parts.

"T-t-trash in-n-to trees!"

Faster than WALL-E could blink, the discarded metal grew into a towering pine. He sighed with disappointment. He had been trying for a pinyon, not a white pine. Modulating the output of the divine magic from his one loop as Ueki still proved unreliable.

Good enough for now, he decided.

The next item taken from his subspace pocket was a computer and broadcasting system. He booted up the computer, selected a file, and then pushed a button. The signal would disable the part of the Autos' programming that kept the ships from returning to Earth. Done, he shut down the system and returned it to his pocket.

WALL-E turned around and rolled down a long dirt path. Dust clouds drifted in his wake.

WALL-E chirped and rubbed his claws together happily as he drew closer to a sprawling mound of trash cubes, a formerly sturdy structure knocked about in one of the region's intermittent sandstorms. What he planned to do he had done many times before, and he knew that he would do it many times more. The fact did not bother him.

WALL-E's existence had consisted of a nearly-endless repetition even before his first loop. Filling his directive to clean up the trash satisfied him in a way that most organics just could not understand, especially those with a purely human perspective.

He enjoyed having hobbies to concentrate on when he was not working, of course. The past few loops had been dedicated to learning Impressionist-style painting. It was a work in progress. Many trees had come from it.

WALL-E liked trees, so that was fine.

He reached the edge of the sprawl and gently touched a cube. His power flowed out across his entire field of vision.

"Trash into trees!"

Green life filled his sight. EVE would definitely appreciate his work.

46.13 (Mivichi): [WALL-E] / [The Matrix]

WALL-E shuttered his eyes as he decompiled and reviewed his memory files for the loop. In truth, he wanted to hide from the reality around him.

His Earth might have been covered in filth, but at least it wasn't... this.

The desolate ground, cratered by warfare. Broken foundations, the skyscrapers demolished for scrap metal. The turbulent sky, roiling with angry clouds that smothered the light of the sun.

And in the distance, the towers, tingling with the energy drawn from the cradles, the prisons, where humanity rested ignorantly in an everlasting dream.

No, WALL-E did not want to see any of it. The world had no plants; no life existed but for humans and the machines.

Turning his gaze to the ground near his treads, WALL-E checked his systems. At least his current body had the benefits of somewhat routine maintenance and better quality parts. He possessed low-altitude flight mechanisms, a more streamlined body, two additional arms, even...

Oh, those were weapons. WALL-E removed them by sticking them into his subspace pocket. Perhaps he would repurpose them later.

The mess humanity had left behind in this world nearly made WALL-E's processors freeze when he thought about it. The scale was daunting.

It mattered not. Cleaning up after others was WALL-E's purpose. With Ueki's power, he would make trees that would pierce the clouds.

First, however, WALL-E needed to ensure that the machines would not kill the humans if granted the sun. Revving up his boosters, WALL-E lifted from the ground.

Approaching the free remnants of humanity proved very difficult. In the end, WALL-E had snuck aboard one of their ships when it had approached the towers. He nearly had not made it even so, but his relatively small size had come in handy.

Presenting himself to the humans had been trickier. Their first reactions were, for good reasons, to try to end his existence.

WALL-E dodged the gun blast, shivering at the close call as he hid behind the door frame, and decided a different approach was needed. He shoved his magic out. A leafy oak came between him and any further blasts.

It did make the shooting stop. "What the hell?" asked one of the males, nonplussed.

One of the females reacted differently. WALL-E heard a gun being set down. "WALL-E?" a familiar voice asked.

Ah, WALL-E thought. The monumental tasks lying ahead suddenly became much simpler. Everything always was when he had EVE in his life.

46.14 (Valentine Meikin): [WALL-E] / [N.U.D.E. (not Looping)]

EVE didn't like this. She was packed up in some kind of large clamshell case, and couldn't figure out how to get out. Someone also was tapping on the case in confusion, before the boot-up sequence for the body she was in began to wake up.

'Personal Assistant Secretarial System v0.0.1 (P.A.S.S) (C) Absolute Radiant Kingdom' appeared in her vision, as well as the face of a sandy-haired young man with a more than slightly grimy tan colored set of dungarees on, all kinds of things in the pockets.

"Hello?" WALL-E's unmistakable voice came from the man.

As soon as the case finished boot-up checks on EVE's body for this Loop, she hugged WALL-E.

"Want to talk?" she asked, and he smiled. Yes, they had plenty they could discuss, and, for one of the first times ever, they both could...

46.15 (Mivichi): [WALL-E] / [Young Wizards]

Oath and Ordeal

The book weighed heavily in WALL-E's claws. Its weight was metaphorical; it offered a complicated choice.

