Birds chirped and bells rung, as the marriage of Terry and "Blue" Mary
Bogard concluded.  Neither one was too comfortable with extreme
formality, and with a number of the guests on both sides being members
of one or more professional fighting circuits, the ceremony had more
than its share of unusual touches.  For instance, two specially crafted
blocks of gemstone had been carried to the altar, which a couple flashy
power moves carved into rings that fit the bride's and groom's fingers
perfectly.  Quite a number of the seats were reinforced to support the
weight of the heavier guests, or raised up to afford smaller ones an
adequate view.

Hostilities among some of the guests was of particular concern.  Given
the likely results, keeping potential property damage down was also a
concern.  Some had suggested a remote grassy field, but both of the
ceremony's main participants lived and breathed city life, and the
ceremony planners wanted to reflect their traits.  In an ironic
compromise initially intended as a joke by Terry, the marriage happened
in one of the few buildings of Southtown to have survived the city's
destruction mostly intact.  Although few survivors and official records
remained, signs on the walls and the remnants of practice weapons
indicated that the building in question used to be a dojo.  It even
seemed familiar to quite a few of the guests, as if they had fought
there before, though what damage there was made it impossible to be
sure of its identity.

Fortunately, everyone was civil enough, and what blows were exchanged
were obviously good natured.  Even Yamazaki, who came in uninvited and
had been living in the ruins of Southtown, refrained from much more
than stare downs and harsh but tempered words, his insanity and sadism
dulled over the years.  No one interrupted the ceremony, and as the
seated grid of onlookers dissolved into a standing cloud of reception
attendees, it seemed that for once, all was right with the world.

No one was too surprised, then, when a column of purple flame erupted
and formed into a translucent, floating man with glowing tattoos
running like tiny rivers over his body.  The guests quickly formed a
circle around this intruder: fighters in the first several rows,
noncombatants in the rear.

"Excellent," he spoke.  "Enough of you are assembled that someone just
might understand my message."

Terry growled.  "Orochi!  Did you come back just to disrupt my
wedding?"

"Tsk.  Do you think I would waste my power on something so...trivial...
as this?  No, if it were just that, I would let you have your
happiness, while it lasted.  I am here to deliver a warning, heroes:
you have banished far too much of this world's evil.  It is already too
late to stop."

"The only one around here who'll stop is you!"

"Such a noble sentiment.  While I would like to indulge you, I have not
the power to do so.  Like I said, you have banished far too much of
this world's evil...and without it, this world is about to end."

"What are you talking about?"

"Hmm.  Perhaps one of your friends can put it better.  Athena, Sie,
Ralf, Clark: you have tapped into it longer than anyone else I see
here.  Surely one of you knows what I mean."

The two mercenaries exchanged confused looks, while Athena responded,
"I have no idea.  Sie?"

"..."

"Sie?"

Quite a number of eyes now looked at the ex-psychic boy, who would have
been studying the floor but for the number of legs and abdomens between
his eyes and the ground.  "He's right."

Terry kept facing the ghost, but his eyes flicked to Sie.  "Explain."

"This world...was created, somewhere from two to three decades ago.
Most of the history we know was made up as things went along.  All our
fights, all our struggles, have been entertainment for the creators of
this world."

"Sie?"  Athena paled.

"*Think*, Athena.  Back when we first traveled together, did that
village down the road from us exist?"

"Of course not.  It was built later."

"Did Master Chin fight at all?"

"He...umm..."

"Did we even *know* Bao, despite having grown up with him?"

"..."

"And you," he continued, facing Ralf and Clark.  "You said you fought a
long guerilla war some time ago.  Did you ever find out where?"

Ralf shrugged.  "It was classified.  Black ops going in, black ops
going out.  All the natives we encountered were too busy trying to kill
us to give us directions."

"What about Heidern, your commander?  He sent you on the mission, but
did you know he existed at the time?"

"Yeah, I...well, that is, we didn't know him personally until we moved
up in the organization..."  Ralf blinked.  "Or were we already his top
lieutenants?"

"Can you even remember learning to fire a gun?  You must've been
awfully skilled to take on a whole jungle full of soldiers by yourself.
You were raw recruits once upon a time too...or were you?"

"..."

"You weren't.  You didn't exist before you started that mission.  Who
you were didn't matter back then, just that you fought.  Heidern, your
vengeance against Rugal, your mercenary company...all of that didn't
exist until later.  Probably not until we met up in the first King of
Fighters tournament."

Athena shook Sie's shoulder.  "Stop it!  Sie, you're scaring us!"

Orochi laughed.  "The truth can be frightening, can't it?  And here's
one more little fact: the ones who created this world?  They created
you to fight beings like me.  But they've stopped investing their
energy in us.  Without that energy, everything you know will fade
away."

"He's right."  Sie sighed.  "I found this out years ago, and when I
did, I tried to use my power to stop it.  I tried to contact them, find
out the truth...and then my power burned out."

"Those two events are connected, boy."  Orochi smirked.  "Contact with
the creators is forbidden except on their terms, by their rules.  So
they erased your power."

"Sie!"  Athena stopped shaking Sie, though she kept her hand on his
shoulder.  "Why didn't you tell me?  I could've-"

"...lost your power too," Sie replied.  "I couldn't bear the thought of
you rendered...helpless, like me.  Sorry.  Besides, I didn't think
you'd believe me."

"Hey, waitaminute."  Ralf pointed to Orochi.  "So how come *he* knows
all this?"

Orochi laughed again.  "With the world ending, the barriers are
reduced.  Contact is now possible...one way, at least.  Certain of us
can read their minds...but their perception of us is limited.  They
created us so they could witness and direct our battles; now, they pay
little attention to us.  And as their memories of us fade, so does this
universe's life energy."

"So, what, are you trying to recruit us all to some grand plan to stop
this?"

"Of course not.  I'm just here to tell you that you're all doomed!  You
and everything you care about!  Bwahahahahaha-"

"BURN KNUCKLE!"  Terry burst forth from the circle, his newly decorated
hand covered in blazing power and landing in the Orochi's dead center.
The ghost instantly dispersed.

"He's right."  Sie leaned into Athena's embrace.  "We're all dead soon,
and there's nothing we can do about it."

"What are you talking about?"  Terry smiled.  "Of *course* there's
something we can do about it.  Eh, Ralf?"

"Yeah!  You and Mary better get cracking on your honeymoon.  The rest
of us can party like there's no tomorrow, 'cause there might not be."

"Okay!"
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