Shantae: Clash of Arms

by IllusoryNomad

After her Tinker-Brain was destroyed, the notorious Risky Boots hatches yet another dastardly scheme to annihilate Sequin Land as we know it. Only this time, she's managed to pilfer an extensive collection of military weapons from another world! With the threat of Risky's conquest more perilous than ever, Half-Genie Hero Shantae and an unlikely ally must join forces to stop her!

49. Aftermath Pt 6: Visions

Aftermath, Pt. 6: Visions

Hey, hey! Been a hot minute… by which, I mean it's been a few dozen hours (AKA a couple days, give or take) since I last got the chance to give you the scoop on how everyone was healing after the latest pirate crisis was brought to its bittersweet conclusion. And to that, I say… eh, things still weren't looking all that well, unfortunately. When we last left off, many of Sequin Land's most heavily compromised areas were beginning the process of rebuilding their communities. As such, many of the survivors of the Clash of Arms crisis were taking measures to move on from the harrowing series of highly destructive scuffles and skirmishes that took place throughout the humble country of Sequin Land. However, very few were slower moving on the path to recovery than the very heroes who helped put a stop to the infamous Risky Boots's dastardly plan to take Sequin Land by total surprise in as swift and brutal a fashion as she could conceivably muster. Why were our heroes so slow to recover, you may ask? Well, let's find out… by first taking a look at this... very strange individual that was sneaking into Mimic's Workshop? Uh-oh... Already, we're off to a very unsettling start. Shoot, I was hoping to entertain you with more of my relentless prattling about what you missed out on in our time apart, but... Sometimes, it's better to get into the swing of things right away. So...

In the small hours of the morning...

LOCATION: MIMIC'S WORKSHOP, SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 7TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 0233 HOURS

Okay, so... I won't lie to you: I was a LITTLE caught off-guard that someone could possibly be looking to pillage a defenseless household in the middle of a war-torn port town whose limited security measures were almost entirely depleted. I... wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, the town was dead silent to the point that you could hear the plants rustling in the late night breeze, and the starless, overcast sky prevented any natural light from shining through to its fullest potential. No one was awake, and much of the town remained in disrepair and largely devoid of its citizens. Nevertheless, this mysterious individual, wearing some sort of animal mask to conceal their identity, attempted to break in by... jostling the knob of the Workshop's front door. I mean, I'm no two-bit criminal by any means, but I'm fairly certain that simply trying to open the door to a house you wanted to rob was... not exactly the most... practical method of getting in undetected. Anyway, with this person's very ingenious break-in attempt thwarted, they decided to give up and go somewhere else... except not really, as this person, who was also wearing what looked like a stylish blue and gold dress that was definitely NOT appropriate for home invader attire, seemed to have another idea. Concentrating what appeared to be a slight magic current into one of their fingers, the individual pointed at the door, which suddenly opened with a *click* of the knob after it unlocked itself... Huh... So, this person can use magic? That can't be good...

"Ah... There you are..." the animal-masked intruder whispered, their voice light and delicate as they stepped into the workshop uninvited and closed the door behind them. Immediately visible to this burglar was... well, a complete mess of research texts, notebooks, a couple of lab coats, and miscellaneous scientific supplies strewn about. However, as they carefully tiptoed past the forest of books and science materials, they approached the sleeping form of a certain lavender-haired half-genie, who'd still been resting in her uncle's bed... Her deep breathing was just about the only sound filling the otherwise quiet laboratory. Only, when the intruder closed the distance and found themselves standing next to the bed...

"Oh, dear... You have been grieving, even in your sleep...?" the individual quietly remarked in what sounded like deep concern as they observed the face of the slumbering Shantae. And while her face was almost completely shrouded in her unbelievably long curtain of wavy purple hair, her face was just as the intruder observed. The young woman's cheek was stained with fresh streaks of moisture coming from her eye, which remained closed. More concerning to this individual, however, was the fact that Shantae, dressed in a modest pink nightgown, had been curled up over the blanket enshrouding the bed, clinging tightly to what appeared to be a torn-up red piece of cloth and... and a pair of dented, tarnished metal tags linked together via a ball chain necklace... "You poor girl... You were not supposed to know this kind of despair... at least, not like this..." the unidentified intruder consoled, reaching forth and resting their hand on Shantae's head as she slept. Gently, they ran their fingers through the half-genie's hair. Just then, Shantae took a deep breath in what appeared to be pain, never stirring awake as she shifted ever so slightly and clutched the items tighter.

"...don't go... please...!" she mumbled, her tone wrought with a sleepy distress. "...should've protected... you... Haagh...! Tay... you... shouldn't have had to... Risky... won't get away with th..." the half-genie continued to murmur, suddenly flipping over and turning away from the home invader while keeping her grip locked on the cloth and tags. "...Avenge you..."

"...Those nightmares haven't settled, either..." the intruder murmured in increasingly solemn concern as they continued to observe the young woman's evidently poor condition. "...I had hoped to spare you this pain by guiding you on a different path... but it appears his sacrifice was necessary, however much we wish it wasn't..." they continued, giving little clue into who they were or what they apparently knew as they took a seat on the bed and continued to tenderly stroke Shantae's hair.

"...Gaagh...! Hah...! Still... here...?" Shantae murmured again, wincing in another twinge of pain, causing the intruder no small form of worry. "...can still feel you... Soul-Link..."

"What...? Soul-Link...?" the animal-masked individual remarked in surprise. "What could you mean by that...?"

"...Where are you, Tay...? I... looking... but I can't... find y..." Shantae kept talking in her sleep, writhing and squirming in some pervading discomfort while somehow finding herself incapable of waking up. "Soul-Link... Soul-Link...!"

"...Is... Is it still in effect, even after...?" the home invader curiously asked, trailing off as they took their hand off Shantae's head for just a moment to continue observing her. And without fail...

"Gaaahaaagh...!" the unfortunate young woman moaned in pain, suddenly shifting to where her arms were pressed against her aching stomach. "...can't find you...! Where...? Why did you have to go...? Mmmmnaaaaagh...! Mmph...! Hah..."

"...So, the link is still active, even after this long? Hmm..." the individual pondered, their curiosity about Shantae's tortured mumbling as evident as I'm sure yours is about who this person was. Trust me, if I knew, I'd have told you ages ago. Anyway, this person raised a hand and, with a quiet, flickering *pop*, an effervescent cyan magic light enshrouded their appendage. Reaching toward Shantae once again, this strange individual laid their hand upon her head. At that point, the person's magic glow increased, producing an ambient *whooosh* sound as Shantae's entire body suddenly began to emit the same dazzling aura.