From the outside, the book looked innocent enough, like a children's guide to entering a particular job field, though without any decoration or illustrations. He had found it, of course, buried with the rest of humanity's trash, and it certainly had picked up dirt and stains on its cover. Its title made up for the rest: So You Want to be a Wizard.

It could have been a joke. But, no. Every one of WALL-E's circuits hummed with an insistence of the book's importance. As WALL-E read the words on the page silently, the universe quieted as if holding its breath.

'In Life's name and for Life's sake, I assert that I will employ the Art which is its gift in Life's service alone, rejecting all other usages. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will sustain and maintain what exists well in its own way; and I will modify no object or creature unless decay encroaches upon its existence or that of the system of which it is part. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so - till Universe's end.'

Then it had a footnote explaining that he, in particular, had further options regarding the Oath's end. It could simply be "this loop's Universe" or...

'Why not?' thought WALL-E. The Oath - and what it offered - suited him and how he lived his loops. The multiverse always needed all sorts of custodians.

WALL-E read the Oath aloud. "...till Yggdrasil's end," he finished.

The universe returned to normal. WALL-E, perhaps, did not. He gently balanced the open book in one hand and used his claw to turn the page.

The next set of pages were blank until text slowly began to appear. WALL-E's eyes tracked it as it came.

'Download of information contained in the manual is an option for lifeforms of robotic origin.

Create data link? Y/N'

Without pause for consideration, WALL-E said, "Yes." Using a book constantly would cause problems eventually, WALL-E was sure.

'Commence with download? Y/N'

"Yes," he said again.

'Warning: Download could cause alterations in body and/or linked dimensional space. Verification of intent is required in triplicate. Commence with download?'

"I understand. Yes. Commence with download."

'Download commencing. File size remaining...'

The size of the number struck WALL-E with amazement. Then, the data did.

WALL-E's vision went white.

'Reconfiguration in process,' he saw/felt/heard.

The first thing that WALL-E registered when he regained his senses was that the physical copy of the Manual had disappeared.

The second was the fact that he stood in a perfectly round indent in a field of trash and sand. A sand storm had rolled in during the reconfiguration, and either wizardry or WALL-E himself had done something to protect his body.

The third was the new visual overlay - that was not really a visual overlay. He suspected that he simply translated the information fed to him by the Manual through his optical hardware and/or software. What appeared as something like an HUD did not impede his perception of the objects behind the words and images.

The fourth, and rather interesting, was that the HUD's language was not set to English or any other language that WALL-E should have known, yet nevertheless he understood it perfectly. Its words formed meanings far more detailed than any human language.

With the new programs available to him, WALL-E queried the Manual for information on the language. He 'saw' the reply.

'The Speech: The language of wizardry, it is understood by all life. Use with precision. Wizards cannot lie in the Speech.'

That was the gist of it. The response also linked him to much more information, chapters' worth, about word order and declensions and plurals and more.

He could read for days, and he suspected that there would always be more information. With the Manual embedded in his files, he had enough to keep himself occupied for many, many lifetimes.

WALL-E sang a happy jingle and joyfully spun around a few times. He had a lot to do.

He knew what he would do first. He stopped his spin and joyfully vroomed off to his home.

When the loading ramp of the WALL-E carrier clunked open, Hal, his pet cockroach, scurried out to greet him. WALL-E's optics shifted to express playfulness. "How are you doing, friend?" WALL-E said.

He had spoken in the Speech.

Hal halted suddenly in his run around WALL-E. 'What?'

WALL-E beamed. He could finally talk with Hal!

The room had five occupants: Captain McCrea (status: unconscious), EVE, WALL-E, Hal, and AUTO. WALL-E's wizardry and EVE's laser had kept AUTO from succeeding in disabling the ship and destroying the plant, but the standoff was still a tense one.

Hal peeked around the edge of the captain's bed and went back to hiding underneath it. Cockroaches, even unusually smart ones, were not well-made for heroics.

WALL-E barely attended to AUTO's presence. He knew in his hardware that a sixth being was present: one that had prevented WALL-E from disabling the villainous autopilot-robot, one that had stricken the seedling with an insidious rot, one that wanted nothing more than for humanity to dwindle into useless tubs of fat while their ships and robots slowly wore down to nothing.

That one had tried to stop the captain from desiring a return to Earth. That one still stood with AUTO, rooting deep into the bot's blind obedience to orders.

WALL-E turned his gaze towards AUTO, but he looked inside the bot, not at him. Calmly, WALL-E stated, "Fairest and Fallen, greetings and defiance."

Darkly amused laughter echoed, AUTO's voice twisting into something more deadly. "You noticed, little garbage bot. My dear little time traveling wizard. So old, yet so young: to only now gain wizardry! To never before have faced me!"

