In a colourless world, a cat roams. He wanders over the tracks of a long-stopped train. He wanders past empty barns, past stagnant pools of plastic and meat. Slowly, this cat—The Judge—makes his way through the carnage HE wrought and goes through the void to Zone 2.

Meowing would only bring an echo, so The Judge remains silent, carrying on his march into a library. Floors blur by and the cat continues to the very top of the library and sits, watching a colourless sky for a while.

Up the ladder climbs a masked man—Zacharie the merchant. He says as much as the cat and sits next to the feline. Slowly, Zacharie removes the feline mask and throws it into the distance. If it landed, it made no sound.

"It was only just a game, Judge," Zacharie tells him, eyes peering through the scarred flesh of his face. "No more fights, no more of the puppeteer."

"Pablo," the cat says softly. "Call me . . . Pablo."

Zacharie smiles and scratches behind the cat's ears, saying, "Alright, Pablo."

"We lost people to him," Pablo says with a weary sigh.

"Sugar wasn't—"

"She was important to you. She was your friend," Pablo told the merchant.

"You lost Valerie," Zacharie added.

"No more meat, no more sugar, no more anything," Pablo muttered. "How do we continue as the remnants of Nothing?"

"Well, there's an Elesen in the residential area, stores of sugar, pools of meat. We can travel through the Nothingness to collect what we need. We can make your Zone perfect," Zacharie told the cat. The scarred merchant sighed and laid on his back, staring up at nothingness. "It needs a park."

Pablo curled up on the merchant's chest, sighing. "You really have the notion that the Zone under my paws can be perfect?"

"Of course," Zacharie said, taking one hand from behind his head to pet the grinning cat. "We just need to get that Elesen and teleport back."

"The shock would kill him," Pablo muttered, eyes closing.

"Enoch got . . . used to get bodies through the Nothingness just fine," Zacharie pointed out.

"True," Pablo murmured, relaxing. "A nap is in order."

"It has been a long day."

"Weeks. It took the Player weeks to finish leading the puppet to his foolish demise."

"Do you think the Player is watching now?" Zacharie asked, staring straight up at the blank sky.

"What purpose does a dénouement have if the ending was based on a decision?" Pablo asked. "I'm sure the Player had better things to do."

"Build?"

"Think . . ."

"Learn?"

"Write . . . "

"Just about everything we have to do, eh?" Zacharie asked with a chuckle.

The only response was a snore from the sleeping cat. Shaking his head, Zacharie put both hands behind his head.

"Maybe there'll be another Player in another time. Another game, another mission," Zacharie whispered to nothing in particular. With a sigh in response to the silence, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.