"Hmmph! Ghaah...!" Shantae grunted in what appeared to be pain, though she still didn't spring awake.

"It is alright, sweetheart... This will only take a few seconds... I must be sure..." the intruder murmured, the magic glow surrounding their hand and the entirety of Shantae's body growing just a bit stronger. And within seconds, a sudden *FWOOSH* of what sounded like a heavy wind sounded out. Most astonishingly, however, was that a sizable ball of a bright red light suddenly arose from Shantae's sleeping form before coming to a complete halt in midair. The possible burglar's magic-imbued hand remained pressed to the half-genie's head, though their attention was turned to the enigmatic energy ball floating directly above the young woman. Even more peculiar, however, was that the ball had two strings of an equally blinding light connected to it. One of the energy beams connected directly to Shantae. The other... well, the other stretched up and in a direction almost completely opposite of the line connected to Shantae. Stranger still, the beam extended through the walls and ceiling of the quiet workshop without actually damaging the building in any way as the light structure provided a very quiet, shrill hum that wouldn't have even woken up a mouse.

"Ghaaaaagh...! I-it hurts...! Why... can't I find...?" Shantae mumbled again, clutching her stomach harder as another tear ran down her sleeping face. "...Don't... overdo... magic...! ...Hurts..."

"I see..." the mysterious individual appeared to conclude, canceling out the magic current in their hand and removing it from Shantae's head. As such, the bright, floating red magic ball sunk back into Shantae and vanished from view almost immediately. Immediately following this, the beams of light emitting from it suddenly vanished without a trace as everything settled back down. At that, the unidentified person sighed as they took off their mask... to reveal an incredibly long, flowing curtain of hair of an indistinguishable color due to the nigh pitch-black darkness of the workshop while there was no reliable light source. "This unnatural Soul-Link... It is somehow growing stronger with the more time that passes with it in effect... but with the way it was established... It remains remarkably unstable, but if not even the death of one of its subjects can break it..." the person revealed, their barely visible eyes locked on Shantae as she finally settled down, sighed, and fell into a deeper sleep. "...then I fear that his soul may not ever be able to properly rest, and they will both continue to suffer as long as they are apart from one another... or worse..." they continued to murmur, their concern growing increasingly apparent as they rose back to a stand beside the bed. "It has been ages since anything like this last happened... Yet, I still remember the attempt to break that bond as if it happened yesterday... Those poor individuals... Never had I seen such a disastrous procedure go so terribly wrong... Truly a haunting scenario the likes of which I wish never to repeat. The alternative to forcibly severing this Soul-Link is not much better, but it is FAR less dangerous than any of the branching sequences I have foreseen regarding the link being undone. I know what I must do now... and this time, I will make sure that they are able to make the best of it. For her sake... and for his..." they continued to ruminate. "I was right to make sure that lamp reached his hands. These children deserve FAR better than this... and I must do everything I can to rectify this situation..." And with that statement, the formerly masked home invader turned toward Shantae and took one long, sadness-riddled look at her as she continued to sleep mostly undisturbed. Silently, the nameless intruder leaned over the half-genie and... in a rather surprising turn of events, this enigmatic individual brushed Shantae's hair off her face, wiped some of her tears off, and planted a light, tender kiss on her cheek. Afterward, they gently rubbed her head just one more time before leaving her be.

"You have grown into a truly splendid young woman, Shantae... and I couldn't be prouder of you..." the person murmured, seeming to be choking up a bit as her whispers came off as strained and full to the brim with sadness. "Eventually, we will meet face-to-face, but I must go for now... I have one more task to complete before I return to my duties in protecting this world from outside threats... I hope you know how much I love you, even if I cannot always be here to watch you develop into the hero you were destined to be..." they further shared, divulging next to nothing about their identity other than that they were familiar with our Half-Genie Hero in some context. At the very least, it seemed that this person really cared about the young lady they'd gone out of their way to visit. It was also a relief that this person had no intent to harm, though it begged the question of what they knew... and of course, who and even what they were. Strange... Yet, before we could even get the idea to investigate what was happening, the individual raised a hand and shrouded themselves in a dim gold magic aura. And, within a fraction of a second, they were gone with a quiet *poof*...

"...Moth..." Shantae murmured, though it came across as incoherent. Moth? I'm... embarrassed to say I'm not sure what nocturnal winged insects had to do with whatever it was she was dreaming about. Huh... I... I'm just stumped as to who that person was and what their intentions were. And even, how they had so much knowledge about the situation at hand... Hm. Well, I can't imagine we won't be finding out a little more about that later, but... for now, we move on as... as smoothly as we can...

A few hours later...

LOCATION: MIMIC'S WORKSHOP, SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 7TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 0952 HOURS

It may come off as a bit unusual that we're still at Mimic's Workshop instead of literally anywhere else, but I assure you that we wouldn't have remained here without reason. That said, Shantae received another visitor in the form of her zombified best friend Rottytops, neatly dressed in her usual purple tank top, ocean fog shorts, and brown shoes, replete with her usual skull motif. Now, it wasn't terribly unusual for Rotty to be worried enough about Shantae to pay her a visit, though it pained her greatly to see the half-genie still asleep. It was also no surprise that she entered the workshop alone instead of tagging along with Sky and/or Bolo. So, what would make this meeting so peculiar that it gets special attention? Well... let's find out...

"Ohh... Still completely knocked out..." Rottytops murmured in quiet distress as she was ushered into the laboratory by none other than Mimic.

"Indeed, she is..." the elderly Relic Hunter, dressed in a set of striped pajamas, his usual eyewear, and fuzzy slippers, tiredly affirmed with a stretch and a yawn. "She hasn't woken up once since the other day, and she's still having these terrible nightmares about what happened during that fateful battle with Risky Boots..."

"Still? Shoot...!" Rotty cursed, her heart aching with extensive worry about her best friend. She took a moment to glance in the sleeping half-genie's direction to see that she remained sound asleep, curled up and tightly clutching that tattered tank top and those dog tags like they'd have vanished if she let go. Already fighting back her tears, Rotty turned toward Mimic, who had been headed toward another room to go back to sleep. "And you're sure you haven't seen her even move an inch to get out of bed?"

