Imperfect Metamorphosis

by TakerFoxx

It's the first day of spring, and Cirno and her friends are once again up to no good! But after stealing a strange box from Marisa's house, they soon find themselves over their heads as they discover some things are meant to remain locked up.

77. Deep Within, Part 5

Deep Within, Part 5

It was a teaparty for monsters.

Where it was held, only the host knew. It might have been in the sky, in the middle of a cloud. It might have been in a fog-filled valley. It might have been within the smoke of a volcano. All the guest knew was that she had gone from massacring every living thing she had come across to being trapped and captured by an obnoxiously smug ghost to sitting sullenly in someplace misty at one end of a lovely garden table shadowed by a green umbrella, on which a very nice tea for two had been set. There were even cookies.

Across from her was the ghost, some green-haired bitch that really needed to die all over again. She had served her increasingly irritated guest her unwanted tea and was now pouring a cup for herself.

"Well, well, well," the ghost murmured as she idly spooned sugar into her tea and stirred it into the steaming brown liquid with long, lazy swirls. "As I neither live nor breathe, the Shadow Youkai herself, in the flesh." She looked her guest up and down. "Or someone's flesh, anyway. That's, what, your second host? Third? Say, is calling you the 'Shadow Youkai' even accurate anymore? 'Shadow Goddess' might be more appropriate, and has a weightier gravitas to it."

The Shadow Youkai? Was that her name? That title did ring a very faint bell, from deep within the broken and burned ruin that was her memory.

Whatever. It was as good as any other name. The Shadow Youkai would do.

The ghost kept talking. "Regardless, I admit, I had thought we had seen the last of you, ever since that whole-"

Talk, talk, talk. Enough.

The Shadow Youkai tipped the tip of one talon into her tea. The liquid darkened to inky black at the touch and began churning and bubbling. "You have until all of this evaporates to explain yourself, and it better be good," she growled. "Then I take your head off."

The ghost was nonplussed. "Don't you mean 'or'?"

The tea was now a third of the way gone. "No."

"Hmmm." The ghost daintily lifted her teacup and took a sip. "Not much motivation for me to adhere to your deadline then."

With one swift strike, the Shadow Youkai swept the entire tea setup, from the ceramic pot to the cream and sugar, off the table and pounced, her talons slashing at the ghost's face.

She intended to take the damned thing's head right off, but the ghost's hand came up in a dizzying blur of motion, index and middle finger extended straight up. The tips of the Shadow Youkai's talons stopped dead in the air mere centimeters from her fingers.

The Shadow Youkai grunted, strained, and pushed, but could not penetrate the forces holding her in place. Growling, she poured more power into her will. If there was one thing she wasn't lacking for, it was power.

It didn't work.

The ghost clicked her tongue in admonishment. "Rude," she said.

Then she swiped her hand to one side, and the Shadow Youkai was swept up and hurled to the ground in an untidy heap.

Fuck this.

Moving with lightning speed, she righted herself and leapt again, roaring with rage and bloodlust.

Again the ghost's hand came up, stopping her tea guest's bloodthirsty charge in midair.

"That's enough," the ghost said. Fingers still extended, she rotated her hand around on her wrist and swiped it down. To her chagrin, the Shadow Youkai unwillingly duplicated the motion, spinning around in the air before getting slammed down on the table, shattering it.

"You can keep doing that all you want," the ghost said with an unconcerned shrug. She was hovering with her ghostly tail humped like a pair of crossed legs. "But you and I both know that it'll just be a waste of your time and, more importantly, mine."

The Shadow Youkai struggled to raise her head just so she could shoot the ghost a look of pure venom. "Oh, is it?" she growled. She slowly extended one hand out to her side. She had weapon out there, she at least knew that much, a weapon that would make her invincible. It was time that it returned to her side. "Well, let's see how smug you are when I-"

And then she was again slammed down to the ground by unseen force, the talons of her extended hand gripped by invisible chains, prevented from closing. She cried out and thrashed, but could not free herself.

No! Damn it, no!

The ghost sighed. "If you're thinking of summoning that ostentatious blade of yours, then I should point out that I am both already dead and incorporeal, so I'm not sure what it would accomplish."

Fuck that. If it talked, then it could die. "You have no idea of the power that it-"

"Also, I feel compelled to point out that it is currently in the hands of your former siblings, Sariel and Mashhit, neither of whom seem to care for you all that much. Having it snatched from their keeping will undoubtedly alert them to your location, and if that happens, I'll simply vanish without a trace, while you will have to contend with them both while still shattered, broken, and trapped in an unworthy host. You'll be yanked out of that cracking shell and back into your sword by dinnertime, and tossed into the Abyss before the day is out."

The Shadow Youkai froze. Those names, she knew. "Sariel? Mashhit? They're here?"

The ghost actually started to look a little concerned. "Why, of course they are. Everyone knows that. Is there something wrong with your brain? Did your new host live under a rock?"

"Tree, actually. And look at me! I can barely keep myself together, much less sift through this fleshbag's memories!"

"How about your own?" the ghost inquired. "Do you recognize me, for example?"

What?

The Shadow Youkai stopped thrashing to look the ghost up and down. Her examination changed nothing about her opinion regarding the need to enact copious amounts of violence, but it didn't stir any deeply buried recollection. "Should I?"

"Madam Mima? Evil Spirit of Makai? Anything?"

"I already said your fucking face and name mean nothing to me," the Shadow Youkai snarled. "So again I say, should I have heard of you?"

"You should, but I can't say I blame you. However, as spotty as your memory might be, perhaps you might recall being sealed away in the back of your host's subconscious for roughly sixty years, courtesy of an enchanted hair ribbon?"

"What?"

"Ribbon," the ghost now named Mima repeated. "Rumia of the Darkness. Locked up. Sixty years. You." She smiled. "Well, you can thank me for that."

The Shadow Youkai blinked.

And then all she saw was red.

Pure, murderous rage flowed through her body, filling her with hate and power. She roared and again threw herself against her bonds, but this time she wasn't immediately rebuffed. The forces continued to hold her, but only just. She could feel them straining, and that just drove her to hit harder, to break free and tear that infuriating wisp to shreds.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" the Shadow Youkai shrieked, goblets of black spit flying from her cracked lips. "FUCK YOU! LET ME GO! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"You're hardly giving me much motivation to," Mima said, a look of strain on her face. "Now, calm down, and let's discuss this like rational beings."

No! Fuck that! Fuck everything about that! She was going to die for what she had done! Again! Die, die, die, die!

The Shadow Youkai fought and fought, throwing every bit of power she had at the forces holding her. She hoped that the effort of keeping her contained was starting to hurt. It was nothing but a prelude to what she was going to do once she-

"I can give you Rin Satsuki."

That was a name the Shadow Youkai knew.

She stopped fighting immediately. "What?" she said.

"Rin Satsuki," Mima repeated. "She's who you're after, right? The perfect host, one immune to death and destruction, adaptable to virtually every form of attack, capable of absorbing anyone regardless of their power and adding their might to her own. With that kind of shell you would be unstoppable, free to rampage and kill as you see fit, and I right?"

The cracking and watery red eyes of the Shadow Youkai stared at the spirit in disbelief. "You cannot be serious. You're lying."

Mima shrugged. "People always say that, and I say, a lie is only as good as its benefit. It had no intrinsic value. If the truth will serve the same purpose better, I shall tell the truth."

"Cunt," the Shadow Youkai spat. "You ripped me to pieces and sealed me away for sixty fucking years! Why should I trust you?"

At this, Mima shrugged. "Circumstances change. I had nothing against you when I did what I did. It happened during those rare moments when I was at least on speaking terms with Yukari Yakumo and the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, and since I had something long-term cooking up, I wanted to be on my best behavior so as not to draw undue attention to myself. So I did them a favor. Nothing more to it."

The Shadow Youkai's eyes narrowed to burning slits, the cracked and burned wheels turning in her head.

She wasn't stupid. Crazed with rage, resentment, and murderous bloodlust, yes. And her list of ordeals had taken quite a lot from her, both physically and mentally. But she wasn't stupid. True, she had lost a lot of her personal history and general knowledge, to say nothing of the stability of her mental faculties, but she knew who she was, what she was.

She was the Avatar of the great Azrael, destined to become reincarnated in its image. And with that destiny came cosmic knowledge of the innermost workings of the universe itself, knowledge that she intended to use to tear it all down. And lessened and broken as she was, there was at least enough Angelic intelligence within her to smell a prime opportunity.

"And now?" the Shadow Youkai growled.

"Now?" Mima lowered herself so that she and the Shadow Youkai were eye-to-eye, the spiritual equivalent of going down to one knee. "Now I am very much on the outs with Yukari and the rest of her miserable friends. I have had quite enough of this country and have decided to seek my fortunes elsewhere. But I am in a vengeful mood, so I intend on upturning a few shelves and vandalizing a few walls on my way out. Turning you into an engine of death and destruction and setting you loose first seems an appropriate way of doing it."

The Shadow Youkai stared up at her in disbelief.

"You're serious?" she exclaimed. "You're just going to hand me everything I want, just like that?"

"What I want is to make Yukari Yakumo hurt. What you want is to wreak carnage all over Gensokyo. I find our aims to be complimentary."

"And who's to say that when I'm done with her I won't come after you?"

Mima sighed. "Oh, my dear savage. I will be long gone by then. But since you no doubt intend to swallow Yukari whole once you've gained Rin Satsuki's power and take control over the Borderlands for yourself, I would like to point out that regardless of how much power to gather to yourself, you are protected from Heaven's Eye so long as you remain within Gensokyo. But step beyond the Hakurei Barrier, then you will have the Hosts of Heaven descend upon you like gulls to a discarded slice of salami. And when they do, there is nowhere you can go to hide."

To this, the Shadow Youkai said nothing.

Then Mima waved a hand, and the Shadow Youkai felt the restraints holding her in place vanish. She slowly rose, examining first one metallic talon, then the other, before looking back up at Mima.

"You are, of course, free to refuse and continue on as you have been doing," Mima said as she settled back down behind the table. Her fallen teacup and saucer lifted up off the ground to sail back to her hands, the spilt tea rising up in a dark brown bubble that bobbed along through the air before plopping back into her teacup. She took a sip. "But Yukari was minutes from finding you and putting you down. I predict that you will last an hour on your own, and that's being generous." She shrugged. "Or you can roll the dice with me and at least have half a chance of getting what you want. Your choice."

The Shadow Youkai idly scratched the tip of her talon along her chin in thought.

"Well."

Kneeling, the Shadow Youkai picked up one of the fallen cookies off the ground, one shaped like a fairy. She straightened up, holding it between two talons. "Keep talking," she said.

And then she bit the cookie's head off.

…

Here went either nothing, everything, or a complete disaster. The details had yet to be sorted out.

Rin sat on her haunches at the bottommost chamber of her hideout, deep within the caverns that made up Flandre's lair.

It used to be just one cavern.

With her were her two closest friends. Flandre Scarlet, the younger sister of the vampiric aristocrat Remilia Scarlet, the dirty secret of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. An eternal child with a fractured sense of personal identity, cursed with both a broken sanity and ungodly amounts of power, she was one of the few people that Rin had met whose suffering was comparable to her own.

The other was the small, diminutive youkai girl Rumia of the Darkness. Previously thought to be just another childlike youkai living a life of mischief and sport, by sheer chance she just so happened to be the one Rin ended up hijacking to once again take physical form, unwittingly revealing Rumia to be the prisoner and former vessel for the demonic villain known as the Shadow Youkai, avatar of the murderous Fallen Angel Azrael, with a past so dark and so mysterious that even Rin, whose own past was nothing less than a tragedy, felt that she was better off knowing the details of.

