Taking Back the Crown

by JCMorrigan

Mozenrath. Archibald Snatcher. Roman Torchwick. Mad Madam Mim. Yzma. The Huntsman. Wuya. Ayam Aghoul. Their mission: take over the multiverse, or look fabulous trying. Rated M for swearing, steamy implications and VERY bloody battles. Contains slash and het shipping.

144. Friends in High Places

A/N: For this one, you'll want to know the song "Cabin Fever" from Muppet Treasure Island. Yes. You read that right.

...

There were little divots carved into Papyrus' arms from his near-meltdown. Very shallow, not noticeable if you didn't know what you were looking for. But he knew what his own forearm looked like, and this wasn't it. This was marred.

Gently, he dug his bony fingertips into the little grooves, tracing them down the length of his arm. Feeling the bumps where his matter had pooled at the end of each trail.

That wasn't even the real scar he'd been left with, though. Because unbidden, no matter how he tried to resist it, the same scene played in his head repeatedly.

Bang. The bullet hole in Andy's forehead. He slumped over, dead.

Bang. The bullet hole in Andy's forehead. He slumped over, dead.

Then a little respite before: bang.

Papyrus thought back to days in Snowdin. Once, when he was very young, he'd made a friend in town, and they'd loved to play in the snow together, building sculptures and having snowball fights. Then, one day, without warning, that friend was gone. Sans, who was a bit older by then, simply told Papyrus that his friend had moved away and that was all there was to it.

Papyrus had written letters for months, posting them to the Hotlands where Sans had said his friend had gone. Never did he get a response. Then he learned how to write return addresses, and the first envelope he posted with his home's address on it was returned.

Eventually, he'd found out the truth. His friend had died: an accident in the snow. Sans had thought Papyrus too young to handle the news. Or maybe just too immature. There had been a rift between the brothers for months before Papyrus realized he had to accept Sans, flaws and all.

He was realizing now that maybe Sans had correctly assessed his entire character, for the rest of his life, because even though he knew people could die, he had a hard time dealing with it in person. He still missed Amaterasu if he thought to hard about it. But at least he hadn't seen the killing blow be struck. He could change the story in his own head.

He'd heard a bang, then seen a bullet hole in a man's head, and then –

"Hey."

Jenna was waving her hand in his face. "Earth to Papyrus?" she joked.

He was sitting on a stool at the counter of the Hot Kettle, as was Ven. It was after hours, but all that meant was that their little group could have some privacy while they talked things over. Katie and Holt were nearby as well; they and Jenna had put pieces together and realized that some of the things they couldn't explain about Ven and Papyrus were perhaps inexplicable for bigger reasons than they knew. So now Ven was trusting them, telling them the whole story of who they were and where they came from, and somewhere along the way, Papyrus had gotten distracted and started thinking about bullet holes again.

"You okay?" Ven asked. And Papyrus could read from Ven's expression that he already knew what the answer was.

"I'M…" His shoulders slumped. "I'M STILL PROCESSING ALL OF THIS, REALLY."

"No one could blame you," Katie told him. "What you saw just wasn't an easy thing to see."

"When you two get back home," Holt commanded, "you be sure and get the help you need to work this out. That's an order."

"And you almost just died right there, right?" Jenna asked.

"JENNA," Katie snapped.

Jenna flinched. "Sorry. What I'm saying is you had it rough. My guess is you've got a lot of things to talk through with a pro, or whoever your support system is back home."

"I'm…not doing as well as I'm putting on," Ven admitted. "But I just want to forget about it. About the fact that I almost…" His voice became a whisper. "I almost lost you. And no matter what, that's not something I could ever get over."

"VEN, I'M FLATTERED," Papyrus replied, "BUT YOU KNOW THE WHOLE REASON WE CAME ALL THIS WAY WAS SO THAT YOU COULD FIND THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT AND REASONS TO LIVE. YOU CAN'T JUST THROW THAT AWAY IF I'M GONE. I MEANT WHAT I SAID."

After a pause, Ven said, "Maybe we should talk about it more later, back at the hotel."

"If you two gotta go, we're fine," Jenna told him. "After all, we still have to let it sink in that apparently you're alien monsters with magic fantasy swords." She shrugged playfully. "But a friend's a friend."

"If it weren't for you," Katie went on, "then I could've been…" She shook her head. "I don't even like to think about it. I owe you one. And not just for saving me. For believing in me when you first got started on investigations. And even though I know you didn't believe in me at the end…I could tell how disappointed you were in that fact. I'd have felt the same way about a true friend. No matter who or what you are, I appreciate that you were there for me."

"You're a couple'a good eggs," Holt said. "What you do is outside my scope. I'm just an old man; this island's as big as I need my world to be. But from what I understand, you're the harbormasters for a much bigger ocean, and you've got the hearts for it. I'll be thinkin' of ya after you shove off."

"YOU KNOW," Papyrus realized, "WE COULD SET THINGS UP SO YOU COULD COME VISIT. MAYBE EVEN JOIN US ON OUR ADVENTURE!"

"Got too much to take care of here," Holt reminded him. "'Specially now that I know those smugglers are still out there."

"And I've still got this place." Jenna gestured around herself at the café. "Not to mention…well…maybe I made some mistakes I need to clear up." This, with a pointed look at Katie.

"No," Katie told her. "I'm the one who made mistakes. But…if you're willing to try things again…"

"Let's start out with friends and see where it goes," Jenna said with a wink.

Katie nodded somberly. "I'll do better this time. I promise."

"I'm so glad you guys are all friends now!" Ven said with a wide smile.

"Your fault," Jenna laughed. "Anyway, you guys want some food for the road? Late-night heroes' special."

"I'LL TAKE JUST ONE MUFFIN," Papyrus said. "BUT YOU HAVE TO LET ME PAY FOR IT."

"Same here," Ven agreed.

As Jenna stepped behind the counter to wrap up the baked goods, Katie asked, "Will you be heading out right away?"

Ven looked to Papyrus. "Could we maybe have…one more day? Or even just the morning."

"I MEAN, WE HAVE BEEN SPENDING A LOT OF OUR TIME GETTING OURSELVES IN DANGER AND SOLVING NON-RECREATIONAL PUZZLES," Papyrus agreed. "WE NEED SOME TIME TO REALLY RELAX."

Jenna placed the muffins on the counter, each in its own pastry box. "You stop by," she said, "and I'll make sure the last food you get on this island is the best you've ever had in your life. And I mean that as a threat. Nothing you ever eat again will ever be as good."

Ven giggled; "We'll take it. Thanks."

"THEN WE'LL SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW!" Papyrus waved as he slid off the stool, taking up his muffin box.

"Yeah!" Ven did the same.

"Just go get some rest, you guys," Katie urged.

Ven and Papyrus departed. Holt let out a big sigh. "So. What're we gonna do now that we know things the whole rest of the world ain't even s'posed to know?"

"Well, since the three of us do know," Jenna suggested, "we've gotta lean on each other."

"Though I really wonder if this is the first time," Katie mused. "I kind of want to do some research and see if there are other phenomena that line up with the theory of other worlds crossing with our own. I'll share what I find, of course."

"You always did have to be the smarty-pants," Jenna teased. "But I trust you to dig something up."

"I'm not saying I'm not smart," Katie replied. "But I will say that I have no idea what I'm doing in a kitchen."

Holt chuckled. "I give it two weeks max before you girls are back to kissin'."

Katie and Jenna glared at him, but playfully.

Meanwhile, beneath the dark skies of the misty night, Ven and Papyrus were taking the leisurely path back to the Tide Rolling Inn. At first, they were both silent, unsure how to proceed.

Then Ven piped up. "Papyrus…I…I want to tell you something. I'm not sure if it means what I think it means. But now that I know about it, I don't think I can hide it any longer."

"YOU CAN TELL ME ANYTHING," Papyrus promised him.

Ven smiled softly. "That's the thing. It's about you. You put this all together for me, and the whole time we've been here…you've made me happy. Just by being there. You're one of the best friends I've ever had. I found my light again because of you."

"NO, VEN. YOU FOUND YOUR LIGHT IN YOURSELF. I KNOW BECAUSE I SAW IT HAPPEN!"

"It's just – " Ven fumbled the words. "When you were…dying in front of me. I hadn't felt that scared since…since I learned I was half of a weapon that could destroy everything. All I wanted to do was protect you, get you out of there, even if it meant I wouldn't make it. And now…I really do want to make it. I just can't stand the thought of anything bad happening to you. That's kinda been bothering me ever since I learned how easily monsters can be killed. What if I have to lose you someday? What'll I do then?"

"WELL, I AM HARD TO REPLACE," Papyrus teased. "BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, YOU'LL FIND A WAY. BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU."

"You're just so amazing," Ven said. "And I…I've been realizing something. At first, I didn't know what to call it. But now I just might have an idea. It's a big thing, though, and I don't want to ruin anything by calling it out. Especially if it turns out I'm wrong."

Papyrus simply didn't have any idea what he was talking about. Even though later, looking back, he should've known by then. But he'd convinced himself it was impossible. "I THINK IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, THEN YOU SHOULD SAY IT," he urged. "I PROMISE WHATEVER IT IS, I WON'T JUDGE YOU."

Ven was quiet a while. Then he forced it out: "I think I…like you."

"…I WOULD HOPE YOU LIKED ME, OR ELSE THIS ENTIRE TRIP WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY AWKWARD TO SPEND WITH SOMEONE YOU DIDN'T EVEN LIKE."

"No…it's not like that," Ven corrected. "You were my friend before. But now, I think I…I LIKE you. I REALLY like you. I…" His voice was barely audible. "Maybe even love you."

"I GET WHAT YOU'RE SAYING," Papyrus sighed. "AFTER ALL WE'VE BEEN THROUGH, IT'S ONLY UNDERSTANDABLE OUR FRIENDSHIP SHOULD BE STRONGER THAN EVER." He gave a somewhat dejected sigh. "AND THAT WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH. ANYTHING ELSE, I'LL GET OVER."

"No!" Ven snapped. "I mean I LIKE you in the way Aqua likes Rosalina and Sora likes Riku! Do you get it now?"

And Papyrus froze. Because he got it. "VEN…ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

Ven flinched. The edge disappeared from his voice. "…Yeah. I get how that might make things awkward now."

"UM…VEN…WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF I TOLD YOU THAT I KIND OF…MAYBE…SORT OF…" Papyrus was clacking his fingertips together. "LOVEDYOUTHISWHOLETIME?"

The double take Ven did was almost theatrical. "WHAT? And you didn't TELL ME?"

"WELL, WOULD YOU HAVE WANTED THAT KIND OF PRESSURE?" Papyrus asked. "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR TRIP TO FEEL BETTER. I REMEMBER MAKING SOMEONE FALL IN LOVE WITH ME, AND FEELING THE GUILT WHEN I SIMPLY COULDN'T LOVE THEM BACK AND I KNEW THEY WOULD BE PINING FOR THE REST OF THEIR NATURAL LIFE. I COULDN'T DO THAT TO YOU, NOT AT ALL!"

"So we both…" Ven's eyes widened. "Papyrus, do you…" Even in the dark, it was clear to see he was blushing furiously. "Do you wanna date?"

"OF COURSE I DO!" Papyrus blurted. "AND FOR YOU, I'LL MAKE IT EVEN MORE SPECIAL THAN BEFORE! I'LL READ UP EXTRA HARD! YOU WILL BE DATED THE WAY YOU'VE NEVER BEEN DATED BEFORE IN YOUR LIFE!"

"I've never been on a date in my life once."

"OH. THAT'S A LOW BAR. I'M STILL GOING TO GIVE YOU THE BEST, THOUGH. BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT."
"You don't have to," Ven told him. "Just…let's keep doing what we were doing, but now that we know. I'm not sure if that's how dating's supposed to work, but that's what feels…right."

