Venus took a long, loud slurp from her grape juice, "Think they'll ever find out?" Venus smirked looking on at the carnage their Skullgirl had and would cause. Time held no power over The Trinity.

"Doubtful," Aeon was straight faced, "these little lost souls are dust compared to us and to Mother's plans, but I fear the consequences should they band together. What could these broken people accomplish together? What would they seek?"

Venus nearly spit out her juice laughing, "Oh my us, are you for real?! Those slack jawed parasites would sooner tear each other to pieces then stop to actualy look at what's happening! You can't actually..."

No one else would be able to see it, but ever so slightly, for just a fraction of a moment, the corner of Aeon's lip raised slightly.

"You're fucking with me, aren't you?"

If Aeon wasn't a literal goddess, and did posses the frail human internals that could be called 'guts' she would have busted them when she fell back laughing like mad. Every last gut would be busted.

"Not funny sis." But it was actually pretty funny, and soon Venus was on her back laughing with her sister, and they laughed and laughed as untold billions in untold trillions of worlds around them faded and died, just as Mother planned.

Filia's dream was blurry and dark. She couldn't make out anything of the colors and black splotches swirling in front of her.

"V-Vitale, p-please, we can explain, j-just... c-calm down..." The woman's shaking voice is faint and seems like it might have been familiar once, but Filia couldn't put a face to it.

"Calm down!? Sure, let's do this nice and calmly. Ottomo, find the girl..." The seething reply is just as far off and untraceable.

A series of ear splitting bangs ring out. The woman screams before being abruptly silenced and just barely, through the haze and darkness Filia can see… a metal man dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller? But even as her fever dream descended into complete insanity, a gruff, heavy voice desperately called out to her over and over, "Filia? Filia?! FILIA?!"

"P-present, Mrs Victoria..!"

Fillia darts up and looks around, a mistake that causes her head to throb. She raises her hand to her forehead and feels gauze. Even though she could see she was wearing a school uniform, Fillia hadn't dozed off in class like she assumed.

She was in a bedroom, illuminated by a warm afternoon light. All around the bed she was on were hastily changed bandages and pill bottles her head hurt too much to read the labels of. She threw off the covers and took to her feet, but the room began spinning and her legs trembled beneath her. Immediately, she fell forward towards a bookshelf, but while Fillia should have hit it face first, something caught her and gently lowered her onto the plush rug in the middle of the room,

"Sheesh, careful will ya? I already had to put your head back together once today. Make me do it again and the job's only gonna get shittier." It was the gruff voice from her dream.

"Oh, okay," Fillia looked around the room for the source of the voice or what caught her, but couldn't find anything, "I'm sorry about that, mysterious, disembodied voice..?"

"Don't sweat it, kid."

Fillia sat quietly with her back against the bookshelf. She really hoped the voice would explain itself or her head wound, or where she was, or anything really, but 'Don't sweat it, kid.' seemed like all the info it was volunteering.

Instead, Fillia took the moment to get her bearings. The bedroom she was in felt somewhere between a messy teen girl's room and a library. Books on top of movies on top of scattered bras on top of books. A brief look at the titles behind her on the shelf revealed some interesting taste.

"The Count of Monte Cristo, Hamlet, and a collector's edition hardcover of Kill la Kill?" A quick flip through the manga's page's left Fillia's cheeks bright red, "Wow. Whoever lives here-"
"Is the biggest giga-nerd? Totally!" The voice cut in with harsh laughter.

"... I was gonna say they seem pretty cool, but..." Fillia trailed off as she slid the manga back on the shelf.

"Ah, hell. Look kid, don't let idiots like me sap the fun outta stuff you like, or make you feel like you gotta hide it, okay? The girl who lived here before, uh, she was always so worried about what others would think of her, and she hid most all her hobbies because of it. I liked to tease her about it but… My point is, don't go trying to change who you are Fillia, alright?"

"Wow… So you're like, my conscience with a sore throat or something?"

"Ha! More like your shoulder devil! Anyways, we gotta book it filia. Sooner rather than later. Bad stuff happened recently at this house and we don't wanna be here when people start snooping."

"Bad stuff? Wait, you said a girl 'lived' here, and you patched up my head? Was there like, a gunfight or something?"

"You really don't remember anything do you?" There was more than a hint of sadness in his voice.

"No. I guess… other than my name and the plots to some of these books, I don't recall anything, not even about myself." The air felt suddenly heavy as neither spoke. Filia noticed she was toying with a lock of her long black hair as it spilled around her on the floor. Was her hair always black?

"You know," Filia broke the silence, "this could make for a bit of fun."

"How's that?"

"I don't know anything about this place, and you do. That leaves you as my guide. Think about it, you get to introduce me to everything! Be the narrator who brings things into context and exposits on the important stuff!"

"...What you're describing just sounds like a chore."
"Don't be a stick in the mud! You can have fun with it, put your own spin on stuff, you know?"
"You're way too excited about being an amnesiac, but alright. I'll… ugh, exposit some crap for ya."

"Yessss!" Filia did a little victory fist-pump, "Alright, where to now, Mr. Narrator?"

"You see that window across the room? Walk on over to that and we'll make our escape."
"Escape from a comfortable, upper-class, suburban house? Can't I just use the front door like a normal person?"

"...You don't wanna see what they did downstairs."
"And, who are 'they,' Mr. Narrator?"

"A pack of thugs who own this town who call themselves the Medicis, and stop calling me 'Mr. Narrator,' okay? The name's Samson."

Filia pulled herself shakely to her feet, leaning heavily on the bookshelf, "Alright Samson, but you're aware that if I'm having trouble standing, jumping across rooftops like a feral girl isn't exactly doable, right?"
"You just leave that part to me, toots."

"Don't call me 'toots'."

Filia tried to push off the bookshelf, but instead of moving herself forward, the shelf began to roll itself backwards on its wheels.

"Whoa!"

"You alright, kid?"

"Yeah, I just didn't expect it to…" Filia trailed off when she saw a glimpse of what the bookshelf had been in front of. Shocked and in disbelief, she put her weight against the shelf again to fully reveal what she saw, "Umm, Samson, you said you knew the girl who lived here, right? Well, did you know about uh…"

"Whoa… No, I mean, I knew she kept her interests to herself, but I never thought she'd be into… Haha! Wow, I'm actually speechless." The wall behind the bookshelf was completely covered from the floor up in heavy metal posters, all for a single band; Slipknot. A horde of weirdos dressed in black, each with a personalized, grotesque mask glared out towards the rest of the calm, bookish room. Some went with the typical killer clown look, while others seemed to take the concept of 'torn flesh' in some interesting directions, and a few were just such bizarre combinations of leather straps and metal hooks, that you could only really compare it to a construction accident at an S&M convention.

"I mean, damn! This makes me sad I never pried into her music collection. I coulda teased the hell out of her over this, hehe."

Fillia remained silent.

"No comment, kid? Nothing?"

Filia muttered something down towards the floor.

"What was that, kid?"
"I SAID THIS SHIT IS AWESOME AND FUCK WHOEVER LIVED HERE FOR THINKING THEY HAD TO HIDE IT!"
"FUCK YEAH, KID! THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"

"YEAH!"

"YEAH!"

Thump, Thump, Thump, Thump!

The pair's voices went silent as the house shook with the noise of heavy boots running up a stairwell.
"Kid, you gotta get us to that window. Now."