There was hardly any more time for Ruby and her Cinnamon squad to process what had just happened. As the carnage lay out before them, there was an immense thud on the hull that rocked the ship, and suddenly, a young woman stood tall in the windshield view.

"Unidentified ship!" The woman, whose bright-orange curls cascaded down around the shoulders of a white ruffled blouse beneath a green suspendered minidress, pointed dramatically. "You must descend now and make your way to the shelters outside of the glacier range before the floodwaters arrive! It is important to your – " She cut herself off, gaping at who she saw inside the ship. "Ruby?"

Now, Ruby was all the more inclined to not believe anything about this whole situation. Because Atlas, renowned military power, was gone after eighty years standing. But in its place, Ruby was looking at someone she never thought she'd see again, someone who had perished tragically.

Still, she choked out the response: "Penny?"

"What are you doing here?" Penny Polendina asked, her voice muffled by the glass.

"We were gonna save Atlas," Donald informed her. "But we got here too late!"

"There is still a chance to help the survivors," Penny stated. "Most of Mantle…didn't make it. But there are several Atlesians who still need help to survive before the city floods."

"Our ship can hold a lot!" Ruby said suddenly. "Where are they? We can act as a shuttle!"

"I have to prioritize your safety," Penny responded.

"Aw, we do this kinda stuff all the time," Goofy reminded her. "An' those people down there, they're just as important as any one of us!"

After a pause, Penny nodded. "Follow me! I will take you to those who still need saving!"

She dove away, rocket-jets of flame spitting from the soles of her feet, and Donald plummeted the ship after her.

"Ruby?" Booster asked. "Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"I…I think I did," Ruby replied softly.

But there wasn't time to dwell on it. They had to put full concentration on swooping down to the pockets of survivors, helping onboard as many as would fit, and then heading to the flood shelters further inland of Solitas.

The flood shelters were cavernous, austere buildings, structured like warehouses. Inside, people – far too few people – scuttled among supply stations, hurrying to stake claims in the emergency cots. The Cinnamon ship's haul nearly doubled the population of the shelter they landed near.

"Think there's time to go back for another round?" Yuffie asked.

Ruby was using her scroll to text Penny – Penny Polendina, who wasn't dead – that very same question. In response, she received "Everyone is out! Stay where you are!"

"We're good," Ruby said.

Oscar placed a hand over his stomach, where he felt a growing pit. "These people," he gasped. "I was tasked to protect them, and I…I…"

Qrow clasped a hand firmly on his shoulder. "You helped get half of them here. Don't sell it short."

"That's not your sister, is it?" Booster asked Ruby. "I'm sure you said she had golden hair…"

"No," Ruby said, still in somewhat of a state of shock. "It's Penny. My friend Penny. I…I watched her die at Beacon."

"Die?" Booster repeated. "But she's a robot. You could just rebuild her, right?"

"I didn't think it was possible," Ruby replied. "She has Aura. The first…machine to have it. I hate calling her that. She's a person, but not a kind that usually has Aura. When she broke down…something must've happened to put that Aura back."

"Maybe it's just a part of her," Booster suggested. "XR breaks down all the time. He actually used to be more of a blank slate before the first accident. Then, all of a sudden…he was XR. And no matter how many times he gets broken down, he comes back as himself. I think it's because that's just who he is. And I think Penny must be the same way. No one knows why XR got his personality that first time…and maybe no one knows how Penny could get her Aura back. But they're still who they are, no matter how many times they're broken."

Ruby smiled up at Booster. "That…actually sounds right, when you put it that way. She…she used to say she wasn't real."

"Gosh, that's awful. But you told her the truth, right?"

"I did. That she's a person with a soul. I was never sure if she really believed or not. And I…I never thought I was gonna get the chance to ask."

Another small group entered the shelter, followed by Penny, who shut the doors behind her. Her next order of business was to shoot through the air at high speed and tackle Ruby to the ground in a nearly bone-crushing hug.

"PENNY!" Ruby croaked, though really, this was the kind of discomfort she really liked.

"Ruby!" Penny gushed. "It's so good to see you again! I was worried we might never meet!"

"You almost didn't," Kokichi pointed out. "If your robot friend had died in the crash, then we'd be so screwed! Hey, robot, since you're here, I was hoping you'd be able to answer some questions I have about robot anatomy – "

"No." Blake slapped a hand over his mouth and directed him away. "Not today. You can go be a gremlin somewhere else."

Penny finally let Ruby get up; Ruby clasped Penny's hands tightly. "How did you come back?" Ruby asked. "How did you survive…what we just saw?"

"For your second question," Penny said, "my father and I were topside of Atlas for routine maintenance when the collapse occurred. It was lucky…for us. But I don't really think it's so lucky in the long run. I'm supposed to be the Protector of Mantle now. I work to keep it safe from Grimm and other hazards. But this time…there wasn't anything I could do to help, and I'm having trouble processing that."

"Oh, Penny…" Ruby slipped her arms around Penny's waist in a much softer hug, bringing her close. "I know you did everything you could. You were always a hero from the start."

"Thank you." Penny copied Ruby's grip around her. Then let go; "As for your first question, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

She brought the contingent across the shelter to where a rather heavyset man was situated in a mobility chair that utilized bending legs instead of wheels. He was speaking urgently into a scroll: "I'm saying you CAN'T come here at all costs! Not for your eyes and not to help! You'll just get washed away in the floodwaters, Maria! There ain't NOTHIN' LEFT! Penny and I were lucky to make it out alive!"

He paused. Listened to his conversation partner. Nodded. Then said "I'd stay in Argus if I were you. Safer there. I'll call if there are updates. …Yes. You too."

He hung up. Then brightened somewhat as he spotted the approaching crowd. "Penny! You made it all right!"

"I couldn't save everyone," Penny said somberly.

"It's all right, Penny," the man stated softly. "You did what you could. And I've still got you. I was so afraid I was gonna lose you when you took off – "

She made a sound like a throat clearing, and the man cut himself off. "Sorry."

"Dad," Penny said, "these are my friends. This is Ruby from Beacon. I've told you about her. And here are Weiss and Blake with her, and Nora and Ren, and Qrow, and some other people I haven't met yet but I'm sure I'll get along with. …Wait." She turned to Ruby. "You are missing three. Where is Yang?"

"I don't know," Ruby admitted. "I think she's still okay, but…" And then she couldn't say more.

"And Jaune?" Penny asked.

"He's in Argus," Ruby said. "We have another friend, someone you don't know, who got hurt. Jaune and his girlfriend stayed to help him heal."

"What about Pyrrha?" Penny asked.

Ruby's eyes watered.

"Oh, oh no…" Penny put both hands to her mouth. "Was it…was it something I did in the fight where I was shut down? Did I hurt her?"

Ruby choked out a laugh. "Penny…of course you'd ask that when you were the one who got hurt. But no. It wasn't you. It was the person who messed with your fight so that you'd…fall apart. She…she killed Pyrrha and I saw."

Penny's brow furrowed. "I do not like this person, whoever she is."

"We're not fans either," Nora piped up.

"Oh! I am getting off track!" Penny realized. "This is my dad. He's the one who built me both times."

"Pleasure to meet you," the man replied. "The name's Pietro Polendina. I'm glad to see so many of Penny's school friends all right. And…" He looked to the floor. "My condolences for the ones who ain't."

"Pardon my asking," Qrow broke in, "but we're all sitting here scratching our heads and wondering how the hell you managed to resurrect your daughter from the dead. Care to enlighten us with some answers?"

Pietro nodded, looking back up to meet Qrow's gaze. "The Aura that's in Penny is a fragment of my own – though it's all hers now by every right. Every time I rebuild her, I give up a little piece of me. Now, I'm afraid there's only enough left for one more rebuilding."

"So…you mean she doesn't just come back online the way she usually is if she breaks?" Booster asked.

"No," Pietro sighed. "Believe me, I…I hoped she would, when they first sent her back home to me."

"Hmm." Booster thought this over. Somewhere in here was an answer. If he could ever figure out how XR kept regenerating without so much as a missed memory, that could certainly be a way to prevent Penny from coming to any further harm – or Pietro from giving the last of himself to save her.

Suddenly, it hit Pietro: the true identity of one of the people he was addressing. "Weiss Schnee, is it?"

"Yes," Weiss replied. "Why?"

Pietro inclined his head. "Don't know how you got split up, but you'll be interested in what's over there."

Weiss turned her head. There were the Ace-Ops, minus Solus (now Emet-Selch), talking to a set of four people. People in white, with stark-snow hair.

"MOM!" Weiss cried, not even thinking about the danger of her father being present. "WINTER! WHITLEY!"

She took off running. Willow, Whitley, and Winter Schnee all looked to her as she bolted, lighting up with joy. Jacques, however, gave her a glare of derision.

Willow stepped forward to receive her daughter, giving her a hug. "Weiss!" she sobbed. "We were so worried. Where did you go?"

"It's not important," Weiss told her. "I'm just glad you guys are safe – "

"It most certainly IS important!" Jacques stamped a foot. "How DARE you disrespect our family name by creating such a scandal?"

"Jacques," Willow cautioned softly.

"No, I agree," Whitley said. "If she hadn't caused such a stink, then we wouldn't have had the little spat that kept us occupied during her absence, now, would we? Or perhaps it was Mother and Winter who sought to fling blame."

"Whitley," Winter hissed. "Quiet down."

"What about Klein?" Weiss asked, suddenly worried.

"Fetching us a larger shelter space," Jacques snorted. "As he should. Now you, young lady, are NEVER to set foot away from this family again!"

Weiss tensed. "No, Father. I'm not done with what I need to do."

"You listen here!" Jacques ranted. "As your father, I decide your fate, and I say that whatever dream you are chasing is no longer relevant! From now on, you shall STAY and you shall OBEY!"

Clover cleared his throat. "Jacques, as a legal adult, Weiss is entitled to do what she wants. Unless you really want to go through the hassle of conducting a kidnapping here in close proximity to Atlas' elite law enforcement."

Jacques flinched dramatically, looking as though he'd swallowed a live sardine.

"The letter of the law is firm," Elm said. "Regardless of our feelings toward the Schnee family, if you attempt to carry out your threat – "

"Oh, no, I was merely – I meant none of it!" Jacques babbled.

"Weiss," Winter chided. "It would be much safer if you – "

"No!" Weiss drew back. "I'm not. DONE." After a pause: "But if you wanted to hear about my mission, what I'm doing, and join me in it…that's another story."

After a long glare, Winter simply said, "I was in your very shoes not too long ago. I won't pry."

Weiss gave her mother a look, as though begging: please, take the escape route. Willow shook her head. As always.

The others caught up by that time. "So, we've got Atlas' elite all here in one place," Qrow noted. "All but one. Any word on James?"

"None," Clover replied. "Judging by how you're on first-name terms, I'm guessing you're close to him."

"…You could say that," Qrow replied. "So. You think he's…gone?"

"No one can know," Clover replied. "We're still holding onto hope that maybe…he got lucky, like we did." He then stifled a laugh. "Sorry, it's – it's something ironic."

