Hello everyone! Before beginning, I would just like to say thanks to all of you who read and (hopefully) reviewed this story's previous chapters! Thank you so much!
In this chapter, we drop back at Nick's place and see how things are going there. In fact, for a small spoiler, this chapter and the next few will take place purely at Nick's.
Anyway, DoktorK, can you blame Garou for being scared of Angua? lol
Here's the explanation of this chapter's title. It's a reference to the Stephen King story Salem's Lot…a story about vampires, and not witches, which is the monster type that Raven is pretending to be. But…it's got Salem in the title, so that's just as good…right? Right? Okay, to be honest with you, this was the hardest chapter to pick a good name for. I searched through books and movies that involved witches and I had a distressing realization…most of the titles of those things are bland as crap! Lol. No, but seriously, almost all of them just have some variation of "witch" in the title. It's all stuff like "The Witch of BLANK," "the Witches of BLANK," "the BLANK Witch," etc. Not a lot of variety, or at least not enough to pinpoint a specific example. So I did the best I feel I could. I hope that is good enough.
Here is the seventh chapter of Ultima: Witches Night: Raven's Lot
(9 months AGE, Realm 82, Nick Moss' Home, April 30th 1957, 10:35 PM)
Anti-monster wards for nearly every kind of monster there was protected Nick Moss' home. It would be hard to fathom a safer place for the Society team in this Realm.
And yet the place felt more dangerous than the chaos outside. There was a single reason for this. The cold, seething hatred emitted from the ashen-skinned empath in a blue cloak.
Raven was deeply annoyed. Actually, she had long since passed that mundane threshold. She was seething, trapped in a mire of negativity the likes of which crackled in the air. And that's not just verbose narration. No, the air actually crackled with ebony lightning. Out of courtesy for the meat golem in the room, the Teen Titan stood at the furthest corner. This mission had by and large been an ever escalating stockpiling of aggravations and displeasures but the latest major development, which had happened hours ago, had almost unleashed the contained rage known as Raven from being a tightly wound up ball of stress for the last few weeks.
After Giganta had left to meet up with Pilar O'Heaven, Nick had called the primary person—uh, primary monster, they were supposed to interview. The siren Serendipity Sargasso. However, in the course of that call, the detective revealed that his secretary would travel to his place instead, thus meaning they had unleashed Giganta, a former super villain, on her own for no reason. It was a prospect that the team leader did not enjoy in the slightest. When asked why, the siren said that she didn't want an interview at her place with her other roommate around. Not Mira but a ghost named Llorona who always cried and wailed, even when she was happy. It would be hard to have an interview while in the same living space as someone who, while no longer living, seemed intent on recreating the worst parts of the experience. Reluctantly, after hearing that reasoning, Raven agreed.
That didn't mean she was happy about it. Far from it. The projections for the Society actually turning this Realm into an ally were already slim, and this could only worsen that. All it would take was that towering redheaded loose cannon losing her cool once and stepping on some jerk-ass with slimy tentacles or rotting flesh and their efforts would be for naught. She kept running over the multitude of ways Giganta could ruin their efforts and fought with herself to keep her destructive emotions in check.
A part of her had simply wanted to fly out and drag Giganta back here by her likely mile long hair if she had too! But several realizations kept her feet firmly on the ground. She was responsible for her other teammates, including a girl who couldn't defend herself. She didn't want to let the higher ups know she screwed up so bad already unless she had to. She feared that her flying off the handle might cause more problems than it would solve.
Everyone else in the house wisely allowed Raven to deal with her displeasure by herself. Nick and Jane sat on the couch and talked, well, Nick talked and Jane wrote on her tablet. Machi's head sat on a pillow on the windowsill as it looked out onto the chaos of Juniper Street while her body sat in a nearby chair. And Toru was in the bathroom. After a lot of convincing and a quick test involving stuff from his kitchen, Nick allowed the Quirk User to enter his home. Besides, he had gotten a huge kick out hearing that Toru had loved Sam's jam lecture, and thus greatly annoyed Dr. Drakken, who hadn't, until he left with the monkey and mummy. Outside of loudly gushing at the cuteness of him and Jane being together, the Quirk User had done nothing to make him regret that choice.
The Teen Titan was thankful that Toru wasn't around. She wasn't sure if she could control her rage when in the unrelenting presence of someone who was too similar to Beast Boy for comfort, without the hard won good will the green shape shifter had earned. Truthfully, everyone around her was starting to get on her nerves simply by being there. It was one of the many reasons why she was by nature a solitary figure. And right now, what she wanted more than anything outside of Giganta showing up was solitude.