Between the three of them, there was more pain, more trauma, and more overwhelming power than most of the rest of Gensokyo put together. All three had the blood of innocents dripping from their hands, and yet none could be said to be wholly responsible for the atrocities that they had caused. They were feared, they were despised, they were pitied, and they were hunted. And though all three now had many friends and allies, it was a paper shield against the storm that would come down on them if they were discovered.

Ironically, though she had in many ways been the catalyst for the series of events that had brought the three of them together, Rin was perhaps the most stable and suited to help the other two. Though tearing the evil of the Shadow Youkai out of Rumia was not something any of them regretted, it was clear that something important had been taken from her in the process, something that was causing her to unravel with its absence. And though Rin's unlocking of Flandre's mostly stable "adult" persona had helped stabilize her, she was still far from sane, and given how vulnerable their position was and how helpless their friends would be if discovered, finding a way to stabilize her further could be imperative to their survival.

Besides, though Rin had many reservations about the method she would have to use, she just did not want her friends to continue suffering.

All three were kneeling together on the cold, stone floor. None of them were wearing clothing, as Rin's method would destroy any clothing anyway. And all three were extremely nervous.

Rin breathed out. She didn't need to of course, but the action was still calming. "Okay," she said. "Who wants to go first?"

Flandre immediately stuck her hand into the air. "Me!" Then she looked over to Rumia and winced. "Oh, uh, unless…she needs…to go first?"

Rumia chuckled. "Thanks, Flan. But you go ahead. I'm not…in a big hurry to go back to all that."

"All that" being inside of Rin's head, of course. Though she knew that it hadn't been meant as an insult, Rin still couldn't help but feel a little hurt. "Okay," she said before the hurt could show on her face. "Let's go!"

She held her hands out to Flandre. Misinterpreting the gesture, Flandre held her own hands out and grabbed onto Rin's, entwining their fingers. Taken back by the simple, affectionate gesture, Rin froze.

Rumia sighed. "Do I…need to leave you two alone…or…?"

"Uh, no! No, let's…let's go."

Rin's hands began to lose color, staring with her fingers and then moving down to her wrists. Once they were fully transparent, the amorphous substance of her body flowed over Flandre's hands and arms, and from there covering her entire body, encasing the small vampire in ooze.

Despite the agonizing process she was about to endure, Flandre looked more amused than anything. She looked around at the distorted world around her and giggled.

"Okay, brace yourself," Rin said. "This'll hurt, remember?"

Flandre shrugged nonchalantly.

Well, good enough.

Rin closed her eyes, and started the process of devouring her friend.

…

At the entrance to Flande's lair, a small crowd had assembled.

Rin had warned the others that fudging around with Flandre and Rumia's minds could be unpredictable. And given that this was Flandre and Rumia they were talking about, more than a few had decided to be elsewhere throughout the ordeal.

Not all of them though. A handful had stuck around, mainly out of curiosity. After all, this was Flandre and Rin. Pretty much everyone had been brought up to speed on their respective pasts and…unusual situations, and they wanted to see what would happen. Even if they hadn't been, Flandre Scarlet was still Flandre Scarlet. The prospect of her willingly feeding herself to a gelatinous monster in order to potentially treat her infamous madness was too juicy of an event not to witness.

"Oh, wow," Sara gasped, her hand going to her mouth. "She's literally dissolving. She's dissolving right in front of my…and there's her intestines. We got intestines here!"

"Is there any reason why they gotta be naked for this?" Kurumi inquired.

"Um, duh?" Cirno responded. "So they don't lose their clothes! Rin had spit their bodies out, no problem! But any clothes and stuff are gone for good."

"…why?"

"I don't know! Do I look like a Rin expert to you?" Cirno folded her arms and groused. "Sure would like to be though. That'd be incredible!"

"Well, maybe you should let her eat you!" Sara said with a snicker. Then she glanced back into the cavern and her smug smile withered and died. "Oh, hellfire. That's her liver! I can see her freaking liver now!"

Cirno looked thoughtful, clearly considering the suggestion.

Wriggle sighed. "No, chillybutt. She's unlocked way too many secret monsters in us already. I don't want to find out what's lurking in your stupid brain."

"Have you ever seen her do this before?" Kurumi asked. The little vampire, normally shy and reclusive, was utterly fascinated, the scarlet pinpoints of her eyes gleaming as she stared at the proceedings.

"Sure," Cirno said. "When she ate Rumia. That was…"

"Traumatizing," Wriggle said.

"Yeah, and back then we didn't know she was friendly, so it was like this…only like a billion times worse!"

"Thinks of how it must've felt being the one getting dissolved," Rumia called over her shoulder. "Also, I can hear you guys! You're not helping at all!"

"Sorry!" Kurumi said, cringing.

Wriggle sighed and turned her attention back to Rin. Flandre had been absorbed completely, leaving just the blob. Inside, they were probably getting started…doing whatever the hell it was that happened to people that Rin absorbed. Rumia had tried to describe it once, and Wriggle hadn't really understood, but it did leave her feeling selfishly glad that she hadn't been the one Rin had absorbed on that spring day, in what felt like so many years ago.

…

Deep Within

As her physical body dissolved, Flandre materialized within Rin's mindspace. As before, it looked more-or-less like her, but it also different. Her skin was a few shades darker, the scarlet glow of her eyes now a raging inferno, the lines of her face and the tips of her fingers and teeth now longer and sharper, and the violent crimson of her aura so overwhelmingly huge that it took up almost the entirety of the previously black void in which she now floated. The artificial crystalline wings she had worn prior to being murdered by Yuuka Kazami were back as well, each one of the colored crystals shining like a miniature Sun. So potent was the sheer, raw power contained within her that Rin could feel the heat of it washing over her.

Unlike the first time however, Flandre was not violent and out-of-control. She was not consumed by rage and actively trying to rip Rin to pieces. Instead, she seemed weirdly calm, despite literally just being dissolved alive. She looked around and grinned, displaying the sharpened points of her fangs.

"Hey, you okay?" Rin said.

"I'm fine!" Flandre said cheerfully. "Stung a little, but it's okay!"

Once again Rin wondered what Flandre had gone through to dismiss the agonizing process of being dissolved as simply "stinging a little," especially since, unlike Rin, she had neither the adaptive powers nor the unnaturally high tolerance for pain of the Hourai Immortals to call upon. It was just herself.

Perhaps she was about to find out.

"Well, okay," Rin said. "Ready to get started?"

Flandre nodded.

"Okay, so, sit down and close your eyes. Things are about to get…really weird."

Flandre nodded again and complied, kneeling down and squeezing her flaming eyes shut.

Rin reached toward her. Though it was only a few centimeters, she could swear that the simmering heat of Flandre's power increased as she drew near. What was more, a strange throbbing sound started to pound away, like the beating of the heart of some great beast, growing louder and faster the nearer she drew. Now, that was odd. She had shared mindspace with Flandre before, and had come in contact with her while doing so, and this hadn't happened before. Perhaps it was because Flandre was expecting Rin to dig deeper into her psyche, and something within her was reacting?

Knowing my luck, it'll turn out to be some other sealed-up monster, Rin thought grimly. Given the way Flandre was, it wouldn't surprise her at all to find an entity just as bad as Azrael nestled deep within her soul.

Her fingertips touched lightly against Flandre's temples, brushing away her straw-blonde hair out of the way. Rin took a few moments to steady her, and then pushed.

Her fingers sank into Flandre's head, and by extension, into her mind and soul.

…

Rumia tried not to look as Rin absorbed Flandre. Soon it would happen to her as well, and she didn't need to know the grisly details of what it would be like. The memory of experiencing it was more than enough.

She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to go back into Rin's mind. She had been forced to spend several weeks floating in that black, empty void, most of the time scared out of her wits and furious at everything, with nothing to do to distract her from her predicament, unable to leave, unable to even sleep, and no one but Rin herself to talk to, and that had been only sometimes friendly.

These days, she slept so often that she spent more time in dreams than she did in reality, and too many of her dreams had her trapped alone in a black void, unable to escape, unable to cry out, unable to do anything to save herself. Which was sort of funny in a not at all funny sort of way. She was the youkai of darkness! Her power literally was to encase herself in black. Why should it be so terrifying for her?

But it was. Just the thought of going back terrified her. What if this time she wasn't let out? What if she was trapped there forever?

Rumia slowly breathed out and shook her head. It was starting to happen again. Either she would drift off to sleep without knowing or her emotions would go out of whack, zeroing in on a single feeling and blowing it up beyond her control. It was like her internal means of control had been stripped away from her.

Focus, Rumia, she told herself. This is to fix that. You can't get better if you don't know what's wrong. Rin can help you find out.

But while she knew that was true, the part that she didn't want to think about was that there was a big difference between knowing what was wrong and being able to do anything about it.

Of course, once the thought was introduced, she could think of nothing else.

…

The place Rin found herself in was instantly familiar.

She stood in the dim, damp, and decaying ruins of what looked like a castle dungeon. The walls, ceiling, and floor were of grey and crumbling stone, marred here and there with impact marks, sometimes entire craters. Torches were set in sconces carved to resemble hands along the walls. Some were lit, others were, many were broken. The ripped, faded, and molding remains of a velvet red carpet covered the ground, at least in the parts where it hadn't been torn away. And all around was the shattered remains of furniture, furniture that looked to have one time been expensive, extravagant, and skillfully made, now broken to pieces, some of which were barely even usable anymore.

The basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Flandre's old home, which she was well quit of.

And they were there as well.

Flandre's four personas were present. The Child, with round cheeks, lightly coifed hair, and bright red eyes. The Vampire, with sharp lines, clawlike fingernails, protruding fangs, and a predatory glow to her eyes. The Lunatic, with an emaciated face, constant shivering, an unhinged grin, and an unstable flicker to the light in her eyes.

And standing in the middle of them, with the Child clinging to one leg, the Lunatic held in her arms, and the Vampire crouching right behind her was the Adult that Flandre never got the chance to become, Flandre Grey, pale yellow hair falling loosely around her shoulders, her soft grey eyes worn and tired. She had a the weary smile of the caretaker of several beloved but rambunctious children, which she sort of was.

"Hello, Rin," the Adult said.

"Hey, Flan," Rin said. "How's it-"

"RINNY!"

The Lunatic leapt right out of the Adult's arms to throw herself at Rin, and Rin, who had little under a second to comprehend the blonde-haired, red-eyed missile heading straight forward her, was unable to brace herself in time.

She was tackled so hard that the wind was driven from her metaphorical lungs and she was taken right off her feet and carried back all the way to have her spine slammed into the stone wall.

She might have been knocked out for a bit. All she really knew was that when the world stopped spinning, she was sprawled uncomfortably with her back against the wall, with the anthropomorphic embodiment of Flandre's madness holding her on one side, Flandre's child aspect on the other, and the two embracing her tightly, affectionately pressing their cheeks against her neck and shoulders.

Oh.

There also seemed to be a pair of very strong arms embracing her around the neck, fortunately not hard enough to choke her, but definitely with no intention of letting go. Feeling quite discomforted, she rolled her eyes upward to confirm that, yes, the predatory representation of Flandre's vampiric qualities was clinging upside-down to the wall right over her like a spider, embracing her from above while nuzzling the top of her head, all the while happily growling in a manner that sounded like the purr of a contented cat.

Oh.

"Um," Rin said as she tried very hard not to make any sudden movements. "H-Hey, guys." She glanced up to see the Adult Flandre watching the affectionate display with a look of wry amusement. "Er…help?"

The Adult shook her head and chuckled. "Girls, I know you're happy to see her, but let's stop crowding her and give her room to breathe."

With sighs of disappointment, the three Flandre personas reluctantly released Rin and moved away from her. She gathered herself up and brushed off her clothes.

"Well, good to see I've been…missed?" Rin said.