Papyrus let out a sigh of relief. "TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, I ALWAYS GOT NERVOUS ABOUT THE PAGEANTRY. BUT IF YOU JUST WANT TO DO FRIEND THINGS UNDER THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE 'FRIEND' LABEL BUT RATHER THE 'BOYFRIEND' LABEL, THAT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY."

"And…and we could…" Ven shifted. "I mean, you already know I don't do…certain things."

"OF COURSE," Papyrus said with a nod. "I DON'T, EITHER. THIS WORKS OUT VERY WELL IN THAT RESPECT. ANY BED WE SHARE IN IS FOR SLEEPING, CUDDLING, AND TELEVISION-WATCHING ONLY. THOUGH CUDDLING DOES SOUND NICE."

"Oh, yeah, to me too!" Ven agreed. "But…how do you feel about…holding hands?"

"IT SOUNDS VERY FAVORABLE!"

"And…and kissing?"

Papyrus scraped a toe in the dirt. "WELL, THAT WOULD BE RATHER DIFFICULT, AS I DO NOT HAVE ANY LIPS."

"But…I do, so I could kiss you. But only if you wanted it."

"THAT…ACTUALLY SOUNDS LIKE A VERY GOOD IDEA. DO YOU WANT TO…TRY IT NOW?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"ALL RIGHT." Papyrus moved in closer to Ven. "WHENEVER YOU'RE READY. YOU'LL TELL ME IF I'M DOING THIS WRONG, WON'T YOU?"

"I will. But you won't. Okay, so…if you're good, then…"

Ven reached up, gently wrapping his arms around Papyrus, using the back of one hand to nudge Papyrus' skull lower and close the height gap between them. Which Papyrus did, somewhat nervously.

Then, to his bony teeth, Ven pressed his mouth delicately. And it was very, very nice.

After only a short time, Ven pulled away. "Was that…good?"

"I DIDN'T ACTUALLY REALIZE I MIGHT LIKE KISSING. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? IT IS GOOD!"

"Good!" Ven's face lit up. "Then this'll work!"

"WOULD YOU MAYBE WANT TO HOLD HANDS THE REST OF THE WAY BACK TO OUR ROOM?"

"Sure thing. We can do way more snuggling when we get there."

Their hands interlocked. They continued to walk. The road took them along the beach for a stretch, so they both looked out at the misty ocean.

Suddenly, a dark shape, bobbing up out of the water.

"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus cried, pointing. "IS THAT…?"

"Caddy?" Ven said in utter disbelief.

The shape bobbed. Then leapt. It was far too small and whale-shaped to be a sea monster. Gracefully it hit the water and sank down in again.

Ven gasped; "Our friend!"

"SHE MADE IT OUT!" Papyrus cheered. "…HOPEFULLY THE ENTIRE TOWN DOESN'T START ANOTHER FIGHT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH HER NOW."

"I kinda get the feeling they'll know how to work it out this time," Ven said.

"YOU KNOW…I THINK YOU'RE RIGHT."

...

Sorey led Velvet, Yang, Harley, and Giovanni down a tree-lined path to a secluded estate. It looked to be one of the larger houses in town.

"Well, here it is," Velvet announced. "Home, sweet home."

Out of habit, she looked to the spot in the front yard where Celica and her son would've normally been buried in the waking world. But it was instead a small vegetable patch. Velvet let out a sigh of relief.

"Velvet!" A woman with a long dark ponytail that streamed behind her like a comet-tail burst from the house, rushing toward her, arms out.

"Whoa!" Yang reeled. "Is that your sister? You two look so much alike!"

"We always used to hear that," Velvet muttered, smiling.

Celica finally reached Velvet, enveloping her in a tight embrace. "How was your trip?" she asked. "And where's Laphicet?"

"He stayed behind, but he'll catch up," Velvet explained. "How were things here? Is Maotelus still terrorizing his father?"

"I wouldn't say 'terrorizing,'" Celica laughed.

"I would use the word 'hounding.'" This came from a man in white, tall, bearing a platinum-blond ponytail. "But I can't blame him for wanting to follow his parents around. He's a curious child, much like Laphicet was at that age."

Velvet looked to this man, her brother-in-law, with eyes that were now aware of having seen this perfect version of him in her dreams and the horribly imperfect version of him in the waking world. "Artorius," she said softly.

"Velvet!" The man chuckled. "I've told you. It's 'Arthur' now. I've left all that behind. Surely on your travels, you saw enough of the Abbey to understand why I defected."

If only it had been so easy, in real life. "I've seen more than enough," Velvet confirmed.

"And so have innumerable men," Arthur replied, blanching as he turned to look away from Velvet. "Why did you think wearing that would be a good idea?"

"Arthur!" Celica lightly swatted her husband on the forearm. "Velvet's an adult! She can wear what she wants!"

"I don't want our little sister to get hurt or taken advantage of!" Arthur argued.

"Are you really saying that?" Velvet posed. "Or are you saying that you still haven't grown out of the Abbey's preoccupation with covering one's shame?"

"Velvet?" Celica suddenly asked. "Is everything all right? You seem…different."

"A little moodier," Arthur noted. "If something bad happened out there, then you can tell us."

Velvet sighed. "No. I just…woke up, that's all. Everything's fine. Things…will probably go back to normal soon anyway."

"Well, if you're sure," Celica said. "Oh, and I see you've met Sorey! So are you going to introduce us to your friends?"

"I'm Harley!" Harley hopped up and down, waving.

"Yang," Yang said casually.

"I'm Giovanni," Giovanni said, "but you can call me 'Giovanni the Awesome' if you want."

Velvet's brow furrowed. "How do you know Sorey?"

"Sorey came here on a pilgrimage from the Abbey," Arthur explained. "He informed me that the Abbey holds no ill will toward my defection, which surprises me, since I thought at least Melchior would hold a grudge, but I won't complain. He's had work to do with the malakhim at the Shrine of Tranquility, so we've been giving him a place to stay and eat."

"In exchange for a little help with Maotelus," Celica admitted. "Sorey is such a good babysitter! Maotelus really looks up to him!"

"It's…more like the other way around," Sorey said. "Arthur and Celica? Could Maotelus and I have some time to talk with Velvet and her friends? It's really important."

The married couple exchanged glances. "All right," Celica relented. "But then we get our sister back at dinnertime so we can hear all her stories!"

"Hopefully Laphi will have caught up as well," Arthur suggested.

"Great!" Sorey said. "We're just gonna head on upstairs. See you in a bit!"

The inside of the house was very cozy, with a small kitchen and deep-tan wooden walls. Celica and Arthur made their way to the kitchen to put on some food while Sorey led the way to the upper level.

"Y'know," he remarked, "your house kinda reminds me of my home back in Elysia."

"Elysia?" Giovanni repeated. "Huh. Musta been the one place in this world we didn't visit."

"Oh," Sorey realized. "That, uh…I'll explain about that."

Meanwhile, Harley put a hand on Velvet's shoulder, whispering into her ear, "You doin' okay?"

"I…I don't know," Velvet admitted. "I obviously brought Artorius into this dream because I wished that I could've had a life with him and Celica in it, happy together, where he wasn't the man I knew. But looking at him and remembering what happened in the real world…I'm not sure how to reconcile the Dream Eater I wanted him to be with the memory of the man who took everything from me."

"That's fair," Harley replied. "I think that kinda thing'll take some time to sort out. If nothin' else, sounds like ya could always go back on the road if it gets too weird here."

"I might just," Velvet muttered.

Sorey led Velvet, Yang, Harley, and Giovanni into the guest bedroom, where a small boy with Artorius' platinum-blond hair color was looking over a book written in an ancient language. He was dressed in a billowing white tunic, and he looked almost fragile, the smile on his face speaking of a deep innocence.

"Maotelus?" Sorey greeted, closing the bedroom door behind them. "We're here."

"Oh!" The boy looked up from his book. "Velvet! You're back!" He hastily stuffed the book under his pillow.

"It's good to see you," Velvet said. Then she got to business, nodding her head toward Sorey; "Is he treating you all right?"

"More than all right!" Maotelus told her. "He's taking care of me now. And I really needed it."

Velvet folded her arms. "If he does anything to hurt you, I want to know about it immediately."

"Why are you so suspicious of…" Maotelus cocked his head to the side. Then his face fell. "Oh. You figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Velvet asked. "Is he some kind of impostor?"

"Whoa, whoa!" Sorey put up both hands. "It's not like that!"

"Velvet," Maotelus said flatly, "he's from the real world. And so am I."

The implications, the revelation, hit Velvet like a rolling boulder. "What…what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm not your Dream Eater," Maotelus explained. "I took his place. Velvet…it's me. The real me. The one who went with you on your adventure."

Velvet's eyes were wide as they could be; her skin was pale as snow. "Phi…"

She rushed forward suddenly, scooping him into a tight embrace. "Phi!" she repeated, tears in her eyes.

"Okay, remind me again?" Giovanni said. "So his name is Maotelus here, but it's Laphicet when he's awake, but he's not OUR Laphicet, so she calls him 'Phi' for short because the other one is 'Laphi' when he's not Innominat? Because let me tell you, I am so confused right now."

"Let's just go with 'Maotelus' for me," Maotelus said as Velvet finally let go of him. "I've been using that name for a while now."

"What are you doing here?" Velvet asked. "Why did you come into the dream? Did something go wrong in our world?"

"Velvet, I…" Maotelus shut his eyes, tears welling. "I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY! I MESSED UP REALLY BIG! I THOUGHT I WAS DOING IT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS, BUT I JUST MISSED YOU SO MUCH, AND I GOT ANGRY BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE, SO THEN WHEN PEOPLE DID BAD THINGS, I – I – I WAS JUST AS BAD AS INNOMINAT!" He began to sniffle and bawl.

"Oh, Phi," Velvet replied, "you couldn't have. I know you. You're overreacting."

Maotelus was too grief-stricken, preoccupied with wiping away his tears, to respond. So Sorey took the reins: "There's…something you should know, Velvet. A lot of things, actually. First of all, you've been gone for a thousand years."

She gasped, her whole body flinching. "A THOUSAND?"

"I'm from your world," Sorey explained, "but it's so different that it doesn't feel like our two worlds are the same. I've been tracking the geography of your world compared to mine, and you wouldn't believe some of the differences! Lothringen is a desert now, and there's a whole town set up in the Tower of the Exorcists. Your capital, Loegres, it looks so much more beautiful now. In my version, it's called 'Pendrago,' and it's a lot more…austere. But the fountain stayed the same! What's really cool, though, is that the capital of the other big kingdom in my world is built right on the ruins of this village we're in right now! I've been trying to pinpoint exactly where your house would be on a map of Ladylake…I think you might be in the Nobles' District? Oh, and what really gets me is that so many of the ruins I know in my time don't even exist in yours, meaning they were built during a time period neither of us knows about, so – "

"Is there a point to this?" Velvet snapped.

"Oh, sorry." Sorey's expression became sheepish. "See…in my time, I'm something called a 'Shepherd.' I guess Artorius was the first one. When I met him, I was honored to carry on his tradition, but then Maotelus told me about the real Artorius, and…I feel kind of guilty, knowing that he started the tradition of the Shepherd to keep people in line. Where I'm from, or when I'm from, the Shepherd exists to serve as a bridge between humans and malakhim, and protect them both. Believe me, I was just as surprised to learn that the first Lord of Calamity was actually kind of in the right. Nowadays, the Lord of Calamity is a force of pure evil and destruction."

"So Artorius' legacy carried on," Velvet realized, "even after his lies were exposed. And mine became the title of a pariah." She sniffed. "I can't say I'm surprised."

"They say history's written by the winners," Yang volunteered.

"The thing is the reason why I became a Shepherd," Sorey explained. "See, in my time – "

"I'll tell it." Maotelus' voice was flat, even. "Velvet, after you went to sleep with Innominat, I took over as the fifth Empyrean in his place. If you saw me in the real world, I'd look a lot more like a dragon than a child. I took the name Eleanor gave me when she became my vessel. Remember? But then…I did something bad. Being an Empyrean was a lot lonelier than I thought it would be. You were gone, and then Eleanor died, and then Magilou lived a lot longer through her oaths but she died too, then Rokurou died, and then Eizen became a dragon…and he's dead now, too, but he wasn't when I messed everything up."

