Mystery, Lewis, and Vivi drove together in the van, towards the desert. Jinaya flew close behind them, her magic leaving a trail of life and growth behind her. Vivi looked over to Mystery and to see him staring, unblinking, at the mesa that was growing in the distance. He said out loud to the others, "I can feel my power up there. Mauta must be at the top."

Vivi nodded, and said, "Okay, so everyone knows what they're doing?"

Lewis nodded and said, "Yep. Mystery and I go around and get Mystery close enough to re-devour the orb so he can take back his power, while you go with Jinaya and protect her all the way to Mauta. You still haven't told me how you're going to do that, though, Vi. These are some powerful spirits we're going against. Aren't you going to need some–"

"I don't need any protection, Lewis, thank you." The thank you she uttered came out almost as a hiss than words. Lewis, not wanting to press the matter now, turned back to face the road, and sighed.

The group pulled over about a mile from the mesa, hiding the van behind some shrubbery. The four gathered as they got out of the car, and Vivi said to them, "Alright, guys, this is it. Let's do this, and do it right, okay?"

Jinaya smiled, Mystery nodded his head, and Lewis did the same, if a bit reluctantly. As the group began to split up, though, Lewis grabbed Vivi by the sleeve and asked, "Okay, stop being cryptic, I don't like it. How are you gonna fight off a few thousand angry spirits up there?"

Vivi removed herself from Lewis' grip, straightened her scarf, and reached down into her purse. She removed a large disk, about a foot long in diameter, waving it while saying, "I've got more protection than you realize, Lewis." Without saying more, she pulled on both sides of the disc, revealing a hidden pad with marked places to step on. Vivi set the stretched disc on the ground, and stepped on it, triggering some kind of mechanism with her weight as she did so. The disc lit up neon blue, and began whirring and clacking, sending plates of metal and circuitry up Vivi's legs, then her torso, then her arms. The thick armor locked around Vivi's normally small frame, making her a foot and a half taller, and wider than the breadth of Lewis' shoulders. Arm cannons rotated and locked into place above Vivi's wrists, armed and quietly humming. Vivi rotated and flexed all of her limbs, making sure all of the pieces fit together correctly as a large helmet cave down with a blue visor. The visor was slid out of place, above where it should have been, leaving Vivi's face the only thing still visible. Lewis, stunned, could barely make any words come out. Finally, he managed to say, "How…when did you…"

Vivi smirked, amused by his surprise, and replied, "A little after your death, Arthur had it made for me, in case of emergencies. I haven't had to use the full suit yet, except in tests. But I think it'll serve me juuuuust fine."

Lewis's eyes narrowed at the mention of Arthur, but then, suddenly aware that he was staring, averted his eyes quickly, and said, "I guess I shouldn't have assumed you needed protecting, huh?"

"Nope. But it's sweet of you."

Lewis walked forward, as Mystery called from further away, "We'd best be going, Lewis. We can't afford to wait much longer."

"I know, Mystery, just—just gimme a minute."

Mystery looked at Vivi, and then sighed, saying, "You may have ONE. Jinaya will be waiting in position. Be quick!" With that, Jinaya and Mystery moved to different positions near the mesa.

Lewis turned to Vivi again and said, "Listen, Vivi, I—I'm sorry about this. All of this. I didn't have any small fault in all this, and I get that now. I'm sorry for releasing Mauta, I'm sorry for the hell I gave you guys in the Mansion, I'm even sorry for Arthur, even if he did help—no. I'm sorry about Arthur, too. I just…I just want everything to go back to the way it was before. Is there any chance that could happen? At all?"

Vivi looked down at him from within her iron shell, and slowly said, "Lewis, I get that you're sorry, and I'm glad that you're apologizing. I really am. But, after everything that's happened, I don't think that what we had—before—I don't see it anytime soon. I'm sorry."

Lewis began to make a face like he wanted to ask for more, ask why, but Vivi lifted an armored hand and said, "Not right now. Lewis, you're a good guy, and I'm glad that you're working with us again. We can be friends again, no doubt. But for now, we have a job to do, and I'm gonna need your fire." As she said this, her helmet's visor, at first a dark indigo, slid down into place and locked in, obscuring her face. It lit up, turning the same neon blue as the highlights and hydraulics on the suit. From within, he heard Vivi's voice through a speaker say, "Are you with me?" as she extended a metal hand.

Lewis, looked down at the ground, processing what Vivi was saying. It took him a moment to react. Finally, he looked up and took Vivi's hand. He shook it, his expression blank as he said, "For now." Without another word, Lewis rocketed into the air, quickly closing the head start that Mystery had gained. Good…I think, Vivi thought, her relief mixed with a twinge of concern. She didn't like that for now, but she decided not to worry about it just yet. Starting slow due to her new weight, her juggernaut armor quickly picked up speed as she left for Jinaya's side.

She had work to do.

Lewis and Mystery headed back for behind the mesa, attempting to take Mauta and her army of Hollowed Ones by surprise. As they approached closer, Lewis could see scarlet spirits circling the top of the mesa, and patrolling the floor beneath the mesa. Mystery broke into a full dash, which was surprisingly fast for his currently small stature. Lewis blasted more heat behind him to keep up as he shouted to Mystery, "Okay, how we gonna take out the guards?"

"You burn them and throw them to me, and I eat them. Once I get enough, I'll be able to hunt them again myself, or go after the orb directly."

Lewis nodded. That was…unusually direct. Mystery must be getting into the heat of the impending fight. Lewis started to prepare to grapple with the nearest land spirit, when a sudden cry above him surprised him. He looked up just in time to see a red flyer spirit coming down to snatch him up, talons outstretched. He threw his hands up to catch the vulture-like spirit by the talons, as it snapped at his skull with its beak. It flapped and struggled to get free, but as it started to carry him up, Lewis jetted fire from his boots and used the leverage to throw the bird into the ground. From there, he tugged and built momentum, heaving the bird into Mystery's direction, who was eagerly waiting.