"Well, we've all been spending time with you in our own ways, so not exactly," the Adult said, sitting down in the broken remains of the rocking chair. "But we are happy that for your visit."

"Thanks," Rin said as she massaged her own neck. It certainly was better than when she had thought the Vampire aspect was an enemy. "So! What's wrong, and how can I help?"

Flandre's four personas gathered together, the Lunatic crawling into the Adult's lap, the Child sitting on an armrest, while the Vampire crouched on the back of the chair like a bird of prey ready to take wing. "We have been doing some talking," the Adult said as she put one arm around the Lunatic while gently stroking the Child's hair with the other.

"Okay," Rin said. "Like, literally, or…"

The Adult rolled her eyes. "There is nothing 'literal' about us. Flandre's been doing some thinking, which translated to the four of us talking."

"Got it."

The Adult nodded. "When you freed me, it helped bring some stability and sanity to Flandre Scarlet. But it's not enough. The violence is still there." The Adult glanced up over her shoulder at the Vampire. "As is the madness." She tapped a finger against the Lunatic's shoulder. "And so long as that is the case, we remain a danger, both to our friends and to ourselves."

Rin's brow furrowed. "So, what, you want me to…kill them?"

At this, the Lunatic and Vampire both swung their faces toward her and hissed in unison, while the Child let out a small indignant squeak.

"Sorry!" Rin said hastily, holding her palms up. "But that just sounds like what she's talking about, you know?"

The Adult pursed her lips. "You cannot stop Flandre from being a vampire, any more than you could turn the sky into earth. And Flandre's madness runs too deep to be simply wiped away like that."

"Okay, then what do you want me to do?" Rin asked. "Try to find some deep-seated trauma and fix it?"

"We wish to merge," the Adult said simply.

Rin blinked. "Wait, what?"

"We wish for the barriers separating us to be brought down, for us to become one. One single personality, in charge at all times."

Silence.

Rin looked from one similar, yet totally different visage of Flandre to the next, from the Adult's strong, yet weary, countenance, to the tormented chaos that seemed to always define the Lunatic, to the lean and hungry features of the Vampire, to finally settling on the round and innocent face of the Child. Ever since the first time she had met Flandre and released the Adult persona, she had learned to recognize which persona was in charge and how to react to them. It had honestly become so routine that she had expected her relationship with Flandre to always be like that.

But…this? One single personality, one that was always in control? What would that even be like? Would she just stop being crazy and unpredictable, or would she become even worse?

"Really?" Rin said.

"Yes."

Rin glanced around again. "Okay, but…wouldn't that, like, kill all of you?"

The Adult sighed. "Rin, again, we are not separate individuals. This is merely-"

"Okay, yeah, metaphor, anthropomorphic whatever, I get it. But how would that work, exactly? Would you just absorb the other three, or would the new Flandre have like aspects of all four, or what are we talking about here?"

Stroking the Lunatic's hair, the Adult tilted her head in thought. "I assume that the singular individual would have qualities of all four of her dominant personalities. With any luck she will have my temperament, but also a childlike innocence, while struggling with her vampiric instincts."

Rin noticed that there was one aspect that had gone unmentioned. "And the crazy?" she pressed.

The Lunatic cringed, pressing herself closer to the Adult. The Adult sighed. "The madness isn't going to just go away. The hurt runs too deep, the damage too great. But hopefully as a single person, we can learn to…cope."

"Ah."

Rin thought on that. A Flandre that did not constantly shift from one extreme to the next would be…different, all right. But would it be safer? At least when either the Child or Adult were in charge, she could count on things being relatively safe for a while. But if this new, whole Flandre had aspects of all four, would that mean that everyone was always going to be in danger, that either her instability or predatory instincts would put the others at risk, to say nothing of herself?

On the other hand, whenever the Vampire or the Lunatic were dominant, then the danger was immediately present and violent; the devastation within Flandre's lair was evidence to that, and though Rin had become quite adept that mollifying either, she couldn't always be around to calm Flandre down. All it would take was one slip, one sudden change before Rin could get to her, and everything would be ruined. If Flandre could learn to control herself without Rin's presence, then it would be a boon to everyone.

Furthermore, there was Flandre's wellbeing to think about. If Flandre remained divided, how could she possibly heal from whatever had happened to her? She had spent so long as a lonely, broken individual, being treated like a monster that she wasn't even responsible for becoming.

Rin looked to the other three Flandres. "And you guys are okay with this too, right? This is something you all want?"

The Lunatic whimpered. "Fix," she muttered. "Whole. Help. No more hurt. Please."

The Child hesitated, and then said, "It's scary. It's really scary. B-But I have to be brave. For Flandre's sake. For me."

The Vampire merely tilted her head and let out a soft whine, her face softening.

Well, okay then. "I guess you're decided then," Rin said. She then glanced at the remains of Flandre's memory of the Scarlet Devil Mansion basement. "So…how do we go around doing this, anyway?"

At this, the Adult winced. "Well, to be honest, we're not…really sure."

Rin quirked an eyebrow.

"But we…But I think that addressing the root cause of our separation would be a good start."

"Meaning?"

The Adult patted the Child and the Lunatic on their backs, and they clambered off of her, allowing her to rise. "We were broken apart as a defense," she said as she brushed off her plain, grey dress. "Flandre experienced something she couldn't deal with, so she locked away the part of her that could comprehend what she had been through and heightened the parts that could stave off the hurt."

Now that had some very disturbing implications. "Is this really bad thing have something to do with what I saw when I opened those coffins you were trapped in?" Rin asked. "What with all the people trying to hurt her that I guess she up and murdered?"

At this, the Vampire hissed.

"Sorry, I guess you had reason," Rin said with a wince. "But was that it?"

A hard look passed over the Adult's face, a tightening of the lips and a narrowing of the eyes. "She was just a child," she said. "A child. It didn't matter that she was a vampire; that was just the excuse. They just wanted an outlet for their sadistic natures."

"Hurt us," the Lunatic whimpered. She slumped to her knees, arms wrapped around herself, and started trembling. "Hurt. Hurt. Hurt. Begged them to stop. They didn't. Had to do something. Hurt them back, yes. Make them stop."

The Child wordlessly wrapped her tiny arms around the Lunatic's shaking shoulders and held her tight.

Rin made a face. The more time she spent with Flandre, the more she felt for her. They just had so much in common, and that wasn't a good thing.

"I get it," she said softly. "I understand. But you do know that to fix this…thing, we're probably going to have to face that memory, right? Everything that happened to you. You'll probably have to relive it."

The others' reactions weren't quite what she was expecting. While the Child cringed back in fear and the Lunatic huddled closed to the Adult, the Vampire merely spread her lips, baring her rows of tiny, razor-sharp teeth around her protruding fangs. She hissed loudly, as if in challenge.

As for the Adult, the long-buried aspect of the person Flandre never got the chance to become, she merely stared back at Rin, her face calm but resolute. "We understand better than you ever will, Rin," she said. "This is not a decision we make lightly. But with your help, we feel that we can overcome what happened to us and find a way to become whole again."

Rin's face twisted up. She wanted to believe her, but she couldn't help but be a little incredulous. "Are you sure this will work?"

"Of course not. But it will be a start. And even if Flandre can no longer be fully healed, I'd say we deserve to have this weight off of our shoulders."

To this, Rin had no argument.

"All right, I'm in, then." She glanced around at their dilapidated surroundings. "So…how do we go about this?"

"That is easy," the Adult said, and she rose from her seat. "They have been trying to get in for a long while."

"'They'? What does-"

And then a long, deep, resounding BOOM echoed through the decaying chambers, making Rin jump.

"That would be them," the Adult said. She looked around at her other selves. "Well, girls? Let us move into battle."

"Hang on," Rin said, holding up a finger. "Let me put my face on first."

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Everything about them was an illusion, after all. Even her own body. And while this was all taking place inside of Flandre's mind, Flandre's mind was currently located inside of Rin's. As far as she was concerned, that made her Queen.

One thought, and her body began to change.

She felt herself growing larger, her limbs lengthening, her fingers narrowing to sharp points. Her short, blonde hair darkened and flowed down her back. From the small of her back a growth bulged out, extending, expanding, becoming a heavy tail. Six spikes poked out of and grew, becoming six wings made up of blades.

When she opened her eyes again, she was standing taller than the Adult, and felt much stronger. It was the form she had taken in order to do battle with Yuuka Kazami, her true form one could argue.

The Adult smiled in satisfaction while her three smaller selves stared in wide-eyed wonder. "Wow," the Child whispered. "You look-"

"Terrifying!" the Lunatic shrieked, and she began chortling in delight. "Rin scary! Rin scary! Rin scary!"

The Vampire merely let out a low whistle. And then she bowed her head, a predator showing submission to the apex.

"Thanks, guys," Rin said. She held out her hand, admiring the tearing blades. Then she flexed it into a fist. Man, she felt powerful! "Let's hope your nightmares feel the same."

The Adult let the procession through the imaginary recreation of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's catacombs, a twisting labyrinth of broken stone and destroyed finery. As they did so, Rin couldn't help but shudder. She understood the importance of keeping Flandre at least somewhat contained, but surely her own sister could've provided better accommodations than this!

Then again, Rin herself kept Flandre in a cave. And she knew full well the sort of effect Flandre had on her surroundings, adequate or not.

But darn it, at least Rin was actively trying to improve things for Flandre! Remilia and her ilk had given up years ago!

If nothing else, at least Rin could rest assured that she was the better choice for Flandre. There was that at least.

The Flandre quad took another turn, and they found themselves standing before a massive door of black metal, bent and dented inward by a lifetime of heavy impacts. It was crisscrossed with heavy chains, adding another layer of sealing.

But Flandre ought to be able to snap even the larges and thickest of chains with ease. Why give her access?

Seeing the puzzled look on Rin's face, the Adult smiled. "In reality, the chains are on the other side," she explained. "To keep us in. Not that it kept us from getting out when we felt like truly trying."

Rin's eyes widened. "But here…"

The door suddenly shook with impact, the sound of it echoing through the network of passages. All of them winced, the Vampire crouching low and covering her sensitive ears.

Shaking her head, the Adult said. "Yes. It's to keep them out."

"Ah." Rin's eyes narrowed. She held her hands loosely at her sides, claws spread and waiting. "Well then, let's not disappoint them."

…

Nothing was happening, and Wriggle was growing increasingly uneasy.

The last time something like this had happened, it had been when Yuuka had just dropped Flandre onto their laps. Violence, screaming, pain, and fear had ensued, as half of their gang had gotten torn limb from limb by their future friend while Rin desperately did battle to protect them and Yuuka refused to do anything at all.

But as bad as it had all started, things had turned out pretty okay, as least when compared to how it could have gone. Rin had overcome Flandre, she had fixed a part of her (sort of), and at the end of the day they were all friends!

That was why Wriggle was worried now.

There was always violence. There was always fear. If not at the beginning, then at the end.

And so far, everything was going…fine.

The blob that was Rin still wasn't moving. Presumably, she and Flandre were fighting some kind of nightmare monster or going on some kind of epic adventure within. Sitting next to the blob was Rumia, who looked like she was trading off between being bored, being scared, and falling fast asleep. While worrisome in of itself, she had kind of been like that for a while, and that was the problem Rin was hoping to solve.

So basically, things were going as planned.

And so Wriggle was worried.

"So…if things go bad, will we know?" Sara asked. "Like, will Rin's booger-body blow up?"

"Nah, nothing like that," Cirno said casually. "Apparently it stays inside whatever crazy imaginary adventure they're going on."

"Hey, can you guys stop?" Rumia called to them. "You're not making this better! Actually, you're doing the opposite. You're doing very much the opposite!"

"Sorry!" Cirno called back. "Hang in there, Rumia! We're rooting for you!"

Rumia didn't look the slightest bit reassured.