"Waaaaiiiit, waitwaitwait." Giovanni put up a hand. "So you're a thousand years old? You don't sound like it."

"It's easier to look and sound like this when I'm talking to Velvet," Maotelus admitted. "For her to understand and for me to be. It feels comfortable."

"Phi," Velvet asked in a low voice. "What did you do?"

"I…I started an Age of Chaos," Maotelus revealed. "I corrupted the world. I just got so angry because I was all alone, and just when I was starting to make new friends at the Empyrean's Throne, then they had to go and fight because of their war, and they took over my sacred place and they – they killed someone, Velvet! So they could put a curse on somebody else to live just as lonely as I was, forever!"

"That's awful!" Harley gasped. "If I were a god an' that happened ta me, I'd probably mess up my world, too!"

"I almost destroyed everything," Maotelus admitted. "I was happy because I thought that meant I could see you again. That either you'd wake up when you didn't have your world to protect anymore, or I could come into your dream. But Sorey was the one who figured out how much hurt I was going through. He went on a big adventure, like we did together. And he promised to help me. He came here, into the dream with me, so we could fix things together. I just feel bad because I had to make him leave his friends behind – "

"It's okay," Sorey reassured. "I'm here to make a better world for them. I'm still holding you to our promise that you can make the malakhim visible to humans again."

"I will!" Maotelus said with conviction. "I swear I will! It's just gonna take a lot of time while you get used to things."

"Okay, so let me see if I have this down," Yang said. "A thousand years ago, Velvet and Laphicet had to go to sleep and dream all this so they wouldn't break the world. So now you and Sorey are doing the same thing?"

"Basically, yeah," Sorey said. "Actually, that was the first news we wanted to give when we showed up. Velvet…Maotelus and I are here now. You know what that means, right?"

"That I have company?" Velvet sniffed. "You'll forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy about it."

"No," Sorey told her. "It means you can leave. You and Innominat don't have to hold the balance anymore. Maotelus and I are doing it in your place. And when we're done, then the world we leave behind won't need any Empyreans or Therions or Shepherds to go into sleep like this. Everyone can stay awake. But right now…you can just wake up. You and your sibling. You two can go."

Velvet gasped, unsure at first how to respond. "So…if I stop feeding on Innominat's power, and he stops feeding on mine…"

"Nothing bad will happen," Sorey told her. "Trust me. Maotelus and I have talked over everything that could go wrong."

Harley gasped; "VELVET! You can come home with us!" She clapped rapidly. "We don't have to leave ya behind!"

Velvet was stunned momentarily. Then she shook her head. "No…no! Not after I've finally found them and reconnected with them. Magilou, Eleanor, Rokurou, Eizen…I…I can't lose them! Hearing how you felt when they died one by one made me realize that I'm going to a world without them, and…and I…"

"You don't wanna leave your friends behind," Sorey filled in. "But Velvet, about that – "

"I KNOW!" Velvet roared. "You're going to tell me that they aren't real! That they're just Dream Eaters! But they're the only memories I have of the people who cared about me in a world that hated me!" Her hands, balled into fists, shook. "It almost seems like some kind of heresy. Even Celica and Artorius…I remember the real world, living without Celica, living with no desire to do anything to Artorius but make him regret ever having lived! But Magilou and Eleanor…and Rokurou and Eizen…they're just like I remember…even Bienfu is like I remember. They're the last bit of happiness that I had in the real world that stays the same in this dream. I…I can't leave them now…I just can't…"

"Velvet, you have to listen!" Maotelus urged. "That's not what we're saying! What we're saying is that they can go with you if they want!"

Velvet flinched. "What…?"

"It has to do with your new friends," Maotelus explained. "Right after Sorey came here, things started getting weird. Someone opened up a rift from the outside and used it to bring you, Laphicet, and your Dream Eaters out. Rokurou, Eizen, Magilou, Eleanor, and even Bienfu. They existed in the real world, and thanks to the arte that was used to bring them out, they stayed stable. They're the only five Dream Eaters in all your world who have the power to leave this dream and still be themselves."

"So you can go on more adventures together!" Sorey said. "Which is awesome!"

Velvet was silent, gaping.

"But you knew about us coming here, too," Yang realized. "Any chance you could help us get out?"

"Of course," Maotelus said. "I can do that easy. And don't worry. Sorey and I tracked all the portals that got opened from the outside and everyone who got thrown in. You found them all. I'm sorry I was only able to give a few clues at a time, though."

Harley gasped with realization; "YOU'RE the reason I was dreamin' of where everyone was!"

"I wanted to help you find your friends," Maotelus said. "And…and for Sorey and me to do our work, it'll be easier if you're back awake."

"YA HEAR THAT?" Harley shrieked. "WE CAN GO HOME!"

"But what about our family?" Velvet asked. "And the crew of the Van Eltia? They'll all notice we're gone."

"Not exactly," Sorey told her. "See, Maotelus has a lot of power in this world. He can – well, why don't you tell her?"

"I can rewrite the Dream Eaters' memories so they don't miss you," Maotelus explained. "I can make it so Celica and Arthur keep thinking you're gone and will come home soon, even if you never do. I can even erase their memories of you at all so they won't know there's somebody missing. But I'm guessing you wouldn't like if I did that."

"It's not like I can stop you," Velvet told him. "Once Laphi and I are gone, you can do what you want."

"I can do more, too," Maotelus went on. "Harley, I'll bring all your friends straight here, to the Shrine of Tranquility. That shrine will be your gateway back to the real world. Though this dream is a pretty deep dive, so it might feel like time is distorted on the way out. Even if it feels like it's taking forever, I promise you'll end up awake only a few days after you showed up. I'll put the explanation in everyone's heads so you don't have to catch them up. And Velvet, I can do that for your friends, too, so all you have to do is ask yes or no."

"What they decide will tell you whether I stay or go," Velvet grunted.

"That's fair," Sorey said. "If you really wanna hang around, since you're a native to the world and you and Laphicet are written in the earthpulse, it won't interrupt us too much. But also, if you wanna get out there and explore…then this is your chance. Believe me, I know I would!"

Velvet gave a "Hm" and a smirk. "You remind me of Laphi. You know that?"

"Uh…thanks?" Sorey replied.

"It's a compliment," Velvet assured.

"I sure hope your pals decide to come back with us," Harley said. "That Magilou's a real scream!"

"And Eizen GETS it," Yang added.

"And we could use all the badass Rokurou power we can carry!" Giovanni piped up.

"Also, Eleanor," Harley said. "We gotta finish her corruption arc!"

"If you decide to leave," Maotelus went on, "then everything daemon about you will be replaced with the qualities of a Nightmare. Laphicet will still be Innominat but also have Dream Pieces in him. The others will be Dream Eaters, and they'll mostly be the same except for some extra powers. You know what that means, Velvet? You can have your sense of taste back!"

"DO IT!" Giovanni yelled. "You can't spend the rest of your life UNABLE TO TASTE SOUP!"

"Our priorities," Yang snarked.

"I…" Velvet hung her head. "I don't deserve this. Why are you giving me such a chance? I'm the Lord of Calamity. You said yourself that in my wake, I left something evil."

"No," Sorey told her. "You took something evil and used it to do a bit of good. Everyone else who got the same circumstances didn't choose the path you did. It shows you were the strongest of all the Lords of Calamity, because no matter how much evil was in you, you chose to…well, not be good, but redirect all that violence to something that mattered. And if you think about it, then I think the only reason I was able to have such a good journey of my own, full of happiness and laughter, is because you paved the way for it. And you had to go through so much pain. I honestly feel bad that everything worked out so good for me when you had to – "

"Save it," Velvet spat. "You're saying you got an advantage over me and a happier life? Then don't waste it feeling guilty about something you can't control! Start thinking about how you want to finish out that life! Do you want to be kicking yourself? Or do you want to be living?"

"There," Sorey said with a smile. "That's what I mean."

"Well, Velvet?" Maotelus prompted. "What do you think?"

Velvet looked to Harley.

"Don't ask me," Harley said. "This one's your call. The other Heathens, we're all gettin' outta here with or without you. An' it'd be real sad to say goodbye, but we got stuff to do in the real world."

Velvet looked down at the floor. Weighing everything. Her life here in Aball, with Celica and Arthur –

False imitations. Reminders that in the real world, she couldn't save one, and the other was rotten to the core.

The world she'd journeyed –

Now she could see clearly that she'd been through it a hundred times over, even made it to the far continent, and simply reset her memories anew upon each journey. She'd seen all there was to see.

The sense of betrayal that would come with leaving this world –

Well, that made no sense to harp on, especially for a daemon. Or a Nightmare.

"It's like I said," she resolved. "My decision depends on the others. Bring them around, and we'll ask."

Maotelus nodded. "Okay. We'll meet them at the Shrine. Let's go!"

"See?" Giovanni posed as Yang and Harley traded smiles. "Crime really does pay."

On the way out of the house, they were almost tempted to stay back by the smell of sizzling pork. "Velvet?" Celica asked from the kitchen, where she was mixing spices in a sautée pan while Arthur kept an eye on the meat on the oven. "Where are you all going? You just got back! We're making one of your favorites!"

Maotelus piped up: "We're going to meet up with Laphi! Then we can bring him back for dinner!"

"All right," Arthur replied. "But be sure to come back soon, else we'll have to eat all this food ourselves!"

Sorey and Maotelus led Velvet, Yang, Harley, and Giovanni through the back gate of town, into the Tranquil Woods – a much smaller, more intimate forest than the one that had led the way here. Simple plank bridges spanned bubbling creeks. The sun was even lower in the sky now, painting the trees dusky gold.

"So what happens to the dream if I stop dreaming it?" Velvet asked. "Are you going to make it more like the world you know, a thousand years in my future?"

"Well, Maotelus still remembers what your world is like, so we don't have to," Sorey said. "And to be honest, I wanna see what this world has to offer. Back home, I always loved exploring old ruins and learning the history behind them. This is all the stuff I studied before it was even ruined! I get to see it the way you saw it!"

"Like I said," Velvet told him. "If you change your mind, then I won't be here to tell you no. If I leave, this world is your and Phi's playground."

Harley put a hand on Yang's shoulder; "Excited to be goin' home?"

"You know it," Yang replied. "After we get settled down, I need to find out what happened to Ruby. If she's okay."

"I know your team's important," Harley told Yang. "If you gotta run…well, we had somethin' good, but all things gotta come to an end eventually."

"End?" Yang replied. "No way. Maybe some creative scheduling, but the Heathens are my team now too. And aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" Harley asked.

"You're my girlfriend, silly." Yang shoved her playfully. "I'm not breaking up anytime soon. Not if you don't want to."

"No way!" Harley assured.

A short hike up the hill and the wood gave way to a beautiful open clearing on a cliffside. In the center of the grassy open space was a shrine, broken down by years of disuse, its pillars uneven. A few steps closer and one could see that the circular shrine's floor had given way, leaving a pit that almost looked bottomless, dropping into a black void far below the earth. Off the cliff, the sea sparkled in the setting sun beneath pink and purple skies, the waters stretching as far as the eye could see.

"This is where they'll build Ladylake," Sorey noted. "It'll be beautiful. You should stop by it if you get the chance! And actually…Velvet? Can I ask you a favor?"

"What?" Velvet asked him.

"If you meet someone out there," Sorey told her, "a water seraph with white hair who goes by the name 'Mikleo,' then could you tell him that I miss him and I'm sending him all my best thoughts?"

"Sure -
"And," Sorey said suddenly yet shyly, "that I love him. I…never got to say it properly when we were journeying together. I thought it would be too hard for both of us when I had to say goodbye in the end. But he should know."