"You're gonna have to explain the joke," Qrow told him, "or else I'm gonna assume you think it's hilarious that James might be dead now."

"No, no, it's…" Clover shrugged. "My Semblance is basically good luck for me and my allies, so normally…it'd make sense that we got out fine due to luck. But there was an…incident. An Academy breach. And the enemy used a strange sort of Semblance to just…remove my Aura completely, so that's out of the picture."

"Huh," Qrow said, taken aback. "Funny thing. Mine was bad luck, but…it's also gone too, and I dunno for how long."

"Would you look at that." Clover smirked playfully. "The only people in the world who would've made each other's lives a fair game…and that's still technically not wrong, if neither of our Semblances are even in play."

"Maybe we should start up a support group." Now Qrow was smiling. He put out a hand. "Qrow Branwen."

Clover took it in his own. "Clover Ebi. Of the Ace-Ops. This is my team: Harriet Bree, Marrow Amin, Elm Ederne, Vine Zeki, and…" He trailed off, letting go of Qrow's hand as his gaze fell. Then he snapped it right back up. "Sorry. Old habits. There WERE six of us, but after the incident, well, we're down by one."

"That's horrible!" Booster gasped. "I am so, so sorry!"

"Me too," Ruby said with a somber nod. "Losing friends is…well, it's not easy."

"He wasn't a friend," Clover corrected. "As the Ace-Ops, we make a point not to get attached. We'll find another sixth soon enough, or just pare it down to a five-man band. Really, Solus was one of our best Aura manipulators, so it's a tactical loss for sure."

"Are you serious?" Weiss' brow furrowed. "Your friend – oh, sorry, your CO-WORKER just died horribly, and your reaction is to shrug it off and say 'Oh well, we'll get another one'?"

Fury burned within her. She had no reason to care about Clover or whoever this Solus was. But the timing couldn't have been worse, because she'd watched everything she'd ever cared about fall, presumably to be crushed into smithereens.

Right after she'd seen Kazuichi's wide, shocked eyes as Cinder's spear pierced him. For her.

"That's the business," Clover said. "You don't get things done unless – "

"No, that's NOT the business," Weiss snapped. "Huntspeople – and their allies – get things done when they work as a TEAM. They protect each other. I wouldn't even be alive right now if my friend hadn't thrown himself into my path! And now I'm here, right? Does that make you happy? That the heiress survived, and you don't have to deal with that TACTICAL LOSS, while somebody you don't know or care about was admitted into ICU with a gaping hole in his stomach? How wonderful that at least the right one survived. Is THAT how it works? Or if he'd died, would you just want me to go out and get another one?"

"Weiss – " Willow attempted.

But she was cut off by Harriet yelling "SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE EVEN SAYING!"

Ren could read Harriet's primary emotion. Utter rage. But not without a tint of grief. She wasn't angry at Weiss' criticism –

"She's angry because she misses him," Ren said. "Solus, I mean."

Harriet gaped at Ren before beginning, "That is SLANDER, and I'll have you – "

"Hare," Clover cautioned. "Let's not make a scene…especially after we just stopped Jacques from making one."

"I did no such thing!" Jacques said hurriedly.

Harriet glowered silently, eyes burning.

"So what happens now?" Qrow asked. "Atlas…has fallen. What's next?"

"We tally up the survivors," Clover said. "And…we find a new place to seek settlement. Then evaluate whether it's cost-effective to begin repairs."

Qrow could forgive Clover for phrasing that one so heartlessly, because truly, to give in to grief over the tragedy was too tempting of a trap and would get no one anywhere. "Let me help," Qrow said.

"Me too," Oscar piped up.

"No offense," Clover told Oscar, "but…you're kind of a kid."

Oscar raised Ozpin's cane. "So are the other Huntspeople in training. Trust me when I can say I know how to help."

"I also wanna stick around until we can get a handle on James' location," Qrow said. "And if he's…well. You know."

"What do we do now?" Ruby asked.

"We don't." Weiss turned away. "Ruby…you have your mission out there. I agreed to join it. They still need you there. This…this is a lost cause."

"It isn't a lost cause!" Ruby argued. "We can help!"

"But she's kinda right," Booster argued. "If we stay to clean up this big mess, then that means we can't do anything about the problems anywhere else."

"It's not an easy choice," Blake said. "But I think you're right on both sides. They could use our help here…and they could use our help out there."

"This was probably Maleficent or Mozenrath, remember?" Yuffie urged. "They're not gonna hang around here! If we wanna head them off before they blow up the next city, then we gotta find out where they're going and put a stop to it!" She paused to dab at her eye. "And…and I want to go home. I need Aerith and Leon and Cid right now."

"Then let's go," Nora told her. "When we get back…we can take our minds off of it."

"So that's it, then," Ruby sighed. "We're…we're just gonna leave."

"Ruby," Qrow told her. "Oz and I have this under control. But Yuffie's more right than anything. You can't shoulder every burden. You…should go back to home base and focus on something else. Not to mention your pals are waitin', remember?"

Booster grasped Ruby's hand. "I don't like it either," he told her. "But please…I'm already really, really worried about you, Ruby."

"You should go back," Penny agreed. "Where is your new base of operations?"

"It's…pretty far away," Ruby said. "And I mean really far away. You…might not believe it if I told you."

Penny thought it over. "I was the Protector of Mantle," she said. "And now…there's no Mantle to protect. The things I'm feeling…" She clutched her hands to her chest, shutting her eyes. "I almost can't stand them."

"I always knew you were a person," Ruby said. "Not just a machine. This is the proof."

"Penny," Pietro said, "are you suggestin' you're…gonna leave here?"

"It does sound rather bad when you put it that way," Penny admitted. "But my friends – "

"No, no," Pietro corrected. "I actually think it's a good idea. Listen…I almost lost you today. I can't go through that again. If your friends have somewhere they can keep you safer, then I'd prefer you be there."

"Well, sorta safer," Donald grumbled. "We still had problems with demons – "

Goofy elbowed him hard. "We'd be happy to take care of your daughter, Mr. Polendina! We'll take her to meet our friends, and we'll make sure she has plenty of laughter and happiness!"

Pietro smiled softly. "I don't know what it is…but you seem like a person I can trust."

"Please, Ruby," Penny urged. "You were the first friend I ever made. I want you to show me around where it is you live now, and introduce me to all of your new friends."

That was the convincing argument. "Okay," Ruby resolved. "But if you need me here…" She looked to Qrow.

"Yeah, yeah," Qrow said. "We'll call." Utterly intending to do no such thing.

Then Ruby broke down without warning, sinking to her knees and sobbing hard. Booster, Penny, Ren, and Nora all dropped to surround her, holding her and each other tightly. As she wailed, Weiss moved to join the group, then realized she couldn't, because she was now shedding her own tears, and she could barely move but for the weight on her shoulders.

Blake, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy went to Weiss' aid, wrapping her up in their group embrace.

"Awww, how adorable!" Kokichi teased. "You're all a bunch of fucking sappy losers!"

"That's right," Ruby realized. "We still have to rehome Kokichi." And then she was laughing through her tears. "Can't miss that!"

...

Vexen was also suffering a great deal. His operation to restore Snatcher to working capacity, reinflate and patch his lung, had come with complications.

Not in the medical sense, mind you. The surgery had gone off without a hitch. Anyone who assumed anything less of Vexen should be ashamed.

The complication was that Snatcher still needed a modicum of bed rest before he could get up and walk around the base, and as Vexen had insisted he stay in the med bay, Roman, who had nothing wrong with him whatsoever (in the medical sense), had decided to camp out one bed over.

Meaning Vexen was now the guardian of not only Archibald Snatcher but Roman Torchwick, both of whom required a steady supply of movie musicals and popcorn with increasingly odd spice choices.

"Hey, Iceman!" Roman shoved a bowl at Vexen and kernels rattled around in the bottle. "I'm gonna need you to top me off here."

Another bowl thrust at him. "I shall require more as well," Snatcher added, grinning with the type of mischievous flair that indicated he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Are you going to eat it this time," Vexen asked, "or throw it at me for entertainment?"

He crunched several fallen popped kernels beneath his boots.

"Mr. Vexen," Snatcher said, innocent as you please. "I, for one, am flabbergasted that you should slander us in such a manner. The notion never even crossed our minds."

"Nah, we just gotta have something to throw at the TV," Roman added. "Why just CALL Brad an asshole when you can throw paprika popcorn at his asshole face? And the last batch was a bit light on the paprika, so fix that next time."

"Also, if you could add but a dash of cinnamon," Snatcher added.

"I ought to butter it," Vexen seethed.

"Try that!" Roman told him. "See how long you survive!"

"Seniority reigns, Mr. Vexen," Snatcher said. "Now I believe your seniors have given you an order."

Vexen turned to storm out of the room fuming. He ran into the Huntsman on crutches.

"WILL THIS BELEAGUERMENT NEVER CEASE?" Vexen screeched.

"Count yourself lucky," the Huntsman said. "Hecate recovered under her own steam, and Aghoul and Velma decided to take their repairs into their own hands. You need only deal with a broken bone."

"…Fine," Vexen hissed. "Follow me."

This would be a quick procedure, with the advances he knew. The Huntsman began to limp past, and Roman greeted, "Oh, hey, Dragonface! Archie and I just settled in for RHPS night. Wanna join?"

"Another day," the Huntsman said. "And when the film is 'Guys & Dolls.'"

"Suit yourself," Snatcher replied. "Would've been a third wheel anyway."

"He does have a point, though," Roman said. "Guys & Dolls would be a very refreshing drink of water later."

"It quite has your aesthetic," Snatcher agreed.

The Huntsman hobbled back into the operating room, with Vexen trailing until he heard the click-clack of high heels on the floor behind him. He whirled, and Scarlet Overkill waved at him with the hand that wasn't clutching a sizeable duffel bag.

"Hiiiii!" Scarlet said sheepishly. "I'm just checking in on the patients."

She was greeted with a chorus of "Mrs. Overkill! How lovely to see you here!" and "Hey, Pigtails!"

Vexen sneered. "What is in the bag?"

"Bag?" Scarlet repeated. "What bag?"

The bag moved.

Vexen sighed, pressing his fingers to his forehead. "I have an operation to complete. See to it that THEY don't escape the med bay."

"You mean the…" Scarlet pointed to the bag. "Or you mean Roman and Archie?"

"BOTH," Vexen snarled as he stormed out of sight.

That was Scarlet's cue to unzip the bag. "I thought you guys might need some…" She fished in with both arms, pulling out a lengthy furball on each. "THERAPY CATS!"

Macavity and Delilah struggled out of Scarlet's grip to go sit with their owners. Snatcher cooed at Delilah as she settled down on the blanket beside him; Roman became engaged in a game of getting Macavity to not tilt the empty popcorn bowl just to watch the reflection its metal cast on the ceiling.

"This is a most pleasant surprise, Mrs. Overkill," Snatcher said as he stroked Delilah's luxurious fur. "One might almost think…you wanted something from us."

"Want something?" Scarlet laughed nervously. "What? No. Can't a girl just get worried that her adoptive brother got shot in the lung?"