Ignoring them, Wriggle continued to stare at the blob. Part of her wondered what they were facing inside of there, while the rest of her decided that she never wanted to find out.

…

The first time Rin had entered Flandre's mind, she had come across a deeply disturbing memory, one that was buried deep and yet ever-present, one of a deeply traumatizing event that went a long way to explain why Flandre was the way she was. The memory had been so powerful that for a brief moment, it had overwhelmed Rin, putting her into Flandre's shoes and forcing her to experience the raw terror and pain that Flandre had experienced, followed by overwhelming guilt and self-loathing when her simple attempt to defend herself had resulted in a pile of corpses.

This time, Rin was ready. She knew what they were going to face, and she was prepared to fight back.

It still wasn't enough.

The scarlet wind rushed over her and the Flandres, screaming and howling as it threatened to lift them all up and send them flying. Rin braced herself the best she could, pushing back against the gale, but it was all that she could do just to keep her feet.

The Flandres were even less successful.

With an ear-piercing shriek, the Child was swept up and sent tumbling back into the catacombs. The Vampire clung to the ground with all off its clawed toes and fingers, trying to hold on as her tiny body was buffeted by the storm of pain. She kept it up only for a few seconds before she too was knocked loose and sent wailing through the air. The Lunatic was thrown back and slammed hard against a crumbling pillar. Pressed back against the column of stone, she writhed and screamed in helplessness.

Gritting her teeth, Rin shot several tendrils into the ground, anchoring her tight. She refused to let herself be swept up as well. Compared to all the other agonies she had suffered, this was nothing! She had faced down far worse and survived, even prevailing. She was going to win this time too.

Kill the vampire!

The voice came out of the gale, the sound of several distorted voices overlapping, chanting for Flandre's destruction.

Kill the vampire!

In the surging storm of red, shapes began to appear, scarlet silhouettes with glowing yellow eyes. They held torches, they held blades, they held clubs, and they were advancing, an army coming to lay waste a single, terrified child.

Kill the vampire!

"Not today!" Rin shouted back. She spread her arms, beckoning them to come after her. "Hey, tough guys! I'm right here! You want to get to Flandre? Try your luck with me first!"

The mob didn't so much as glance at her. They just kept coming forward.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rin snapped. "You're in my head now, buckos! And I'm not gonna be ignored!"

One of the torch-wielding silhouettes came close, and Rin lunged forward, swiping at it with her claws.

They passed right through it, temporarily dissipating it like smoke before it reformed. It didn't so much as acknowledge her presence and instead kept on marching.

"Oh, to hell with that!" Holding her hands close to her side, fingers caged, she summoned up power, concentrating it in between her palms. A glowing ball of light took shape, growing between her hands.

"Eat this!" Rin thrust her hands forward, launching a beam of light right into the mob.

It passed right through them, scattering their shapes like steam, only for them to reform.

"They are not solid!" the Adult cried. Rin just about jumped. She hadn't heard the only Flandre not to get swept up approach.

The Adult stood next to her, her thin dress pressed against her body, hair blowing wildly, as she stared at the advancing phantom mob.

"I noticed!" Rin shouted back. "New plan?"

"You can shapeshift, correct?"

Rin nodded.

"Becoming a fighter clearly isn't working! Can you become a wall?"

"A wall?" Rin blinked. "The hell…?"

Then she understood.

Everything was a metaphor, a representation of something cerebral visualized into something they could visually comprehend. There was no actual storm, there were no actual winds, it was all psychological symbolism.

And if that was the case, since Rin's own body was not literal, but instead a mental manifestation of her will and intentions, ought not she become a metaphor as well?

Rin changed again, seeping her gelatinous substance into the ground itself, finding purchase within the stones and taking root. Once she had taken anchor, she spread herself around, losing humanoid shape and becoming a physical barrier.

The winds buffeted her hard, but she held. Her anchoring was strong, and she was very experienced in weathering overwhelming displays of power.

The Adult darted behind her and crouched low. Even though she no longer actually had eyes, Rin could still see her, for reasons she didn't want to think too hard about.

"Is it working?" she asked, her voice coming out of the whole of her form instead of a mouth that she no longer had.

The Adult's hair and clothes were no longer being swept up. She nodded.

"Great! Everyone, get in here!"

Now with Rin providing a shield, the three smaller Flandres crawled their way over, and Rin hastily expanded herself around them, creating a circular wall with the four Flandres in the middle. She shifted herself around so that she curved inward, letting the winds slide up and over her.

"Everyone okay in there?" she said.

"Yes!" The Adult was holding the other three to her, comforting them. "It's a little strange to be talking to a wall, but thank you!"

"Hey, if they can bring the weird, I can bring the weird! It's only fair!"

"I am definitely not complaining! But the question we must ask now is-"

Suddenly the Child thrust a finger up over their head and screamed, "Look!"

Overhead, the storm of red was starting to twist together, the winds no longer howling past and over Rin but circulating around her. They were gathering in closer and closer, forming a tight funnel that was developing right over the Flandres' heads.

Oh, Rin thought numbly. I should've added a roof-

The cyclone plunged down, slamming into the space enclosed by Rin's walls.

Rin wasn't entirely clear on what happened next. There was violence, there was noise, and it was difficult to discern any solid details outside of those. She felt herself get blown apart from within, the cyclone expanding out and ripping her apart. After that, all she felt was chaos, all she heard were roaring winds and Flandre's screams, as she blown around and around and around and around.

And then, just like that, it was over.

Sort of.

Rin blinked. She was no longer a wall, or pieces of a wall. She was back in her body. She looked around.

The sea of red still surrounded them, but it was no longer raging, no longer threatening to sweep them all up and carry them off.

Instead, it was slowly spinning around them, a rotating wall of violent energy, the eye of the storm.

Rin slowly stood up. Around her, the Flandres were doing the same. All five of them were on edge, anticipating something horrible.

It didn't take long to appear.

Suddenly the four Flandres were slammed back into the ground by an invisible force, their arms and legged splayed, held in place by their wrists and ankles by invisible restraints.

"Flandre!" Rin cried. She was about to hurry to help them, but then she froze in place.

Another silhouette had appeared, one that was crimson and transparent. What was more, it was laid over the four Flandres, containing them within its body, with the Adult trapped inside its head, the Lunatic and the Vampire in each of its arms, and the Child inside of its stomach. A pulsing sphere of scarlet light hovered in its chest, just over the Child's head.

It was obviously Flandre herself, only blown up to several times her size, and like the actual Flandres, this one was pinned to the ground, wrists and ankles shackled.

What?

"What?" Rin shouted. "What the hell is this? Flandre, what's happening?"

The Adult glanced over to Rin, her face twisted up in terror. She yelled something, but it was so garbled and distorted that Rin couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"What?" she called back.

In answer, the Adult pointed with one finger right at Rin.

Or to be more specific, at a point just beyond Rin.

It was then that Rin felt a chill sweep down her spine. There was something behind her.

Bracing herself, she slowly turned around.

There was something huge loomingout of the wall of red, something that was vaguely Human-shaped, in that it at least had a head, a body, and two arms, but its body was little more than a towering pillar of the same red energy as the storm that bent forward over the Flandre's, its head a shapeless blob with two burning yellow eyes, its arms far, far, far too long and ended in horribly elongated fingers that grasped down at the defenseless girls.

Rin gawked up at the behemoth. She had expected to see some pretty horrible things, but this was far beyond anything she could have anticipated.

All four Flandres screamed, and the shade of Flandre that enveloped them screamed along with them. Rin didn't blame any one of them. What else could they do?

And then the towering monster spoke.

"Honestly, I don't know why I've held onto you for so long. All you bring is trouble. I should have just gotten rid of you ages ago."

As it uttered those terrible word, there was a brief flash of light, as if coming from a lightning strike, and the monster light up. Contained within its form was another silhouette, this one immediately recognizable from the two batlike wings and the mopcap it wore.

Flandre's elder sister, Remilia.

The Vampire and the Lunatic both screamed, while the Child started sobbing. As they did, the giant shade of Flandre began crying as well.

"W-why are you saying this?" it called, its voice a distorted and amplified representation of Flandre's own. "Why are you saying these things, Re…Remilia?"

"It's not her, girls!" the Adult called to the other three. She still seemed stuck, but she was fighting. "It was just Yuuka's trick, remember?"

"Right!" the Child called back. "Not her! It was a trick, girls! A trick!"

"Not Remi!" screamed the Lunatic. "Not Remi!"

The hulking silhouette paused, and then it lit up again, this time illuminating a tall woman with short hair and a single glowing eye.

Yuuka Kazami.

"Oh, Flandre," Yuuka sighed in regret as the vampire continued to fight. "You just never learned. That was always your problem. You just refused to learn."

This part Rin remembered. It had been from when Yuuka had caught all of them sneaking into her Tulip Room, when she had overpowered and captured them all. Their friends had been stuffed into tulips and left to rot, while she and Flandre had been sent off to be tortured.

But that was then. She and Flandre had gotten out, had saved their friends, and had killed Yuuka together.

"It's not Yuuka either!" she called. "Remember when we beat her? Remember how we scared her and forced her out of ours minds? Remembered blowing her up? Remember?"

"Right!" the Adult said. "Listen to Rin! We beat Yuuka! We beat her! She's scared of us, not the other way around!"

"W-We did!" the Lunatic agreed. "We did! We won! Killed her, killed her, killed her!"

The Vampire threw her head back and shrieked in defiance.

The shadow of Yuuka faded, and Rin felt like cheering.

"It's working!" she said. "We're weakening it! Keep fighting! We got this!"

"Hang tight, girls!" the Adult added. "We'll get through this!"

But then the silhouette lit up again, and this time Flandre didn't recognize the shade within.

It was some kind of cloaked figure, one wearing heavy robes with the cowl drawn up over its face. A long, thin beard seemed to be dangling out of the cowl over its chest. A thin spike was in one hand, a stabbing stake.

Huh? Who was that?

And then all four Flandres scream, the shade enveloping them screaming along with them.

"No!" the Adult cried. "Not him! Not him!"

Wait, what?

This new shade didn't taunt Flandre like the other two had. It didn't mock or insult her. Instead, it seemed to be…chanting?

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets-Scon," it murmured in a consistent monotone.

"Flandre, who is this?" Rin said. "What's he doing?"

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets-Quay."

"It's him!" the Adult said again. She now openly weeping. "He's the reason!"

"The reason for what? Who is he? I don't-"

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets…Kyuu!"

And with that, the towering apparition jabbed the stake it held right at the pulsing sphere of light inside of larger Flandre's body, right at her heart.

…

Elly had had enough.

She was done being kept in the dark. She was done being Mima's dirty little secret. She was done being locked out.

Most of the time she had to stay cooped up in a tiny, out-of-the-way room with little to do and nobody to talk to. Apparently the master of the dreary excuse for a mausoleum that she was being kept didn't even know that she and Yuuka were there, and people wanted it to stay that way.

But why? Why was it so important that they stay a secret? Elly knew well that most people hated them, but what she couldn't wrap her head around was why Mima and her collaborators wanted them around in the first place. Elly didn't know anything, and Yuuka was a burnt husk! What good were they to anyone?

But even when the master of the house was out and Elly was allowed outside of her room, all that gave her was space to stretch her legs. The places she was allowed to enter weren't anyplace of importance. And she never ran into anyone worth talking to! Mima and that smug hermit were always elsewhere, that little twerp with the masks was going to drive Elly right up a wall with her stupid theatrics, and forget about the zombie!

At the moment, it was one of the rare days in which both the still-unseen master and Mima were both out, which meant that Elly had free reign to go wherever she pleased…so long as she stayed out of all the places she wasn't allowed to go. And as she had already investigated every nook and cranny of those and found nothing of importance, she had settled on a new strategy: wait for someone to come back and confront them directly.