"All right," Velvet said. "On the off chance that I run into your boyfriend on the billions of worlds there are out there to explore, then he'll know. But if I end up staying back, you'll have to count on one of them instead."

"Oh, I am SO down!" Giovanni piped up. "Consider your message DELIVERED. On our way to do something unspeakably heinous and illegal, of course. Like stealing a really expensive gift to give to him while we tell him the message…"

The Van Eltia curved into sight, its deck laden. Everyone onboard was looking up to the cliff.

"Well, it's time to make your call," Sorey told Velvet.

"And I'm so, so sorry," Maotelus lamented. "I hope this makes up for all the bad I did."

"Hey." Velvet leaned down to cup his face in one hand. "Remember how no matter how bad I got, you still loved me? You'll always be my little Phi, even if you destroy the world." She straightened up. "Just don't murder anyone I care about and imprison me in a dungeon for three years. That's a deal-breaker."

Maotelus nodded; "Right! I'll take good care of your world whether or not you stay in it. Okay. Here you go."

He cast out a hand, and so did Sorey. A road made of flowing water materialized at the edge of the cliff, cascading down to make a gently sloping ramp right to the Van Eltia's deck.

"Last one there's a REALLY rotten thief!" Giovanni yelled as he made a running leap. His feet hit the water, and he surfed forward at high speed, yelping a "WOOHOOOOOOO!"

"Race ya!" Harley told Yang. "On three! You count."

"Okay," Yang agreed. "One – "

"PSYCHE!" Harley jumped onto the water ramp.

"CHEATER!" Yang hurtled after her.

Then, decisively, Velvet stepped onto the ramp, letting it carry her forward.

They slid down through the sea breeze, deposited on the deck where the Heathens were assembled. "OKAY!" Giovanni called out. "Everyone here clear on the details?"

"WE'RE GOING HOME!" Crusher yelled, and a great cheer went up.

From within the crowd, Laphicet, Rokurou, Eizen, Eleanor, and Magilou walked up to greet Velvet. "We hear you need us to make a decision for you," Eizen told her.

"Yes," Velvet stated. "Where you go, I go. And it needs to be unanimous."

"Well, you can count me in," Eizen said. "I've already seen all of this world that needs to be seen. No point in sailing around a dream to rediscover what's already been discovered for another thousand years. It's what Aifread would want me to do."

"I'm in," Rokurou agreed. "With all the new worlds out there to see, that means a lot stronger things to fight than I can ever find here."

"Velvet," Eleanor said, "I get it now. Why I felt so drawn to you. We knew each other, in another life. The real me is gone now, but the me I am now wants to stay with you."

"Me?" Magilou mused. "Hmm. I just don't know." She smirked. "Eizen, could you lend me that vessel of yours?"

Eizen flipped her the coin; she caught it in one hand. "You flip it," Eizen told her. "If I did, it'd just tell you to stay."

Magilou gave the coin a flip, catching it on the back of her hand. "Well, well. Looks like it's your lucky day. I'm going with you. Which means the entire universe will soon know the grandeur and prowess of Magilou!"

"And if Miss Magilou goes," Bienfu piped up from down below, "then I go too! Or else she'd beat me up…"

"You realize she couldn't beat you up if she was gone," Yang reminded him.

Bienfu's eyes watered; "But then I'd miss her beating me up!"

Velvet nodded toward Laphicet. "Laphi?"

"Artorius brought me to Innominat in order to make a better world," Laphicet replied. "But you taught me that what he wanted was no better world at all. I want to see what there is to judge that up against. I want to know what humanity is truly like. What I tried to suppress. Also, a dream is no place for an Empyrean to live out all eternity. Or a child, for that matter."

"Then we're all set!" Rokurou proclaimed. "On to the next big adventure! It sure was a good run in here, though."

Velvet turned to look back at the Shrine of Tranquility. Maotelus, catching her eye, dissolved the ramp of water, slopping it into the ocean. He and Sorey then made another gesture, and a new water ramp was formed – wide enough to hold the Van Eltia itself, rising up above the Shrine and its deep pit.

"They said the journey could seem like it takes longer than it does," Harley reminded the group.

"Eh, I don't think this group will have any trouble killing time," Firefly responded. "After all, it's basically WHAM ARMY lite."

"Don't advertise us like that!" the Once-ler scoffed. "We're our own flavor! Fresh! Sweet, but with a kick!"

Eizen had seized the helm. "Then off we go," he said. "To chart our own course."

The ship careened up the ramp, and all the ne'er-do-wells with heart that Harley, Yang, Giovanni, and Velvet had rounded up on their journey oohed and aahed as they defied gravity. Eleanor looked down to Sorey and Maotelus, who waved from below, and recognition sparked within her.

"THAT'S MAOTELUS!" she cried. With a fervent wave, she yelled, "HI, MAOTELUS!"

"ELEANOR!" Maotelus called back. "I ALMOST FORGOT! YOU CAN FIND YOUR ORIGINAL MEMORIES IF YOU VISIT LOHGRIN IN GLENWOOD!"

"Lohgrin in Glenwood?" Eleanor repeated. "What does that mean – "

"YOUR WORLD FROM MY TIME!" Sorey yelled. "WATCH THE DROP!"

"The drop?"

The ship had come to the zenith of the ramp. It hung over the black void that extended down through the Shrine of Tranquility. Then it sailed over the edge, nose down, plummeting into the Shrine like a rollercoaster making its first drop.

A chorus of screams. Some out of panic. Many, many out of thrill.

Then the Van Eltia was gone from the dream, on its way to the waking world. Leaving the dream to new inheritors.

...

The Atlesian WHAM ARMY contingent raced through the halls of Atlas Academy. At every turn, more of Ironwood's mindless robots attempted to shoot them down, only to be overcome in mobs at a time in a sequence that seemed ripped directly from a hack-and-slash video game. Zorg and Drakken were only temporarily weak links until the Huntsman peeled away two of the rifles from the androids and handed them over.

Their goal at the present time was to find a sanctuary free of bots. Really, the long-term goal was to find the Vault of the Winter Maiden, but since none of them had any idea where the entrance was, and it was surely very hidden, they had to make a detour in order to ask for directions.

Eventually, they found themselves in the library, where they barricaded the doors so as not to be disturbed by any more mechanical troops. There, Velma found a high place to crawl up to and begin her song.

The spiders that lived in the nooks and crannies of Atlas Academy came surging into the library en masse at the call of their queen. Velma then interrogated them to find out the location of the Vault, and this seemed to take an awful long time for such a simple question, so the others busied themselves by milling about the bookshelves.

The Huntsman found his mind wandering as he ran his fingers over the spines of the lined-up books. This place, far more than Haven, reminded him of his own days in his own "Huntsman Academy." Sterile, austere, rigid. Based on academic hierarchy; social was an afterthought. But where social interactions did come into play…

Old voices in his head.

"I can't believe George made Huntsboy! Did the Huntsmaster give him that out of pity?"

"So what if he sounds scary now? He's still the same old loser he always was!"

"That position belongs to me! I say after class, we stuff him in the Kraken tank and – GEORGE! HOW LONG WERE YOU LISTENING?"

The memory voices were interrupted by a much more real voice: "Erm…Huntsman? Are you…doing okay?"

The Huntsman rounded on the person who'd approached. Drakken, of all people. He let his guard down a bit, since the man was practically harmless. "This place brings back old memories," he explained. "None of them pleasant."

"Hard time in school, huh?"

"Not in the sense of bad grades," the Huntsman explained. "No, I was top of my class. A slayer in the making from the first day I can recall. However…my peers were not fond of my presence in the slightest."

"Bullies, huh?"

"Unfortunately."

"Tell me about it." Drakken rolled his eyes. "I can just hear the whiny little voices of my own tormentors now. 'Oh, how in the world did Drew win the science fair? He must've cheated!' 'Drew thinks that just because he can make killer robots that he can boss us around!' 'Hey, everyone, let's gang up on Drew and throw him in the dumpster out back!'" He scowled. "Idiots and cretins, every last one of them."

The Huntsman was taken aback by just how familiar those taunts had sounded. "Quite. As were mine."

"The only thing in those days that could get me by was my best friends," Drakken mused. "…That is until my best friends became the bullies when we hit college. Then all I had to use as a coping mechanism was my unquenchable rage and thirst for revenge."

"I had no friends," the Huntsman said. "I hardly needed them then. I learned to defend myself. Had I not been required to fight off my tormentors as well as the opponents chosen for our duels by the Huntsmaster, I likely would not have become so skilled half as quickly."

"You know," Drakken realized, "being teased and mocked by everyone always did give me the drive to show them up in the nastiest way possible. You don't suppose being teased by those jerks actually made us better villains in the end, do you?"

"Now that you say so, I am quite certain of it," the Huntsman realized. "I can only hope they regret the monsters they made."

Meanwhile, Neo was also strangely morose, sitting at a study table with one leg crossed delicately over the other and the foot lazily waving, her chin in her hand and low to the table.

"Why, you look positively grim, dear!" Mim said as she twirled on over. "But strangely, I'm not getting any joy from it, so you'd better fix that look up to something I can take schadenfreude in."

Neo just let out a sigh and looked away.

"Well, we can't have that," Mim told her. "Now you're too miserable to make anyone else miserable, and since you're so good at it, it's just a waste of talent. So tell me what's got you in a stir so I can destroy it ruthlessly!"

Neo didn't even know how to begin to convey it. She straightened up, making vague gestures.

"I see, I see," Mim said with a nod. "Lost something. No, ALMOST lost something."

Neo cupped her hands before her. With her power, she conjured a tiny Roman, one swaggering across her palms and bragging as per usual. Then, with a look of pure terror on his face, he was swallowed up by something invisible.

"I think I understand," Mim said. "You lost Roman and you didn't know you'd be getting him back. You can thank the WHAM ARMY for that!" She straightened up smugly, brushing back her lavender hair. "But what's that got to do with now?"

Neo stared at her empty hands a while, then pulled out her scroll in resignation. A noise like nails on chalkboard informed Mim she'd just gotten a text, which she proceeded to read:

"I cant stop thinking about how I might be here without him. In another life you guys never showed up and I never met you and hes dead. This is a place I couldve gone if I never met you and Im thinking about what if that happened. No Roman/no wham army/no family. Stupid right?"

"My dear girl," Mim responded, "a grim and tragic thought is never stupid. As I always say, if you want to do what I do, then first you've got to…" Her tone turned to singing. "Think of a terrible thought! Any ugly, evil thought! Think of blood that's running red, think of people you made dead and people you'll make di-iiie!" She then cleared her throat. "I love a good intrusive thought every now and again. It's almost as good as actually doing something awful or living out something horrible. But I suppose you're not the same as me. After all, we can't ALL be magnificent and marvelous. Roman is alive, though. Right now, he's probably taking up space in the medical bay and acting like an invalid even though he's alive and well because he wants to get the bed next to his boyfriend, and Vexen has to put up with it, and he's getting so GLORIOUSLY furious! You've got a WHAM ARMY now, and we're never going to let you walk away even if you want to! Your life is, for all intents and purposes, DISGUSTINGLY happy!"

Neo was blinking rapidly. Not bothering to waste illusion on hiding the tears forming.

"But even if you did end up here all alone," Mim said, "you'd be WHAM ARMY material anyhow. I think you'd be able to cut it on your own. And cut up everything in your way in the process! I wouldn't worry about a thing."

Neo gave a single sniffle of warning before rushing Mim, engulfing her in a tight hug.

"NOW YOU STOP THAT!" Mim scolded, and yet made no move to pry Neo off other than a light, playful swat. "People might get the wrong idea about me if they see you being grateful to me for something, you know!"

Then there was Aghoul sidling up to the Mukhtar. "So word on the street is you were one of the most deadly in the Seven Deserts," he greeted. "It's a wonder we never crossed paths."