"Spit it out," Roman bade her.

She rolled her eyes up. "Fine." Then she skittered to haul a nearby plastic chair in between their two beds, sitting down in it with one leg crossed over the other. "Okaaaaay. So. I just need to tell you guys something and you can NOT share it. Because I've been sworn to secrecy, but this isn't something I can just deal with and not get off my chest. At the same time, I don't wanna break the girl code, but this is just a liiiiiittle extreme to be covered by the girl code, but also I know the minute I say anything to the parties involved…that's when the bomb goes off. And you DON'T UN-EXPLODE THE BOMB."

"In other words," Snatcher realized, "a fellow female has confided in you, then asked your secrecy beneath some sort of 'girl code,' and you cannot simply hold the information inside."

"Yep," Scarlet affirmed. "That exactly."

"Why, my dear Mrs. Overkill," Snatcher said with a grin. "Even if you decided against sharing such sensitive knowledge…now that we know you've got valuable information of some sort, we're not about to rest until we know what it is."

"Is it good for blackmail?" Roman asked. "Wait, no. Don't answer that. Of course it's good for blackmail."

"Okay. Here it is." Scarlet cleared her throat, flushing. "This is – this is kind of a big thing and it's hard to say."

"Take your time," Snatcher encouraged her.

"Welllllll," Scarlet began, "I know that two people…um…did a thing…in a bed…"

"People fucked," Roman paraphrased. "Which is something people generally do."

"Well, this was, um, different," Scarlet said. "Because one of those people was, uh…well, it was Randall."

"Lizard man got it?" Roman's eyes widened. "Good on him!"

"Who is the lucky paramour?" Snatcher asked.

"That's…that's the complicated part," Scarlet said. "Because, uh, you know how you just said that people generally…? Except some don't, and sometimes the people who don't get in a relationship with people who do but THINK they don't or won't and then that person – not the asexual but the non-asexual – gets. Kinda…" She waved her hand. "You know?"
"Sick of the dead bedroom," Roman filled in.

"Yes!" Scarlet chirped. "I mean no! I mean – sometimes a person not getting her needs filled will get them filled elsewhere, even if she still loves – well, okay, not 'loves,' they're not a love-type relationship but – "

"Who screwed who?" Roman asked.

"Well, that's the thing," Scarlet said. "It's…the friend who told me to keep this a secret was…well…"

She quickly rose from her seat. Scuttled over to the curtain that separated off the procedural rooms. "Say something that would get you yelled at right now," she said. "Loudly."

"YOU KNOW, THE BIT IN THIS FILM WHERE THE HAUGHTY PROFESSOR DISCOVERS HIMSELF IN HEELS IS QUITE AN INSPIRATION, IS IT NOT, MR. VEXEN?" Snatcher called out.

Silence.

"Okay, good," Scarlet sighed. "See, the thing is – "

"It was Miss Ravess," Snatcher breathed, wide-eyed.

"Wha – how? HOW?" Scarlet asked.

"Why else would you've ensured that Mr. Vexen could not hear us?" Snatcher went on, still gobsmacked. "She's gone and got her needs fulfilled behind his back."

"She CHEATED on him?" Roman was also agape. Then he started laughing; "Oh, I didn't realize you were gonna bring the entertainment value for the whole entire night! This is DELICIOUS!"

"You're not gonna tell him, are you?" Scarlet urged. "Because I promised I wouldn't say, but this is eating me up! He doesn't deserve – well, okay, he kinda deserves nasty things in general. But Vexen is a good – wait, no he's not. The thing is, I like – no, wait, I don't. Vexen is a friend? Mmmm, not really. I don't know, SOMETHING feels wrong about letting her lie to him like that, even though she IS my friend and I like her!"

"Mrs. Overkill, you quite knew the risks when you brought this up to us," Snatcher reminded her. "That said, we aren't simply going to bandy it about without reason. Nor are we to reveal our sources."

"She'll know I blabbed," Scarlet pleaded.

"Really?" Roman prompted. "It's us. We find shit out. Specifically Archie finds shit out. No one's gonna think we had a source."

Scarlet sighed. "Thank you. Maybe…maybe the truth does need to come out when it's right. Right? And now YOU guys get to decide when that is!"

"Awww, she's saying that like it's actually a good idea," Roman teased.

"Of course it's a good idea," Snatcher huffed. "You and I shall act only with the utmost of discretion. …So long as it benefits us to do so."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna let this play out," Scarlet sighed.

Vexen stalked back into the room, and Scarlet reacted by yelling "ANYWAY THAT'S HOW I GOT OVER MY FEAR OF SHARKS. BYE, GUYS!"

Then she bolted.

"What was she talking about that she didn't want me to hear?" Vexen asked.

"Lady parts stuff," Roman said.

"…To you," Vexen reiterated. "She came to the two of you with a concern about female genitalia."

"And why should she not?" Snatcher posed. "After all – "

Then he bit his lip.

"After all?" Vexen posed.

Well, now he had to complete the bit. He forced out: "After-all-it-is-in-my-name."

Vexen sighed. "I won't ask. This conversation has clued me in that it isn't worth knowing."

The Huntsman exited the room after him, gripping the foot of a bed in order to stop wobbling. It seemed that though his leg was in working order, the anaesthetic hadn't been kind.

"Whoa, new record!" Roman said.

"Yes," Vexen muttered. "Pity Drakken wasn't here to time the procedure."

"Mr. Liu?" Snatcher ventured. "You seem rather…tipsy."

"Leg fixed," the Huntsman said. "Now I can participate in Act IV, Scene 15 as planned."

"No," Vexen sighed, "you're going to lie down on that bed, watch horribly trashy musicals, and get trampled by cats until your head is CLEAR. Are we clear?"

"Windows are clear," the Huntsman replied. "So are diamonds."

"I'll take that as a yes." Vexen left into the main laboratory, and the Huntsman collapsed onto the nearest empty cot.

As he breezed out of the near-empty laboratory, Vexen sighed. "Why must frustrations come in packs? Can inconveniences never simply line up and take their turn? I may be a miracle worker, but that doesn't mean people can TREAT me like one!"

"Heya, Vex," Deymos said from the couch, where he was plucking at his sitar.

"Deymos." Vexen nodded and kept storming.

Wait.

Vexen backpedaled hurriedly. "AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"Chill," Deymos said. "I'm the good one."

"That doesn't matter!" Vexen hissed. "You still cannot be here! We explained to you IN GREAT DETAIL why!"

"Awww, c'monnnn!" Deymos protested. "The evil me betrayed you, right? So I, the good-evil me, am CHOOSING to join up with you this time!"

"And what ensures you WON'T BETRAY US AGAIN?" Vexen hissed through gritted teeth.

"Iunno." Deymos shrugged. "What ensures anyone around here won't go backstab mode? We're the bad guys, Vexster."

"STOP CALLING ME – " Vexen flinched. Then dropped his voice to a whisper: "The two members of this entire operation that your double personally victimized the most are one room over! If they see you, then it will be on MY head!"

Deymos strummed a single chord. A water bubble surrounded him, cloaking him completely, making him invisible. "There. Now they can't see me."

"Deymos," Vexen grumbled, "you are without a doubt the most vexing creature, pun not intended because I know you're going to pick at it, that I have ever encountered in my entire existence. And how DO I know you're the correct version?"

"Quiz me," Deymos said from his spot on the seemingly vacant couch. "Something only I'd know."

Vexen thought it over. "Tell me the title of the book you were reading in the Shattered Library."

"Illusionary Sunrise," Deymos replied.

"Ah, yes," Vexen said. "It dulled my very intelligence to walk amongst the shelves that held such drivel."

"Nice try," Deymos said. "I moved it to the science section."

"Yes. To impress any visitors who might happen upon you."

"No. For the couch."

Vexen smirked. "Then it is you." He was actually rather proud of Deymos for winning that gauntlet of questioning.

Then he scowled again because this was not someone to be proud of.

"Anyway, I brought a peace offering." A hand extended from the bubble of invisibility, holding a black cassette. "Kick me out after you take a look at it. But I get the feeling you won't even want to. Kick me out, that is."

"What is it?" Vexen turned it over in his hands.

"A memory database," Deymos said. "For making a new replica. I picked it out custom for you. It's a real snooty kid with a superiority complex, just like you!"

Vexen wasn't sure how to respond to that. "You…you've brought me the data for a replica?"

"Yep."

"This replica benefits you somehow."

"Yeah. It convinces you to keep me on the team is what."

Vexen weighed the tape in his hand.

"Though if you don't want it after all – " Deymos reached out.

Vexen pulled the tape away, shielding it. "Whether or not you stay," he said, "this belongs to me now."

"Cool."

Vexen's scroll beeped. Roman, reminding him about the popcorn. In about fifteen minutes he would have Snatcher's tirade on the subject. "…We shall revisit the matter," Vexen said. "As of now, I am at my mental capacity and simply cannot handle this in the slightest. This is not my problem. However, for the love of Kingdom Hearts, STAY OUT OF SIGHT from the people in the medical bay!"

"I get it, I get it! Geez, what did I do? Superglue one of their hats to their head or something?"

Vexen's silence answered the question.

"Because that's hilarious," Deymos said.

Vexen put up a hand to dismiss the conversation entirely, then sped off and pretended he didn't know that the double of one of the WHAM ARMY's greatest traitors was applying for membership.

"SIMON LAURENT!" Deymos yelled after him. "THAT'S THE GUY'S NAME!"

Vexen didn't respond.

And really wished he weren't burning with curiosity and excitement regarding the potential that Deymos had just handed him in the form of that cassette.

...

Even though Atlas had fallen, another, much smaller city had risen. Saphron, Terra, Jaune, and Kairi had to traverse the living room via couches, floor-is-lava-style, because Kazuichi had brought out every single block Adrian owned and was helping the baby craft a metropolis of grand skyscrapers.

"Let's use this tower to spell your name," Kazuichi suggested. "You put down the N – yeah, like that – and here's an A on top of it, and now can you get an I?"

"How much does your friend charge to babysit?" Saphron asked her brother.

"I honestly had no idea he was this good with kids," Jaune said in disbelief.

Then came the knock at the door. "It's them!" Kairi gasped.

They'd traded stories. Jaune and Kairi now knew all about the fall of Atlas. Ruby's squad had promised to check in and pick them up before a return trip was made to Radiant Garden.

"Hey, is it cool if I keep working on this?" Kazuichi asked. "Like, I'm not trying to get out of the sad stuff, but Adrian's on a roll here and I don't wanna break his stride."

Adrian clapped happily as he put a Z on top of his name.

"Saphron," Terra said, "someone actually just REQUESTED to spend more time playing with our kid."

"I know," Saphron replied. "This is so weird."

The wives followed Jaune and Kairi to open the door upon Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Penny, Booster, Yuffie, Nora, Ren, Donald, Goofy, and Kokichi. Before any words were exchanged, Jaune scooped Ruby into a tight hug, and Kairi did the same with Weiss.

"I am so sorry," Jaune said earnestly.