With that in mind, she left the main room in search of anywhere to be alone. By the time she was within earshot of the bathroom door, said door suddenly opened. Luckily Raven had paused mere moments before it opened to avoid getting whacked.
Out of said bathroom came the floating schoolgirl's uniform that didn't seem to even register her presence. This opinion was reinforced by how a voice that came from no visible mouth was softly singing to itself.
"Take you by surprise, yeah.
"I can do it easy.
"Miss me with your eyes, yeah.
"You can't even see me."
Raven simply powered through the annoyance she felt hearing the rap lyrics as they faded into the background as the distance between herself and their source grew larger.
"No matter what you try, yeah.
"You can never beat me.
"Feels a little cheesy,
"Like a wish from a genie."
'That isn't the only thing that's cheesy,' Raven thought bitterly as she kept walking. There was only one place she could go. After the first step, she had realized that the four-roomed house didn't offer many options. She had already left the living room, and the kitchen was directly connected to it. And she really didn't want to hog the bathroom, lest someone else had to use it. So that left only one real option. Nick's bedroom.
Once inside the bedroom, which was as barebones as the rest of the house, Raven began to brood properly. Familiar currents of misery and byways of bitterness were traveling down, all the while she struggled to keep her potentially catastrophic damage in check. She sat down on the covered bed as an isle of sorrow and acrimony amidst banal apathy.
Seeing nothing else to be done, she sat cross-legged on the bed and began to mediate. Soon enough the spare bedroom vanished from sight and she found herself in the dimension of her mind's eye, the ominous looking place of floating rocks and vast grey deserts underneath a blackened sky rife with blood-red stars. The Teen Titan attempted to find a solace here similar to the sort she had found when she had defeated the illusion of Trigon with helpful advice and moral support from Cyborg and Beast Boy. None came.
If anything, coming here only made her feel worse. It reminded her of how one of her few friends was out of reach, and even the others were just as busy as she was. Being a teammate of one of the Shield Bearers had given her clout, but also great responsibility.
Feeling no better, she ended her mediation and returned her mind back to the physical world. Before she even had a chance to look at a clock to see how much time had passed, she heard a gentle progression of noises getting louder. Footsteps. Then she heard the gentle creaking of a door whose hinges needed to be oiled quite badly. Raven wondered if that was on purpose, to make sure no monster could sneak up on this home's owner. Judging by the pause and brief gasp, Raven surmised someone had seen her and was debating if they should enter the room. Her foul mood found expression on her ashen face. She had no direct ill will towards whoever was there, but negativity was infectious and not picky about whom it lashed out at.
A short and hairy figure that smelled faintly like motor oil and sweat stood in the doorway. Nick Moss.
The two stared at each other in confusion. One of them really wanting to sleep, and the other one really wanting to be alone. This room was the only place either could occur. They each understood this. And one of them acted on it.
"Sorry," Raven grumbled, embarrassment faintly coloring her ashen cheeks by livelier pigmentation. "I'll leave you so—"
"No, no," Nick said. "It's fine. To be honest, I can stay up for a bit longer. It would be kind of hard to start counting sheep with a bunch of monsters in the living room." He stretched his arms over his head and stood on his tippy toes, with various bones popping and cracking. "Even with Jane out there making sure you don't try any funny business."
"I am not known for my sense of fun."
"Really?" Nick asked sarcastically, an eyebrow raised. "Never would have guessed." He waited for Raven to rebuke or take offense to his comment but she merely stood and stared as stoic as ever. Seeing no harm, since he was already awake, he chose to ask something he had been wondering, "Why is that, anyway?"
"Why is what?"
"Why does fun seem as foreign an idea for you as werewolves using silverware?" He waited. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"
"There isn't a single cause."
Nick chuckled. "Yeah, I coulda told ya that. Let me try that again. What is the biggest reason for you being sour right now?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Well, a balam from a floating step-pyramid could see something's got your wires crossed. And I don't like the idea of an annoyed witch being under my roof. They tend to get careless with the curses and hexes."
"I do neither of those things." Raven said. "I couldn't even if I wished too."
"Really? And you say you're a witch?"
A vein throbbed in Raven's forehead. "You already tested me, remember. I'm not like the witches from around here." She fought hard to not lash out at the detective's idiocy.