"I had no reason to deal with you at the time," the Mukhtar replied. "You had little to offer me, and no need to take advantage of the resources I offer."

"It's true, I am a self-starter," Aghoul said. "But you and Mozenrath have a past, am I right?"

"We worked in tandem, once," the Mukhtar confirmed. "It did not end amicably. Perhaps that will change this time, so long as agreements are honored on both ends."

"Remind me again which one you were?" Aghoul said as he scratched his head and looked up at the ceiling. "I just realized you're probably not the one I'm thinking of. You never used a mystic amulet to control the weather of the rainforest, did you?"

"No," the Mukhtar replied. "That was another. I am a genie hunter, born of a clan devoted to the capture and occasional extermination of genies. I have devoted my life to the arts that allow me to combat the supernatural and the magical, and I sell my talents to those who have problems with such beings."

After a long pause, Aghoul nudged the Mukhtar with an elbow; "Turns out Mozenrath has a TYPE! HEHEH!"

From across the library came a cry of "GODS DAMN IT, MEL!" as Miltia tried to physically restrain Melanie from approaching the Mukhtar.

"The second time she has barred another from speaking to me about her," the Mukhtar noted.

"Uh-ohhhh, we all know what that means!" Aghoul winked. "Whaddaya think? She is a very fine specimen, especially for one of the living."

"Her appearance and form mean little to me," the Mukhtar said. "My interest is contingent upon what lies beneath. I, unlike you, do not engage in trivial trysssssts." He gave a hiss on that last word.

"Ah, so it's a no, then," Aghoul surmised.

"I did not say that," the Mukhtar replied. "I do not know if she attracts me. Nor do I know if she repulses me. Time will tell if anything is meant to come of it."

"And they say I'M the stiff," Aghoul sniffed.

A skittering; Velma clambered down to ground level. "I've had a lovely chat with the spiders," she began. "Though this is such an awful place for them. Every week the exterminators sweep through, and their strongholds are getting breached – "

"Well, that's just too bad for the itsy bitsy spiders, ain't it?" Zorg interrupted. "Though I don't recall that bein' our problem OR the reason we stopped by!"

Velma scowled at him. "I did get the answer, you know," she huffed. "The way to the Vault is located near the headmaster's office. All we have to do is – "

A sudden shrill noise of microphone feedback. Knowing the precision with which Atlas was run, everyone could tell that the sound was intentional. A way of getting attention.

"Attention, invaders of Atlas Academy." The voice was somewhat deep. Cold, sharp, to the point. "This is General Ironwood of the Atlesian military. You may think you've won, and perhaps you have. You've managed to best Atlas and depower the Ace-Ops. And just when I thought you couldn't get any lower, word reached me of the death of the Winter Maiden. That informed me of exactly what you're after. So. I'm going to let you have it. Effective immediately, all security measures in the academy are disabled. The path to what you want is wide open. You might be thinking this is a trap, and if that's the case, then this is the time for you to abandon this academy while you still have your lives. Otherwise, keep moving forward. I think we all know exactly where you're going. Go there. And take your chances."

A sudden click ended the message.

"You gotta give him credit for determination," Hecate sniffed.

"So he's got a trap set up in the Vault, has he?" Aghoul realized. "How thoughtful of him to give us a choice between a rock and a hard place."

"No doubt, leaving the building will result in our immediate detainment," the Huntsman said. "Or so thinks a man who does not believe we have the power of the undead, the divine, and the macabre on our side."

"Then the choice is clear," the Mukhtar said. "Best his troops outside. Leave empty-handed. Or proceed to the Vault, to those we have been assigned to take revenge upon. Best him there. Win over him and claim the victory we came for."

"Good news is," Hannibal pointed out, "we came all this way to stick it to the Overtakers. Whatever trap's waitin' for us…it ain't gonna be too pretty for them, either. Our little friend in a high place mighta just handed us the key to victory."

"Let's just get this show on the road already," Melanie said with a mild snort.

Velma led the charge this time. True to Ironwood's word, not a single android appeared. Nor a single soul. The emptiness of the building and the implications thereof were not lost upon the group.

The elevator to the Vault was left unlocked, accessible. A platform carried the WHAM ARMY contingent down into a much more high-tech setting than the Haven Vault had been: a dark shaft lit by electric blue lights, culminating in a blue island of tile over a void similar to how Haven had been set up. Here, the Vault door was hiked a great deal off the ground, set in an icy blue wall that was bordered by immense, unmelting ice crystals.

A single person waited for the elevator to hit ground. A single person, making his stand between the WHAM ARMY and the Vault of the Relic of Creation.

The Huntsman stepped forth, drawing his weapon. "And you would be General James Ironwood?"

"No." Hecate floated up to put a hand on the Huntsman's shoulder. "THAT one is from our siege. THAT one doesn't belong here." Her eyes flashed.

"Doesn't belong?" Solus zos Galvus replied, keeping the barrel of Heat and Bluster trained on the Huntsman. "I can assure you, I belong here far more than anyone else in this very kingdom. However, you are correct. What they call me here is Ace Operative Solus zos Galvus. Shall that be the name you refer to me by? Time shall tell."

The huntstaff illuminated green. "Twelve of us," the Huntsman threatened. "One of you."

"What horrible odds for you," Solus quipped. "Also, I'm certain you've guessed the terms of the situation. The General would hardly show up to battle you himself. The man is far, far too much of a coward. It was I who so bravely volunteered to give up my life in our final stand. The Academy has been emptied of all that the General considers human life. I am to hold you off as long as I can while signaling to the General that you have reached the target. At which point, the entirety of Atlas Academy shall be destroyed in a fiery conflagration, and the identity of Solus zos Galvus with it. Such a shame, to have to destroy the academy itself for the good of Atlas. The General shan't be getting over it quickly at all. Indeed…General Ironwood as he has been known is no more, thanks to all of you."

"He's talking in riddles!" Hecate seethed. "He KNOWS something we don't!"

"Then let's beat it out of him!" Aghoul cried.

"Is that so?" Solus raised a brow. "What should interest you far more is what I know that the General does not. After all, his final mistake was to trust me with this very operation. Before we go any further, I invite you to challenge me for the Vault. To harness the stolen powers of the Winter Maiden you so ungraciously slayed, and to open the door to the Relic of Creation. That is, after all, what you have come for, is it not?" He cocked his head. "Then go ahead. Best me."

"Oh, we'll best you, all right," Mim said. "But not for the Vault. We don't have the Winter Maiden powers. We're here to kill the people who do!"

"To kill the one who slayed Fria?" Solus smirked. "Is that so? Then you are saying that were I to drop all aggression, stand aside for you…you would be utterly unable to open the Vault yourselves?"

"Duhhhh," Melanie groaned. "We're, like, the underdogs."

"Those who have sought the power of the Maidens are our enemies," the Huntsman said coldly. "As are you."

"Oh." Solus pretended to have come to a revelation. But really, he'd suspected all along. Only needed confirmation. "Ohhhhh. Then it is my error."

He let his gun fall uselessly to the floor below. Lowered his arm. Stepped aside. Then made a grandiose gesture toward the Vault door; "Do proceed! I shan't halt your mission."

"I will repeat this ONCE MORE," the Huntsman seethed. "We do not possess the power of the Winter Maiden. That is in the hands of our enemy."

Solus gave him a smile. A mischievous smile, yet oddly wistful. He raised a hand above his head, snapping his fingers.

A shockwave of violet-colored magic rippled throughout the Vault, thrumming up into the Academy. The WHAM ARMY contingent flinched, expecting an attack of some sort. Yet nothing seemed to have happened.

"The General's explosives have been rendered sterile," Solus informed them all. "If you are to die here, it shan't be by any of his design."

The Huntsman flinched. "What is it you're truly after?"

"I wished first and foremost to see who it was that took the powers of the Winter Maiden," Solus replied. "You could say it is a personal matter. Of mounting priority, however, is the fact that though I shall not die this day – and never intended to, at that – Solus zos Galvus must perish. After all, as I said, your actions have irrevocably changed the General. There'll be no returning to what he once was…and I congratulate you on such a feat." He bowed playfully. "In fact, I'm almost envious that you managed it before my subterfuge ever could. That said, there shall be utterly no working with him after all this. What he has become, even I could not debase myself to. Which leaves the question: wherever shall I go? The answer lies in the outcome of your feud with those who slayed the Winter Maiden." He spread his arms out to call even more attention to himself. "It's certain to be a wonderful show! You needn't survive; I would waste no time worrying about that. All you need to do is refrain from boring me. I hope you haven't wasted all your pageantry on the siege."

A Corridor of Darkness bloomed behind him. Solus bowed again, retreating backward into the portal. And then it closed.

"We should've had it out with him!" Mim swung her fist angrily.

"No," the Mukhtar cautioned. "He is…toying with us. He wishes to see our mettle before he decides whether he is friend or foe. I believe his terms are legitimate. Should we prevail…or, rather, 'entertain'…"

"Then we may have an ally," the Huntsman said. "But for reasons I cannot discern."

"Well, I think it's obvious," Drakken said. "He wanted to know which side got the Winter Maiden so he could go against them. We have a common enemy."

"And are we just going to ignore the fact that he has MAGIC?" Hecate yelled, floating out in front of the others. "No one native to this world has MAGIC! Salem's the only one you could make a case for, and does that even count? He just used a Corridor of Darkness in front of us! And if all this is about the Winter Maiden, then that means SOMETHING'S going on with him and this vault!"

"Ignore the fact?" Zorg repeated. "I dunno I'd put it that way. After all, when the gift horse yawns, are ya or are ya not ignorin' what's in the mouth?"

"I would not refuse his help, so long as he is willing to give it," the Mukhtar said. "Let us not make a foe of him where one does not exist."

"I concur," the Huntsman said. "If he does prove to be a problem later, then we shall focus on him. As for now…he is offering to throw his hat into the ring for us."

"Well, I don't trust this one bit," Mim said haughtily. "Which is really why it's so exciting. We could all be in horrendous peril!"

"I don't quite see the appeal," Hannibal said, "but if good ol' Mim's happy to be unhappy, then so am I."

"Oh, so am I," Aghoul agreed. "After all, I'd like to see how he or anyone around here would even begin to try killing me!"

"Then it is settled," the Huntsman said. "We await the Overtakers. And possibly the return of Ace Operative Solus."

...

The sigils of the Empyreans Musiphe, Hyanoa, Eumacia, Amenoch and Innominat himself studded the black void leading out of the dream world of Desolation, same way they had done on the dive in. This time, they actually had Innominat on board to marvel at her symbol floating in the air and glowing pure white – the most truly carefree she'd seemed since boarding.

But most good cheer had died down. For though Maotelus had warned of the journey being arduous, he had failed to convey exactly how time itself would seem to have no meaning anymore. Had they been on this ship for a few hours, or a few days? Disorientation regarding the very concept ran rampant.

Jack Sparrow was at the helm now, having talked Eizen into giving it to him, and he'd been in charge of steering for more than half the trip. He chanced a glance down at his crewmates, most of whom were slumped around the deck. Then up to the sails.

"It seems almost as a stagnant wind," he remarked. "The sort that keeps a ship still in the water. We'd best keep our wits about us…wouldn't want to end up infected."

"Infected?" Rokurou called up to him. "Like with the Corsair's Scourge?"

"With the malediction known as 'cabin fever,'" Jack replied. "Many a man has gone mad alone at sea with no drink to temper his head."

"Well, we're not alone," Giovanni pointed out. "That's step one."

"Maybe we just gotta figure out how to kill the boredom," Harley mused.

"It's too la-ha-haaaate!" Globby cried dramatically, flinging himself over several barrels and cascading down them goopily. "The boredom's killing us!"

Several groans from around the deck affirmed the statement. Entrapta was in the process of doing a cat's cradle with her own hair, Ragdoll had taken it upon themself to attempt to curl into a Mobius strip, and Abigail was fervently trying to avoid even looking at the interspace she was in the midst of, as it reminded her of the last time she'd attempted to travel by portal. Mel had wrapped his lab coat around her as she hugged her knees on the deck.