"Hey, it's not like you dropped the city," Ruby told him with a half-hearted laugh.

"Come on in!" Terra urged with a wave. "From the sounds of it…you guys really need to take a load off."

"What about you?" Blake asked, stepping over the threshold. "Your job was with Atlas communications."

"Well, there are a lot of people who are way worse off than I am right now," Terra sighed.

Everyone filtered in, and Saphron informed everyone that she and Terra had picked up takeout for their dinner, making a buffet of sorts. Penny clutched a strangely large rectangular box, stating it was a surprise for later. Weiss, however, was looking for a certain set of colors in particular – cotton-candy pink and neon green.

When she spotted Kazuichi, she forced herself not to run at him, because it would've been too forward and because she didn't want to destroy his block empire. Instead, she gracefully tiptoed around the towers, kneeling down in one of the clearings. "This is pretty impressive," she said.

"Thanks," Kazuichi replied. "I'm not usually an architect, but I like what I've got going here. Though a lot of that is thanks to Adrian. He made some pretty legit design choices."

Adrian burbled as he knocked a tower down.

"Well, now we can rebuild that one better," Kazuichi said.

"I…had no idea you liked kids so much," Weiss admitted.

"I really wanna be a dad someday," Kazuichi told her with a sharp-toothed grin. "I've always dreamed about having three kids. Now that I know how bad my dad fu – " He cleared his throat. "Messed up, then I have a guide of what not to do. I'm gonna make sure my kids grow up the happiest they can be, whether we're rich or poor! And of course, makin' 'em in the first place is – "

He bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood. "Forget that last part."

Weiss flicked his shoulder. "I know what you're about." A pause. "And everything…went okay at the hospital?"

"It's the nicest hospital I've ever been in!" Kazuichi gushed. "It had this really fancy IV machine, and I really wanted to take it apart to see how it worked, but they wouldn't let me, since it was, y'know, keeping me hydrated, but I managed to talk them into letting me look at one of the defibrillators, though they wouldn't let me take those apart either, but the tech here is so advanced!"

Weiss giggled, despite herself. "I'm just glad you turned out okay."

"I kept my promise, right? We both made it out alive!"

Adrian knocked down several more towers, and Weiss was instantly reminded of the broken landscape of Atlas. So quickly, her happiness burst like a bubble, and she'd begun sobbing.

"Weiss…?" Kazuichi said softly.

"I'm okay." Weiss rose. "I just – I shouldn't cry in front of the baby."

"Hang on!" Kazuichi hoisted Adrian onto his hip, then walked him to the dining room. He was gone but a moment, handing Adrian back off to his mothers, then returned to take Weiss' hand. "Let's find somewhere private, okay?"

Somewhere private ended up being a cozy guest bedroom with a plushy comforter. Weiss didn't even bother to turn on the light – seeing conditions were clear anyway – and instead just sat down onto the bed, sinking in. Kazuichi sat gently beside her.

"It's okay," he told her. "I mean, no, it's not okay that Atlas – you know – but it's okay to cry it out. That place was your home."

"It's so stupid!" Weiss sobbed. "My family is fine! I shouldn't even care whether or not my dad is fine! But everywhere I went as a kid, it's all – " She choked on tears. "And we were supposed to stop it and save everyone, but we didn't get there in time, and we…and I…"

She fell into him without warning, crying into his chest, and he embraced her softly yet tightly. "It sucks," he told her.

"How?" Weiss wailed. "Your friend would tell you to have hope, but how can there be any hope now? Nothing will ever be the same again and it can't be fixed!"

A sentiment Kazuichi knew all too well. He began to run his hand down her long ponytail, pressing it to her back; "It's not about that. Sometimes things are just shit and there's nothing you can do. Junko used to say that was just how life worked, and it was easy to believe her. But the way Hajime sees it…hope's not about if we can fix the world. Hope's more like…you're here now. And I'm here now. And we're alive, and we can go do better things to make up for the bad stuff. That make sense?"

She gripped him tighter, crying all the harder. "Yes," she admitted. "But it hurts."

"Shit hurts. But that doesn't mean it's the end."

Weiss forced herself to stop crying, sitting up and breaking Kazuichi's grip as she dabbed at her eyes with her sleeves. "I'm sorry," she said. "You didn't need me to break down on you."

"No, seriously, I'm good!" Kazuichi urged. "You need a friend right now, and I wanna be here for you. It's not like I haven't been through worse. And I mean worse than watching Atlas fall."

"Right," Weiss realized. "Your whole world. I'm sorry if this sounds entitled – "

"Weiss, I'm serious!" Kazuichi asserted. "If you're sad, then you're sad! If you wanna cry, then God dammit, you should cry! You just saw something horrible! And this means you have a heart!"

After a couple of strangled coughs, Weiss said in a relatively even tone, "I don't think we should wait."

"For what?"

"I almost lost you," she reminded him. "You almost killed yourself so I wouldn't die. You thought you WERE going to die. That…meant a lot to me, and it got me thinking that maybe…maybe waiting to be more than friends isn't a good idea, because that happened. But I kept second-guessing myself. But now I've just seen my world basically fall from the sky, and after losing so much…" She wrung her hands in her lap. "I want you. And I don't want to let you slip away. Not if there's a chance I could lose you before we can be together. So if you still want me…"

"Hold on!" Kazuichi was turning red. "This sounds too good to be true, okay? You remember I used to kill people, right?"

"Right. And I know you won't again."

"But you saw what I did to MY city!"

"And you won't," Weiss told him. "And maybe this is just grief talking, but…I'd rather at least take a chance before it turns too late. Even if this turns out to be the biggest mistake we ever make, it's better than not trying."

"Weiss," Kazuichi said very slowly, "I don't know if you remember this, but I. Am. A. Horndog."

"That's…not a downside," Weiss admitted.

"Wait. Really?"

"Growing up, I was very…repressed," Weiss reminded him. "I always wanted more than what my dad thought I should get. I managed to sneak off with a boy, once. He just wanted to say he slept with the SDC heiress, and I…he was a mistake. I thought he'd be something different. But I knew for sure after that day that I. Wanted. More. My dad doesn't get to say how much decency I have. I want to try everything and find out what I've been missing."

"You mean…sexually."

"I mean sexually."

"We could…?" Kazuichi gestured to the bedroom around them.

"What?" Weiss flinched. "Not here! Then we'll have to tell Terra and Saphron we did it in their guest bedroom so they can clean the sheets right!"

"Fuck, you're right."

"But this Radiant Garden place," Weiss said. "When we get back there…you have your own room, right?"

"Pretty sure you'll get yours."

"Until then…if there's anything less messy you want to do…" Weiss shifted. Then leaned toward him.

He leaned toward her, and then their lips were pressed fervently together, hands searching each other, and Weiss had forgotten how good it was to let someone she fancied get a hand down her bodice.

A knock on the door. "Weiss? Kazuichi? You in there?"

They quickly shot away from one another. "Uh…just a minute, Ruby!" Weiss tugged her dress so it looked less disheveled, and Kazuichi made sure his jumpsuit didn't look crooked.

"Okay," he said. "You can come in now."

Ruby swung the door open, holding the rectangular box Penny had brought in. "Phew," she sighed. "For a second, I thought you guys were doing the nasty in here."

She was answered with a pair of deep blushes.

"Anyway, Kazuichi," Ruby said, "we kind of needed you for the big surprise. It's for you."

"Huh?" Kazuichi tilted his head, reaching to fiddle with the brim of his hat.

"It's this." Ruby set the package on the ground. "You can open it now if you want. Most of the tech in Atlas is underwater now, but the relief shelters had basic robotics labs for the people who needed prosthetics, and I was able to talk the Ace-Ops into a little…something." She nudged the box with her foot. "C'mon, open it. Openitopenitopenit."

Kazuichi crouched, approaching the box. He took off the wrapping, then pried the cardboard aside, and then –

"NO! FUCKING! WAY!"

"Yes frickeldy-fracking way." Ruby rocked on her heels, back and forth.

It was a leg. Animatronic, cybernetic, bearing a glossy silver sheen. A perfect replacement for the substitute Kazuichi currently wore.

"Holy shiiiiiit!" His eyes sparkled.

"You don't have to leave it silver, you know," Ruby told him. "You can paint it whatever you want."

"LIKE NEON GREEN WITH PINK LIGHTNING BOLTS?"

"…That was my fault," Ruby admitted. "I said 'whatever you want.'"

"I think it'll look charming," Weiss said.

"Truth?" Kazuichi prompted.

"Well, okay, it'll be a little ugly," Weiss clarified, "but, like…a good ugly. It's so tacky that it's just…you. It wouldn't feel right otherwise."

He got her meaning, and his heart swelled.

Then Ruby whacked him on the head; "Just DON'T TAKE IT APART! I technically wasn't supposed to even have this, and if you ruin it by not being able to put it back together, I'm gonna be mad! And you don't wanna see me mad!"

"Okay, okaaaaay!" Kazuichi whined. "Thanks, though. I mean it."

"Your food's gonna get cold, by the way," Ruby said. "But I get it if you're not up to eating – "

"No, we'll go," Weiss said, rising off the bed. "We just had to talk some things out."

"We're official now!" Kazuichi said with a smile.

"GREAT!" Ruby chirped.

"I'm glad you're happy for – " Weiss began.

But Ruby continued: "Booster said it'd take you a month of pining to make a move, but I said two weeks or less! Soon as I work out the unibucks-to-lien conversion rate, I'm RICH!"

Weiss and Kazuichi rolled their eyes in response.

Ruby turned to leave for the dinner table. Weiss and Kazuichi followed, but on the way out, Kazuichi whispered to Weiss, "If that thing works as smooth as it looks, it's gonna make the sex so much better."

"Looking forward to it."

...

"Polling the audience here." Roman shoveled a handful of spicy popcorn into his mouth and crunched loudly. "Would you or would you not fuck Nathan Detroit?"

"No," the Huntsman said. He'd gotten his way after all in terms of film choice.

"Okay, let me rephrase," Roman said. "Righty suddenly looks like Nathan Detroit. Would you or would you not fuck him?"

"Yes, because he is still Mozenrath," the Huntsman said.

"You are so boring to play this game with," Roman sighed. "Archie. Same question."

"I presume this has no bearing on our relationship – "

"None whatsoever. Purely casual."

"Then no," Snatcher said.

"Then why did you ask – "

"Why should I entertain the notion of bedding Mr. Detroit when Mr. Masterson is far more attractive?" Snatcher asked.

"Ohohoooooo!" Roman responded. "You know what? I respect that answer. Me, I was gonna say yes, but since you picked somebody else, I'm gonna have to change my own answer to Nicely-Nicely. In a world where I'm a single man and this means nothing, I would let him do me ruthlessly. Look, the man led an impromptu church sermon, got everyone singing in harmony, fed them absolute bullshit about wanting to repent and they ate. It. Up. He can just wreck my ass."

"You very clearly have a type," the Huntsman pointed out.

"I know what I'm about," Roman replied.

"Well, for that reason alone I cannot disagree with your selection," Snatcher stated.