"Positive," Mimic confirmed once more as he stopped and turned to her. "I've been watching and listening out for her endlessly, and she hasn't moved from that spot except to shift her position. I can only attribute this sleeping spell to another case of magic burnout. She completely exhausted her magic reserves, so it's not out of the ordinary for her to be asleep for an extended period of time. I just worry that she's being tormented by the awful things she must be seeing in her dreams... Granted, she's been sleeping much more peacefully in these last few hours, but she remains asleep, no less."

"I was worried about the nightmares, too..." the zombie maiden concurred with a nod. "And I'm glad she's sleeping better now, but... she's been sleeping for four days straight at this point. Has she ever gone on this long without waking up?"

"No, and your concern is undoubtedly well-founded, Rottytops," the scientist agreed. "Attempting to stir her awake in this state is impossible, however. The most she's done whenever I tried is grip those... well, I guess I'll call them 'memoirs' for the sake of conversation, but... the most movement I've seen out of her is her gripping those memoirs like her life depended on it," he further explained, referring to the shirt and dog tags. "Other than that, she often mumbles fragmented thoughts about... um... w-well... you know..."

"About him, right?" Rotty guessed, though it appeared both the zombie girl and the Relic Hunter were unwilling to bring up a certain subject that struck them as particularly sore.

"Indeed. I've... also seen her clutching at her stomach and wincing in what looks like unrelenting agony, which I can only presume is either her starving from not having eaten in almost a week, or this mysterious Soul-Link business..."

"Soul-Link?" Rotty queried, suddenly reminded of a certain phenomenon she learned about on the day of Risky's latest attempted invasion of Scuttle Town... and possibly something more, as she cast her gaze toward the floor as if lost in thought.

"...Something on your mind, lass?" Mimic asked, taking quick note of her contemplative state.

"Well... K-kinda... I was... just wondering about something..."

"Oh? Does it possibly pertain to this enigmatic Soul-Link, per chance?"

"Yeah... Did she mention anything about it to you before she went to sleep?" Rotty inquired, returning her gaze back to Mimic.

"She did, but she wasn't able to explain much," he confirmed, with a scratch of his beard and another yawn. "She only told me that it was an unintended side effect of Hypno Baron's treacherous body-swap spell, that it gave her the ability to sense when our otherworldly friend was in danger... and... oddly enough, that she was still getting those feelings after he died..."

"What!?" Rotty bellowed in such surprise that she could've woken up the entire town, though she was quick to cover her mouth to keep from making any additional noise. "I-I mean... Really? She can still sense him?"

"I can't say for certain," Mimic replied in moderate befuddlement. "I have little to no insight into how it functions, and she hasn't been awake for me to run any tests or even ask her for any additional details. Mind you, this is presuming that her frequent stomachaches can be attributed to the Soul-Link without a doubt..."

"Well, has she mentioned it in her sleep? I'd imagine she probably would..."

"Once or twice, but I can't exactly take her sporadic sleep-talking about the phenomenon as fact either, I'm afraid. Until she wakes up and tells me, I have no way to accurately decipher if she is still feeling the effect of this Soul-Link or if she's just unbelievably hungry, or if she's simply experiencing random stomach cramps like she does from time to time."

"R-right. Message received, sir..." Rotty notified, reeling back a bit out of a peculiar sense of hesitation to continue the conversation in the direction it was heading.

"Indeed. And in case you plan on asking, no portals to the inside of her mind have opened up like what happened when she was afflicted by Risky Boots's Magic Reverser not so long ago..."

"Oh... I-I see..." the undead maiden pensively nodded, though she found herself reminded of something else. "I... actually have a question myself, if you're okay answering it, gramps..."

"What's on your mind?"

"Uh... W-well, I'm not sure if I sound crazy saying this, but... uh..." she began, though her words caught in her throat. She knew what she wanted to say, but she struggled immensely to figure out how to convey the message as her eyes darted around the room. "Uh... s-so, I've been... uh... having... um..." she stammered, rapidly losing her nerve for reasons even she couldn't explain as she mentally kicked herself for hesitating.

"Hm? Having what, sweetheart?" Mimic asked, cocking an eyebrow as he anticipated what she was going to ask him. Yet, as the silence within the workshop grew evident with the longer Rottytops hesitated to ask her question, the scientist grew worried about what the zombie maiden could possibly have been thinking. He allowed her the time she needed to clarify her thoughts, hoping that she could clear out any reservations she had against speaking her mind. However, after what felt like an hour...

"...Never mind. It's... uh, it's nothing important," Rotty mysteriously dismissed with a wave of her hand and a shake of her head.

"Are you sure about that? It seems to me that something's really bothering you," Mimic pointed out, though Rotty wasn't surprised by his observation.

"Yeah, but it's no big deal. Just a silly thought I had..."

"Hm. Well okay, but if you change your mind, then please let me know how I could be of assistance to you."

"Sure thing, grandpa," she acknowledged with a nod, though she appeared to still be visibly bothered by something... which Mimic also picked up on.

"Quite. Have you been sleeping well, by the way?" he asked, managing to catch her by surprise.

"Huh? Er, I-I've... been okay. Why?"

"The bags under your eyes tell me a different story," he deciphered, even more to her shock.

"Oh... Well, ya got me there..." she admitted with a nervous chuckle. "And... well, no I haven't. I've been stressed out over Shantae lately, if I have to admit it. I was hoping she'd be awake by now, but..."

"You needn't explain yourself there," Mimic understandingly replied. "We are all worried about her. She'll wake up in due time, no less."

"I have no doubts about that..." the young zombie affirmed, glancing at Shantae once more to see her still curled up in the bed, dressed in her nightgown as she quietly snored. The mere sight of the half-genie in this state was more than enough to cause Rotty to break down, however, as her eyes began to well up almost immediately and her mouth formed a most unintentional mournful frown. "I... um..." she stammered again, her voice wavering as a massive knot formed in her throat.

"I assure you, she will be okay, Rottytops," Mimic spoke up, reading the sadness on the zombie girl's face clear as day.

"Yeah, but... even after she wakes up, he... um... Ta... we'll still... uh... need to..."

"We will all continue to support one another in the wake of his passing," the retired Relic Hunter offered another vote of confidence, knowing what she was trying to say. "We will need to. Speaking of which, where are Sky and Bolo?"

"...S-still asleep..." Rotty barely managed to inform him, at this point already in the full swing of a grief-stricken crying spell. "I-I wanted to check on Shantae by myself, but... I'm starting to think it was a bad idea..." she admitted, sniffling as she wiped her tear-soaked face with her hands. "I should go... I'm sorry...!" And with that, Rotty turned and sprinted toward the front door as though a wild tiger had been chasing her out of the workshop.