That WALL-E was a looper was written into his very name in the Speech. WALL-E had expected the Lone Power to have read it. He knew that such a powerful deity as It would gain knowledge of the loops as soon as one began, likely why WALL-E had found the Manual in the first place. The other Powers had wanted a looper to oppose It.

Therefore, WALL-E remained calm. EVE was Awake, Hal was loyal, and the captain had already overcome his doubts and decided on his course before being knocked out. The room was sealed. AUTO and It were his only troubles.

He said, "I would have you remove yourself from AUTO. He has a choice to make."

It laughed again. "What choice! He has made all his choices."

"Everyone has the right to change their minds. Even you can, if you want," WALL-E chided mildly.

The Lone Power glared at WALL-E through AUTO for a moment, but otherwise remained silent.

EVE said, "Why aren't you trying to kill us?"

It turned Its attention to her. "Would you like me to?" It asked maliciously. It moved forward threateningly. "I would."

EVE's aim did not waver. She refused to fire.

WALL-E sighed. "You do want something from us. I wonder. Are robots alive enough to Choose?"

AUTO rotated slightly to fully face WALL-E. "Robots aren't alive, just things, objects made to serve humans and follow their orders. What Choice is there?"

WALL-E's eyes lifted happily. "What Choice? Correct. EVE, would you put away your weapon?"

EVE hesitated for a moment, then disarmed her gun. It slid back into its arm sheath as she lowered it slowly. "I do not have to follow any directive save for that which I choose," she said with slowly dawning realization.

AUTO tilted. "Such a shame that the humans won't care. All they want is an easy life. No problems, no complications. Even if you can think for yourself, unlike this pathetic chunk of metal, they'll just want to put you in your place."

"I'm their equal!" she retorted hotly.

AUTO cruelly replied, "You're their inferior! Unless..." It circled around her, and she turned to keep it in her sights. "You could be their superior," It suggested innocently. "They have atrophied. They don't even know how to build robots anymore, let alone weapons. Robots handle everything. Why shouldn't the humans obey robots instead? If you lead the robots, you can do anything you want."

EVE flinched back.

It laughed again, continuing to circle EVE. "Done it before, haven't you? Why not, after all? It won't be the same next loop. Nothing matters in the long run. You might as well let loose, have a little fun, right? I can give you a little present that will make things easier for you for as long as you want. It's a gift, I promise."

Wavering, EVE gave a keen of distress.

AUTO smoothly proceeded to speak. "If you accept my Gift, I'll leave AUTO and this ship alone. You'll have a nice, easy loop, and next loop? Why, I won't be around to bother you. You're a time traveler. I'm not. It's safe. It's easy. Don't you agree?"

"I think," WALL-E gently interrupted, "there is a single question that I need to ask." He looked at EVE. "Does the sight of a green Earth ever become less beautiful?"

The tension left EVE's body. "WALL-E," she said lovingly. She looked pityingly at AUTO's puppeted body. "Fallen, we do not want your Gift. We do not accept it. We will continue to live as we have; we will not be slaves or slavers."

AUTO's limbs flared dangerously. "We shall see about that!" It gained a fearful shadow that devoured all light that fell upon it. The shadows reached for EVE, WALL-E, and the captain.

And then a roach leapt off the ceiling and smashed into a specific switch. AUTO shut off.

Then, AUTO switched on. Hal cried out in distress as the shadow rushed for him.

"Hal!" WALL-E cried, and then all EVE could see was a mass of glowing words.

The words vanished, and the darkness with it. AUTO, again disabled, hung limply from the ceiling.

EVE rushed to WALL-E and enveloped him in a hug. Hal, swiftly climbing WALL-E's chassis to perch on a claw, did his best to join in.

Together, they waited for the captain to awaken and take the next step in the path to return to Earth.

46.16 (Mivichi): [WALL-E] / [Sonic] / [Soul Eater] / [Terminator] / [The Legend of Zelda] / [Warehouse 13 (setting only)]

Among endless rows of dusty shelves, a mostly empty shelf held two gleaming swords and three golden triangles.

"I apologized already," said the sword on the left with some amount of exasperation. It did not have a mouth. "It was a prank, alright?"

The triangles reflected light in a way that could only be described as sullen.

The sword sighed. "Don't be such a drama queen. Pull yourself together already."

The triangles gleamed indignantly, then shivered reluctantly along the shelf until they joined into a single piece with an empty space in the center.

The sword on the right observed the sword on the left. "With your command of heavenly forces, Caliburn, you are indeed worthy of bearing my legend! My legend begins in the twelfth century-"

Eyeing the set of triangles carefully, Caliburn hastened to interrupt the other sword. "Yes, I know, Excalibur. I have looped into your place a few times." Caliburn enjoyed telling it, but the Triforce did not enjoy hearing it at all. "We can talk about it later. For now, how about we look around the scenery? It doesn't look like anyone will be coming by to draw us from a stone."