"NOW?" Vexen's voice cut through the discussion from outside. "YOU WANT TO SCHEDULE THE OPERATION NOW, OF ALL TIMES?"

There was silence on the other end of the conversation.

Vexen sighed. "This is because you want to join Roman and Mr. Snatcher in the cots, isn't it?"

More silence.

"Very well, but I shall need time to prepare. This operation is to be quite complex, and in case you've forgotten, I HAVE JUST COMPLETED RECONSTRUCTIVE LUNG SURGERY AND BONE FUSION WITH HARDLY A REPRIEVE!"

Two claps: chop chop.

Vexen stormed into the med bay, laser-focused enough on crossing the room that Roman and Snatcher were briefly able to use him as target practice for their popcorn (since Guys & Dolls didn't have the equivalent of a Brad). Then in skipped Neo, having scheduled her gender confirmation.

"Heyyyy, Neo!" Roman greeted. "Today's the day, huh?"

She hopped up and down, clapping furiously.

"I do hope you realize this removes the general excuse you use to turn down Mr. Gates' advances," Snatcher told her.

She just tapped her umbrella at her side, indicating that if Felix tried anything again upon learning of the genital change, she would stab him.

"Wait," Roman realized. "Iceman is gonna do the whole operation, meaning that 'lady parts' really didn't hold water as something we didn't want him to hear about."

Snatcher groaned. "And certain things cannot be unsaid."

"Well, I mean, he dropped it…"

"That he did."

Neo pointed to the Huntsman inquisitively. He responded by sitting up; "I have recovered in full and was merely remaining to see the film through. This bed shall be yours momentarily."

Neo pouted.

"If you truly are so passionate about the idea," the Huntsman told her, "we may schedule a film night at a later date."

She clapped again, beaming. At least she did still get to keep her two favorite people company when she came out from the surgery.

"So?" a monotone voice broke in. "Like, what did he say? Did he agree to do it?"

Neo nodded to Melanie Malachite, who had just sauntered in, Miltia at her heels. And one other person behind Miltia, who Roman did not recognize.

That wasn't his immediate focus. "Whoaaaawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoa," he sputtered. "What are you two doing here?"

"Um, was it not obvious we'd be coming back here to join the party after that whole thing?" Miltia posed.

"No," Roman replied. "No, it was not."

"Well, we want in on it." Melanie shifted her weight from one hip to the other. "Got a problem with that?"

"Only that your aunt is gonna murder me when she finds out," Roman grumbled.

"Too bad that's a you problem," Miltia said. "We can do what we want."

Roman groaned as he leaned back into his pillow. "Fine, but shit better not hit the fan."

"Pardon the shift in topic," Snatcher brought up, "but might I ask YOUR name, and your association with our troupe of miscreants?"

This, while looking into the eyes of he who had followed the Malachites in.

"Why, you may refer to me as Emet-Selch." And Emet-Selch bowed with a dramatic rotation of his hand. "I have decided to join your company after a most enlightening rendez-vous."

"Don't let him fool you," Miltia said. "He's, like, grandpa age."

"I highly doubt your grandsire is anywhere near millennia old," Emet-Selch taunted. "You must be the infamous Roman Torchwick. A disturbance in the waters at best. So you know, it was my world long before it ever was yours, before it was a Remnant. I was a progenitor, a founding father of the very soil!"

"And your point would be?" Roman sighed.

"That I am your weapon against Salem," Emet-Selch said. "You needn't fear any longer her hold over you."

"Not fucking afraid of her, dumbass," Roman grunted.

"Such language," Emet-Selch remarked. "Is this truly how you would regard your superior?"

"My WHAT now?" Roman sputtered.

"I shall correct myself," Emet-Selch responded. "Certainly not within the rankings of this army. Yet it cannot be denied that your soul is but a mortal, magic-bereft fragment. I am one of the three true souls of our world that remains. One of the three that is truly whole."

"You're gonna need to backpedal on that 'fragment' talk," Roman grumbled.

"Should you truly fault me for stating fact?" Emet-Selch replied. "You, and your twin apprentices, and your tri-colored partner, and presumably your mate who lies beside you at this very moment, and the Huntsman with whom I have already spoken of the matter are the dust that lines the barrel. Whilst I am whole, immortal, truly sorcerous. Or are you going to claim that your mere Semblance is anywhere near my magical prowess? That your proclivity for injuring yourself grievously is at all comparable to my invulnerability?"

"I'm gonna give you ten seconds to give me a reason not to beat the shit out of you," Roman grunted. "Because the thing is, you can insult me and I'll ALREADY be mad. But take my crime family down with me? Ohohoooooo, you just crossed another line."

"Roman, stop," Melanie grunted. "He's just, like, super shady and that's how he is. Just put up with it."

"Roman," the Huntsman cautioned as Neo nodded. "If you jeopardize our alliance over your wounded pride – "

"There shan't be any fear of that," Emet-Selch stated. "I shall decide when it is I take my leave, if at all. Mere sharp words are no deterrent. Nor are the ineffective blows of an amateur."

"TEN," Roman said.

"What was your Semblance, again?" Emet-Selch asked.

"NINE."

"Might I presume it was at least formidable?"

"EIGHT."

"It's like this glowy light thing," Miltia said. "We always know where he is."

"SEVEN?"

"He just unlocked it like a few days ago," Melanie added.

"You're killin' me, girls," Roman said, rather wounded.

"So you mean to tell me that the incomplete fragment that marks you as a soul of our world…was not even a resource you could access until most recently?" Emet-Selch taunted. "Why, that is surely even more pathetic than I had realized."

"FIVE FOUR THREE – "

"I tire of this game." Emet-Selch turned to wave on his way out. "The taking of my leave should be your incentive to slow the countdown."

After he'd left, Roman asked, "Did he come all the way down here just to call me subhuman?"

"Super shady," Melanie reminded him. "But also, like, super powerful. And he can't die."

"And he's hot," Miltia said. "That's a bonus. Not as hot as, like, some guys around here, but…"

"Monsterfucker," Melanie accused.

"Okay, I have missed a LOT of context here," Roman realized.

"I'm not certain I want to know it," Snatcher grumbled, "if it involves a man who sees fit to imply to my face that I am the lesser man of the two of us."

"Melanie and Miltiades, I shall leave this to you." The Huntsman slid off the bed. "There is much work to be done. I shall finish the film on my own time." And he walked out.

"What did happen after our departure from the mission?" Snatcher asked.

"You are so totally not gonna believe this," Melanie began.

...

Isa was thrown across the Hall of Empty Melodies, bruising on the way down as he skidded across the tile.

He pried himself back up, Berserker rage flowing through his veins. "You didn't have to go that FAR!" he bellowed, launching himself at his foe.

Ansem waited until the last minute before teleporting to the side, then commanding Ashi to reach out and seize Isa with her pointed claws, driving them into his skin and drawing black, smoky blood.

"To destroy the worlds is our purpose here," Ansem reminded him, "even if the outcome is to rebuild anew. If the concept repulses you…then we have a problem."

Ashi slammed Isa down onto the floor hard, nearly breaking his spine.

Isa leapt up once more, but with a cry of "SUBMIT!", Ansem lit Isa's body practically aflame with burning magic that wracked him with agony. Isa dropped to his hands and knees, the Berserk rage fading.

"It…was an impracticality," Isa choked. "That worldline was a resource waiting to be mined."

"Is that truly what weighs on your conscience?" Ansem chuckled.

There was the sound of another approaching pair of feet. "Ansem," Xemnas greeted. "Might I ask for what purpose you are battering my most loyal of servants?"

"I think we have enough evidence to call that loyalty into question," Ansem replied. "He discovered the portal to the other worldline. I utilized it and destroyed that worldline in entirety to prove our thesis. He seems to disagree with that decision."

"Isa," Xemnas chided. "I find myself recalling the vestiges of disappointment. To destroy what is is the first step in rebuilding from the ashes. The new world Xehanort seeks cannot exist unless the path is cleared for its presence."

"I wonder if that was ever his goal at all," Ansem brought up. "For a man without a heart…his seems to bleed all too easily."

Isa struggled to his feet. "You imply I am traitorous," he seethed, "yet you are the one who destroys without reason, without intent to rebuild. You are the one who besmirches Master Xehanort's vision – "

With a cry, he was subjugated again, Ashi piercing his chest with her claws and drawing out more thick, dark blood. When she released him, he collapsed.

"Question my loyalty again," Ansem threatened, "and you will know my capacity to destroy firsthand."

With that, he turned to exit. "I may specialize in punishment," he said to Xemnas, "but you always were better at the lectures. See to it he understands that softheartedness has no place among the heartless."

Then Ansem was gone, taking Ashi with him. Xemnas shook his head; "Oh, Isa. It seems at least mild reeducation is in order. Even if the Seeker of Darkness does deviate from the Master's vision, he is a crucial piece of the Master, half of what makes him whole. He is the Master's vision partly realized and embodied. One might think, if it is his loyalty you question, that you have something to hide. Perhaps…sympathy for those lost?"

Isa simply tried to catch his breath.

"Isa. Tell me. When Ansem destroyed so much so quickly, did you recall feelings of…rage? Of grief? Of a conscience?"

"No," Isa choked. He wanted the pain to end, and he didn't want to be doubting himself in the way he was just then. "My goal is the same as it always was."

Was it?

"Then you must put your philosophies into practice via your actions," Xemnas prattled on, and Isa almost found this more grating than taking Ansem's punishment.

Up above, on the balcony, two others watched intently. "Always knew it'd come down to this," Braig remarked. "Ever since he and Axel first showed up and started actin' all buddy-buddy. I think we're startin' to see the real Isa come out."

"Pity," Dilan sniffed. "He had such promise and potential. I would hate to lose our Berserker."

"I mean, that's what our little projects are for, right?" Braig needled. "How close are you to getting your 'beast' in line?"

"I am on his trail," Dilan replied. "To isolate him is no easy task. And yours?"

"Ready for his first test run," Braig replied. "All I gotta do is give him the mission debriefing."

"And you have a sufficient test gauntlet set."

"I told the WHAM ARMY not to come to the world where I'm gonna release him, since I didn't want them horning in on some big mysterious power," Braig chuckled. "Now, how many d'you think are gonna show up? Four? Ten? All of 'em? Gotta be four at least. That'll give my 'beast' a good challenge."

"Devilishly clever," Dilan said.

"That's what I'm about," Braig replied. "Anyway, it'll be sad to see old Moony hit the trash bin for the nostalgia factor, but we can do better than this."

"As our superior would say," Dilan replied, "indeed."

...

Neo had come out of the operating room on a gurney, completely unconscious. Vexen informed Roman and Snatcher that the procedure was complete, but now she would need to begin her own period of bed rest to ensure nothing was damaged before full healing. She was tucked into the cot the Huntsman had been utilizing earlier, and unconsciously rolled over to her stomach.

Roman and Snatcher had to admit they themselves were getting drowsy, and so killed the lights as well as their television and passed out along with her.

Several hours later, Roman awoke to a soft weight on his stomach. He blinked blearily, looking down to see what was standing on him.

