A/N: Sophia and Oren begin doing whatever it takes to convince Ferro that they aren't hallucinations.

  -x-X-x-

  Obviously, Sophia had hoped with all her heart that the God of Forges would be alive and able to help them. But maybe that had been utter folly on her part. Of course Tyranos wasn't going to leave Ferro alive without taking away his hands so he could never create another artifact for as long as he lived.

  And that wasn't even getting into all of the bombshells that her new uncle had just dropped on all of them. From learning that he was the one who persuaded her father to spare her life, to finding out it was his actions that led to Oren's kidnapping… it was just one gut punch after another, wasn't it?

  To top it all off, the only reason he'd told them all of this and been so damn chatty was because he thought he was hallucinating. As far as he was concerned, neither of them was actually real. It loosened his tongue quite a bit, but at the same time made him frustratingly stubborn in several ways.

  "Uncle… please listen. We aren't hallucinations. You're not imagining things. We're really both here."

  Ferro just smiles a mencholic smile and shakes his head.

  "That, my dear niece, is precisely what a figment of my imagination would say. No doubt I am finally reaching the end of the road. I may be a god, but even gods cannot subsist on nothing forever. Especially not like this."

  Holding up his capped stumps, the God of Forges snorts derisively.

  "Here at the end, it's only right that I be confronted with my sins. And who better to confront me than the two of you?"

  With a grunt, Oren steps in.

  "What about the muzzle? You're only speaking right now because I removed it. Otherwise we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

  Sophia's eyes light up. That was a fair point! Only… Ferro shakes his head again.

  "That's part of the hallucination, Oren the Otherworlder. Perhaps when I next blink I will find you both gone and the muzzle back in pce. If I am truly lucky, then these hallucinations will continue until the end, but I won't hold my breath."

  Gritting her teeth, Sophia tries next.

  "What about me? You only remember me as what you and Law turned me into, a Minor Goddess of Wisdom and Equity. But when Law died, the binding began to weaken. A while ago, Tyranos ripped the st of the binding away, unleashing my true domains. Could a figment of your imagination do this?"

  She thrusts out her hand towards nothing in particur, sending a wave of Misfortune at the wall. With nobody over there, it doesn't have much of a pronounced effect… but the expenditure of divine energy isn't entirely invisible to the senses, especially when those senses belong to an Ancient God.

  She sees Ferro straighten up a bit, his eyes opening a little wider as he follows the direction of her demonstration. For a brief moment, Sophia thinks she might have gotten through to him… only for the God of Forges to slump back again with yet another shake of his head.

  "I've corrupted you with my recollections, I see. Your true domains… only two gods in the entirety of Creation knew what they were. By speaking them into the world, I've twisted my hallucination into what you could have been. Heh, I suppose Tyranos was right to leave me here alone. He knew I would torture myself more effectively than any of his ckeys could."

  Oh for fuck's sake! Sophia wants to scream! She knows Ferro has had a rough time of it, but they need his help… even if she's still not quite sure how they're going to use him without his hands. They could figure that out after he finally believed they were real though, or so she hoped.

  "What if I told you about how we both survived in the first pce?"

  Oren's voice cuts in and Sophia looks over at him at the same time Ferro does. The Otherworlder smiles a grim smile.

  "It's a pretty ridiculous tale, after all. According to both you and Tyranos, we were supposed to die that day in the Heavens. Sophia at my hands, and me at Law's. I was never supposed to defeat him. And yet, we now know that he wasn't fighting at his full strength. He was crippled for our fight thanks to the binding on Sophia."

  Grunting, Oren continues with a frown.

  "Well, the reason I spared Sophia is simple… the illusion they cast over me was starting to unravel. She looked like a demon, but there was something in her eyes… something so afraid and innocent. I spared her because she didn't fight back and so I didn't have a reason to kill her."

  Taking a deep breath, Oren flicks his eyes off to the side.

  "As for Law… he finished off the illusion I was under. Even though I'd dealt him a fatal blow, he used the st of his power to break the illusion and free me from the Void Gods' grasp. From there, he instructed me to flee and hide my armor and bde. I did so… only to fail when I led Tyranos right to both ter. Still, do you reckon your mind could come up with such an insane scenario?"

  Another long pause ensues as Ferro blinks owlishly at Oren. When he finally speaks, he sounds quite… contemptive.

  "Huh… I wasn't sure if it would work."

  Sophia and Oren both blink in confusion at that, while Ferro chuckles ruefully.

  "I'm the one who started the illusion's unraveling, Otherworlder. It was a basic enchantment I was able to slip into the armor and bde that Tyranos forced me to craft. After I convinced them to let me see you and realized how deep they'd dug their cws into your psyche, I knew I had to do something. I just wish I could have done more…"

  Actually, that brought a question to Sophia's mind, one that she figures she might as well get answered since Ferro is being so open anyways.

  "Why did you give in to them? After they captured you, after they tortured you… why did you end up making the armor and bde for Tyranos? If you hadn't…"

  She trails off there, because the ramifications are rather massive truth be told. Ferro though, continues where she leaves off.

  "If I hadn't, none of this would have happened, you mean? Or at the very least, things wouldn't have been quite so lopsided. Tyranos and his followers could still have used my device to breach Creation and return to the Heavens and Mortal Pnes. But they would have been without the necessary armaments and it would have been a much more straightforward war. Or so one might think."

  Sophia furrows her brow.