"Looks like we need to party hard," Yang suggested. "Get some tunes going!"

"What tunes?" Sylvie groaned. "We have no stereo equipment, no radio, just Once-ler's guitar."

"I mean, I wouldn't say it's JUST my guitar," the Once-ler replied.

"Hey!" Harley perked up. "Maybe we can all have a big old sing-along! Kinda like a musical number!"

"I'd be down!" Yang said with a grin.

"I am SO on board for this!" Giovanni agreed.

"We don't need to have a sing-along," Velvet grunted. "It'll take us too long to find a song we all know anyway."

"It's the weirdest thing," Harley remarked. "It's like there's this song bubblin' up inside me…like it's just gotta get out!"

"There's a song in my head, too," Yang said. "Maybe it's the same one?"

"I hope so," Harley said. "Now would be the wrongest time to hear an auditory hallucination."

"It's so weird," Giovanni said. "It's like…I have this song I never knew before in my brain now, too. You think it's a sign or something?"

"Sound anything like this?" the Once-ler called over. He began to strum a jaunty tune on the guitar he'd dreamed up.

"THAT'S IT!" Harley, Yang, and Giovanni yelled in unison.

"I'll say this once," Velvet growled. "DON'T. We don't need to – "

But against her will, the Once-ler was speeding up his playing, turning it into a frenetic tempo.

"I'VE GOT CABIN FEVER!" Yang yelled.

"I'VE GOT IT TOO!" Harley cried.

"Please don't," Velvet begged softly.

"CABIN FEVERRRRRR!" Harley, Yang, and Giovanni yelled as one, rushing to the middle of the deck to begin dancing. The Once-ler picked up the pace of his playing, and it almost seemed that the others could hear a host of accompanying instruments backing him up.

"I've got cabin fever!" Giovanni sang, striking a dramatic pose. "It's burning in my brain!"

"We've got cabin fever!" Yang and Harley sang as one, twirling each other around. "It makes us more insane!"

"Okay," Velvet attempted, "are you DONE – "

But Magilou had already begun to vocalize, a high trilling opera note, as Entrapta and Scorpia dragged Catra to the center of the deck by an arm each. As Catra protested "HEY!", Entrapta and Scorpia were already performing a can-can kick; "We've got cabin fever! We're flipping our bandanas!"

Catra sighed in resignation to harmonize with them; "We've been at sea so long that we have simply gone bananas!" (She was almost smiling. And fooling no one.)

A great cheer went up as Eleanor went dancing into the spotlight, chanting out, "Chicka-chicka-boom-boom a chicka-chicka-boom-boom a chick!"

Wrong Hordak copied her moves from the opposite side of the deck before pulling Hordak in to dance with him; "Chicka-chicka-boom-boom a chicka-chicka-boom-boom a chick!"

Crusher, Spike, Car Crash, Ben, Flamethrower, and Darkstar leapt about in a cheerleader's pattern that Flamethrower had choreographed for them once before. The six harmonized; "We've got cabin fever! We lost what sense we had! We've got cabin fever; we're all going mad!"

Spinel began to clap her hands and stomp her feet as Ragdoll and Firefly grasped each other and went for a whirl. "GRAB YOUR PARTNER BY THE EARS!" Spinel commanded. "LASH HIM TO THE WHEEL!"

Rokurou seized Eizen and brought him into the dance as Spinel continued, "DO-SI-DO, STEP ON HIS TOE, LISTEN TO HIM SQUEAL!"

Flint bowed, offering a hand to Electro. Electro took it, and Flint swung him round to Spinel's "Allemande left, allemande right! It's time to swim or sink!"

Spinel's eyes darted over to where Molly and Laphicet were looking to each other nervously, and she decided to take matters into her own hands, stretching out her arms to grab them and deposit them on the dance floor. "SWING YOUR PARTNER OVER THE SIDE!" she belted. And Molly and Laphicet finally smiled to one another and began dancing as Spinel finished, "DROP HER IN THE DRINK! HEE-HEEEEE!"

Jinnai sniffed as he stood off to the side haughtily. "We've got cabin fever," he sang, as poshly as possible.

"No ifs, ands, or buts!" Ifurita punctuated.

"We're disoriented," Jinnai stated.

"And demented!" Ifurita cried.

"And a little nuts," Jinnai and Ifurita said as one.

Globby and Carl, with arms around one another, leaned back and forth as they sang, "ACH DU LIEBEN VOLK-S-WAGEN CAR!"

(To which Bienfu popped up and gave a high-pitched, grating "YODEL-AY-HEE-HEEEEEE!")

"Sauerbraten, wienerschnitzel!" Globby and Carl continued. "Und a wunder bar!"

(Imp upstated Bienfu, repeating the "YODEL-AY-HEE-HEEEEEE!" in Bienfu's exact voice.)

Ohn, Lopez, Abigail, and Mel came skipping down in a line, crying out, "WE WERE SAILING, SAIL-ING AND TIME WAS ON OUR SIDE!"

As the Once-ler played Bach's Toccata and Fugue on his guitar, Kronk said in the most dramatic voice humanly possible: "BUT THEN IT DIED."

"I've also got cabin fever," Jack Sparrow volunteered from the helm. "I think I've lost my grip!" He actually had let go of the wheel while singing that, and hurriedly clutched it, acting like nothing had happened.

As Velvet, Locus, and Sylvie stood off to the side of the chaos, arms folded, Velvet grunted, "I'd like to get my claw on whoever wrote this fic."

"Yyyyyup," Sylvie droned in agreement.

Gluntz came trilling and dancing into the limelight; "IIIIIII WAS FLOATING 'NEATH A TROPIC MOON!" She reached out to seize Emerald and bring her into the dance; Emerald laughed as Gluntz continued, "AND DREAMING OF A BLUE LAGOOOOOON! NOW I'M AS CRAZY AS A LOON!"

Harley screamed "BIG FINIIIIIIISH!" Cedric flicked his wand at the air, setting off rainbow fireworks; Yang blasted both guns rapidly in the same direction, causing more explosions.

The entire ensemble crowded up on deck to sway back and forth, belting out, "CAAAA-BIN FEEEE-VER HAS STRICKEN ALL ABOARD! THIS ONCE PROUD VESSEL HAS BECOME A FLOATING PSYCHO WARD!"

"Whoa, wait." The music abruptly cut as Ainsley spoke up. "So, like, I know I need to work on not obsessing over political correctness, but I can't help but feel demeaning using the term 'psycho' to describe a gaggle of various mental illnesses as though it's a catch-all term with violent connotations."

"Well, we are still a buncha crazies," Harley reminded them. "But you're right. We've all got different things. Yang's got PTSD, I got anxiety an' voices – "

"You get voices?" Yang asked.

"Sometimes!" Harley told her. "Not a lot, an' I can usually tell which one's a hallucination."

"Are the voices nice?" Yang asked.

"Some of 'em," Harley said.

"Okay, then they can stay," Yang said with a nod. "But I'll kick the asses of the mean ones."

"Awww, Yang!" Harley blushed. "Anyway, how would we feel about compromisin' to 'mental ward'?"

There were murmurs. Mostly in agreement.

"Yeah, that's cool," Ainsley said.

Yang nodded over to the killjoy corner; "Now or never, Locus."

Locus sighed, readying his machine gun. "Fine."

"ONE! MORE! TIME!" Harley shrieked.

As Cedric and Yang resumed the fireworks show, now accompanied by Locus firing rapidly into the air for extra thunderous noise, the ensemble began the chorus again: "CAAAA-BIN FEEEE-VER HAS STRICKEN ALL ABOARD! THIS ONCE PROUD VESSEL HAS BECOME A FLOATING MENTAL WARD! WE WERE SAAAAILING, SAAAAAILING, HEADING WHO KNOWS WHERE! BUT NOW THAT WE'RE ALL HERE…WE'RE NOT ALL THERE!"

Melog led Bud, Lou, Wormwood, Malva, and Emily around front for a merry chase, and then all arms were thrown to the sky with a cry of "CABIN FEVER!" followed by a soft hiss of "Ahhhhhh!"

"Hey, look at that!" Giovanni pointed ahead. "There's a light!"

"WAKE-UP HO!" Jack called out, unsure what else you'd call the sight ahead besides a "wake-up."

"Well, if you wanted me to wake up, you could call me a little nicer name," Magilou pouted.

"Ohhh, Vel-veeeeet…" Harley went over to nudge the therion-turned-Nightmare with her elbow. "I caught ya singin' that last chorus."

Velvet bristled. "Only because everyone else was doing it."

"An' if everyone else jumped over the edge of the boat, would you do it too?" Harley teased.

"Ngh…" Velvet grunted. "We don't. Talk. About this."

And the Van Eltia sailed into the light.

...

When they heard the mechanical swishing of the elevator descending again, Mim, the Huntsman, Aghoul, Hecate, Velma, Drakken, Zorg, the Mukhtar, Hannibal, Neo, and the Malachite twins hurried to put away the cards they'd been playing with to pass the time, stand up, and arrange themselves into an intimidating set of poses that indicated they were ready for battle.

The platform clicked into place. Of the group that stood there, walking out onto the platform, only three had also been at Haven: Cinder, Gothel, and Watts. They'd brought along several fresh faces for the rotation: Flurious, Russell, Horace and Jasper Badun, and a very smug Loki.

However, it was the two women at the front of the crowd who drew the most attention. One of them hadn't been seen by any of the WHAM ARMY thus far. Though she was rather short, she had the posture and confidence of someone much taller. She was dressed in a shimmering suit of blue and gold, the jacket trailing into a cape-train behind her. A shock of crimson graced her dark hair, styled into a short, sweeping cut. She smiled at her opponents-to-be; bright-white magic flared from her eyes, drawing attention to the fact that one was deep brown while the other icy blue.

The other, the leader of the pack, was Salem herself.

"Well, well." Salem strode forward with perfect poise. "Somehow, I had a feeling you would attempt to stand in my way. It seems I didn't overreact by deciding to put in an appearance."

"You're the one bossing everyone around on this world, right?" Mim asked. "Never mind. Don't answer that. You quite obviously are."

"You realize we owe you a slow and painful demise," Aghoul told her. "We'd want to give you one anyway, but given how you treated our friend, you deserve one."

"Ohhh, how adorable," Cinder mocked. "Roman Torchwick's band of misfits attempts to stand up to him against those with the power of gods."

"With the power of gods?" Loki scoffed. "You speak as though one of us is not a god in every regard. Though I must voice my disappointment. I was quite looking forward to getting to remind that vagabond of how low he truly sits on the vine."

"Humans," Russell broke in. "Always thinkin' they're bigger, badder, BETTER than those of us who should own these worlds by rights."

The Huntsman tightened the grip on his huntstaff. "I know what you are," he seethed.

"And I know what you are," Russell replied. "Racist."

"A term reserved for those who do not see the humanity in those of different ethnicities," the Huntsman retorted. "What I see is that you are no human."

"Well, ain't that just textbook mortal!" Russell laughed. "If you can see that much, surely you can see how YOU'RE the one at a disadvantage here."

"They've got a goddess on their own side," Hecate seethed.

"As well as the Spider Queen!" Velma added.

"Spider Queen?" Gothel looked back and forth between Velma and the Huntsman. "Oh, so you're not even a GOOD Huntsman. You'll just let one of THOSE waltz around while you throw stones at vampires."

"Velma Green is under Mozenrath's protection," the Huntsman seethed.

"See how far that gets you, eh?" Jasper snickered. "He ain't even here."

"ENOUGH of this diversion!" Flurious bellowed, lifting Thunder Edge. "I demand we settle this AT ONCE!"

"Yeah, not great odds for you," Hecate reminded them all as she lifted her glowing hands.

"Is it?" Salem replied, her voice lilting, mocking. "After all, as you can see…" She gestured to indicate the women she was about to refer to. "I have come with three of the Maidens. Spring, Fall, and Winter."