The sight of a miniature shoebill glaring at him sent him immediately into full wakefulness, his heart jolting adrenaline through his veins.

Hythlodaeus had been sent here for a purpose. Emet-Selch had to have the last word – or, as it turned out, the last bird – and knowing of Roman's particular weakness, had deployed the familiar. Hythlodaeus shook his feathers, lightly fanning out his wings.

Roman froze, heart pounding furiously. Then, very slowly, he growled, "Go…away."

Hythlodaeus responded by making a noise reminiscent of a gatling gun.

The next thing Roman knew, he was bolting out into the lab proper, having chucked the bird across the medical bay without even realizing it.

He'd gotten halfway through the lab when he collided with someone dead-on, backpedaling once he realized he'd just about plowed someone over in his blind fear. Then he got a good look at who he'd actually hit.

A plate with a high-stacked submarine sandwich had hit the floor, ingredients and sauces scattered. "Awww, maaan!" Deymos groaned. "That took me like half an hour to put together! Are you serious? Oh, by the way, name's Deymos."

Roman blinked. Flinched. Did a double take.

"Wait," Deymos realized. "Are you one of the guys I'm not supposed to cross?"

"Oh, you have a LOT of fucking nerve showing your face around here again," Roman growled.

"That's a yes, isn't it?" Deymos realized.

Snatcher and Neo were very rudely awoken by the sound of Cudgel-shots interspersed with sitar chords. Technically, they weren't supposed to leave their cots yet, but they had to know what was going on.

The laboratory was a battleground. Geysers of water exploded upward, chasing Roman, who somersaulted behind Yzma's table and used it as a vantage point to let off a BANG-BANG-BANG at his opponent. Bubbles of water rained from above; Roman vaulted the table and rushed his opponent to whack a great blue sitar with the Cudgel.

And it was around this time that Snatcher realized who Roman was fighting. "YOU," he snarled. "AFTER ALL YOU'VE DONE, YOU THINK YOU CAN SET FOOT ON THESE PREMISES AND GET AWAY WITH YOUR LIFE?"

Neo flipped Deymos off. She and Snatcher knew better than to aggravate their conditions by joining in (since aggravating their conditions would mean aggravating Vexen), but they still wanted it clear that they backed Roman with their full support.

"I keep trying to tell you!" Deymos parried the Cudgel by swinging the sitar like a melee weapon. "I'm not the guy! I mean, I am the guy, but not that version! I didn't even do anything to you until you started trying to blow my head off!"

"That is the WEAKEST lie I've ever heard!" Roman screamed before a burst of water sent him flying. In midair, he let off a barrage of shots that Deymos had to deflect with a strategic wall of water.

"EVISCERATE HIM, ROMAN!" Snatcher yelled. "FORCE HIM TO QUESTION HIS VERY EXISTENCE!"

Neo was pumping her fist in the air.

The rollercoaster came to a halt, and Vexen and Drakken were dumped in the lab. "Anyway, I couldn't tell you anything about it," Drakken explained. "I slept through the whole thing. Even the part where Mim set the usher on fire, apparently, and threw him onstage." He halted. "Whaaaat's going on here?"

Seeing the water and sparks flying, Vexen felt his stomach drop. "Oh, NO."

Deymos' water attacks suddenly froze over. Small bergs formed around Roman and Deymos' feet both, rooting them to the floor where they stood. "YOU WILL CEASE THIS AT ONCE!" Vexen said as he stormed into the battlefield.

"Are you implying you ALLOWED this?" Roman yelled. "You KNEW he came back?"

"This is a different Demyx from an alternate timeline!" Vexen argued. "He goes by 'Deymos,' if you must know."

"I don't give a shit," Roman snarled. "I just know him as Traitorpants McFuckup!"

Deymos rolled his eyes. "Rude."

"Mr. Vexen," Snatcher argued. "You CANNOT be serious. No iteration of HIM, in this timeline or any other, is anything but a menace and a nuisance!"

"YOU will get back to bed!" Vexen demanded. "That is an ORDER!"

Vexen wasn't really allowed to give orders to Snatcher. That said, the utter venom in his voice actually scared Snatcher far more than he cared to admit, and the same went for Neo, so the two of them scuttled back into the med bay like cockroaches in the presence of a bright light.

"I see this now has to be my problem," Vexen groaned. "Very well. If you will call at least a temporary armistice, then I will ROMAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Roman held up his scroll, showing an open text chat. "Guess who knows about your little fugitive boyfriend?"

"No." Vexen recoiled, shaking his head. "No! You didn't!"

The PA system crackled to life. Over it, Mozenrath's voice boomed, "This message is for Vexen and Vexen only. SEE ME NOW."

...

Right away, Harley decided she liked Twilight Town. It was pretty, and it seemed to strike a balance between comfortable and chaotic. Gotham had been a dark, bustling place: perfect for raw villainy to bloom. This was a little softer than Gotham, even though it was as large from the looks of it. A good place for villains who wanted to be just a little softer. Madness and mayhem, but to a point.

"I could get used to it here," Harley sighed as she walked the afternoon streets. She'd abandoned her costume for this, deciding to come dressed in a pink sweater and jeans, her blonde hair out.

Beside her, Yang remarked, "It kinda reminds me of Vale, to be honest. It feels cozy. Maybe not my home just yet, but it feels like A home."

"It's…nice," Velvet admitted. "Like how I always imagined Loegres to be, before Artorius stepped in. And…the only reason Loegres fell short is because of that history. This place won't be free of an underbelly. Nowhere is. But without that history, it's…an improvement."

"So many shops with minimal security!" Giovanni squealed. "I've already cased like five heists! You think there's a craft store here? Dumb question; there's always gotta be a craft store in the big city! That's a place I'll actually pay at!"

"So we basically agree this is a good place to set up camp, right?" Yang prompted.

"Uh-huh!" Harley nodded.

"Yep!" Giovanni confirmed.

"…Yes," Velvet said with a soft smile.

They had been informed that people used to get out to the woods through a hole in Twilight Town's wall, but that had been patched for safety. The best way to get to the woods was the long way around, but if you wanted a shortcut, the underground tunnel system had a route through what was technically the sewers and emptied out in the forest.

"We need a secret passage to get to our house!" Giovanni squeaked. "This day just keeps getting better!"

"It's not a secret," Velvet told him. "It's a public sewer."

"Yeah, but who's gonna go crawling around in the sewer?" Giovanni countered. "Huh? HUH?"

"Edgy kids who want to spray-paint the mansion?" Yang suggested.

"Hey!" Giovanni snapped. "Those kids better back off! We've got the monopoly on desecration of public property here! Why, I oughta - "

"The kids don't even exist yet," Harley reminded him. "Maybe. Schrödinger's vandals. But I think I see the house! Let's go!" She broke into a run, and the others followed.

The mansion rose above the tree line, its intricate gables providing a welcoming vista. A rickety metal gate swung open in a stone wall that lined the property; broken columns bordered the path to the front door.

"This is pretty upscale!" Yang said as she made note of the columns.

"But in a totally grungy way," Giovanni added.

"Seems to fit us just fine," Velvet remarked.

Harley had found the front door locked, and so set to work on it with a hairpin. It clicked in a matter of seconds. "We gotta beef up security," she said as she nudged the door open with a charming creak. "Basically us-proof it."

They walked into a dusty foyer, where twin staircases hugged the central room, leading up to an upper level. Many, many doors lined the walls on both floors, and judging from the exterior, one of the doors on the second floor probably led to a stairway that brought you to a third. The central room was marked with some sort of sculpture inside of a glass case; light shone through the glass back door and reflected off it so that the sculpture itself wasn't immediately visible. The back door offered a view into a courtyard overgrown with shrubbery.

"Welcome to home sweet home!" Harley announced.

The sounds of several weapons cocking brought down the spirit of the moment immediately.

"Whoa, WHOA!" Giovanni put up both hands. "We haven't even done any crime yet! DON'T SHOOT!"

Velvet's claw came out. "Try us," she seethed.

"Now wait, wait, wait a minute!" Harley said nervously. "Let's just talk this out! This has all gotta be a big misunderstandin'!"

"We didn't come here to start a fight," Yang added.

Slowly they noticed the four silhouettes positioned around the foyer – the thickset one by the left stairway, the lithe one by the right, the slender one on the upper level, and just the hands of one slipping through a door.

The one by the right stairway commanded, "State your names and your business here."

"I'm Harley," Harley explained. "Harley Quinn. These are my pals Yang Xiao Long, Giovanni Potage, an' Velvet Crowe. Well, Yang's more of a girlfriend than a gal pal. I've been tryin' to come up with a Remnant-style team acronym for our names, but I just ain't found anythin' that spells a color an' also keeps my name at the front. Anyway, we're here 'cause we're startin' a criminal syndicate of people who just wanna commit crimes without goin' overboard and hurtin' everybody who don't deserve it, and we're lookin' for a place to squat! That's all!"

"Admitting we're the bad guys might've been a bad play," Yang pointed out.

"Oops," Harley muttered.

There was a pause. Then, from the upper balcony, another voice; "We also are a group of people who might be considered morally bereft, but don't want to cause violence without reason. And we also need a place to hide out after an…incident, so we've been living here under the radar. Just moved in, actually."

"You, uh…you wouldn't be interested in an alliance, would you?" Giovanni posed. "Sounds like you could bring some unique skills to the team."

"How do you know that?" Velvet asked.

"Because everyone can bring unique skills to a villain team," Giovanni told her. "That's just how it works."

"Should we trust them?" the one by the left stairway asked.

"I…I don't know," the one by the right admitted. "But it might not be a bad idea to at least find strength in numbers."

"Unless those numbers end up overpowering US," the one by the left said. In a tone that suggested she rather wanted that sort of fight.

"Do we really have any other options right now?" the one on the second level asked. "We're going to have to integrate into some society or another at some point. Might as well be people who get it and won't chew us out for having a past."

The guns were lowered. Then the three stepped out into the light, and the fourth slipped out from behind the door, and a fifth – who turned out to be a black cat – padded down along the stairway railing.

Harley gasped in awe as she beheld their appearances. They weren't human, that was for sure. She'd never seen anything like them. And as the light from the courtyard door illuminated their colorful skin tones, she gasped without thinking, "You're beautiful…"

"Thanks!" Ezor chirped.

Acxa stepped forth. "My name is Acxa," she introduced. "These are my comrades Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti. Along with Kova, who is Narti's assistant."

"Awww, kitty!" Yang cooed, eyes glittering at Kova.

"We come from a distant world," Acxa went on. "We were military generals who were no stranger to war crimes…scarred as some of the things we've done have left us."

"I still think sometimes that we all would've had more fun if we'd just become space pirates instead," Ezor piped up.

"We could still become space pirates NOW!" Zethrid encouraged.

"Our leader, Lotor, promised solidarity with us," Acxa said. "However…it recently came to light that he saw us as disposable. He drove our agenda and decided our fate. There was only one choice left for us: to break away. But in doing so, we needed to disassociate from the Galra forces completely…leaving us without a current purpose."