"Well, hold on! Rottytops, wai-!" Mimic tried to call after her, though he was too late. Rottytops had raced out of the workshop, closing the door behind her before dashing off into the town without letting him get in another word. At that, Mimic sighed in concern as he walked over to Shantae to inspect her condition again. "It seems we're still struggling to find an appropriate way to begin making sense of all this... and it ails me to no end that this is even happening..." With that statement, Mimic reached a hand over to his surrogate daughter and gently pressed his hand to her head as she slept. Just as he did so, however...

"Rotty... Sky... Bolo... Uncle..." the half-genie mumbled as she flipped over, revealing that her face was streaming with tears that Mimic found himself taken aback by. "...Don't... go...! Love... all of you... Can't... lose you, too...!" she continued, unknowingly striking a massive chord with the advanced-age scientist as he gasped. While he didn't know what she was dreaming about, he knew all too well just from her statement what must've been going through her mind. As such, he sat at the side of the bed and lovingly rubbed her head as he frowned with immense concern.

"I... I don't know if you can hear me, Shantae, but be certain that we aren't going anywhere. We'll always be here for you, cupcake..." he whispered to her, hoping that his words would get through in some way, shape, or form. "We love you, too, and we'll be waiting patiently for you to come back to the waking world. And when you do, we'll... we'll figure out how to help you..."

"...Tayshan..." she murmured again, wincing as she pressed her arms into her stomach while she held the tank top and I.D. Tags near to her. "Nrrgh...! Hah... Hah..." the tormented half-genie murmured a bit more before settling back down again. Continuously disheartened by the image of the genie maiden in such constant distress, Mimic sighed as he moved his hand to wipe some of the tears off his niece's face before getting up. However, he found it difficult, if not outright impossible, to tear his eyes away from her.

"...Please wake up soon, Shantae," Mimic whispered once more, patting the young woman's head one last time. "I only wonder what rampaging maelstrom of stressful thoughts must be spinning through that head of yours, and I'm honestly worried about what we will see of you when you rise. We will be here to support you, nevertheless... and to be honest, it seems that some of us are going to need you just as much..." And with that, Mimic reluctantly retired to his own sleeping quarters within the laboratory and laid his weary head to rest... at least, as well as he could in the wake of his niece still struggling to find peace within her mind and her friends worrying as heavily about her as he was...

Later on...

LOCATION: SKY'S HATCHERY, SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 7TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 1629 HOURS

"I... I couldn't tell him..." a certain zombie maiden complained to herself as she lay alone in a comfortable guest bed within the confines of Sky's abode. "I chickened out, and I couldn't tell him... about these weird dreams..." she further lamented, letting out a pressured sigh as she wiped her weary eyes and let her thoughts wander. Evidently, she had wanted to get some insight from Mimic regarding the reason she couldn't sleep. It appeared she'd been having nightmares as well, but she couldn't figure out why. She didn't get too much time to ponder it before the bedroom's door opened to reveal Scuttle Town's most famous bird tamer herself.

"Hey, Rotty," Sky plainly greeted, removing her headdress to let loose her long, wild blonde hair before neatly folding it and setting it on the nearby dresser.

"Hi, Sky," Rottytops greeted back, sitting up on the bed to give the other young lady her attention.

"Missed you at breakfast this morning. Did you take a walk or something earlier?" the bird tamer asked as she kicked off her boots and took a seat on the other bed, which was bigger and loaded to the edges with egg-and-feather themed pillows and blankets as it rested near one of the room's many windows.

"No... w-well, sort of. I... I went to see Shantae..." Rotty reluctantly admitted to Sky's mild surprise.

"Oh. Huh... I was just about to ask if you wanted to come with me and Bolo to see her later on," the bird tamer revealed, stretching some of the kinks out of her back as she made herself comfortable. "He's in town right now, but he'll be back within the next hour or two."

"I... don't think I need to go back there today, but I appreciate the thought," Rotty replied, her mood sinking at the mere thought of the slumbering half-genie. Sky wordlessly nodded in understanding, though she could tell just by looking at the zombie maiden's disheartened facial expression that something was wrong. With little else to say to one another, both girls went quiet for what felt like an eternity before either of them came up with something.

"...Is she still asleep?" Sky hesitantly asked to break the awkward silence.

"Yeah... She looks the exact same as she did every other time we've seen her..." Rottytops answered with a despondent sigh, momentarily casting her gaze to the side.

"Right... and it's definitely not easy seeing her like that. But she'll wake up soon enough."

"I know, but for some reason, that doesn't help me feel better," the undead maiden confessed, frowning as she locked her gaze on her acquaintance. "I mean, I want her to wake up as soon as possible, because I hate seeing her like that... but then, I'm not at all sure how we can help her after she wakes up..."

"Unfortunately, we have no way of telling until she's up and at 'em," Sky rebutted, choosing her words carefully. "Until then, we can only hold out hope while we get ourselves straightened out."

"...Got it..."

"Speaking of which, Rottytops, I've been meaning to ask: Did you get a decent amount of rest last night?"

"No..." Rotty dismally admitted, her mood sinking further at the unwelcome reminder. "I popped up in the middle of the night again after having another one of those weird dreams about... well, you know who..."

"Another one? Goodness, you've been hit with these nightmares every night since you've slept over here. I mean, I can understand why they're happening, but... I... uh..." Sky was about to try and form a reply before Rotty buried her face in her hands and began to weep. "Ohh... Rotty..."

"I can't understand it...! I don't get it...!"

"Hey, it's alright," the worried falconer tried to offer her words of consolation as she rose to her feet and walked over to Rottytops to rub her back. "It's not unusual to have dreams about someone you miss..."

"I get that, but I've been having them frequently, no matter what I do..." the distraught young woman confessed through her tears. "I can't make them stop...!"

"We hardly ever have control over what we see when we sleep, but the less sleep you get, the more likely you are to keep having bad dreams."

"I understand... but they're not... necessarily 'bad' dreams, because I'm not scared or in any danger in most of them... but I still can't stand that they keep happening without rhyme or reason. And then I keep jolting awake in the middle of the night, after which I'm unable to go back to sleep until I've finally settled down enough to stop panicking..."

"Yeah, I was gonna mention how you woke up screaming a few times, but I... guess that it's a relief you're not having straight-up nightmares for the most part. Still, your dreams are that intense, huh?"