Elly crouched down behind the pillars near the main entrance, watching the mists as she waited for somebody to return. If it was the master of the house, then she would throw herself at her feet and beg for sanctuary. She was apparently some kind of religious leader or something, so she had to give it to her, right? And then Elly would tell her about all the scheming, Mima and that creepy hermit would get the boot, and Yuuka would be in the hands of someone who could actually help her!

And if Mima showed up first, then Elly would simply confront her and demand to see Yuuka, or else!

Yeah. Good plan.

Well, doing nothing wasn't accomplishing anything, so this was what she was stuck with! What did she have to lose? Because the thought of remaining cooped up in her tiny cell without knowing what was going on any longer was maddening! And she would be damned if she-

"Ah, a good afternoon to you, mine young and hearty friend! Pray, how dost thou fare on this most auspicious day?"

Elly just about jumped out of her skin. Squeaking in surprise, she whirled around, scythe held at the ready.

It was that white-haired lady with the boat, Mononobe no Futo, the same one that had originally plucked Elly and Yuuka out of those underground tunnels. Like the rest of the weirdoes that lived here, Futo was a freak. Not only did she get around via flying rowboat, she also had an extremely weird way of talking, one that mixed archaic speech that nobody used with modern grammar in a way that sometimes made Elly wonder if she was doing it on purpose in order to be annoying.

Elly had no idea what was up with that. Plenty of people were ancient but still at least spoke like normal people! Hell, Elly herself was far, far, far older than she looked, and she at least made an effort to speak in a modern manner.

Still, it could be worse. At least Futo was pleasant.

"Ah, did I startle thou?" Futo said, cheerfully disregarding the sharp blade being brandished uncomfortably close to her face. "My apologies. I am told that I have a light step."

"I…" Elly closed her eyes and force her body to relax. It was no mean feat. "I was waiting for Mima!"

"Ah, the wicked spirit!" Futo looked up toward the mists. "That one has been absent all morn long."

Elly gritted her teeth. "I know."

"I do not care for that one. She is a fell apparition."

"I know! That's why I'm waiting for her! To get into her face for pushing me around and pushing me out."

Futo looked troubled. "Art thoust certain this is the correct course? She is a vicious one."

"Well, so am I! And I'm a reaper, remember? She's a ghost! I'm practically her natural predator!"

Futo looked troubled. "This soundeth like it ought not concern me. Very well, carry on as thou wisheth. But beware: those who seek the serpent often end up with a pierced heel."

"Like I even asked," Elly muttered as Futo left. "Stupid cryptic Taoist bullshit. I'll pierce her heel if she-"

Then Elly froze.

There, on the patio, a form was taking shape, one that was primarily a mixture of green and blue and carried an air of infuriating smugness.

"There you are!"

Mima turned to Elly. If she was at all put off by the incensed girl holding a bladed weapon twice her own size, she did not show it.

"Elly," Mima said neutrally. "How might I be of service?"

"I have had enough!" Elly declared. She brandished her scythe, its curved blade shining even in the dim light. "You have blocked me out ever since I was brought here. You have ignored me, shoved me aside, and kept me in the dark!" She swung the scythe around right at Mima's face, stopping it with the tip of the blade mere centimeters from Mima's nose. "No more! Either bring me to Yuuka and show me for yourself what you've been doing to her, or I swear that I'll slice you in two!"

Mima blinked. "Dear, I am already dead."

"THIS IS A SHINIGAMI SCYTHE!" Elly roared. She thrust it further, forcing Mima to move her head back. "Do you not think it will not work on spirits? Do you not remember what I did to your fat, pink friend in the Blasted Lands? Now, take me to see her, or I'll slice you into dust motes!"

"Ah. Well, we wouldn't want that," Mima said, holding her palms up. "And my apologies. Your frustration is certainly merited, but also groundless."

"Groundless?" Elly squeaked. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "H-How dare you? After everything you've put me through…"

Then she paused. She had been trying to push her blade closer to Mima's face as an intimidation tactic, but it had stopped cold, as if hitting a wall of solid steel. Grunting, Elly pushed the scythe with all her might, but it did her no good. It wouldn't budge.

And then Mima sighed and pushed the flat of the blade with the back of her hand, moving it away from her face.

Wait, what? She was a ghost! She shouldn't be able to do that!

"Your blade is quite powerful," Mima told the dumbstruck child. "But I am a different kind of spirit entirely than what it was intended for."

Elly gawked. This was impossible! "How?" she squeaked. "How?"

"Power," Mima said simply. "Power alone will do it."

"But…But…"

"That having been said, I suppose it is cruel to keep you in the dark for so long. You must understand, it is not because of any desire to torment you, but because your master's state is so delicate, and her treatment is now in a critical stage, that if anything were to go wrong…" Mima shrugged. "Well, you understand why I am so leery of introducing anything that might upset her."

Drawing her scythe back, Elly scowled. "Prove it!"

"Eh?"

"I don't believe you," Elly said flatly. "You tried so hard to kill her already. Why would you want to help her now?"

"I tried to kill her before because I had been shanghaied into someone else's fight," Mima said, spreading her hands. "And I want to help her now because I have a significant grudge against the person responsible for said shanghaiing and restoring Yuuka and dropping her on that person's head sounds like a marvelous way to spend the weekend. I assure you, my motives are entirely selfish."

Elly stamped her foot. "Then prove it! Show me that you're helping her!"

"I…" Mima pressed her fingertips against her forehead and groaned. "Fine! But you cannot under any circumstances disturb her, bother her, touch her, or do anything that might disrupt her recovery! Her condition is exceptionally fragile. Don't even allow yourself to be heard, understand?"

"What? Why not?" Elly demanded, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Because if she were to know that you are there, it might emotionally upset her. She mind try to talk to you, which, while understandable, might cause her to try to get up and talk to you, which would end up causing her to hurt herself!"

"I fled through the tunnels beneath Mugenkan with her carried over my shoulder right after she was hurt! If she could survive that-"

"She wasn't being treated by me at the time, and I do not have the time to explain to you the delicate nature of the magics being used to heal her, or how having those magics disrupted could necessitate starting over at best, or cause her to relapse at worst!" Mima folded her arms. "Those are the doctor's rules, Reaper. Take them or leave them!"

"I…" Elly huffed. "Fine! I'll do it! Just let me see her!"

"Put that glorified garden hoe away first."

Glowering, Elly complied, folded up her scythe and retracting it to a small, portable rod and slipping it away. "There! It's gone! Now show me my master!"

"Totally unappreciated," Mima muttered. "All right. This way, please. And keep it down!"

She led Elly through the corridors of the mausoleum to the suite of rooms that she was always holed up in with that creepy hermit.

The first room Elly was taken through had a wide, round pedestal the size of your average dinner table. It came up to waist-height to a fully grown woman.

Elly cast a quick glance at it. She frowned.

"A map, if you must know," Mima said. "Dormant now, as it is not in use, but it's important to keep abreast of the comings and goings of Gensokyo."

She waved a hand, and the far wall slid open.

Elly smelled the chamber beyond before she saw it. A thick, cloying stench, one that was sickeningly sweet and nauseatingly pungent.

She gagged. Mugenkan had always been filled with the smell of flowers, and not even it had been this offensive to her nose.

The chamber was small, about the size of Elly's own cell, and lit only by a pale blue lamp that illuminated only when Mima approached. The walls were lined with shelves of bottles and jars, all filled with strange and mysterious liquids and regents. One cabinet held a number of surgical instruments and many, many bandages, while another held several instruments of an obviously magical nature. In the center of the room was a long stone pallet.

Lying on the pallet was Yuuka herself. Or rather, the ravaged fragment of Yuuka's soul, a mere fraction of what she had been before the battle at the Blasted Lands.

When Yuuka had been brought to the temple, she had been ravaged by Phoenix Fire and seared by the religious symbols of dozens of faiths. She had looked like a heap of ash hardened into Human form.

Now she looked somehow both better and worse, in that she at least could be mistaken for a badly decayed corpse. Her skin at least looked like skin now, but it was sallow, grey, and cracked, with sickly yellow fluid seeping from the cracks. She was breathing, but shallowly, and with great effort. More fluid leaked from the cracks in her skin with every agonized breath.

Elly's heart seized in her chest. She knew that Yuuka was still in a bad way; the image of her scorched face was burned into Elly's mind and haunted her dreams. But even so, seeing her like this again was harder than she had expected.

"As I said, she is healing, but slowly," Mima said. She laid both hands on the Shinigami's shoulders. "Her injuries are unique. Her having her soul ripped to pieces but still surviving is unique. And her kind is unique. I am having to literally innovate new methods of healing as I go. Not to toot my own horn, but I doubt that anyone else could have improved her condition at all."

Elly shivered. "But I did! After the Blasted Lands, after your little witch stole a piece of her soul and Yukari Yakumo crushed what was left! I helped her heal!"

"And that was very nurturing of you," Mima said. "But not to belittle your own efforts, but the Yuuka you treated was considerably more whole and less hurt than the Yuuka I have in my care." The fingers on Elly's shoulders tightened. "I am doing what I can. I know you are concerned for your master, but let's not upset the hand that literally holds your master's life in its palm."

She lies.

Elly couldn't keep from gasping. It was Yuuka's voice! But had she heard it, or had she-

She lies. Do not trust her, but do not let her know that you can hear me.

Elly blinked.

Then she said, "B-But how much longer? When will she be…whole again?"

"Well, 'wholeness' is something of a subjective term in this case," Mima said. After all, the overwhelming majority of her being is currently imprisoned by Yukari Yakumo, so maybe…never?

"I…I…"

Play along.

Though she was still on edge, Elly somehow managed to obey. Yuuka was counting on her, after all.

Fine. If she was to play along, then she would put on a show.

Elly wrenched herself out of Mima's hands to glare at her. "You better do as you promised! Or I swear I will make you regret it!"

"How threatening," Mima said in a dull monotone. "You have truly struck fear into my heart. Look, I'm sweating, or at least that would be the case, if I still possessed a heart or the ability to sweat."

"I mean it!" Elly thrust a finger into Mima's face. "You better make good on your promise, or…"

Mima waited about five seconds before inquiring, "Or?"

"Or else!" Elly finished. She stomped past Mima out into the corridors.

It wasn't until Elly made it back to her own room that she dropped the façade. She collapsed onto her bed, hand to her chest as she panted.

You did well.

Elly shivered, but she nodded.

Now listen carefully. Here is what you must do…

…

"NO!" Rin screamed as she reached forward, as if that would stop the phantom stake from coming down.

To her surprise, it did.

The apparition's stake stopped less than a meter over the phantom Flandre's chest, simply frozen in place. And the rest of it seemed to be stuck as well.

Rin's jaw dropped. Wait, what?

Still contained within the phantom Flandre, the four Flandres all reacted in different ways. The Child had her eyes screwed shut, her whole body tensed up. The Lunatic kept screaming over and over, seemingly oblivious that the stake hadn't actually come down. And the Vampire was hissing in challenge, hot drool dripping from her fangs.

As for the Adult, she seemed very confused.

She blinked, and then turned her head to Rin, one eyebrow askew.

Stunned, Rin looked down at her hands. Had she done that? But if so, then how? None of her other attempts to attack Flandre's traumatic memories had done anything.

But then, something clicked into place in her head, and she understood.

It wasn't about power. It wasn't about trying to slash or blast away the apparitions. It was about will! Because as strong as Flandre's memories were, they were still inside of Rin's mind, and in her mind she reigned supreme. She had managed to fight off the Aspect of Azrael, she had managed to overcome and force Yuuka Kazami out. Compared to those, what were some cruel memories?

But it wasn't her that needed to defeat the apparition.

Rin extended her hand again, and this time the stake moved away, the hulking apparition reversing itself.