To his credit, Nick seemed to remember the tests from earlier and rubbed the back of his head as a pained look surfaced. Raven simply stared at him. She was seriously tempted to demand he leave this room, but the knowledge of it being his bedroom held her tongue in place. She didn't feel right kicking him out. Raven knew the sacredness of one's own bedroom. So she decided to leave and endure the burdens of being in a crowded room.
She started to take the first few steps before Nick called out to her. "Let's make a wager." The P.I. said, his voice more confident than usual, though still slightly high-pitched. Raven paused, curious. "If I can get it in one why you're so sour, you've gotta talk to me about it. But if I'm wrong, I'll leave and you can have this room for the whole night."
The hardness in Raven's gaze vanished, replaced by greater inquisitiveness. She quickly decided that she had little to lose. Mostly out of politeness, she nodded her head.
"I'm gonna guess it's because of that big girl—uh, I—I mean that she was very tall! I—I'm not saying she was fat or anything! She seemed wonderfully proportioned." Nick paused for a millisecond before a look of terror formed on his hairy visage. "Not that I was looking her up or anything! Honest! I'm very happy with Jane—well, I mean that I'm really happy that we've been able to get back together because I missed her so—!"
"Will you please stop talking!" Raven snapped, causing Nick to clam up instantly. She definitely wasn't in the mood to listen to the detective's rambling tirades. She breathed deeply, recomposing herself. "But yes, it is her."
Nick's nervousness fled as he showed a cocky grin. "What did she do?" he asked.
"She knowingly disobeyed a direct order and now she's running loose out there," Raven explained. "And she's likely to step on any monster who so much as looks at her funny."
"Most humans would consider her a hero if she did that." Nick fired off the cuff.
Raven paused. "Wow. That is the most ironic comment I've heard in awhile." She replied, her voice as monotone as ever. If that amused her, it was impossible to tell.
"But seriously though," Nick said, "What did she do? Why does her being on her own make you go bugs?"
"She's a selfish super-criminal who helped try to take over her Realm many times, is only here because of a guy she likes, and she can get big enough to make Pilar O'Heaven seem like a child."
Nick was silent for a few moments as he tried to process what he had just learned. He felt the urge to deny that new information, but then he thought of what he had heard and seen earlier this evening. A werewolf unfazed by wolfsbane, a girl carrying her own head, a witch who wouldn't melt in a light drizzle, a talking ape, and that miniature recording from that doctor that might as well have been a tiny ghost. Clearly there were a lot of things out there that didn't conform to what he had previously known.
And he had assumed that when the redhead said she could grow to hundreds of feet on whim that she wasn't just talking big she meant it. Now he heard that claim confirmed.
But…Pilar and Kong were hard enough to fathom, to grasp as living things like him. As scary as them being fifty feet tall was, he now saw a small silver lining to that height. If they were that big, they couldn't get any bigger. There was a limit on their invincibility. The P.I. wasn't sure if he could process someone who was many times bigger than them.
If that redhead in the pink leotard could do that…she could conquer this whole city by herself. And if she was listening to others in this Society, that implied there were beings within its ranks that were way more powerful than she was. It was a hefty implication.
To distract himself from that, Nick decided to dwell on another portion of what he had heard. His mind started to piece together a puzzle. "So," he began, "she's here because of a guy? She betrayed the—uh, the Organization for a guy? Nothing else? Uh—at all?"
Raven nodded. "From what I've heard it was a spur of the moment decision."
The weasel-looking man rubbed his thick facial hair while pondering the tidbits Raven had unknowingly offered. One of the most basic lessons of combat was figuring out when to stick your head out and when not to, no matter if it was in Europe or America, against Germans or creatures that once upon a time might have been Germans. The twice-over veteran was puzzling out if this was one of those times or not. Soon he made this choice.
"You know," said Nick, "I get why you're going bugs but if that's it then I think you can relax a little."
Eyes that might as well have been atomic amethyst stared at him unblinkingly for what seemed eons. He was used to being perpetually on the verge of a nervous collapse but his sweat glands were in overdrive as he began to wonder if he made the wrong call. "What do you mean?" asked Raven, not looking happy but interested for sure. A good sign.