"'Intense' in the sense that when I'm dreaming, I can see everything clear as day," Rotty explained as she took a deep breath and stopped crying, though she remained melancholy. "If only I could remember much of anything about them when I wake up, though... At this point, it's driving me insane! It's not made any better when I'm reminded that while I can't sleep, Shantae won't wake up! I feel like my mind's been swallowed up in this rampaging twister of anxiety, frustration, and sadness... and to top it all off, I still feel completely exhausted..."

"And you're sure you don't want to try and get some shut-eye now?" Sky asked, removing her hand from Rottytops while still sitting nearby for support.

"Absolutely not. Sleeping is torture, because then I wind up seeing him again..."

"I... can understand that, but there's no way you can keep fighting to stay awake, looking like this..."

"And what's wrong with the way I look?" the undead maiden asked in a sense of offense, shooting her host a most scrutinizing, squinty-eyed stare.

"Nothing, if you don't mind the bags under your eyes that look big enough for you to carry groceries in them," Sky quipped, getting the zombie maiden to relax and crack a wan smile.

"Hah... Good one."

"Trust me, I know. I've been working on that one all week," she joked once more with a chuckle that Rotty shared with her, though it was short-lived. "Still... You've barely slept a wink since we got back here, and I'm wondering if we should start figuring something out about how to help you get back on a regular sleeping schedule. Not even your brothers could figure out what was going on when we saw them in Genie's Hem..."

"Ah, don't sweat that," Rotty dismissed, perking herself up as best as she could through a powerful yawn as she also stretched one arm while using her other hand to wipe her eye. Afterward, she wearily planted her head onto a hand and blinked a few times. "Abner, Poe, and I are zombies. We technically shouldn't even need sleep..."

"Evidently, that isn't true," Sky shot back with a raised eyebrow. "You look like you're about ready to pass out any minute now."

"Which I really don't want to do..." Rotty protested, though she found herself drifting off as she spoke. Try as she might while keeping her head propped up with a hand pressed to her sleepy face, the zombie maiden looked like she was going down for the count.

"Uh... Rottytops? You still here?"

"YeahI'msti... Werrgh..." Rotty mumbled, her consciousness slipping away before her head slipped off her hand... which led to it detaching and hitting the ground with a sickening *THUD* that startled Sky out of her wits.

"YIKES! Jeez!" the frightened bird tamer bellowed, jumping back hard enough that she could've launched herself into the neighboring town if it wasn't for the fact that she was in her house.

"Agh! Oh, man...! Shoot, I-I didn't mean for that to happen!" the panicked zombie girl frantically and apologetically announced, her body clamoring over itself to pick her head up and reattach it to her neck. "Uh, s-sorry about that... I conked out there..." she further attempted to explain herself, though she remained fatigued as she soon sat back onto the bed and leaned backward while rubbing her forehead. "Mmmmnnnh... Come on, wake up already..."

"Oh, boy... Rotty, you're REALLY not doing too well..." Sky worriedly murmured as she sighed to calm her racing heart, wondering if she should try to keep her guest up or allow her to fall back to sleep. Before long, however, the undead young woman suddenly shook her head as hard as she could to keep herself alert before springing back to her feet.

"Ugh, I need coffee A.S.A.P..." the zombie maiden tiredly proclaimed out of frustration, swiftly hopping off the bed and trudging toward the bedroom door.

"Coffee, Rottytops? The fact is that you're completely wiped out from lack of sleep. Downing a boatload of caffeine is not gonna make you feel any better," Sky protested as she followed her guest out toward the common area of the hatchery, where congregations of many diverse avian creatures were perched along various surfaces within the sunlit abode.

"Probably not, but it will keep me awake," Rotty shot back with another yawn as she seemed to struggle to keep her balance as her fatigue hit her like a train moving at Mach 3. "I... I don't wanna go back to sleep beca-!" she was about to add before she tripped over her own two feet in her drowsy stupor.

"ROTTY!" Sky called out in shock, though it was too little too late.

"Waah!" the zombie maiden hollered before she fell flat on her face with a startling *THUD*. She'd tried to catch herself on the nearby table, but she had only succeeded in knocking over a bowl of bird seed on the way down. The glass bowl hit the floor with a series of *PWIINGs*, sending seed scattering all over the hatchery's floor that immediately stirred Sky's many pets into a fluttering, flapping frenzy.

"Oh, no! Oh, shoot...! Shoot, shoot, shoot, no...!" the bird tamer panicked, hurrying and picking Rotty up off the ground before trying to shut her windows to keep her feathered friends from escaping. She could hardly move fast enough, however, as many of her robins, blue jays, sparrows, and other miscellaneous birds raced out of the windows in droves. Those that didn't attempt to escape, flocked toward the floor and began ravenously pecking away at the scrumptious morsels while carefully avoiding their trainer and said trainer's clumsy friend. Sky, knowing that there was little she could do that wouldn't make the situation worse, merely let out an exasperated sigh as she bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Dang it...! It'll take me all night to get this place back in order before those birds come back... Shoot...!"

"S-sorry about that..." Rotty sheepishly apologized with another yawn as she arched her back and rubbed both her eyes with her hands to try and wake herself up a bit. "I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry about it," Sky dismissed with another frustrated sigh, though she did her best to shake it off after a moment. "I'll clean this up soon enough, and the birds that flew out will come back later on. You, on the other hand, are going right back to bed before you cause even more of a ruckus than you already have," the bird tamer further asserted, grabbing the other young woman by the hand and leading her back into the bedroom.

"Awwww, but I don't waannaaaaaaaaa..." the weary young lady comically whined, though she offered little resistance to her host dragging her into the bedroom. Sky even did the honors of taking Rotty's shoes off to reveal her frilly purple socks once she sat on the bed, though the bird tamer was careful not to bring the zombie girl's footwear anywhere near her nose.

"Now lie down," Sky commanded after setting Rotty's shoes aside.

"Come on, Sky, you don't need to-!"

"Dah, I don't wanna hear it. Lie down," Sky reiterated, just a tad to Rotty's irritation.

"Jeez. Fine, okay, MOM!" Rotty oh-so rebelliously shouted as she obeyed Mother Sky's order to lie flat on her back in the soft, silky guest bed. "You gonna give me a glass of warm milk and a bedtime story, too?"