"Flandre, can you hear me?" she called.

The Adult swallowed, but nodded.

"I'm going to let this son of a bitch go. And when I do, I need you to understand something." Rin leaned in closer. "Yuuka Kazami is dead! We killed her together, and she can't hurt us anymore. Your sister might be a snobby asshole, but she didn't betray you. That was one of Yuuka's lies. And I don't know what all that chanting is about, but whoever it is, you're stronger than him. He can't hurt you anymore, but you can hurt him, okay?"

The Adult still looked terrified. "We can't!" she cried. "He's too strong!"

Maybe it was because the storm of Flandre's deep-seated trauma had been frozen in place, maybe it was because Rin had retaken some measure of control over the situation, but she had no trouble hearing her this time.

"No, he's not! You just remember him being like that because the memory of him was so scary!" Honestly, Rin still had no idea who this "he" even was, but it didn't matter. "But you're Flandre freaking Scarlet! You're like one of the top ten most powerful people in Gensokyo!" Again, she didn't know if that was actually true, but the accuracy of her statement didn't matter. "Show him that!"

The Child had opened her eyes, and the Lunatic had stopped gibbering. They still looked scared, but they seemed to be listening. As for the Vampire, she was the one who had been on board with fighting back from the beginning.

But the Adult didn't seem convinced. "You don't understand! He's the reason! The reason we split to begin with! The reason I was sealed away!"

What?

"I thought that was because of the mob!"

"The mob came after! He started it all!"

Rin still didn't know what she was talking about, but this wasn't the time to ask questions.

"Doesn't matter!" Rin called back. "Look, I don't know who he is or what he did to you, but one thing I do know for certain is that he was a slimy, spineless scumbag, one that needed a whole army to keep you down and had to literally shackle you to do anything to you! People like that are cowards! They know that they're cowards, and doing crap like this is the only way they can feel powerful! Show him that!"

The Adult blinked. She glanced down at her other selves, and then back at Rin. She nodded.

Okay. Here it went.

Rin released her hold on the storm, and the sound of howling winds and the droning, monotone chanting started up again.

And down came the stake.

The Flandres screamed again but they couldn't stop the stake. Rin halted it just before it pierced the Flandre shade's heart.

"Come on!" she begged. "Fight it, okay?"

She reversed things again, and then let them go, but slowly this time. The stake came down as if moving through thick water, sluggish yet persistent. The chanting slowed to a drawn-out slurring of the word.

"Occ…Sei…Cul…Ets…Scon,"

This time, the Flandres all grunted and strained against their bindings, but didn't seem able to break them. And if they couldn't break free, then it didn't matter how slow the stake was.

Rin stopped it again right before it pierced the shade.

"Look, it's not about muscle, it's about willpower," she said. "When you crush something's eye, you don't really crush it with your fist, you crush it with your mind, right? So stop trying to break free with your arms. Use your mind! This is your head we're in, and he has no power over you!"

The Adult glanced at her. She said nothing.

"One more time." The looming arm retracted, taking the stake with it. "Now, kill the son of a bitch."

Down it came again, swinging to stab the Flandre shade in the chest.

"Occ…Sei…Cul…Ets…Scon."

"Fight, Flandre!" Rin cried. "Fight!"

The stake came right on falling.

"Fight!"

"Occ…Sei…Cul…Ets…Quay."

"Fight!"

The stake was getting really close now, and Rin readied herself to stop it again.

"No," the Adult suddenly snarled. "NO! You don't own me! You don't have any power over me!" One of the shackles around her ankle burst. At the same time, each of the smaller Flandres had her own ankle freed. "You can't hurt me, not anymore!" A small burst of light, and one of her arms was freed, as did the other Flandres.

"That's it!" Rin cheered. "Keep going!"

"This is my head, my world!" The Flandres now had both legs loosed. "And you belong to me!"

The shade of Flandre suddenly snapped her hand up from the ground, seizing the descending arm, stopping the stake cold.

The looming apparition paused. It didn't flinch away, it didn't attack. It just stayed frozen in place.

All four Flandres stood to their feet, and their shade rose with them, still holding onto the apparation's wrist. All four of them were speaking now, their voices mixing in unison but coming out of the shade's mouth. This was Flandre herself speaking, her fractured mind now unified for a single purpose.

And that purpose was, as Rumia would probably say, fuck this guy.

"You want to pierce someone's heart?" Flandre said. "You want to bring forth death? Well, why don't I give you a hand?"

The shade took her free hand, pressed her fingers together, and stabbed it up, right into the apparation's chest.

And then the world exploded.

…

"HOLY SHIT!" Rumia suddenly blurted out. She hastily scooted back on her palms, putting distance between her and Rin.

Everyone in the tunnel reacted the same. The interior of the goo bubble that was Rin had suddenly flooded with red, like someone dropping red ink into clear water. Only this started in the middle of the bubble and rapidly expanded out, nearly dying Rin completely scarlet.

"What's going on?" Kurumi said in alarm. "What happened?"

"How should we know?" Cirno demanded. "You're the vampire! You tell us!"

"This isn't a vampire thing! This is a Flandre thing! I don't know anything about how she works!"

"Well, somebody better do something!" Sara said, seizing her own hair in panic. "Or it'll burst out and-"

The red was suddenly sucked back into Rin's being and disappeared.

"-or it'll do that. Which is better than what I was thinking. Yes."

Wriggle sighed. She was starting to think that hanging around had been a bad idea.

And then she heard…clonking.

Kogasa was hurrying toward the group, her wooden-block shoes clonking loudly against the stone floor. "I heard yelling!" she said. "Is everyone all right?"

"We're fine!" Cirno said. "Rin just got all red for a sec. But it's okay now!"

Confused, Kogasa walked up to the group and stood up on her tiptoes to see into the cavern. When that didn't work she held up her umbrella-self so the large eye could see in. As she did, Wriggle started to feel a little uneasy. For some reason, having Kogasa so close to all of this made her uncomfortable.

"What's that bubble?" Kogasa asked.

"That's Rin," Cirno said.

"It's…" Kogasa's face twisted up in confusion.

"Don't think about it too hard," Sara said. "Everything about this is weird."

"I wonder what's going on in there," Kurumi remarked.

…

Again Rin's world was chaos, her vision filled with raging scarlet winds and her ears with nothing but howling screams. The storm of Flandre's memories against contracted into a cyclone, but this time it was shooting upward, away from its intended prey.

Rin closed her eyes. Right now there was nothing she could do, save ride it out and hope it would be over soon.

How long the world roared and howled around her, she didn't care to count. But in time the winds died down, and things fell quiet.

Soon all she could hear was the sound of someone weeping.

Rin cracked an eye open. It was a lot darker than it had been. She opened both eyes.

They were back in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement. The massive door was now wide open, and from outside moonlight was shining. Rin took a peek. She saw an open field of wildflowers, beneath a starry night sky, in which a full Moon was shining.

It was the field just outside of their hideout, where Rin usually took Flandre and the rest of the nocturnal gang flying.

She then looked to the Flandres. The shade was gone, but the quad was still there. They were standing in a circle, staring down at something on the floor.

It was small, barely large than the Child. It wore a tattered black robe with a heavy cowl pulled up over its features, though it fit it poorly. And it was the one weeping, crying loudly as it crawled painfully this way and that on all fours, trying to find a way out between the Flandres.

They didn't let it,

"So…" Rin ventured at last. "What just happened?"

The Adult looked at her. "I think we won," she said in a soft tone.

"Great!" A pause. "Who did we beat?"

The squirming thing was still crawling across the floor, sobbing piteously to itself. The Vampire was staring at it with evident intent.

"The hurter," whispered the Lunatic. "The one. The one who hurt us first. The one who hurt us the most of the mosts."

Then she also turned her focus onto the squirming thing, the fey glow of her eyes for once as steady and determined as her more savage sister.

"Er…" Rin glanced over to the Child, who had joined her sisters in focusing on the manifestation of the one who had apparently hurt them. Her face was blank, in that unsettlingly intense way of children.

"A literal nobody," the Adult said in a calm tone. "Back when my sister and I became vampires, we…had to move around a lot. People hated us on principle, but my power made us especially feared, not that I would ever actually use it unless I absolutely had to." The creeping thing felt around with its hand before laying its fingers on the Adult's foot.

In answer, the Adult lifted her foot and brought her heel down on the thing's wrist.

"This vile fellow was the leader of a doomsday cult," she said as she calmly ground the creeping thing's hand into the ground, making it scream and squeal. "I believe he wanted to utilize my power to bring forth the apocalypse. I give him and his stupid follower credit though, they did managed to successfully kidnap and perform their ritual on me."

Rin stared. "Wait, you already had your power, didn't you? So what was the ritual for?"

"It gave me a way to focus and control it. The whole 'kyuu' thing? The bit with the eyes? That was thanks to him, so perhaps I ought to thank him." She then gave the creeping thing a swift kick, knocking it over. "But as it also left my mind fractured and traumatized, so perhaps not."

"Wow." Despite the horribleness of what she was hearing, Rin was still fascinated. "So, what happened to him?"

"Oh, he's dead," the Adult said. "The idiot actually didn't realize that the enraged vampire child with pure, destructive power that he had just given the ability to control might actually snap and use that power on him and his cult immediately afterward. But I did."

"Oh. Um, and the mob?"

"They showed up soon after. Looking for him, actually, so at least their intentions were good. But they found me instead." The Adult's face darkened. "You can probably guess what happened next."

Rin could, and it explained quite a bit. She said nothing.

"It's funny, but until now I couldn't even remember any of this," the Adult continued. "The pain went so deep, and I buried the memory so far down. All I remembered was the screaming, the rage, and the blood. And then Remilia was there, crying and asking why I had done what I had done, why I had to be such a monster." She sighed. "And I know that sounds bad, but she was…very upset."

"And she locked you away," Rin reminded her. "For a very long time. Just because you defended yourself."

"That's true enough," the Adult said sadly. "But what's done is done. You came here to help us confront the source of our hurt, and we succeeded." She looked down at the creeping thing. "And now that I see him and remember, he seems so…small."

The creeping thing had curled into a trembling ball. It let out a particularly loud wail.

Then the Adult glanced at the staring Kirin. "Rin, I cannot thank you enough for what you did for us," she said. "But it's probably best if you left."

Rin most definitely understood. "Got it," she said. "But hey, before I go, did it work?"

"Hmmm?"

"I mean, all this red crap's still here. And he's still here. And you four are still apart. Did it work? Are you going to fuse now?"

"I have no way of knowing," the Adult said in a chillingly calm voice. "Freeing me brought some measure of stability. Overcoming all of this probably also helped. And while I doubt we will ever be free of what was done to us, I feel we have found a different way to…cope. Hopefully with time, the walls between us will fall," She took a step toward the squirming thing, and her other three selves stepped with her. "But for now, I believe we have a lot of coping to do."

Rin got the hint. She hastily turned to go.

But before she did, she stole one last glance over her shoulder.

The squirming, weeping thing that had been the towering apparition was now surrounded on all sides by the four Flandres. The Vampire's mouth was open, her disturbingly long tongue curling out as she stalked closer and closer on all fours. The Lunatic's teeth were bared in a rictus grin as she advanced forward, giggling to herself in anticipation. The Child's hands were clenching and unclenching, ready to unleash violence.

And over them all loomed the Adult, who was staring down at the squirming thing, her grey eyes cold and merciless.

Rin hastily turned away. Whoever or whatever that thing had been, at the very least its existence had ended violently at the hands of its victim, both in the real world and now in her memories.

…

The last shimmering tendrils slithered off of Flandre's body, and the little vampire immediately toppled over and lay still.

Rumia, who was still sitting where Rin had left her, immediately straightened. "Hey!"