"Oh, boy," Harley sighed. "Do I know a thing or two about havin' a bad boss."

Velvet retracted her claw. "And I'm no stranger to being betrayed."

"I definitely didn't fall for a pyramid scheme," Giovanni said, "but I have a somewhat vague idea of what you're going through. And I want you to know you have a safe space here."

"But you aren't killers for fun," Velvet insisted. "Do I have that right? Because that's crucial to whether this alliance will work."

"No!" Ezor spat. "We were killers when it was war and we wanted to win, but now we're sick of war!"

"Lotor's betrayal caused us all to realize that we needed a new direction," Acxa said. "I, for one, am looking for a life that doesn't require as much tragedy."

"So long as I still get to beat somebody up every now and again, we'll be good," Zethrid said.

"We can find plenty of rude people around here for a punch-out!" Yang assured her. "Trust me. I know how fun it is."

"And what about you?" Velvet looked to Narti.

Narti slowly nodded. Velvet felt a thrumming in her mind: an affirmation that the other three had the right of it.

"Good," Velvet replied. "Then that's settled."

"So since you're already here," Harley said, "couldja give us a review of the place? Like if it's a good home base for a buncha villains?"

"We can do more than a review," Ezor said. "We can do a whole tour! Come on! Follow me!"

Acxa smiled as Ezor skipped off up one of the stairways. "She's always been the most chipper of us," Acxa explained, "but defecting from the war made that come out even more. I'm glad to see her like this."

"She's more beautiful than ever," Zethrid said wistfully. "I'll do anything to make sure she can stay like this all the time! Even if it means beating up half the town!"

The tour began. Ezor led Acxa, Zethrid, Narti, Kova, Harley, Velvet, Giovanni, and Yang through every room in the mansion, showing them the multitude of luxurious bedrooms, the dining room with the broken table, the courtyard, the attic, the kitchens, even a small ballroom.

"We're almost done, right?" Harley noted. "I've been keepin' track, and I think everybody'll juuuuuust fit, so long as we double up on the rooms."

"Oh, wait until you see the best part!" Ezor danced through the last remaining door into a library.

"Leisure reading!" Yang exclaimed as she followed.

"Well, that's a bonus," Ezor said, "but it isn't the BEST part. Watch this!"

She approached a table. "Now, it took us a while to figure out how to work this at first," she admitted, "because it won't even work unless you fill in the design on the tabletop. But if you fix it, then you can activate this…"

She pressed a circular symbol atop the wood. The table, as well as the floor under it – half the room's worth – flashed a bright white, then disappeared, revealing a wide stairway that led to a basement of blue metal walls.

"There's a switch on the other side so you can cover it up or get back out from the inside, too!" Ezor explained. "We were glad to find it because we thought if any Lotor loyalists tracked us here, it'd be a good place to hide. But I think it'll be better for you for a different reason."

Door after door revealed a massive laboratory space beneath the mansion, with more rooms even than the building itself. Every time Harley thought they must've exhausted it, they found more side rooms. Some of them were filled with scientific equipment. Some were simply bare spaces. There was a room full of strange pods that Harley was rather unnerved by, and then a round, white room that was quite spacious.

"If we put beds down here," she gasped, "we'd have MORE than enough room without havin' to do roommates! We could pick up new recruits, even! Or invite Yang's hero pals over for a movie night! Actually, just in general, we gotta put some TVs down here for movie nights. If we make blanket nests and popcorn, it'd be perfect for team bonding! We might have to move some of the stuff around for safety reasons…but I'm sure Entrapta would want it all concentrated in one lab space anyway, and Abby an' Mel an' Dr. Lopez an' Jon could use it too…" She was bouncing up and down with glee.

"Then it's settled," Velvet said. "We've found our new home."

"And a few new minions!" Giovanni proclaimed. "Minion names pending. We can talk about your cool skills to decide 'em later."

"I'm…actually looking forward to meeting your friends," Acxa admitted.

"It's been a while since we've had friends who weren't each other," Zethrid stated.

"You're gonna love 'em," Harley assured. "We're gonna be all one big happy family, and we got the best house in town to be it in!"

...

"Vexen," Mozenrath said evenly from his side of his desk. "Do you remember a certain incident involving one Prince Hans Westergaard that nearly crippled our chances at total multiversal…well, destruction, but we didn't know that at the time?"

"I do," Vexen replied coldly.

"And do you remember who assisted one Prince Hans Westergaard in abducting me to put me in enemy hands?"
"I do."

"Aaaaand who is in the basement laboratory right now?"

"The other one," Vexen asserted.

"Is Deymos not the same person as Demyx, but under different circumstances?"

"There are too many scientific variables at this point to determine how the timeline would or wouldn't affect his demeanor," Vexen stated.

"And what's your proof he wouldn't betray us a second time?"

"I didn't LET HIM IN!" Vexen growled. "He somehow found his way here despite the various hazards lining the path to our base of operation! …No, not 'somehow.' He's Deymos. Of COURSE he can summon up the motivation to display incredible skill when it's for something self-serving!"

"Well, you may not have let him in," Mozenrath said, "but you ARE throwing him out. Now. Which shouldn't be a problem for you, since you wouldn't want him to clutter your workspace anyhow. Am I right?" He raised a brow.

"Why do you keep insinuating I invited him?" Vexen growled.

"Because the two of you got chummy on our last mission together," Mozenrath reminded him. Then he put on a high, nasal voice: "You know I would never hurt youuuuu!"

"We are not friends," Vexen insisted.

"Then throw. Him. Out."

Vexen knew his knee-jerk response should have been an emphatic yes. But the tape of Simon Laurent's memories was in his pocket. Having the tape, it should've been easy to eject Deymos and keep the data.

The reason he didn't want to do that was frustratingly unclear at the moment. He hated not knowing why he felt things. This was the downside of having a heart. But at the end of the day, what he knew was that if he didn't want to do something, he was going to dig in his heels and refuse to do it because the fact that he didn't want to was reason enough.

"No," Vexen said. "If you want him gone, then it is YOUR team and you can take the matter into YOUR hands."

"I don't like the implications I'm hearing, Vexen."

"And I don't like being ordered about!"

They were both interrupted when a high-pitched "SIR!" sounded from the doorway to the study. Vexen turned to see the doors framing Commander Peepers, his arms laden with papers.

"I went over the to-do lists you'd drawn up regarding the invasion," he said as he hurried forth to toss the stack onto Mozenrath's desk. "And I've gotta be honest: they were…discombobulated. You had everything spaced out to only accomplish a few things at a time! The timeline was unreasonable! You weren't going to get to ANY of the good parts with the outline you gave me! So I tightened some things up. What you see is my NEW plan for how to round up the final alliances and technologies we need!"

Mozenrath flipped the first page over to see a neat summary of the first required mission, as well as a diagram that put it in a more visual format. His eyes widened. He flipped the next page. Peepers had suggested combining a recruitment drive with a particular errand Mozenrath had left pinned on a stray paper for a while, and really, it made more sense this way, because it wasn't the sort of errand one could accomplish alone.

"I hope you don't mind that I added in a few suggestions," Peepers said. "See, I just couldn't believe that you'd never even considered qwaza technology for this. Between the high power output it produces and the inclination towards music most of your army has, I'd thought it'd be a given. Anyway, when I brought it up down in the lab to see if anyone had a design that could utilize it, it actually corresponded with one of Ravess' old weapons, and she'd actually been talking with Randall about rebuilding it. Think of it as a sonic cannon powered by music. Remake it with a decent qwaza and it'd be a WMD!"

"Huh." Mozenrath flipped through a few more pages. "This…this is a solid agenda. I could've streamlined it a little more cleanly myself, but why put in the effort when you have something workable right in front of me?"

"I KNEW you'd appreciate it, sir!" Peepers said, jumping for joy.

"I'll take a look at this," Mozenrath told him. "You can spend the rest of your day however you see fit. But remember our terms!"

"All right, Sir!" Peepers saluted. "Now to go find as many things to organize and clean around the base as I can!"

And with that, he took his leave.

"I'm…not sure he understands the concept of free time," said Mozenrath, who himself didn't really understand the concept of free time by that token.

Vexen had cracked a smirk. "What sort of creature was that?"

"A Watchdog," Mozenrath replied. "But that's in name only. He likes to insist he's not like the ordinary Watchdogs, and honestly, that's why he fits in here."

"As I had thought," Vexen stated. "He does match the description you gave of Lord Hater's minions. From the Etherium clash, correct?"

"Yes. That is correct."

"Was he perchance the one to stifle the magical power of your entire contingent and nearly cause your downfall?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Mozenrath said proudly. "And now we have that brain on OUR side."

"In other words," Vexen said, "you are harboring an enemy that decided to become an ally."

"Yes!" Mozenrath replied. Then he realized exactly what trap he'd walked into. "Wait, NO!"

"You must admit that Deymos, in his timeline, has not even considered betraying us yet," Vexen pointed out. "But your Watchdog attempted to put an end to several of you, and that most certainly is no duplicate."

"YOU – "

"I suppose you could stick to the principle and throw them both out," Vexen went on. "But you and I both know that if you TRULY could have made a more organized plan, it would have been done weeks ago."

Mozenrath trembled with rage. Then seethed, "Fine. Deymos…stays. But one wrong move…and he's GONE."

"Likewise to your new strategist."

Vexen turned on a heel and exited the room smugly. He'd gotten his way, and he didn't need to spoil the moment by wondering why in the world his way would involve keeping Deymos around.

...

The Heathens had successfully been transplanted into the mansion on the edge of Twilight Town, and every single one of them loved it.

"UNICORNS!" Spike squealed as she found another unicorn emblem on a wall she hadn't noticed the first time. "I am SO down for how many unicorns this place has! You know why unicorns are the best animal? Because they're horses WITH SPIKES ON THEM! It's so metal! The only other comparable thing is narwhals!"

"Let's get some light in this place!" Eleanor declared, standing by a candelabra in the foyer.

"One light, coming up!" Magilou touched the wicks of each candle, lighting them up with her power as she did so.

That served to illuminate just how many cobwebs lined the building. "This could also use a good cleaning," Eleanor sniffed.

Emerald and Rokurou had gone out back to the courtyard because it was a large, open space in which they could duel, and soon the sound of swords swishing and guns banging muffled by the door made a background soundtrack.

One of the bedrooms was entirely white, featuring a long table as its other article of furniture. "While I appreciate the artistic vision that went into this stark room," Felony Carl remarked, "I cannot help but find the lack of color unsettling."

"You wanna pick up some spray paints and go to town on it?" Abigail asked.

"I was not aware you were an artist of the graffiti persuasion," Carl said with surprise.

"I used to get away with so much tagging before my dad put a lid on it," Abigail teased. "Wanna invite the boyfriends and make it a party?"

"I think you know I would like nothing more."

When Cedric came upon the broken table in the dining room, he let out a loud "Oh, DEAR" before putting his wand to work. "Tabelius repairius!"

In a rush of glittering sparks, the table fixed itself, standing strong and solid.