"You'd probably be surprised by this, but I actually was going to offer you a glass of milk," Sky shot back with a slight chuckle, taking the wind out of Rotty's sails in the process. In turn, Rotty crossed her arms and pouted in disappointment that she couldn't get under Sky's skin with that remark. "I can't say I have any good storybooks on my shelves right this minute, though. Only boring sociology books, dictionaries, beginner-level second language guides, and outdated fashion magazines from last summer."

"Hm. Well in that case, I wouldn't know if you wanted to put me to sleep, or put me in a coma..."

"Hardy-Har-Har, Rotty," Sky sardonically remarked, though she took some humor in the derisive comment. "Either way, at least you'd be getting the rest you'd so desperately need."

"Riiiight..." the weary young lady droned, her tone dripping with incredulity as she smirked at her gracious host. The atmosphere grew silent after a moment, however, as they appeared to run out of things to talk about. However, as Rottytops's grin disappeared from her face, it soon found itself replaced with a crestfallen frown as she rested her head on the fluffy, fuzzy pink pillow situated beneath her. Sky, also feeling the fleeting joy washing away like an asphalt chalk drawing in a dreary thunderstorm, found herself sighing with discomfort as her heart began to ache... Before too long, however... "Sky?" Rotty called to her, though her gaze was locked on the polka-dotted ceiling of the bedroom.

"Yeah?"

"...Do you think that... there will ever be a point where we stop missing Tayshan...?" she hesitantly queried, her eyes welling up as a knot formed in her throat. The bird tamer flinched in such petrifying surprise and such overwhelming grief at just the mention of the deceased soldier's name that her mind went completely blank for a second... before flashing back through a series of recent memories that caused her no small form of anguish as the distraught blonde maiden fought her hardest to hold back her tears enough to offer a reply.

"...No, but... I-I think it'll... eventually get easier to deal with..." Sky did her absolute best to reply, though she had to turn away and squeeze her eyes shut as she clutched at her thumping heart with both hands. She'd also let out a shaky sigh that resonated with sadness before turning her gaze back to her friend. "I... I just don't have the slightest clue when..."

"I see..." Rotty somberly replied, gulping as she let a stream of tears run down the sides of her head as she did nothing to keep them from staining the pillow. "...Well... d-do you think... that maybe we can at least help Shantae get better in a reasonable amount of time when she wakes up...? I mean... I plan on being there for her every step of the way, but..."

"There's no telling how long it would take for any of us to simply get over the death of our friend, Rotty..." Sky replied, though she found herself entirely unwilling to continue with the conversation as it was unfolding. "We can only learn to come to terms with it, but I think now's still much too soon to be thinking about all of that..." At that, Rottytops sighed, though the tightness in her chest threatened to prevent her from being able to breathe in that moment.

"...Y-you're probably right..." she dismally agreed, her eyelids starting to get heavy on her as she began to drift off. "I guess... maybe it's something we're supposed to take a step at a time...?"

"Yeah. And... I don't know how to say this without sounding like a broken record, but... we're in this together... and we all miss him..."

"I know... It hurts just to think about how we lost him, as well as how quickly we lost him, but I'm... I'm overwhelmed with anxiety about how Shantae would've been handling this if she was awake. And even though she's asleep, she's been having nightmares and sleep-talking constantly... I can only relate because of... because of my dreams..." Rotty barely mumbled through her statement as her eyes began to close and she started to rapidly nod off.

"...she's gonna be fine. She just needs to rest. We'll worry about how to support..."

..."Righ... Gonna be okay, as long as we keep our hea..."

..."...up soon enough... After that, we'll plan for... for T...'s funeral... or whatever we come up wi..."

...

..."...eventually, we'll heal from... never forget him..."

..."Defini... stud muffi... we..."

...

...

..."True... and... climb the mountain tog..."

...

..."As long as we can rely on each other, then tha..."

...

...

..."...can stay here until you ge... oor's always o..."

...

...

..."Thank you, Sk..."

...

...

...

...

..."...out she go... light..."

...

...

...

Huh... That's... a little odd. I'm not sure what's happening here. I have no idea why the last bits of the conversation between Sky and Rottytops became so fragmented that it looks like someone took an eraser to their dialogue and went to town. Hm. I wonder if that has anything to do with... Huh? Whoa, whoa, wait! Where the heck are you go...!? How are you jumping int...!? Sto...! Come b...!

...

...

...

---

Ooogh... And here we are again, fresh off the coattails of yet another inopportune blackout... This is really getting on my nerves, y'know. I... don't suppose I should complain too much, though, as much I hate to admit that. I always had my meetups with Tay to look forward to! Ooh, I can't wait! I know we haven't had a terribly large amount of time to spend together, but he's been making things so much more fun when we hang out! I just wish I could stick around long enough to get a full experience. Lousy blackouts keep happening right when our conversations pick up, but I have a good feeling that this time, I'll stick around much longer. This time, we'll go on our own adventure! And this time, we'll have a conversation so deep and so insightful and so full to the brim with exciting details about our lives that we're bound to figure out how we know each other! I'm trembling with enthusiasm for when we meet again...

But... hang on... this time… This time, when I reappeared in the Village of Lost Souls, Tay was wearing an entirely different outfit. Instead of the tattered, shredded red camouflage pants, he wore a crisp, clean pair of jet-black harem pants with a gold sash around his waist. Instead of the worn-out metal boots, he wore a fresh, new-looking pair of gold high-top sneakers. He was wearing these giant gold vambraces on his wrists. He was also wearing an open vest that matched his pants in color that had some sort of golden paisley pattern outlining it. The back of the vest stretched all the way down to his calves, too. And... from what I could see, he was completely clean... I mean, all his scars were still there, but there was no more dirt or scratches or stains anywhere on his body. By all accounts, he looked totally different from how I remembered him. Well, maybe not totally different. Just… it was weird not seeing him wearing camouflage or boots... on top of him not being smeared with dirt. If anything, though, this outfit made him look... kinda like a genie, if I had to say so myself. It was a cute outfit, though I wonder where he got it from. Weird... Even with all that, though, the most chilling thing I noticed… was that he had a giant, glowing, floating golden ring hovering over that massive black puff ball I came to learn was his hair… What is that ring, anyway...? Is... that a... a halo? Huh… What the heck was this all about? I had to know, because I'd never seen this before. I reappeared behind him, so he hadn't noticed me just yet.