"It's fine!" Rin hastily reassured her, her voice coming out a little distorted as her mouth formed itself. "I helped her deal with some issues, and now she's sorting things out in her head. She'll wake up soon!"

"Um, are you sure?" Rumia said, staring at Flandre, who in turn didn't even seem to be sleeping. Her eyes were partially open, half-lidded and staring glassily at nothing.

Rin nodded with confidence that she didn't actually feel. "Yeah. Trust me, she is doing something really cathartic right now. She's fine."

Rumia didn't stop staring. "Rin, are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure!" She wasn't. "I was just inside of her head, remember? Found a deeply repressed memory of some asshole that did something really bad to her, cut him down to size, and when I left, all of her personalities were about to beat the shit out of him!"

"What's that mean?" Rumia whined. "I don't know what any of that means!"

"Neither do I! But it looked therapeutic."

"What happened in there?" Cirno called from the entrance. "Did you have to fight someone?"

Rin frowned. She looked over to the mouth of the tunnel that led to the rest of the hideout. "I thought I told you guys to clear out."

"We wanted to watch! So what happened? Did you fight a nightmare monster?"

Rin sighed. "Kind of? We fought something, anyway." She glanced up to Rumia. "Anyway, ready to do this?"

The look of pure terror that flashed through Rumia's eyes made Rin immediately regret her flippancy. She winced and amended, "I, uh, mean, if y-you're still willing to do this, then we'd better…you know…"

Rumia took in a deep, shuddering breath. "No. I'm still…Look, let's just get this over with, okay?"

Rin nodded. "Okay. Well, brace yourself, I guess."

Rumia's whole body tensed up. She lay on her side, arms and legs hugged tightly to herself, and closed her eyes.

"Don't hurt, don't hurt, don't hurt," she whispered to herself.

Rin again winced. She really hated making Rumia scared like this. She really, really hate it.

Also, it didn't matter how much Rumia braced herself or how much she prayed. It was going to hurt. A lot.

Rin hated that too.

But nothing was gained by delaying the pain. Rin slowly let her body lose color and form.

Then, as Rumia lay there shivering and whimpering, Rin's tendrils creeped over to envelop her, just as they had on that awful day of their first meeting.

…

Deep Within

Despite everything that had happened, despite knowing that it wouldn't last, and despite knowing full well that the circumstances that had led to the first time it had happened was one of the most shameful things Rin had ever done, she was still glad to see Rumia materialize inside of her headspace.

She had missed her. Or rather, she had missed having Rumia inside her head. Sure, their relationship had been…strained. Tumultuous. Sometimes outright hostile, especially at the beginning. But it wasn't all bad, and whatever issues might have existed between them, it had been so, so, so much better than the empty loneliness Rin had suffered for years before that. Even now that Rin had many friends, it still felt kind of empty inside of her head without Rumia around.

"Hey!" Rin said, trying not to sound too eager. "Uh, how was it?"

In response, Rumia blinked once.

Then she slowly sank down, crouching low and wrapping her arms around her head.

"Uh, Rumia?" Rin said in alarm.

Rumia was trembling all over, every bit of her shivering and shivering hard. Her face was twisted up in a pained grimace, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Rumia?" Rin instinctively reached out to her.

"Don't!" Rumia smacked Rin's hand away.

Rin froze. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"I know! I'm fine! Just don't touch me!"

Rin obeyed, taking a step back and waiting. She couldn't get rid of the lump in her throat though.

Slowly but gradually, the shaking subsided, and Rumia's face began to relax. She opened her eyes and eased herself down into a sitting position, legs splayed and shoulders slumped.

"Ouch," she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. "That hurt."

"S-Sorry."

Rumia waved her off. "Forget it. Let's just get this over with."

"Okay," Rin said with a nod. "Let's-"

Then she frowned. Something was different about Rumia, different from how she looked the last time she had been inside Rin's mind.

Before Rumia had looked like Rumia, albeit glowing with what Rin assumed was the light of her soul, or at least the closest wild youkai equivalent. But now she seemed…less than she had been. Her aura was dimmer, barely perceptible against the field of black she stood within. Also, her body seemed like it had faded, becoming almost transparent. It was difficult to tell with nothing solid behind her, but Rin was pretty sure she could see through Rumia now.

That couldn't be good.

Rumia was still rubbing her head like she had a headache, but her unusual affliction hadn't drawn her notice yet. Sensing that she was being stared at, Rumia glanced up at Rin and scowled. "What?" she said.

"Er, nothing," Rin lied.

"Nice try. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Uh…" Rin's mind raced. "Well, I know you don't like it, but having you back is really nostalgic, you know?"

Rumia clearly wasn't buying it. "Rin, stop BS'ing me and tell me what's up."

Rin sighed. "Well, it's just you're…kinda different."

"Different how?" Rumia snapped impatiently.

"I think you're a little transparent now."

Rumia blinked.

Then she looked down at herself. She held her arm over her leg, peering down to see if one would appear through the other.

It apparently did. "Rin," she said, moving her arm back and forth. "Why am I transparent?"

"I don't-"

"What happened to me? What did you do?"

While Rin could never begrudge Rumia for freaking out, she couldn't help but be a little hurt at the accusation. "Nothing! I mean, nothing you didn't

"Okay," Rin said. She took a deep, imaginary breath and slowly let it escape. "Okay. Let's go."

Rumia wordlessly knelt down in front of her, and Rin reached out to lay her hands on Rumia's forehead. Rumia shivered a bit at the touch, which caused the thorn in Rin's heart to twist just a little bit more.

Still, Rumia was right. It was time to get to work.

Rin's fingers sank into Rumia's head.

And then the world opened beneath them.

…

"Okay, but seriously: is Flandre dead?" Sara demanded.

Kurumi's nose twitched. "No. I can smell her breath."

"Then why is she like that? I thought Rin was supposed to make her better!"

Cirno was growing cross. "Look, if you're a big scardey and don't wanna trust Rin, then fine! Feel free to leave!"

"Hey, I'm just pointing out the obvious: Flandre does not look good at all!"

Wriggle kind of agreed, but then, she had never been eaten by Rin, so what did she know? Maybe Rin was right. Maybe Flandre would leap right up in a few minutes and be right as rain, and fully sane for once!

Then she felt someone tug on her hand.

Blinking, the firefly turned to see Kogasa urgently pulling on her arm. "We should go," she whispered. "Something's wrong."

Wriggle kind of agreed, but she wasn't about to abandon Rumia. She had done that once already. "Hang on," she said. "I just want to see if Rumia's gonna be all right."

"Of course she'll be all right!" Cirno huffed.

"Oh yeah? Was she all right when Rin let her out the first time? Because I remember her being very much not all right!"

…

Deep Within

The last time Rumia had done this, Rin had sent her into the depths of her own subconscious alone. It had been a way to protect her, to prevent her from feeling the pain of Rin digging through the sealed away memories of her older, darker self. This had backfired, as the nightmare Rumia had been forced to endure had arguably been worse than simple pain.

This time, the situation was very different. The secrets were laid bare, and Rumia's bloodstained origin was now known and dealt with. But removing it had seemingly broken something, and since Rin didn't need to actually unlock anything, she was coming along.

Truthfully, despite how little she wanted to be here, how much coming back had hurt, and what she was dreading that they were going to find, Rumia was still glad to have Rin with her. Sure, she had a lot of complicated feelings tied up with the mutated Kirin, but she still considered Rin a friend, and say what you will about her, but Rin was nothing but protective of her friends.

Which was really strange if you thought about it. True, Rin was powerful, indestructible, and more than willing to throw herself in between danger and those she cared about, but trouble followed her like flies to a butcher's wagon. Honestly, Rumia wasn't sure if she was safer by Rin's side or as far away from her as youkaily possible.

Still, at least Rin wanted to help her. Everyone else would probably just try to kill her on sight and make it stick.

The place that the pair materialized was immediately familiar, though Rumia wasn't sure why they were there. It was the field that lay at the foot of the Youkai Mountain, close to the hidden entrance of the cave that she and her friends used to call home. It was their favorite place to play, or at least it had been in simpler times.

But why were they here? True, it was a place that Rumia used to spend a lot of time in, but she wouldn't call it that significant.

However, while the where certainly raised questions, those seemed secondary to the other thing that the two of them noticed immediately.

"Uh, Rumia?" Rin said, looking around. "What's…going on here?"

The world was…flashing, for lack of a better term. Everything from the grass of the field to the trees to the clouds in the sky to the sky itself was pulsing, intensely lighting up only to fade to being nearly transparent, and then they lit up again.

And they weren't doing it in sync, either. It seemed everything operated on its own timing, creating an effect that was both dazzling and bewildering to look at, like a display of holiday lights strung up by a madman.

"I don't know," Rumia said. "I don't know. What is this? What's going on?"

She was scared. It was one thing to know in your heart of hearts that there was something seriously wrong with you, but it was something else to have it so realized right before your eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Rumia said, her words rising in pitch and speed. "What did you do?" She whirled around and grabbed Rin by the shoulder. "What did you do? What did you do?"

"Rumia, this wasn't me!" Rin cried. "I swear, I didn't do this!"

"But how did it happen?" Rumia wailed. "How did my head get like? How…"

Words failed her, and she sank to her knees with a long, drawn-out cry of fear and anguish. "Why?" she sobbed. "Why am I so fucked up? Why can't I ever be okay?"

It wasn't fair! At least whenever they tried to help Flandre, she ended up getting a little better! At least Rin was mostly stable! But it seemed like every time Rumia did anything, it only made things worse! Why couldn't anything go right for her? Why was she the only one that couldn't seem to catch a break?

Then, as she knelt there crying, she felt Rin slowly kneel down in front of her.

"Rumia, look at me," Rin said, grabbing her by the arms. "Look at me!"

Look at her. Right. At that moment, Rin was the last person Rumia wanted to see.

But she did. She raised her head just enough to see Rin through teary vision, her wheat-blonde hair flattened against her scalp and big blue eyes a mess of emotion.

"We'll figure out what happened," Rin said, speaking in a slow, calm, and yet firm tone. "We'll find a way to fix it, okay? We'll find a way to make you better."

Rumia wanted to snap at her, wanted to lash out and scream about how every time Rin said something of the sort, she would only make things worse.

But she didn't. Maybe it was because she was tired of being angry. Maybe it was because there was no point.

Or maybe it was because deep inside, she knew that Rin wasn't really to blame, and that despite everything that had happened, Rin had stood by her side and done everything in her power to help and protect her.

Rin wasn't the bad guy. Rin wasn't the one she needed to blame. Hell, Rin was probably one of the few people that truly understood what she was going through, another stupid little girl forced to become a hated monster.

Seeing Rumia stare at her, Rin tensed up, as if in anticipation of getting chewed out again, maybe even slugged in the stomach.

Instead, Rumia found herself lunging forward and wrapping her arms around Rin, hugging her tight.

Rin stiffened in her embrace, clearly not expecting such a sudden show of affection and taken off guard by it. But to her credit, she knew better than to say anything, and instead slowly and gingerly clasped her hands around Rumia in turn. Rumia let her.

The two held each other in the middle of the madcap field, ignoring the disorienting lights all around them, taking what meager comfort they could through each other's presence. It wasn't much, but it helped.

"Um, we'd better…go," Rin said at last. "Get you work. You know."

Rumia slowly nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Let's do that."

The two parted, though Rin's hand did come down to take Rumia's. Rumia blinked a bit, but didn't object.

"So…where do we go now?" Rin said.

Rumia wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. "How should I know?"

"Well, it's your mind. I figure you'd know where to find ground zero."

"Ground what?"

"Er, I mean, the center of your mind or whatever. Your deepest subconscious…thing."

Rumia sighed. "Ugh, fine." She thought for a bit. "Well, if we're in this field, our best bet would be to go…there." She pointed toward her mental representation of the Youkai Mountain, which was still pulsating nauseatingly.