"Ah, yes, that's right," Aghoul recalled. "You'd gotten the third one, hadn't you." He leered at the newcomer. "And she's just as gorgeous as the other two, if not more so."

"If you want to keep that tongue inside your head," the Winter Maiden said, "then I suggest you hold it. After all, if what I've heard is true, you'll only be able to sew it right back on later."

"Ohhh, and feisty, too!" Aghoul chuckled. "To whom do we have the DISpleasure of speaking?"

The Winter Maiden raised a hand extended with a set of long, glittery fake nails, calling a frosty bolt of blizzard-white magic into it. "Fish Mooney," she introduced. "A name you're going to want to remember. I hardly need to ask yours. Your kind is a dime a dozen, undead or not."

"Please, DON'T ask him," Watts sighed. "It's a horrible pun I can't stand to hear one more time."

"I always did enjoy putting a man who overstepped his boundaries on ice," Fish stated. "Being able to do it literally will be far more satisfying."

"You know we will not let you pass without a fight, no matter how you attempt to intimidate us," the Mukhtar growled.

"Wha – " Gothel did a double take. "As I said. A REALLY. BAD. HUNTSMAN. You're going to insult our vampire while you have THAT on your side?"

"I DON'T NEED TO DEFEND MYSELF TO YOU!" the Huntsman seethed.

"I've had ENOUGH of this lollygagging around!" Flurious yelled.

"Even I am beginning to tire of it," Loki admitted. "Might we move on to the trading of blows?"

"Might as well," Mim remarked. "I want to see how truly IMMORTAL the infamous Salem really is."

Salem raised both of her arms. "That, I'm all too happy to demonstrate."

Gothel, Cinder, and Fish became surrounded by bright auras – golden, red-orange, and white-blue – and lifted into the air. Salem brought her arms forward, pointing at the enemy, and the rest of her company charged.

The WHAM ARMY contingent rushed to meet them.

"Like, gods." Melanie rolled her eyes. "Isn't the Spring one the one that was obsessed with being younger? I can fucking see why."

"I HEARD THAT!" Gothel swooped in to hover over Melanie and Miltia both.

"Good," Melanie replied. "Then I don't have to say it any louder. You're ugly."

"Like, we are soooooo much hotter than you," Miltia agreed.

The golden aura around Gothel brightened; the images of Rapunzel flowers bloomed on its surface. Then she dove, ribbons of gold surging up from the ground.

Melanie and Miltia divided to conquer, dancing around the tendrils of Gothel's attack. When they reunited, Melanie spun Miltia around, using her weight to propel her sister right to Gothel. Gothel received a red platform heel to the gut before blasting a host of golden orbs right back at Melanie. Melanie responded by cartwheeling and front-flipping around the barrage; Miltia now was the one to spin Melanie at Gothel.

After another platform heel sent Gothel reeling, the newly-crowned Spring Maiden seethed, "THAT DOES IT!" Far more vines and floral facsimiles made of gold energy propelled up from the ground, seizing Melanie and Miltia and forcing the twins to squirm.

Neo dragged the tip of her sword on the floor as she strode toward Flurious, making sure sparks flew up from the impact. Flurious only scoffed; "Do you think you're intimidating me?"

Neo shrugged.

"DON'T MOCK ME WITH YOUR SILENCE!" Flurious yelled, raising Thunder Edge. The glaive's blade crackled with electricity. Neo could feel the temperature around her dropping by several degrees, breaking her skin into goosebumps.

Still she walked confidently on, giving a wink.

With a dramatic yell, Flurious leapt into the fray, Thunder Edge swinging. Neo was faster, running right at him, leaping, flipping, pressing her hand to Flurious' own shoulder as leverage to vault over him. Once she'd landed on his other side, she spun, driving her blade at his back.

Flurious whirled, clashing Thunder Edge's blade against her own. They glared at one another.

"Ah, yes, I see it now," Flurious seethed. "You're the one they compare to that gluttonous frozen dessert!"

Neo nodded affirmation. Then, quick as a wink, backed off and hustled to the side.

Flurious' blade cut right through her. With no resistance. Not even what should've been normal for a human body getting sliced up. That was Flurious' first clue that even though the illusion of Neo had gone left, Neo's physical form had gone right.

"YOU DO NOT GET TO DECEIVE ME!" Flurious roared, blasting an immense blizzard spell in the direction of the real Neo.

Shards of ice flitted through the air like a flock of glassy butterflies, threatening to shred Neo to bits. Her blade worked quickly to cut them expertly down, leaving the path free for her to make an assault, attempting to stab Flurious in the face.

"Y'know," Russell remarked as he and Hannibal circled one another, "I always get told not to play with my food. And then I find out the other side's got a motherfucking bean."

"What, you think I look good enough to eat?" Hannibal jeered.

"Won't do anythin'," Russell told him. "To a vampire, the only sustenance is the blood of humans. Which means I ain't killin' you for the nutrition value. I'm killin' you for FUN."

He rushed, using only that as a warning. Hannibal shrank in response, so small that Russell's speeding feet went right over him. When Hannibal grew once more, it was to gigantic proportions; he hopped about, trying to use his size advantage to crush the speedy vampire running circles around him.

Watts scoffed when he saw Zorg's new weapon. "Is that an Ironwood standard android model? How…regressive. Especially for you. What happened? Sacrifice your other weapon in a bid to gain the upper hand?"

"You know," Zorg replied, "I'm gettin' about tired of hearin' you talk."

"And so you know," Watts went on, "the new ensemble is also a massive downgrade OH DEAR!"

He put up a planar shield of interlocked blue hexagons just in time; Zorg had opened fire mercilessly, holding the trigger tightly as the ammo kept coming in a rat-a-tat. Watts scowled before calling up a multitude more shields in a circular pattern around Zorg, hiding behind them as he ran. Zorg pivoted to keep his gun trained on Watts; every time Watts would get an advantage, he would shoot around his barricade, a single Dust bullet.

"Quality over quantity," he muttered. His shields closing in on Zorg, a little smaller of a circle each time, and Zorg didn't even notice.

Meanwhile, the Badun brothers had chosen to pick on Drakken, advancing upon him with a pair of Huntsclan-standard bows from the cache they'd raided a while back. Drakken shouldered his own Ironwood-gun nervously, biting his lip with a "Nyyyergh…"

"Oi, Horace!" Jasper laughed. "This one's got a case of the nerves, he has!"

"I'd be careful, Jasper," Horace cautioned. "They said the blue one's one of the smart ones. He might be able to outthink us."

"Ain't gonna outthink me," Jasper scoffed. "My mind's sharp, see. He might have book smarts, but I've got all the street smarts!"

"HAH!" Drakken retorted. "You may have a big ego, but I'll have you know that I'm thinking ONE STEP AHEAD – "

A green bolt, a pre-emptive fire from Jasper, blew the gun right out of his hands and into bits.

"…Okay, that one was on me," Drakken admitted. "I monologued when I should've…not monologued."

"This one's a right idiot," Jasper insisted.

"Even if he was smart," Horace said, "he couldn't use his brain to get away from the…what's it called? Temperature-searching?"

"HEAT-SEEKING. These things is heat-seeking!"

"Heat…seeking?" Drakken repeated, flinching.

"I say we demonstrate," Jasper said with a smirk, raising his bow. Horace did the same; Drakken heard a click from both weapons as they locked onto his heat signature. Both bows were drawn back, electric-green arrows appearing in each.

So Drakken did the only thing he could. He bolted, not away from the brothers but straight between them.

They let go of the arrows a moment too late, realizing what would happen at that exact second. The green arrows shot forward, then circled back toward the Baduns, since Drakken had gone in their direction.

This turned into Drakken, Jasper, and Horace all trying desperately to outrun the arrows, the brothers shrieking each other's names –

"JASPER!"

"HORACE!"

"THIS REALLY SEEMS LIKE CHEATING AGAINST THE WHOLE THRILL-OF-THE-HUNT CONCEPT!" Drakken yelled as he raced around the arena.

He faintly heard the Huntsman calling back, "That setting is for NOVICES ONLY!"

The Mukhtar knew he had to take out one of the powerhouses of the team, and so ran right toward Cinder herself. The amulet he'd used to refocus Jafar into the Relic of Knowledge still jingled around his neck; he reached up to adjust it, sliding a reflective lens into place.

"Charging at me full speed with no weapon?" Cinder chuckled. "You're even more reckless than the rest of your peers." She turned a hand toward him, palm outward, sending a stream of fire his way.

The amulet caught the power. The lens reflected. Cinder's own fire was heading right back toward her as she gave a "WHAT?"

She dove, her heels hitting the floor with a click, to avoid her own attack. The Mukhtar saw the opportunity, letting out his battle screech as he tackled her and drew a jagged dagger. She blasted him away, and they stared each other down, knowing that any magic attack Cinder used would be immediately volleyed right back to her.

Cinder raised both arms in an X shape; when she brought them down, she was holding twin shortswords. She rushed, flames propelling her, and the Mukhtar was glad to finally be fighting on an even playing field as he drew a second dagger to clash with her blades.

As a blue stream of Hecate's magic struck Loki in the chest, he rolled his eyes dramatically. "Attempting to take my power from me?" he scoffed. "You swim in waters out of your depth."

His spear swept through the air. Hecate was blasted back, head over heels, tumbling through the air. She snarled, surging back toward him with magic more offensive charging in her hands.

Hecate let both barrels fly. Loki cut them both down with the tip of his spear, making sure to give a dramatic spin that billowed out his coat, and then slammed that spear into the ground. Fountains of sparking white erupted from the floor, threatening to shoot in geyser fashion right up into the angry goddess.

Hecate ducked, dodged, charged as Loki's spells took on trajectories that weren't supported by physics, bending to chase her. When she finally got to Loki, she plunged her most destructive spell right through him.

Only for that "Loki" to vanish. An illusion not unlike Neo's. And suddenly there were no fewer than thirteen Lokis surrounding Hecate, identical smirks on their faces.

"I do wonder which of us is the progenitor!" Loki chuckled as he lifted his spear – and his twelve copies did so in unison. Even though the Lokis themselves were mostly false, he was able to manipulate his magic casting so that the thirteen beams that ejected from the spears were all very real.

Hecate panicked as the beams closed in. But then shimmering white ropes were flung like lassos, binding each Loki, passing right through twelve as they tightened. When the real one was surrounded, more and more ropes surrounded him, and he struggled against the bindings. Hecate had an opening to hit the dirt, letting the deadly magic fly overhead.

"What trickery – " Loki seethed, realizing the bindings upon him were sticky. Not rope, then. Spider's web. He chanced a glance behind him; Velma had her staff held high in one hand while a thin yet strong line connected from her spinner to the other hand.

A thin, sharp line of magic severed down the center of the bindings. Loki burst free.

Hecate and Velma each threw a strong spell at him, thick beams of blue. Loki caught Hecate's in one and Velma's in the other, pushing back against them. The look on his face suggested he was at the very least inconvenienced.

"Hmm." Fish Mooney smirked as she observed her own body able to fly through the air, floating ominously toward the Huntsman. "Now, this is a new level, even for a Gothamite."

The Huntsman took the initiative and fired the first shot. Fish careened around it, summoning up a neat line of jagged, icy spikes from the ground. The Huntsman dove and rolled to escape, standing only to find them closing in. His staff swung; the ice was shattered. Flurries of high-pressure snow, coming quick enough on winter winds to do serious damage, rained down at Fish's behest. The Huntsman had to do even quicker evasive maneuvers in order to not be pummeled or frozen solid. Running, he turned and looked over his shoulder, firing back at Fish. She had surrounded herself in a white cyclone, the Huntsman's anti-magic bursts only tearing the most shallow of holes in it.

Then a rain of sharpened ice-daggers came bursting from the cyclone, hurtling toward the Huntsman. He slashed again, cutting many of them down. But many still hit. He found his cape, Amaterasu's pelt, pinned to the floor, and could feel where many new slices on his skin had opened, bleeding.