"This room won't be nearly enough for group meals," Cedric remarked. "I suppose we shall have to use a basement room for that. But it will be perfect if we stagger the times we use it, which only makes sense, as we couldn't all be on the same timetable, now, would we?"

Jack Sparrow wasn't listening. He was poking at a grandfather clock with a skull carved into it, its hands shaped like bones. "A rather morbid thing to have around, is it not?" he muttered. "Rather puts a bow on the whole package."

Eizen wasn't listening to either of them. He'd found a symbol on the wall: a crown whose central spire curved up into a fleur-de-lis. "I'm going to take an etching of this," he decided. "Its placement suggests it's symbolic to prior owners of the house. If we find the meaning behind it, it could reveal valuable secrets about the mansion's history. We could learn what it was like to live in it when it was first built."

"Oh, look!" Cedric had noticed another interesting decoration: a sculpture of a crescent moon surrounded by stars. "Why, it reminds me of the insignia of Yen Sid! Of course, I was always more of a fan of Merlin when I was a lad, but Yen Sid has done incredible things in the field of wizardry!"

And it didn't really matter that they weren't paying attention to each other, because they were all having a good time exploring.

Laphicet and Jinnai meandered through the library; the floor was closed so they could do so, even though there were many exploring the basement. Laphicet pulled a book from the wall. "An atlas of this world," he said pensively. "I'd spent so much time longing to explore my own when I was young. Then, in Velvet's dream, I saw every corner of it a thousand times over. It never occurred to me that there could be a whole new world to start over in and explore."

"In my experience," Jinnai told him, "arriving in a new world is a chance to reinvent yourself as something even more powerful than what you were before!" He plucked a book off the shelf. "You can decide where to strike for the most efficient power play. I'm going to be looking at the leisure-reading literature of this civilization!"

Entrapta rushed through the basement laboratories screaming like a banshee while Emily scuttled to keep up. "All this TECH! It's so AMAZING! Everything I need to rebuild Spinel is right here, and then after that, who KNOWS what I could do? I could try and hack this world's core! I could attempt to master time travel! I could build SO MANY ROBOTS!"

"Science as it should be," Ohn agreed as he followed her. "Not for profit, but for the love of it! Do you…do you think you could perhaps help me find a way to stabilize my portals so that leaving one open too long wouldn't trigger an imminent apocalypse?"

"Oooh, I love a challenge!" Entrapta replied.

Hordak ran his hand along the wall. "This feels far more familiar than what's above," he admitted. "Perhaps it is time for me to recall my own inventions and designs…this seems the perfect place to refine them."

At the large computer terminal, Molly was tapping at the keyboard experimentally. "Huh. This is kind of weird."

"What is?" Globby leaned in over her shoulder.

"Well, they said this world doesn't have a working Internet," Molly recalled. "But I can log onto an Internet from this computer."

"Maybe they were wrong!" Globby cried with glee. "This means we can play as many room-escape games as we want!"

"The thing is," Molly went on, "I can't really find anything about this town no matter where I look. But what I CAN do is log onto my SpaceBook page." She clicked, and the main screen of the computer lit up with a pink blog covered in flashing glitter icons.

"Your blog is SO cute," Globby told her.

"Thanks," Molly replied, "but what weirds me out is I shouldn't be able to get onto a website from my world while I'm here on this one. I think I'm NOT on this world's Internet. I think I'm actually accessing the Internet of multiple other worlds."

"Hmm." Globby thought it over. "Can you pull up any Mochi the Cat videos?"

With a few keystrokes, Molly had found a recording of a fat cat playing with a spoon atop a café table and getting mesmerized by the light it cast.

"That's exclusive to MY world!" Globby gasped. "You're right! We have access to ALL the Internets! You know what this means, right?"

"Infinite informational resources?"

"AND INFINITE ROOM-ESCAPE GAMES!"

Ben and Car Crash had found the room with the pods. "Are you creeped out," Car Crash asked as he looked up to one pod, "or is it just me?"

"I'm not scared!" Ben said a little too defensively. "I don't care about any creepy pods! I don't know why I said 'creepy'! These are ordinary pods that aren't even creepy! I'm definitely not picturing any human beings frozen in these!"

A sudden muffled sound startled them both into screaming and running away. But the noise had nothing to do with the pods and was in fact coming from the boom box that Ifurita, Ezor, and Scorpia had gotten ahold of and were now using to Caramelldansen all over the round, white room at the end of the hall.

"Man, Harley sure found us some nice digs!" Flint said as he surveyed the foyer. "We're livin' the good life now! I oughta thank her. You seen her lately?"

Ainsley was fascinated by the sculpture in the glass box: a castle tower, toppled over. "I think she said she was gonna go out into town with Yang, Giovanni, and Velvet," they replied. "Or something like that. I dunno."

In fact, that was exactly correct. Having heard about another tradition among the youth of Twilight Town, Harley, Yang, Giovanni, and Velvet found themselves walking away from a sweet shop holding blue ice cream pops.

"I'm surprised it hasn't started melting already," Yang said once they'd gotten a certain distance away.

"They probably keep it cold with artes," Velvet replied, and that wasn't actually too far off – Blizzard magic was used on the ice cream freezers to preserve the dessert longer.

Up the hill they walked until they reached the Station Square: seemingly the highest point in town, with an overlook to the countryside below. But the place they were looking for was even higher.

"Oh, are you KIDDING ME?" Giovanni yelled when he saw how tall the bell tower was.

"What," Yang teased, "you scared?"

"That is NOT safety-compliant!" Giovanni argued. "There's no railing! What's to stop any of us from just falling over the edge, huh?"

"Each other," Velvet replied. "I could catch any of you with one hand if you slipped."

"And what if YOU'RE the one who slips, huh?" Giovanni retorted.

"I'm a Dream Eater," Velvet replied. "I could survive a fall like that."

"C'mon, Gio!" Harley urged. "Live life on the edge!"

"Like on the EDGE of that clock tower!" Yang said, and one could almost hear the rimshot.

"I already live my life on the edge, thank you very much," Giovanni said haughtily. "I just observe safety protocol as I do so."

"Not how it works," Yang told him. "Do you not hear the contradiction in that statement?"

"Seriously, Gio," Harley said. "We'll catch ya if ya fall. And ya don't have to come up there if ya don't want…but I still wanna go see the view."

"Me too," Yang said.

"I agree," Velvet added.

"…Okay," Giovanni relented. "But I reserve the right to leave at any time. Are we clear?"

"Crystal!" Harley replied.

They entered the train station, passing the ticket booths and ignoring the trains themselves to seek out a door that led to several levels of stairs. They ascended to the topmost door, which took them to the balcony on the back of the tower. From there, they walked around front – Giovanni watching his step carefully – and sat down on the face of the tower that offered them a perfect view westward, into the sunset, over the countryside vista.

"Wow," Harley gasped. "It's gorgeous."

"Yeah." Yang took a bite of her ice cream. "Mm, and the local treats are pretty good."

"What is this flavor anyway?" Giovanni took a bite of his own, mulling it over in his mouth. "Huh. Kinda savory, but still sweet. I think it's got sea salt in it." His next bite was bigger. "Yeah, that's definitely sea salt. I like it."

"This is…strange," Velvet admitted. "The last time I was in a place like this, where I could just…relax and look at the view, without anything weighing on my mind…was when I was sixteen."

"So in other words," Yang said, "you've got a lot to catch up on."

"I guess you're right," Velvet replied, eating pensively.

"Me," Yang said, "I'm looking forward to finding the rest of the team so I can show 'em around the place. Ruby would love this. So would Weiss, actually."

Knowing Yang was avoiding the elephant in the room, Harley ventured, "What about…you know…?"

"…She'd like it here too," Yang said. "Could be a good place to try and put our friendship back together at any rate."

"How would your friends react to know you're hangin' with the bad guys now?"

"They'll just have to deal with it," Yang said with a shrug. (Another reminder that she really needed a new prosthetic. She'd have to bother the techies of the house when they returned.)

"You know," Giovanni said, "maybe it isn't dangerous to be up here." All the same, while Velvet, Harley, and Yang dangled their legs over the side, he was cross-legged, further back on the balcony, with his back to the wall. "Yeah, I could do this more often."

"What do you think, Harley?" Yang asked. "Feeling at home?"

"It feels…perfect," Harley said, a warm smile overtaking her. "I almost can't believe it's real. I'm here, in this beautiful town, with real friends an' a gal who treats me right…if I'm dreamin', don't wake me up."

"Trust me," Velvet said. "You're not dreaming. I can tell the difference now between a dream and reality, and we're definitely real now."

"Good," Harley said as she took another bite of ice cream. "'Cause we made it. We're here, we got each other…an' life's gonna be good."

...

To see Sora in a state of melancholy was a strange sight. But it was the sight that Riku, Jim Hawkins, Captain Amelia, Delbert Doppler, the Doppler children, Jumba, Pleakley, and Naminé were all looking at.

"I was seeing her memories," Sora recounted. "How she joined the Organization, how she met Roxas. It felt like I was there, being her. When things started to go wrong in her story, with the Organization, I knew more than ever that I had to get her back to Roxas and Lea. They were such good friends before Xemnas got in the way. And I was excited, because it was about to happen. Once I saw the last memory of hers, she was gonna wake up. But before I could get there…the connection just…died."

He looked down into his empty hands, clenching them. "I just fell asleep then. And after that, I woke up. When I realized what happened…if I'd just been able to wake up the minute they took her…"

"Sora." Riku put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. It was…it was my fault she got taken. I wasn't keeping as good of an eye on – "

"Will you STOP?" Jim burst out. "We found Isaac all the way across the castle! Whoever took Xion set us up!"

"We shouldn't have left you alone," Doppler mourned.

"I shouldn't have left," Naminé said softly, sniffling. "This was my project to supervise. And I left it to…to have fun. It shouldn't have mattered."

"But Naminé!" Sora insisted. "Your whole life, you haven't had much fun! You need to have as much as you can get now!"

"Am agreeing with rat-tail boy," Jumba stated. "Is no one's fault but kidnapper that we are in precarious position. What remains is to figure out which of many villains we know did horrendous deed, then get Experiment i back immediately."

"But how?" Pleakley asked.

"Can't use the hourglass," Sora recalled. "Not after…" He didn't even need to say it.

"We'll find a way," Riku said.

Sora steeled himself; "You're right, Riku. We will. I'm not gonna give up hope until we find her. She's already had to wait a long time. We'll use all the time it takes to get her back to her friends." Then he smiled. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Hey." Riku ruffled Sora's hair. "You spend enough time being a fountain of motivation. You need someone like me to pick up the slack when you run out of it."

Sora practically tackled him in a soft hug.

That was when Ven and Papyrus walked into the computer room. "We're back!" Ven said gleefully. "We just had the most AMAZING trip!"

"WE MADE FRIENDS WITH A WHALE," Papyrus recounted, "AND FOUND THE MULTIVERSE'S MOST DELICIOUS CLAM CHOWDER, AND…WHY DOES EVERYONE LOOK SO SERIOUS?"

In that moment, Ven and Papyrus realized that they had walked in on a disaster.