As I approached him, though, I noticed that he was standing in front of some strange lady that was wearing the most stunning blue dress with gold trim that revealed her bodacious curves. I had NO idea who this woman was, but… she looked… familiar. Or rather, she looked exactly like my special friend… Only, taller and curvier… Her long, vivacious amethyst-colored hair was draped all over her face, shoulders, and back like a silky curtain. Her eyes were this astonishing shade of jade green that blew me away… Mind you, she was crying as she was talking to Tay, but the point still stood. She was wearing these stylish golden ring bracelets on her wrists that complemented her outfit, and she even had these adorable gold earrings attached to her pointy ears to boot. If I didn't know better, then I'd have mistaken this woman to be my best friend… but as I got closer, I could tell that it wasn't her. This lady's face, however pretty it was, had shown some signs that she was at least a bunch older than my friend. No wrinkles or anything like that. Just that her face looked more… fully developed, I guess. Whoever this lady was, she was absolutely beautiful… Wow… Er, I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway, I also noticed that this lady had… what looked like a helmet or mask of some sort… in the shape of a dog? No, a jackal… and it was sitting upright on the ground next to her. Huh… I wonder what that's all about. Hmm… As I kept approaching, however, I found myself compelled to stand still, so I wouldn't cut off their conversation. It seems like they're really talking. I tried not to eavesdrop, but something one of them said caught my ear…

"…So, I'm not supposed t' be here?" I heard Tay ask the tearful lady. What…? He's not supposed to be here…? What the heck's that mean?

"No, my boy… You were not ever supposed to see this place as you are now," the lady told him as she tried to stop herself from crying. "I'm so sorry… You were supposed to survive that battle… or rather, I had hoped you would survive it, despite the odds. I tried everything I could to help you and Shantae come out of your arduous adventures alive and well, but… it seems all I've done was…" she trailed off. She seems… like she feels really, really guilty about something. But what…? And how does she know Tay…? And how did she know the name of my other friend?

"…No, it's alright. After all, I chose t' go out the way I did," Tay countered, gently laying a hand on the lady's shoulder. "If I hadn't, then Shantae would've been sent here instead o' me. An' now that everything's been said an' done, it makes sense. Had I not gone in an' helped them, any one o' them… or even, all o' them could've wound up here in my place. I… I know it must be hard on them… especially Shantae, because I've been feelin' nauseous ever since I got here, but I'm thankful that they're all alive. Granted, I thought… that what happened with Shantae an' me bein' linked together would've been undone if one of us…"

"It isn't quite that simple," the lady countered as she calmed herself down a bit, though I was completely lost on what they were talking about. I kept listening, nevertheless. "Once your souls were connected the way they had been, there's nothing outside of genie magic that can undo it. And even then, severing that bond would prove catastrophic for the both of you, considering what you have been through since the day it happened. I have foreseen it..."

"So, what do we do here? I don't want her t' suffer because o' me. An' if it's true that my link t' her overrides my need t' be here, then what happens next?"

"I… cannot say much, if anything at all that would entirely satisfy your justifiable curiosity, Tayshan. I apologize for being so unclear about this, but I'll tell you what I can," she suggested, causing Tay to nod in understanding. 'Tayshan' is his full name? Huh… How… eerily coincidental, considering it just sounds like 'Shantae,' but with the syllables switched. Wow… Ahh, that's the least of my concerns right now. Brushing the coincidence aside, I continued listening. "So… the long and short of it is that… well… because of your circumstances, you have two choices: Either have a genie attempt to sever the Soul-Link between you and Shantae and risk both your souls being irreversibly damaged in the process… or… well… return to the living world to be with her, at the cost of you only being able to spend as much as roughly one year with her before you disappear forever... unless we find a way to at least stabilize the Soul-Link, if not outright revive you."

"Whoa, what? Disappear? What do you mean?"

"The nature of the Soul-Link is incredibly unstable, and it disrupts the cycle of life and death on your end because it wasn't broken when you died. And… because you are dead while Shantae is alive, your soul cannot properly be put to rest like you have seen some others experience in your time here. We aren't fully aware of every detail because this sort of occurrence hasn't happened in at least the last hundred years... and it hadn't happened at all before then. That aside, you appear to have recovered your memories of your past and accepted your fate for what it was, which would have automatically granted you eternal peace and a safer path out of this mortal coil…" What…!? Tay… He remembers everything? How and when did THAT happen!? We never got to talk much about it, and I hoped I would've been able to help him more… and that he would've been able to help me...

"Jeez… So, it sounds like even now, when I thought it was all over, there's still loopholes t' jump through? An'… An' now you're tellin' me that I can't pass int' the afterlife or whatever because my soul's still linked t' someone who's alive?"

"That is the gist of it, yes. Your Soul-Link anchors you to the living world as long as she is alive. And unfortunately, the souls of the deceased cannot linger in the living world for too long, lest they become forever doomed to wander the planet's surface with no chance to find peace and be laid to rest. They would never be able to properly depart without someone exorcising them, which is hardly a pleasant process. In your case, however… In your case, you did not die with any lingering regrets like your friends from your world had. You… you sacrificed your life to save Shantae's… and… as I mentioned previously, you managed to recover your memories with no qualms about how you died, which means you are no longer required to linger here in the Village of Lost Souls, for your soul can no longer be considered 'lost.' With the Soul-Link in place, however, it is as I said: Your spirit cannot be laid to rest while you are magically connected to a living person, and severing that connection could be—no, WOULD be incredibly dangerous, if not outright lethal for both parties…"

"…I see… So, it's clear my only choice is t' return t' her, then," Tay realized with a stunning sense of total solemnity. "But, I'd only get a year t' spend in the livin' world before I vanish forever? What would cause me t' disappear?"

"The Soul-Link will get gradually stronger with no way to stop it, which would not have affected you too adversely had you remained alive. Because you are no longer counted among the living, however, the link has been compromised on your end. Your soul wouldn't be able to withstand the strengthening connection, and… well… my prediction is that once your year is up, you will disappear, your spirit converted into magic and dispersed across the world of the living, if not entirely absorbed into Shantae… I have foreseen this as well..."

"Hm… So, I'll cease to exist altogether an' surrender my entire being t' the atmosphere o' the planet I died t' protect… Or, to the person I died t' protect. That sound about right?"

"…In a euphemistic sense… Yes."

"'Euphemistic' is hardly a word I'd use here, but I get it… As if things couldn't get more complicated… Hm," I heard Tayshan complain as he crossed his arms and stared at the ground for a moment… and to be honest, I couldn't blame him. What sort of hand was he dealt? All of this sounds so… unfair… Jeez… "A death within a death… How cruel fate can be. If it wasn't for me havin' dealt with that monster Igor shortly before you came, I'd have been much more startled by that..." he shared as he turned his golden eyes back to this mysterious lady.