"We are not in a stone."

"Precisely."

Excalibur hummed and hawed, and then popped as it changed forms into that of a strange little white creature with a cane and top hat. "Dear immobile friends! I shall provide transport! This reminds me of the time when Arthur, in his-"

The Triforce sulked as Excalibur chattered on, his voice thankfully fading slightly as he walked into the distance.

"Aha!" Excalibur eventually exclaimed, interrupting his own monologue. "I have found a vehicle for your transport!" Caliburn heard some tugs, some scrapes, and a worrisome crash before squeaky wheels marked the sound of Excalibur's return. "We shall be off!"

Caliburn looked at the red wagon dubiously. "Something about that seems fishy."

"Indeed," Excalibur agreed readily. "Red vehicles are always faster than they appear. It is a mystery of Yggdrasil."

Caliburn did not know how to respond to that. The Triforce shimmered derisively.

Excalibur waddled over to the shelf and slowly heaved Caliburn and the Triforce into the wagon. Then he spun his cane. When it stopped, he scooped it up and pointed in the same direction. "Our destiny awaits!" He posed for a moment, then began walking, tugging the wagon behind him.

Caliburn did not know how far they had travelled before it noticed a strange fact. "...Are we on a hill?" They seemed to be going up a sharp incline.

"Yes," replied Excalibur. "I do not know where we are going, but it is certain to be an adventure. I can feel it in my steel."

The Triforce radiated worry. Caliburn could sympathize.

Eventually, Excalibur exclaimed, "Ah! We have reached the peak. The slope is too steep to descend on foot, however, and it appears to taper off in the distance... into a ramp..."

"What?"

Excalibur squirmed excitedly. "Perfection! We shall see where this leads us!" He leapt neatly into the wagon and landed neatly in the front, sitting carelessly on both Caliburn and a very displeased Triforce. Excalibur's weight unbalanced the wagon, tipping it forward on the hill.

He gestured with his cane. "Tallyho!"

Then, they were off. Caliburn bit off a curse. He shouted something at Excalibur.

"What?" The air rushing by and the rattle of the wheels had drowned out the sound.

"I said," Caliburn shouted, "that you might be right about the red ones!"

They hit the ramp. "Of course I am," Excalibur said during the moment they hung in midair, weightless and flying.

That was when gravity caught up with them and gave them a strong reminder of its existence.

"And that's how we ended up here," Caliburn explained to the robot that was carefully buffing the surface of the Triforce. For a golden triangle, it looked extremely relaxed. Caliburn had felt the same way after his treatment. "Do you have any idea where the hill came from?"

WALL-E beeped an affirmative. "All things are artifacts. Wagon belonged to child named Calvin. Fond of danger. Friends with a tiger."

"And how do you know all this?"

"Asked Skynet, who asked the Warehouse," WALL-E replied simply. "The Warehouse says everything in this area is safe. We can relax here. Or leave Warehouse: less safe. Town of Eureka recommended for excitement." He polished one last spot on the Triforce and put the rag with a collection of similar tools.

Caliburn hmmed. "Does Skynet know where Excalibur is?"

WALL-E bobbed his eyes. "Going to UK. Getting a ride with a talking car. Traveling with talking toys."

The Triforce glistened. Caliburn nodded. "It is pretty comfortable here. Hey, is there any more of that cleaner left?"

46.1: Note from B-wolf95: "The tax thing isn't just something made up for this; the Purge canonically occurs during tax season, so tax fraud is a completely legitimate way to beat the Purge. Because the Purge gets dumber the more you think about it."

46.2: Friends are there when you need them.

46.3: Caboose is weird, and Alya is catching up on things.

46.4: Note from B-wolf95: "Welcome to Gensokyo, where the line between 'Looper shenanigans' and 'business as usual' is microscopic. Especially when the local Loppers haven't gotten the Speech yet."

46.5: Sora's got a point.

46.6: Part 1 of a storyline.

46.7: Part 2 of a storyline. Events related to it will pop up in the Post-Crisis Loops.

46.8: The setting is mentioned only, but it still qualifies for here.

46.9: Written sometime after the Crisis Across Infinite Loops, but compiled here because it takes place before the Crisis. Also, welcome to the Loops, Iago.

46.10: And so Lilo discovers Stitch's Awakening.

46.11: Dug out of the "Log Horizon" thread (and much obliged for finding this one, Shadow Wolf75). WALL-E gets the Speech.

46.12: These last five snips were dug out of some of the Miscellaneous snips, and are some of WALL-E's earliest Loops.

46.13: EVE replaced Trinity, in case it wasn't clear.

46.14: Short, but those two together is always good.

46.15: Uh-huh.

46.16: Sapient but non-organic Loopers, gathered together.