  "What do you mean? Without the armor and weapon you made for Oren, he never would have been able to sughter the Heavens the way he did."

  But Ferro just shakes his head.

  "Perhaps you're right. Or perhaps they would have simply compensated by summoning and training up more Otherworlders. A dozen? A hundred? How many would it have taken to sweep over the Heavens without my masterworks. Not that it matters in the end."

  Looking quite tired as he leans back against his anvil, Ferro sighs.

  "You ask why I did it? I did it because I had to, dear niece. I made the armor and bde because I am the God of Forges and Smithing and my nature is to create masterworks. I cannot go against my nature. That's why I wove the basic enchantment that I did into the armor."

  Sophia exchanges a gnce with Oren at this, the two of them listening as Ferro continues on.

  "I could not weaken the armor even though I know my brother ultimately intended it for himself. I could not craft anything less than my absolute best. However, I could give it an extra benefit, a small little blessing that slowly but surely degraded and unraveled any illusion or other mind hampering magic that its wearer was under."

  That was… well, it was interesting to say the least. And maybe a little comforting. Finding out that the more well-meaning and kinder of her two uncles was also the one who had caused everything bad that had happened to her and Oren was… difficult to say the least. But finding out he was also the only reason they'd both survived long enough to find each other and reach this point was nice. It sort of banced the scales just a little bit.

  "But then, that's why I still know you two are hallucinations. Because knowing that I inid that armor with that illusion dispelling enchantment means I could easily imagine my feverish mind coming up with as ridiculous a story and set of circumstances as the one you just told me."

  "OH COME ON!"

  Sophia blushes a little when both Oren and Ferro jolt at her outburst. But she's not going to apologize. This has officially gone miles past the point of ridiculous and well into the territory of infuriating! With a growl, Sophia looks to Oren.

  "Oren, go and get the crate."

  He frowns in response.

  "… Sophia…"

  But she's not having it.

  "Just go and get the crate. We didn't come all this way, risking every meager scrap of happiness we've managed to cw back for ourselves, just to be written off as hallucinations! I'll be fine here… he's in no state to hurt me."

  Oren doesn't look convinced, but in the end he nevertheless does as he's told. As he walks back down the hall, Sophia looks to Ferro with a scowl, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot. The God of Forges and Smithing looks a little nonplused by this development. Despite his words, his eyes nevertheless flick back and forth between the hall and her, clearly curious about what this crate is going to be.

  It takes a couple minutes for Oren to return. Minutes that Sophia uses to finally come to a conclusion about what just might snap Ferro out of this self-imposed delusion of his. Because she can see how the crate might not work. And if the crate doesn't work… then she's going to just have to go all out.

  As soon as Oren sets the crate down between them and Ferro, Sophia steps forward and grabs the lid, ripping it off. The thing wasn't sealed anyways, so its not hard for her to pull it up and toss it aside.

  Slowly, pushing off of the anvil, Ferro takes a couple steps forward to look inside. His eyes widen at the Celestial Metal contained within. Armor, artifacts, and a handful of bded weapons. The crate is packed to the brin with enough Celestial Metal to craft another full set of armor and a new sword for Oren… or so Sophia hopes.

  "This is…"

  Huffing, Sophia grabs the edge of the crate on her side with both hands.

  "Believe us now, old man?"

  For a long moment she can tell that Ferro wants to. She can see how badly he wants the crate and its contents to be real. Watching him as closely as she is, Sophia can also tell the exact moment that he gives up on that hope, even before he begins to shake his head.

  "… No. This isn't… this is exactly what I would want. Next thing you know, I'll somehow miraculously have my hands back again. Heh, wouldn't that be lovely?"

  That's it. That just about does it for Sophia. She pities Ferro for all he's been through, she really does… but she's sick and tired of coddling him. And if this wasn't enough… then there's only one thing she can think of that might be able to shock him out of his stupor.

  "You brought this on yourself, old man."

  Ferro gnces up from the crate of Celestial Metal that he'd been gazing into longingly despite his decration that it was all fake. His brow furrows in confusion, but Sophia is already moving. Oren barely even sees her coming, though he wouldn't have stopped her anyways.

  Grabbing her lover by the face, Sophia lifts herself up on her tip toes and smashes her lips into Oren's. She kisses him deeply, right there in front of the Ancient God. There might, in fact, be a little bit of tongue involved.

  Oren's hands go to her hips as they makeout for an indecently and decidedly inappropriate amount of time. Until finally, they both have to come up for air.

  Sliding her hand down to his, Sophia intertwines her fingers with Oren's fingers as she turns back to Ferro and smirks, holding her lover's hand.

  "What about this, Uncle? Do you think even your feverish mind would hallucinate your niece and the man who you think unknowingly murdered her being in a retionship with one another?"

  Ferro's eyes are wider than ever, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish for a few moments. Finally, the Ancient God slowly shakes his head.

  "No… No, I don't think it w-would."

  Sophia's smirk widen into a full blown grin.

  "Good, because Oren and I are lovers. We are IN love with one another. So how do you like THAT?!"

  It felt good to say it out loud and admit it to someone other than Oren. Almost like they were ciming each other properly.

  Of course, now that Ferro finally accepted they weren't figments of his imagination but very, very real… well, they were going to have to deal with a whole new mess, weren't they?

  One step at a time though. One step at a time.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: Sophia might have gotten a little silly here, but hey… if it works, it works!

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