"Well…a—and hear me out here," Nick began, "from my experience, spur of the moment decisions are inherently selfish." He paused. Raven's face didn't change. "I mean, it's usually a thing like, 'Oh, I want to turn that nice piece of bait' or 'Oh, there's no cross outside that college dorm room.' Stuff like that." The detective paused again, and this time the Teen Titan nodded her head, understanding him so far. "But this girl's case, from what you've said, sounds like it was selfless. That buys her the benefit of a doubt." He paused again to make sure Raven was following. "And I think the talking monkey had the right idea earlier. She's not gonna make waves if her new hubby wouldn't like that. I've seen a lot of cages and holding pens in my time, but none are as effective as love."
"Spoken like a true romantic." Raven commented drily.
Nick chuckled. "Who can speak about the burdens of booze better than an alcoholic?"
The empath didn't answer. Seeing that, the detective decided to ask another question. "So…what kind of punishment would Redwood get if this Organization captured her?"
Raven took a long moment to consider her response to that question. The Society had actively attempted to have a transparent policy with the citizens of the onmi-verse when it came to secrets. Unless said secrets were directly connected to battling the Organization, they were usually shared, made easily accessible by anyone who wanted to learn them. But there were some exceptions, one of them being the fate that awaited those who were recaptured by the Organization after betraying it. Amongst its ranks the Organization had obtained the bulk of necromancers in the onmi-verse, who used wildly different means. Through a process the Society still wasn't able to figure out, they had combined the varied methods of raising the dead into a singular process that no known source could cure. The Organization used this for many purposes. One of them was killing the recaptured traitors and forcing them to endure endless punishments via Prometheus.
"It would be very bad," Raven said vaguely, deciding Nick didn't need the details. She hoped her tone would give him the message that this was something better off unknown.
Yet again to his credit, Nick seemed to understand, figuring that if beings like Giganta could exist there had to be beings and realities in the onmi-verse that dwarfed her in their horrifying potential. He nodded to show his acceptance.
"Then you have little to worry about," he added.
Logically, Raven suspected that the detective was right. "But her attitude makes her so hard to work with," she commented bitterly to no one in particular.
"I could say the same thing about you," Nick fired off without thinking. The second the words left his mouth, his eyes widened at him pissing off an already annoyed witch.
To his trembling relief, Raven didn't seem angry. Though she clearly wasn't happy either. If anything, she seemed surprised, caught off guard. But she knew she shouldn't be. The child from Azarath knew that her restrained nature rubbed people the wrong way. There would be no point in denying that. Even so, she bristled at being compared to a villain. "That's different," Raven commented, with some of the force out of her voice.
"How?" asked Nick, genuinely curious.
Raven simply stared at him coldly, more so because she couldn't think of a good answer.
"And let's not forget," Nick added, "She did scare Mira away. Even if her main motive is a selfish one, she's still a team player. And sure, she was a bit of a wise guy—uh, wise gal, I mean—but so was the talking ape. And y—you." He paused, wincing in case Raven lashed out. She didn't. "In fact, now that I think about it, so was everyone in my house but the werewolf and the girl holding her head. And I'm guessing the invisible girl too."
The gray-skinned young woman stood there as she realized the occasionally annoying, stuttering mess of a man before her might have had the right idea, surprisingly. But there was still someone that she didn't quite understand. "Why are you so concerned about Giganta?"
"Truthfully, I'm not," Nick admitted. "I'm more concerned about you. You seem like a good kid but you're way too wound-up for someone your age. And believe me, I know a thing or two about being on the threshold of going ape at so much as a pin dropping."
Once again Raven stared at Nick Moss, but the emotions reflected in her purple peepers were quite different from those broadcast before. It wasn't annoyance or indifference shown; instead it was disbelief, of a more sincere and optimistic sort. She was having a hard time believing that Nick was talking to her simply for that reason. The Research had shown he was a good man, but she didn't believe he was that good.
Then again, her dominant cynical side countered, he also wanted her out of this bedroom so he could catch some sleep. Even so, she had a gut feeling his speaking to her wasn't mainly motivated by that. It was rare for Raven to not listen to her cynical side.
"As nice as it would be to be able to pin all your troubles on Redwood's—uh, high up their head," Nick said, his voice not sounding as wavering as it previously had, "you implied there were other sources of your troubles. Want to share them?"
Normally, Raven would have politely but firmly declined. However, she chose not to. Against all of her assumptions, talking to Nick did seem to help put her mind at ease. She sighed, not fully believing she was about to do this.
"Well, I'm part of an alliance that's composed of almost every ally of the forces of good in the known onmi-verse," Raven began, "and yet we are the underdogs in the biggest war ever. We are battling a force made of the greatest evils ever known trying to conquer or destroy everything. I'm not by nature an optimist so it's sometimes hard to see a silver lining. I believe the Society has a fighting chance, but I don't know if that'll be enough."
