Yeah, the first chapter was sort of bland, but I swear it gets better! Just... Not immediately. Anyways, I'm so glad a small handful of people are already taking an interest in this little idea of mine. It's another take on "What if Six didn't let go of Mono?" but I'm taking liberties to use that for some world expanding or something. You'll see!

Also, a lot of updates are going to happen recently. I write most of my story in a notebook so I don't have to worry about internet and stuff like that. Right now I'm up to Chapter Ten in the book, but uhm... Chapter Two digitally currently, heh.

Anyways, enjoy!

Large waves engulfed the city, the moon shining down and highlighting everything that once was. All of the Residents were dead, lumps of bodies washing in the water. The ominous light that once shone from the Signal Tower was gone. Now everything was completely black.

Things should have came out differently. Like everything here, there was a cycle. An infinite cycle of the Transmission taking Mono into its center and corrupting him into the creature that was behind the all seeing door. In this timeline, Six was something the Transmission didn't take account of. She was new. New was a problem.

Six tapped Mono's shoulder. He turned to her, senses automatically tuned like a radio to the new change within her.

Like everything else, the Transmission turned Six into a monster. She became a beast kept with the loving innocence of a child. Mono had freed her, destroyed the music box that trapped her true soul. But she was always infected even if turned physically back to normal.

She was hungry. A hunger that could never be satiated. It took her stomach and placed an empty void in its place.

Six presented to Mono his paper bag. Somehow it had survived the force of the water, but it was still dripping wet.

He looked at the bag briefly before turning his attention back to the dysfunctional tower.

"I don't need it anymore."

A harsh impact from a wave cracked many of those lifeless glass panels.

Six didn't take no for an answer. She scrunched up her face and turned her back to Mono. He was afraid for a moment he'd upset her, but instead he heard the sound of her violently shaking the paper bag. After a while she stopped and forcefully pressed it against his chest. He was afraid to not take it.

"Put it on," she said, voice high and soft but rough in its tone. "I'm more used to you looking like an absolute weirdo."

A small smile curled up on his face. "A weirdo, huh?"

Mono knew her true reason though. Six would never actually say it outloud, and that was understandable. He looked down at the paper bag. He poked a few fingers though one of the circular eye holes. He'd seen the dark hairs that peeked out from underneath the Thin Man's hat. Very briefly multiple times he spotted narrow eyes overshadowing by that rim and a flat bridged nose. Mono himself looked very similar. Staring straight at his older monstrous self was a very weird experience.

Both the children knew that without someone to control, the Transmission would slowly fold to Mono's bidding. Maybe it was originally in the hands of someone with those types of powers to begin with, but an outside source changed that. All they knew was that there were no more restrictions for him. Ironically, the two were scared of themselves.

"I'll put it on when we leave the city." Mono folded up the bag and shoved it in his pocket. "When we reach civilization... People might recognize me."

Six reached into her own pocket. "Speaking of civilization..." She pulled out a folded piece of paper and unfolded it, showing Mono its contents.

"The Maw?"

"No doubt there's people on it. 'Maw' is another word for ship, right? So where there's a ship, there has to be a crew to keep it in function."

Mono scratched his head, the droplets flattening his hair down and making his scalp itchy. "I don't think I've ever heard of the Maw before."

"Of course you haven't." The paper went back into her pocket. Six turned away from Mono and walked further into the untouched building they took as their temporary shelter. "You're a hermit."

"Am not!"

A soft giggle rang from out the empty hall, making Mono smile. He followed her in, that yellow coat contrasting like a light against everything.

The building they took shelter within used to be an office complex. Most of the desks had been crushed into nothing by the broken roof overhead. The wood sprawled all over the place may look like a mess, but the children rearranged the boards to create a rough tent-like structure. Six had found a stray lighter which provided them with some warmth. They picked apart small hunks of wood that were dry enough to burn between them. The water raining down from outside rolled down their walls and kept their shelter too wet to go ablaze.

A thin line of white smoke curled out with the small change of wind. Mono tapped his fingers against his knees, listening to the crashing of waves outside. He watched Six stare at the fire, her hood lowered and revealing her fine hair. He harbored no romantic attraction towards her, but he could admit Six was very pretty. If only she wouldn't sock him at the compliment.

They sat in silence. There really wasn't much to say. Despite all the things that happened, they were still children.

Mono remembered when he was small. He remembered the destruction of his first home. He remembered those children he strived to protect burning alive. He remembered too many things he wished he could forget.

There once was a story he remembered being told to him. Mono couldn't recall how the story began or what it was about, but he remembered it ended with five specific words...

'And then it was gone'.

What was gone? Mono didn't know. It seemed almost important, but at the same time it was probably a story meant to keep him from wanting to go outside the sanctuary. Maybe it meant the sanctuary was gone. Maybe the innocence of childhood. That was definitely something the world liked to take away.

Mono reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded paper bag. He opened the folds and adjusted the opening of the bag. Although he was tired of hiding, the bag was still his sanctuary. He considered it odd that after god knows how many loops he was now at a somewhat happy ending. No more sitting in that dreaded chair for all eternity and no more chasing his past self around in a fit of unconditional hatred. Funny enough, Mono still wondered what it would be like if the cycle kept continuing.

The paper bag fit perfectly over his face, as it should. It smelt faintly of sewage water, but it was an odd smell that comforted him. Mono might've been tired of running and hiding, but the bag was like an extra limb to him, an extra piece of amour. Both metaphorically and physically. Nonetheless, Mono was still Mono. And Six was still Six, he decided, no matter how much she changed. And in an alternative time, both changed a lot.

They didn't dare throw more wood scraps in their small flaming pile. The fire started to grow smaller, more and more as the rain grew heavier. A few droplets slipped between the walls above Mono and landed on his paper bag with heavy taps. The sound echoed in his ears for a while. In the corner of his vision he could see Six getting attacked by the same rouge droplets.

On his hands and knees, Mono crawled towards one corner of the shelter. Outside this specific corner, fractured planks bordered it and prevented the entire makeshift tent from tumbling downwards. The planks also acted as an extra umbrella, so this corner was rather dry as well. Six seemed to have noticed Mono's plan, crawling over to the corner as well.

The closest the two had ever been next to each other was when they forced open a ventilation blockade in a last chase from the Teacher, and when Six pulled Mono away from the gateways into the Transmission's other worlds. Other than those times where fear filled their bodies with the natural instinct to survive, they never really simply enjoyed each others' physical company. The thoughts of them never hugging may come across as sad, but when monsters hunted them down, scoring one was much harder. Hand holding did not count in this category.

Mono was the first one to reach the dry corner, pressing his back against it. Six came next, crawling like he did. She hesitated when she had noticed he'd already taken the spot. Mono invited her over, and when she came he started making room for her.

Six's raincoat was stiff, as raincoats should be. But that didn't stop her from pressing herself against Mono, their sides touching. Mono's senses picked up the first of many cold winds that came from the storm. He moved his arms around Six's waste and pulled her closer to him. She didn't mind, already sharing her body heat with him as he shared his with her. The basics of surviving with a companion.

The rain outside kept going, and eventually the fire died out to a patch of smoldering charcoal. Six had already fallen asleep, but Mono could not. He thought about too much regarding what happened this day...