That left Mim and Aghoul to face Salem. The Grimm master elevated herself on a cyclone of her own magic, calling rainbow bursts into her hands. Mim decided to fight Grimm with Grimm: a lightning round of what she'd learned since arriving on this world.

As a Nevermore, she gave a screech, divebombing Salem. Salem evaded, plunging into Mim's back a spell that burned away her feathers. A slightly charred Mim came right back as an Ursa, a meaty claw knocking Salem off her pedestal and down onto her back on the ground. A massive shockwave blasted Mim away; Salem rose, not even needing to use her hands in order to reach full height. Mim changed tactics, becoming a rolling Boarbatusk that plowed into Salem's feet and hurled her forward. Salem, hitting the floor again, threw a wickedly-bright blast at Mim, then another and another quick as lightning. As a Lancer, Mim zigzagged around every shot. As a Death Stalker, she stabbed a pointed tail right through Salem's chest, impaling her all the way through.

At the same time, Aghoul's scythe flashed. He'd used Mim as a diversion to get close. Salem might've survived the scorpion tail, but as the curved blade severed her head from her neck with a stifled scream, Aghoul was sure there was no coming back from that dismemberment.

Until her limp body slumped off Mim's tail, hit the ground, and then reached out to grab its own head. Forcefully, the head was slammed back onto the neck; Salem's very form rippled as new matter bubbled up to fill the hole in her midsection.

"Oh," Aghoul realized. "So she's THAT kind of immortal."

"Oh, but we can have so much more fun now!" Mim cried, ballooning into a Cenitaur. "This means every slow and painful way we can possibly kill her, she'll feel, and we can do it ALL OVER AGAIN!" She vomited steaming green acid onto Salem, who merely growled in annoyance as her flesh was melted away and reforged itself in the aftermath, exposed bone covering itself again.

"Much as I enjoy a good striptease," Aghoul remarked, "we're out of our league." He dashed over to Mim's now centipede-esque body, flinging his arms around her glowing-green stomach as far as they would go. "What do you say we call it quits and go do something a little more…entertaining?"

"NOW?" Mim screeched. "YOU WANT TO GIVE UP NOW SO WE CAN CANOODLE?"

"Well, we aren't going to win this one – "

First, one of Mim's scythelike appendages hurled Aghoul across the field. Then the rest set to hacking Salem to pieces, watching her fuse back together each time.

Aghoul skidded, thumping to a halt against one of the pillars of ice. He got up, brushing himself off, then looked over to where Loki had unleashed an array of magical projectiles that had thrown both Hecate and Velma across the field.

Aghoul skidded in right behind Hecate, catching her before she could be thrown over the edge. (Not that it would've mattered, with her levitation powers.)

"My dear," Aghoul told her, "it seems we're quite outmatched. How about we – "

"NOT NOW!" Hecate gave him a light blast to send him tumbling away, then flew at Loki, her entire body glowing.

"And they say I'm the stiff," Aghoul grunted, getting to his feet.

He was alerted to the sound of Velma softly, demurely clearing her throat. "You know," she said, "I…I can also see that we're losing."

"Yes…we are," Aghoul said tentatively. "Of course, undead like us – or immortal Spider Queens – we'll last no matter whether we fight or not. I'm only thinking we could make things enjoyable instead of painful."

"I'M VERY TOUCH-STARVED!" Velma blurted. "YOU GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Why, then I won't waste any more time, dear!" Aghoul was suddenly beside her, taking her up into his arms.

"Wait." Velma shook, sweating. "Is…is this all right with – "

"YES!" Mim shrieked.

"JUST STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF THE PEOPLE ACTUALLY TRYING TO WIN THIS FIGHT!" Hecate snapped.

Velma was the one to practically tackle Aghoul, smashing her mouth to his and biting down on his lip with her fangs. He pushed back at her, his body grinding into hers as his tongue slid into her mouth. They held each other as though it were possible for either of them to die again, and such a thing was hypothetically impending.

They weren't paying attention when both Melanie and Miltia were suddenly hurled to the ground behind them, knocked right out cold when they landed. Gothel fumed; "YOU ARE NEVER TO INSULT ME AGAIN!"

Suddenly, Neo was encased in a tall, jagged iceberg, which Flurious kicked to slide beside the downed Malachites. From within, Neo looked out with desperation and horror.

Hannibal had thought his strategy of hopping around as a giant bean would be enough to eventually hit his target. After all, Russell had even said he wouldn't be able to devour any part of Hannibal. What Hannibal hadn't factored in was Russell still being willing to go in for the art of dismemberment. Suddenly there was a large chunk of Hannibal's plant matter simply missing, hurled over the side, and as the pain smarted, Hannibal himself went toppling, shrinking down to a more human-comparable size as he tumbled next to the other fallen.

That was around the same place where Watts had finally closed in on Zorg. For a moment, the two men's guns were pressed to one another's head.

A click, a snap, and a searing pain in Zorg's ankle. Zorg flinched, Watts was able to duck around him, making his escape. Zorg made to give chase only to realize that he couldn't pick one of his feet up off the ground. Watts had ejected a shield in exactly the right place that Zorg's left ankle was glued within it, pinned to the ground, burning like an oven. Zorg frantically tried to dislodge his leg from the trap, but the amount of pain was making such a feat very difficult.

At that moment, Drakken ran by, and Horace and Jasper finally caught up to him. The brothers rammed their shoulders into Drakken, causing him to fall. The arrows they'd fired off finally caught up to his heat sequence. There was a loud booming sound, and then Drakken, too, was unconscious.

The Mukhtar was thrown back toward the pile of the fallen on a wave of black blades glowing with heat; his limbs were pierced as he hit the ground, Cinder's armory holding him down like a butterfly in a display case.

Faux Lokis danced around Hecate as crackling green orbs rained down from above, exploding into fire as they reached the level of the two gods. Eventually, they came down so fast and so thick that Hecate was no longer able to simply evade them. The shockwave of several exploding at once threw her, twitching, toward the fallen, her entire body crackling with green from that attack.

A massive cyclone of wintery wind had whipped up below the Huntsman, propelling him into the air. He lost his control, his sense of direction, and therefore when the wall of ice hit him, he had no way to escape, no way to retaliate. It shattered over him, leaving several new cuts. He was flung to the pile of the downed, hitting the floor hard, and he heard the crack of his own bone.

Mim, as a Megoliath, rushed Salem head-on. Salem seized her curved tusks, summoning up as much Darkness as she could reserve before simply hurling Mim across the field. Megoliath Mim flew, up high into the air, down and down –

Her shriek was the only warning. One tusk impaled Aghoul, the other Velma, and both sank into the floor deep enough to pin them all down.

"I'm not going to say this isn't a little attractive," Aghoul remarked as Mim struggled to break herself free.

"I'm all right," Velma assured them both. "This happens to me about once a week. Strangely always on Tuesday. Why is it always Tuesday?"

The Huntsman struggled into a sitting position. They were advancing as one horde: Gothel, Flurious, Fish, Russell, Salem, Watts, Horace, Jasper, Cinder, Loki. And they had the WHAM ARMY exactly where they wanted them.

It was over.

Until the beams of Darkness trickled in, converging above the WHAM ARMY and gelling into the shape of a Grimm. A flying monster, black with a white skull over its face, humanoid in shape but covering itself with a protrusion that resembled a cape. Two horns jutted out from its skull-covered head like those of a bull. It gave a deep, throaty laugh, then threw out its wings, opening the cape, revealing its buff body.

Those with a sharp eye would have noticed what didn't belong. The body of what had once been a human woman, only her head and upper torso grafted alongside that of the Grimm's. Her eyes blindfolded. Her hair black-and-white, split down the middle.

The wing that was host to the human parts spread out wide, its hard, bony feathers glistening sharply. The woman's head let out a pained scream.

Ribbons of Darkness came floating up from below the Vault platform, converging in the air before the strange new Grimm, becoming a thick, viscous orb. With another vocalization that resembled a laugh, this Grimm pointed at Salem and the Overtakers she was leading. The orb erupted, drenching them all in sticky, dark sap. Liquified Darkness.

That Darkness then exploded, a series of turbulent green cyclones of fire that sent the Overtakers reeling back and away. Widening the gap between the two sides.

Its job done, the Grimm vanished into thin air. The Huntsman was already left wondering what had just happened, what that creature had been.

But on the other side, one person knew. The only person left conscious, at that. Salem hustled to her feet, her eyes wide with pure rage. First, she screamed the name of the Grimm, the only one of its kind: "ZALERAAAAAAA!" Then she threw out her arms to either side, and the next scream she gave was so loud, the ice crystals gained a multitude of cracks:

"HAAAAADEEEEEEEES!"

Hecate snorted. "If screaming that name in that tone isn't a mood."

The Corridor opened. Solus stepped back onto the field, swaggering toward Salem, a playful smirk on his lips. He'd traded out his Ace-Ops gray for something more grandiose: a dark, billowing coat over several layers of maroon and white, a war medal from centuries past studding his chest.

"So," Solus taunted. "You've defeated Ozma? I've come too far to retreat. Onward."

"YOU!" Salem screeched. "YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE! I'LL DESTROY YOU!"

"We both know it simply wouldn't take," Solus replied.

"You…" The Huntsman broke in hoarsely. "You know each other?"

"Why, Salem and I are old friends!" Solus replied, not taking his eyes off the witch. "We truly do go further back than you can even imagine."

"I will make you pay for ALL ETERNITY for what you've done!" Salem screamed.

"That isn't how this exposition works," Solus replied. "One cannot simply hint at the grand twist of fate, the revelation that changes the entire story. After all, we do have an audience waiting. Do you wish to tell the tale, or shall I?"

Salem gave a wild yell, lunging. She was thrown back, jagged plates of purple magic pinning her to the far wall.

"Then I shall," Solus concluded. "It is such a good story, at that."

...

Mirage's throne room in Morbia was almost claustrophobic, its sandstone walls boxing in a much smaller space than most despots would prefer. A simply carved throne, unable to be separated from wall or floor, was currently seating the evil entity herself. To either side, she was illuminated by the orange flames from a pair of shimmering bronze braziers.

Cyclonis had taken a knee before Mirage, gritting her teeth in expectation for what was to come.

"You're telling me you put them all in once place," Mirage reiterated. "In a single dream, where they could easily reunite. You didn't incapacitate them otherwise."

"There was no need to," Cyclonis seethed. "The dream was deep enough that no one should have ever escaped."

"Then explain to me…" Mirage rose, advancing on Cyclonis. "Why Pitch Black…" She drew back one arm, hand held high into the air, claws jutting out and glowing with acidic green light. "TOLD ME THAT ALL OF YOUR TARGETS AND THEN SOME ARE HEADED THIS WAY, ALL ON BOARD A PIRATE SHIP?"

Cyclonis winced, shutting her eyes. (Knowing this was what she deserved.) But the blow never came.

"…No." Mirage lowered her hand, dismissing the green glow. (Glad to see Cyclonis hadn't bothered apologizing and was about to take the hit. So they were on the same page.) "This could be an opportunity, now that I think about it. After all, the new recruits are growing quite restless. They need something to unleash all their pent-up energy on. And who knows? We might even be able to harvest a few terrified souls out of the deal." She gave a low, throaty chuckle. "Yes, this will be fun. After all, a cat has no game to play without its mice."

"Then you admit…" Cyclonis chanced it. "I made no error."

Mirage sniffed. "I never said that. But you won't be punished for it. Go tell the others to prepare the guest bedrooms. We're about to have company."

"You're putting them to sleep?" Cyclonis asked.

"I want to test the ringleaders first," Mirage said. "Their flock can writhe in the throes of our worst nightmares until then. We'll wake whoever we need to as it's necessary. But first…I want to finish what you started. I want to tear Harley Quinn to ribbons."