Nick nodded his head in solemn understanding. He knew something about war, having fought in it twice, once against his fellow men and once against things far stranger. To this day he didn't know which of the consecutive conflicts was worse. One had him get shot in the ass, and the other had him murder Americans no longer human. That debate, oh-so-helpfully personified by vivid nightmares recalling ghastly episodes during each, was part of the reason he was a light sleeper. Though he saw the markings war tended to leave on the soul within Raven's eyes, he also saw she seemed to be handling it far better than he ever had. He hoped she never got to the point where killing lost most of its sting.
And yet he noticed something. "That is a lot to handle," Nick spoke up, "But that's not about you personally. What has you the most sour about this war, for you personally?"
A small piece of Raven had been hoping Nick would be awed enough by the scope of the Society's issues to not dig any deeper. Another piece was glad he wasn't. "For me, personally," she said, saying this out loud for the first time, "I miss seeing my friend, who I can only see once a month at best." Nick waited for her to go into more detail. "Robin is one of the Shield Bearers. Remember what I told you about them earlier?"
Nick nodded. Truthfully he hadn't understood everything that explanation contained. But he got the gist of it. Twelve of the revealed Realms had been given some kind of a protection that didn't allow anyone to enter the Realm without the permission of a single person, a Shield Bearer, as Raven had called it. Supposedly the Shield was unbreakable by every known means, making the dozen Realms that were held within it the only completely safe places in the entire onmi-verse, as well as the cradle of the Society.
The detective certainly understood how not being able to see a close friend would chafe someone, in particular someone like Raven who probably had more fingers than friends. However, he really didn't have an answer to this issue. From what he heard, the Shield Bearers were essential. Given how important and needed they were, he was amazed they even got a day off each month. Whatever lives they had possessed before the Great Epiphany were gone. Logically, that was obvious, but that didn't mean it wasn't any less undesirable. "Well," Nick finally said, feeling the need to say something, "I don't have a nice little speech to sweep that one under the rug. All I can say is you need to soldier on. Your friend Robin will still be there. She'll still be protecting your place, right?"
The familiar despair that risked coiling in Raven's gut was banished by uncertainty. Why had Nick called Robin a—and at that moment, she understood. The name Robin was usually a girl's name. She began opening her mouth to correct him before holding her tongue. The more they spoke of Robin, the greater the risk that she would accidentally let it slip that she was speaking of another realm's version of Batman's adolescent sidekick.
Instead, Raven said, "Yes, sh—she will be."
"Asking a dumb question here," asked Nick, "but can't your friend just let someone else do the job every now and then?"
"As far as we can tell, no," Raven said. "But then again, there's a lot we don't know."
"So you are going into untold danger by the seat of your pants?" Nick asked. "Welcome to my life." He flashed a sardonic grin over his hairy face.
Raven stared at him as she had before, unmoved. Then, out of nowhere, a forced puff of air left her gray lips and a light, mirthful sound filled the air. Nick recognized it, laughter. It sounded somewhat pained and reluctant, but there was no mistaking the laughter heard. After a few seconds of chuckling, with it having sounded like she was out of practice, Raven quickly cut it off as a bright warm embarrassed hue colored her ashen cheeks.
Grinning quite proudly at putting a chic in Raven's stoic armor, Nick turned to leave the room as he said. "I'll be right back. All this talking has left me feeling thirsty."
Raven nodded. Nick left the bedroom, and the teenage empath felt lighter. For the first time in a while, she felt at peace. Out of habit, she checked the Society issued watch on her wrist. Just about an hour had passed since her last chat with the survey team. "Bobo, Bobo…" She said into her communicator. "Do you copy? Over."
"This is Bobo." The talking chimp answered. "Reading you loud and clear. Over."
"Mission update report. How are things going? Have you run into any problems or troubling signs? Over."
There was a pause before Bobo answered, a pause that Raven did not like. "Well, kiddo, I've got some good news and some bad news for you. What do you want to hear first?"
The good mood that Nick had somehow managed to pull out of her plunged into even more stygian depths than usual as Bobo explained their surprise encounter with Sarah Bellum. She had said nothing, keeping her thoughts trapped between tightened lips. The Teen Titan merely allowed Bobo to explain the situation in full detail with only an occasional terse intake of oxygen to interrupt him.