The bird saw Mystery as it sailed towards him, then uttered a shrill cry of fear as it flapped away, urgently, desperately. Mystery inhaled, eyes sparking stars, as the spirit became red mist and was sucked into the demon dog's maw. Mystery ran his tongue along his teeth as he finished and said aloud, "Oooh, 3rd century. That's an old one."

"You judge the spirit's age by how it tastes?!"

"Yes, and I must say, one that has aged that old is always a delicacy welcome to my pallet."

Lewis made a disgusted noise and flew over to grab the next spirit. Mystery and he continued this dance for at least an hour, grabbing lone spirits and feeding them to Mystery's insatiable appetite. This continued until Mystery, at long last, stopped and went still. He said, half-dreamily, "I think that might have helped me a bit…" As he said this, his body was enveloped in a crimson glow. His body grew a size bigger, and a second and third tail grew from his silhouette. The red faded, and Lewis looked at Mystery's form. Bit by bit, it seemed that he was regaining his strength. Good, very good. The sooner they stopped Mauta, the better.

—–

Vivi and Jinaya rushed for the mesa, Vivi blasting spirits out of the way and knocking them into the ground with her massive armor while Jinaya danced just out of the enemy's reach, propelling herself forward with powerful leaps and jumps. Vivi yelled through her speaker over to Jinaya, "Come on! We need to be in position by the time the boys finish on their end!"

"Patience, my dear," Jinaya called over with a laugh. "Think less of where you must go and more of how you will get there."

"What does that mean?"

Jinaya merely laughed again and cartwheeled into a group of enemies. As one, they turned and charged towards the intruder. Jinaya moved at the speed of light, not raising a single finger in her own defense. Every move was one of snakelike evasion, or of simple redirection, moving enemies into one another. Within moments, all of the spirits were smoking remains on the floor, all having been vanquished by their own hands.

Vivi slowly walked over. "I…thought you said you would need help getting to Mauta."

Jinaya merely smiled good-naturedly and continued the climb up the mesa.

Lewis and Mystery were in a bit of a tight spot. Actually, no, that was an understatement. Mystery swallowed every spirit he could get his paws on, but he could only eat so fast, which left Lewis to fend for himself at the top of the mesa. Fending for himself against literally hundreds of spirits. Towards the center of the mesa, Lewis could see Mauta as he fought. Her dance was one of the most graceful things he had ever seen, even from her. Her body left green after-images in the air as she moved to an unheard rhythm. He called out to her, "Mauta! Stop this! You're going to destroy everything!"

Mauta didn't stop or pause once as she replied, "That's the plan, little one."

Lewis wanted to talk her out of it, but his attention was redirected after one of the spirits took a swipe at his face. Lewis suddenly realized that something was wrong. The number of spirits on the mesa wasn't decreasing anymore. He turned to find Mystery and found that the demon fox had been taken down by his former victims, Hollowed Ones holding down his limbs and his tails, and forcing his mouth shut. Lewis sent a huge fireball at the Hollowed One holding Mystery's snout, and the moment Mystery's mouth was free, he shouted, "There's too many, I can't consume enough to get to the orb!"

"Then what do we do?!"

"Plan B."

Lewis ducked to avoid a swooping Hollowed One. "Which is?"

"Destroy the orb."

Lewis was stunned. This was Mystery's entire power source. If that thing was destroyed—

"How are you gonna get your power back? I don't even know if I can—"

"You can, and you MUST!" Mystery snapped at him as he struggled to launch all of the other Hollowed Ones off of his back.

Lewis watched Mystery as he drew the dead spirits away from the mesa, their desire for revenge overpowering Mauta's compulsion over them. Lewis turned towards the orb, which was puling crimson light in time with Mauta's dance, as the spun and twirled around it. Mauta was too caught up in her task to notice Lewis' careful aim, otherwise she might have tried to stop him.

Carefully, slowly, Lewis drew back, took aim, and shot the strongest, hottest fireball he could muster. The fireball passed in front of Mauta, who opened her eyes just in time to see the calamity unfolding. It collided, and the orb absorbed all of the ball's heat and power. Slowly, over the orb's surface, a web of cracks appeared, leaking out pink light that overtook the scarlet. Mauta watched with dismay as the orb cracked, splintered, and finally, shattered. Mauta leaped to avoid the crimson explosion billowing outward. Lewis protected his skull with his arms as the crimson cloud flew out over the mesa, then slowed down, stopped, and then flew back in reverse, sucked inward by some force. All that was left behind as the power was brought back inward by the vacuum was a small scarlet light. Further away, Lewis could see the Hollowed Ones dispersing by the thousands. With no one to guide their will, they would drift aimlessly. Being specters driven by hate and revenge, that probably wasn't a good thing. We'll probably have to clean that mess up later, Lewis thought to himself, grumbling. But it couldn't be helped right now. What mattered was stopping Mauta from finishing the Rite. He looked up to where Mauta had leaped, and saw that her ritual was still going. She danced on air, appearing to pirouette among the stars.

Jinaya and Vivi appeared, having finished climbing to the top of the Mesa. Jinaya smiled at Lewis and said, "Well done, little one. I hope that the fight was not too strenuous."

"Meh, almost died a second time, no big deal." Lewis joked at the girls. Jinaya laughed, but no noise could be heard from within Vivi's helmet. Lewis frowned as he didn't get any reaction.

Jinaya looked up at the sky above her, and said, "Well, children. It would appear I have a long overdue meeting to get to. Let us hope for the best." And Jinaya leaped up into the air, to meet her former beloved once more.