"Okay," Rin said. "What's there?"

"Our old hideout. It's basically been my home for about as long as I can remember."

The two lifted off and flew toward the foot of the mountain. After a bit, Rin had to tint her own eyeballs darker to keep all pulsing colors from giving her a headache.

Then Rumia said, "Hey, Rin? I gotta bubble up before my head explodes. Lead the way, will yah?"

"Bubble up?" Rin said, confused. "What does-"

A bubble of solid black immediately surrounded Rumia.

"-oh."

There was a pause, and then Rumia's hand peeked out of the bubble. Understanding her meaning, Rin grabbed onto it with her own.

Rin continued on, leading Rumia through the deranged sky and toward the mountain. Even with her eyes darkened, just looking at the thing was nauseating. Why couldn't everything at least be weird in sync.

Finally they made it. "Rumia? We're here."

The bubble of darkness faded away, and Rumia squinted at their surroundings. "Gods, this is a nightmare," she grumbled. "Okay, this way."

She led Rin over to the base of the mountain. Once there, Rumia dropped her bubble with a grumble and searched with squinted eyes until they came to a small cavern tucked away in a secluded thicket, hidden by a flat board covered with moss and leaves.

Inside things were no better. Despite being an underground cave, everything was still way too bright, and way too flashy.

"Damn," Rumia grumbled as she shaded her eyes. "Even in here."

"So…this is your old home?" Rin asked. "Pretty similar to the hideout we've got right now."

Rumia had to shield her eyes. "Rin, seriously. Not in the mood for chitchat."

"Sorry."

They headed into the flickering tunnels. "Okay, my room is around the bend here," Rumia said. "If anyplace is the center of my mind, then it would be-"

They rounded the bend. And then they stopped. They stared.

"What the fuck?" Rumia whispered.

"Er, okay," Rin said, glancing around. "This…really isn't what I was expecting."

There was nothing there. Literally. The tunnel ended in a wall of white…nothingness. There was a sea of absolute blank emptiness where the rest of Rumia's old hideout ought to be.

"Rin, what is this?" Rumia said, her voice again rising in pitch.

"I…I have no idea," Rin admitted. "Maybe when we-"

"What is this?" Rumia said again, not giving Rin a chance to complete her thought. "What is this? What is this? What is this, what is this, what is this?"

Rin was able to again try to calm her down, to try to bring her back, but before she could, the world suddenly started to shake.

…

Mima remained floating in the small room where Yuuka was kept long after Elly had left. When she was certain that there would be no more visitors, she smiled.

And then she broke the illusion.

Most of the room simply vanished, disappearing like dawn's mist before the midday Sun. The shelves of medicines and tools all wavered and evaporated, as did one entire wall, revealing the room to be much larger than Elly had been shown. Yuuka herself and the pallet she lay upon also disappeared.

The room that Mima was now in was larger and also well-equipped with many instruments and fluids, but they weren't of the sort intended for healing. These were all intended for more inquiring minds than altruistic ones, and tended to have sharper edges.

A massive research desk crammed with many such devices took up almost an entire wall, and seated at the desk was one Seiga Kaku who was busy examining numerous samples under an elaborate microscope.

"That was reckless," she said without bothering to look up.

"It'll keep the girl out of our hair for the time being," Mima responded. "She needed something to tide her over."

Seiga shrugged. She walked up to where her victim lay and examined her. "Well, whatever. We're stuffing her into that doom box of yours anyway."

"In time," Mima said neutrally. "But for now, how goes the vivisection?"

Yuuka, the real Yuuka, had her burned and withered body was eagle-spread onto a stone table, her wrists and ankles bound at each corner. Several needles had been inserted into the raw and flaky red-and-black flesh of her scalp, while strips of skin had been noticeably peeled from her abdomen. She was whimpering in pain and fear, while various fluids dripped from places where she had been opened up and the openings kept open by metal hooks.

But her pain was not without purpose. Several thin hoses trailed from the ends of the needles to a large crystal beaker, into which a hazy greyish-yellow liquid dripped. The removed strips of flesh were currently swimming in various fluids in sealed specimen jars on a nearby table.

Seiga glanced briefly at her. "Fascinating," she answered. "Illuminating." She scowled, and smacked the back of her hand against Yuuka's abdomen, making her prisoner shiver in recoil. "And utterly fruitless."

"Aw, that's a shame! I would have thought that you would have had her broken down to her base elements by now."

"Breaking her down isn't the problem," Seiga said, moving away from the table and examining the jars of flesh. "It's the base elements themselves that are the problem. Her mortal body is humanlike, but still not Human. Even as reduced and corrupted by mortality as she is, she still retains enough Outer God essence to throw everything out of whack. And to be perfectly blunt, nothing we have on hand is remotely capable of handling essence such as hers." She swiped up a handful of glass slides. "Five different skin samples, and each and every one of them registers as a different substance once it had been made independent from the whole! Look, this one separated into a bunch of spiny black dots, this one I think more resembles a fungus, and I don't even know what this is supposed to be, save that it literally eats every substance I have used on it! And don't even get me started on the other two."

Smiling, Mima floated over to pat Seiga encouragingly on the shoulder. "Keep fighting the good fight, my friend. This is an opportunity that many would sacrifice their left arm for."

"Not mine."

"Well, somebody's left arm, anyway."

Sighing, Seiga swatted Mima's hand away. "Mima, where exactly where you all day." Mima opened her mouth to respond, but Seiga wasn't done talking. "And I mean truly. Without the bullshit."

Mima pouted. "Why does everyone always assume I am up to some nefarious plot every time I go out?"

"Because you're literally up to some nefarious plot right this very second. I'm helping you. And I also know your track record in dealing with your co-conspirators."

"Clearly I ought to have exercised better public relations in my past scheming," Mima muttered. "And to answer your question, I was ensuring our exit."

Seiga paused. She then looked over her shoulder.

"Once we have everything we need, things were devolve into chaos very quickly, and we will need to be gone when they do. To do that, we need a reliable exit in which to leave Gensokyo."

"Don't you have one already?" Seiga asked.

"I can teleport in and out without much difficulty," Mima said, laying a hand on her own chest. "But teleporting more than one or two other people at a time is…taxing, much less your entire household."

"There are such things as mass teleportation spells."

"There are," Mima agreed. "For use within Gensokyo. But to bring everyone to another world entirely?" She shook her head. "No, my friend. For that, we'll need a gate."

Seiga turned to lean back against the desk. She picked up her smoking pipe from its stand and took a draw. "Continue," she said, breathing out blue vapor from her nostrils.

"We could go through Heaven's Gate," Mima said, holding up a single finger. "That is, if we could convince the Dragons to let us use it, but as neither of us have any diplomatic relations with them, and given how prickly they are about anyone using anything of theirs, I judged this route unrealistic."

"Agreed," Seiga said with a shudder.

"There is also the Infernal Gate. Not impossible, but as the Angels who own it don't care for me all that much, and since their current predicament has caused them to lock up Pandemonium tighter than a Kirin's asshole, I also have judged this route to be improbable at best. That leaves us the Hakurei Gate."

Seiga arched an eyebrow. "Don't they hate you?"

"I think they would be unhappy to see me," Mima agreed. "However, if you'll recall, I did spend a few years as that shrine's representative."

"One of these days you're going to have to tell me how you managed to con your way into that job."

"One of these days," Mima said without promising anything. "Regardless, my time there allowed me to take a close look at the shrine's inner workings, how it's connected to the Hakurei Barrier, and, more importantly, how the gate works."

"I being to see," Seiga murmured. "You put things in place in case you ever needed to make a hasty exit."

"That I did. Normally, one would need the cooperation of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, but lacking that, most of what we need to use the gate is already put into place, thanks to my foresight."

"Most?"

"There are still a few necessary items that I require," Mima said. "A keystone, for one."

Seiga snorted. "Good luck with that. Those aren't exactly lying around."

"As I understand it, your neighbors the Celestials have several."

"And you're just going to waltz into their vault and borrow one, is that it?"

"Goodness, no," Mima said. "I was going to get someone else to do it for me."

Seiga folded her arms. "I hope you're not expecting me to run this errand for you. For one, the Celestials want nothing to do with me. For another, their palace has one of the tightest security systems I've ever seen."

"Tried in the past, have you?" Mima smirked. "And that is true. But they also have a disgruntled brat that can go places we can't."

To this, Seiga said nothing, though her brow did rise.

"A brat that is feeling all sorts of resentful toward her parents, all sorts of bitter toward Yukari, and might be of a mood to listen to a certain offer."

"You play a dangerous game, Mima," Seiga said.

"When have I not?" Mima said with a shrug. "Regardless, when time is as short as it is, one must at times take calculated risks."

"Short?" Seiga tilted her head. "According to what metric? I wasn't aware of any sort of deadline."

"None has been put into place, no," Mima agreed. "However, experience and observation has told me that once…incidents began to happen, one tends to lead into another, and things will escalate independently from each other."

The hermit sighed. "Mima, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I am saying that there are many other interests active in Gensokyo, each with their own agenda. And if my suppositions are correct, and there is not reason to believe that they are not, we will be hearing from them very soon."

…

"What's going on?" Sara cried in alarm. "What's happening?"

The clear, transparent blob that was now Rin Satsuki hadn't moved. It remained where it was, looking like a gigantic water droplet on the cave floor, presumably with Rin and Rumia crawling through something weird deep inside.

Flandre, however, was moving. A lot.

The little vampire was twitching and convulsing, every muscle in her body shaking hard. Though her eyes remained closed, her mouth was rapidly spitting out nonsense, an endless string gibberish syllables that none of them understood.

Kogasa again seized Wriggle's arm. "Wriggle, let's go," she pleaded. "Now."

Wriggle shivered. "Yeah," she said. "I, uh, I think we should-"

Cirno bolted past them, running toward Flandre, only to suddenly fall on her face when Kurumi lunged forward to tackle her.

"Hey!" Cirno said as she tried to kick Kurumi off. "Let me go!"

"No!" Kurumi cried. "She'll kill you!"

"She's done that before and I got better! Flandre needs help!"

Still holding onto Cirno's legs, Kurumi got to her feet in a crouch and threw her arms back. Of course she was nowhere near as strong as Flandre, but she was far stronger than Cirno, and managed to bodily hurl the fairy back into the tunnel. "No! This is too much for you! You can't help her!"

Though still taken off guard by Kurumi's strength, Cirno was back on her feet in an instant and glowering. "Don't tell me what I-"

Flandre abruptly sat up.

…

"After all, many chaotic forces are at play," Mima continued. "Many unstable powers."

…

"Wriggle, let's go!" Kogasa all but screamed.

That was enough for the firefly. Wriggle and Kogasa both turned to run, but as they did, Wriggle stole one last look over her shoulder.

…

"There is only so long that such forces can remain dormant. It is only a matter of time before something clicks out of place, before a wheel comes loose. And then, chaos."

…

Kurumi was still pushing Flandre away from Flandre's lair, while Cirno was still determined to get in, the headstrong idiot. Behind Kurumi, Flandre was sitting up, still trembling, still chanting nonsense in a low, monotone voice.

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets-Scon."

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets-Quay."

"Occ-Sei-Cul-Ets…"

And then Flandre's eyes snapped open.

They were bright yellow.

…

"I have every reason to believe that disaster is about to strike any moment now. And we must be ready to exploit it when it does."

…

Flandre thrust her hand forward like a rod and squeezed her fingers into a fist.

"Kyuu!"

…

Okay, so, this chapter was supposed to go up on Monday, on my birthday, but there was no way I was going to get it done in time, so I pushed it to today.

Anyway, my brain is fully cooked, so I'm going to take a little time off. In the meantime, be sure to check out Blood Island.

Until next time, everyone.