The crackling ebony tendrils of ill intent made manifest by her arcane powers had almost torn the room around her to shreds about halfway through Bobo's explanation. But the feelings stirred by her recent talk had kept them at bay until the chimp got to the "good news." And luckily said news was actually quite good. Due to some clever improvising, the survey team had managed to get one of the most dangerous beings in this entire city of literal monsters off the Society's back. They saved the whole team the effort of doing so later. It was impressive. And Raven made sure Bobo knew as much.
Bobo chuckled on the other end of the line. "Uh? You don't sound quite so 'bitter emo teenager' as you did before. Did you have a therapy session in between our calls?"
To her shock, Raven didn't find herself getting too annoyed at the snarky comment. "You might say that," she said vaguely. A series of small sounds from the other side of the bedroom's partially opened door was unheard as another thought entered her mind, which she chose to share. "That Superman gamble you thought of was a good one. Not sure how Clark will feel about it, though. We have to hope he won't hold that against us."
The Teen Titan didn't fully hear Bobo's snarky reply because she noticed Nick waiting at the threshold of the slightly opened portal, with a glass of water in his hand. After ensuring that the survey team was on their way back to Nick's place, she ended her communication. The short, hairy man approached her and handed her the filled glass.
"Everything all right?" asked Nick.
Raven hoped her conservation with Bobo had finished before Nick had arrived. "Don't worry, I won't melt from this." She said. Her voice was the same as it had been, but a tiny grin tugged at her lips. Saying nothing more she drank the offered glass.
Nick Moss released a chuckle that sounded as surprised as Raven's had earlier. The two conversed a little bit more, but about nothing of major importance, mostly just small talk. Eventually, Raven thanked Nick for speaking with her before leaving his bedroom.
The last human P.I. in LA watched her go with a pleased smile flashed on a mouth surrounded by what might as well have been brown kudzu weed. In his life, people he had successfully helped were few and far between, so he took any minor success with anyone as a win. Sometimes wins felt as unlikely as a mummy at a tiki torch barbecue. As a result he savored the flavor of this win as he changed into his pajamas.
Barely dwelling on the fact he was about to sleep in a house full of monsters, he began to count sheep. He allowed his mind, often as tense as his endlessly twitchy body, to relax. Soon enough all conscious thought had slipped away. He was truly able to find some peace.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Said peace only lasted about as long as a feminine voice screamed at the top of its lungs. Instincts hardwired into his very core forced Nick to rise to his feet and throw his trench coat full of monster repellents over his nightwear.
Nick Moss rushed out into his living room, ready but not eager to battle whatever kind of snatcher had snuck into his house. When he was in that room, he didn't believe his eyes.
And that was the seventh true chapter of this story! As always, I hope you liked it.
I hope you can forgive this chapter being so much shorter than the bulk of them but this chapter was one of the last ones thought of. It originally didn't exist. But my writing partner, Crossover4, pointed out that Raven needed more development given what happens later in the story. And reluctantly, I agreed. So, what did you think of her interplay with Nick and what it revealed about both of them?
It's kind of funny actually. Originally, I intended for Giganta to be the protagonist. But as I wrote this story, I ended up thinking that Raven made for a better focal character overall. She's got more issues to dive into at this point and she is the leader of this team in a situation that she struggles with but rises to nevertheless.
To those of you wondering, the music that Toru sings to herself at the start of this chapter is from the YouTube video "CLASS 1-A RAP CYPHER" by RUSTAGE. This was both a shout out and also a way to show that this chapter and the next one occur at the same time…at least until I included the little recap in bold at the start of each new scene. But still, I think this works because it's something that Toru would do. And Toru's exploring stuff about herself kind of comes up in the next chapter. So, win-win, I guess. Lol
Now, you might have noticed Raven's musings on the Organization's powers of necromancy. This doesn't have any relevance for this story but it's vital for Ultima. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why the Organization is so dangerous. I won't go into why here but I will say that this concept will be explored thoroughly. So…does that idea excite you in any way? And can you guess how they use it?
So, that's it for the seventh chapter of this story! Remember, if you give this chapter at least ten reviews, then you'll get chapter eight sooner! If not, then you have to wait two weeks. In the next chapter, you'll see Machi and Toru talking with Jane Stitch, why Jane has been uncomfortable around Machi, and the truth about the gastrointestinal abilities of meat golems!
Until next time, please read, REVIEW, favor, follow, spread the word, and REVIEW!