"I suppose you are right, in that sense..." the lady agreed, however reluctantly. Evidently, he told her about Igor, too... Hm. How much have I missed...?

"I'm glad you think so. But like... It's... so ironic that it's actually kinda funny..." he remarked, chuckling a bit, which… made me worried for him. "I had my hang-ups about how an' when I wound up dyin', but for my experience t' lead me here? I couldn't have even dreamed o' somethin' so outrageous happenin' t' me... One day, I'm just a regular soldier with a life you'd only read about in cautionary tales about the dangers o' makin' disastrously bad choices with no sense o' direction, lookin' t' turn over a new leaf an' make a lastin' impact on the world in whatever way I possibly could in my position... an' by the next, I'm warped to a whole different world entirely an' suddenly, I'm goin' on these wild an' outlandish adventures through all these crazy, fantastical landscapes with a girl who turns out t' be part of a species o' magical, belly dancin' spellcasters that spends a good deal of her time savin' the world from evil pirates, mythological monsters, greedy, manipulative wizards, an' power-hungry, warmongerin' dictators alike... an' through it all, I somehow found myself becomin' enlightened enough about... well, just how meaningless I felt my life was before I wound up in Sequin Land..."

"..." the lady went mute, stunned by his melancholy statements despite the fact that he was wearing this sadness-riddled smile as he spoke them... but, it wasn't long after he made his first statement, that the smile disappeared, replaced by this expression of contemplative uncertainty that hit me like a thousand bombs to see... Jeez, I can feel my heart ripping in two for him...! Gosh...

"I mean, I can't possibly regret how it all played out now, but... I lost EVERYTHING when I came t' this world with no way t' go back t' my own... an' yet, I still found myself hopeful that I could figure out some way t' make the best of a bad situation, even though my original goal was t' find a way back home. An' thanks t' Shantae, an' our friends... an' even you, I was able t' learn so much more an' become so much stronger in so many different ways that I couldn't hope t' fathom... an' you allowed me the chance t' make peace with people whose deaths I felt incredibly guilty for, which took such a heavy weight off my heart... an' you even allowed me to, in the most bizarre an' incredibly dangerous way imaginable, learn to accept myself for who I am an' move forward instead o' dwellin' on the past. An' while my adventures since our first encounter only got harder an' harder, an'... even though I found myself sacrificin' more an' more o' myself until it eventually led t' me dyin' at the hands o' the most evil person in this world t' save Shantae, I still managed t' find so much more purpose in even havin' these experiences than I'd have ever dreamed of..."

"...My word..."

"An' then, t' die the way I did, only t' continue to exist in this world's purgatory with complete amnesia until I had just enough experiences t' jog my memory enough t' have it all come floodin' back t' me... an' then t' be told that I can't ascend t' the next dimension because, while I met the requirements necessary t' move on, my soul is forever magically tethered to that o' the woman I fell in love with... who happens t' be that same magical, belly dancin' spellcaster that gave me just the chance I needed t' turn myself around when I found myself completely lost with nowhere t' go when I was alive... an' while I get a chance t' see an' spend time with her, it's only but for so long before I possibly cease to exist entirely... It's almost poetic in how messed up all o' this is... Jeez..." he realized, shaking his head in total disbelief... I... w-wow...

"Tayshan..." the unnamed lady called to him, her eyes watering up with the more she listened to him. "I... I didn't even consider just how deeply this could have affected you... Goodness..."

"Yeah, but it is what it is... I can't say I like these circumstances as they are, but... there's no use gripin' about it now. It's all said an' done, regardless o' my opinion. An' however bittersweet it is... I..." he trailed off, taking a deep breath as he shook off what I could only imagine to be ten mountains' worth of pressure before he continued. "I still appreciate my experiences, an' I appreciate the people in my life who helped me make my situation bearable. I still hate Risky Boots with a burnin' passion for what she did, an' what she tried t' do, but even that is tempered by the fact that I got t' play the part I did in helpin' Shantae stop her scheme t' dominate Sequin Land usin' the weapons she stole from my world." I... I can't help but feel incredibly bad for whatever nightmarish series of events led him here, but... what is this about him being from a different world? Was he not always a native of Sequin Land or... or of this planet or something? Hmm... I wish I had more time with him to figure that out...

"..." this strange, remorseful woman went silent yet again.

"...An', now that I think about it, I'll... at least be able t' grant the wish she made t' me before she granted the one I made t' her, though it might not be exactly how she wanted it granted..." he further mused, chuckling once more in what I could only guess was... a mixture of excitement and anticipation. Granting her wish, hm? I... can't help but feel like I know what he's talking about, but my mind's still too fuzzy to figure it out... Hmm... "Believe it or not, I... find it hard t' tell you all this, but... I find that it's just as hard t' take because o' just how much happened t' get me here..." he continued, again shaking his head in disbelief as he rested his hands on his hips and contemplated the situation for what it was. "I could run myself in circles tryin' t' make sense of it all, but it wouldn't serve much use doin' that... an' by this point, I've come to accept my situation for what it is, like you said... as if I even have a choice now. All I can say, though, is that this is a very, very... mad world we live in... ain't it?"

"I understand your discomfort with these circumstances. Really, I do..."

"I know, an' I appreciate that you're hearin' me out. It's even funnier, though, when I also consider how I already kinda-sorta saw my initial death comin', thanks t' you. An' now, also thanks t' you, I'll get t' partially live again, but I'll still be haunted by the fact that I'll know exactly when I'll die again… It actually makes me wonder if this is some form o' karma for the decisions I made before I decided t' clean up my act…"

"Tayshan… I'm so sorry… I-I didn't mean for this to happen to you…" the lady apologized profusely, walking toward him and hugging him tight like... she felt guilty for what happened to him. "I wanted you to be happy… I wanted you and Shantae to be happy together… I… I wanted to guide you along the right path that I hoped would avoid any event of yours or any of your allies' demises. I… I was incapable of interfering directly, so I shared my predictions with you, hoping you would be influenced in a manner that would've led to your victory and your new life in Sequin Land with Shantae…"

"Yeah, I know… an' I appreciate it, but… sometimes, those sorts o' storybook endings come at a heavy cost that hardly anybody wants to acknowledge. It's extremely rare, if not outright impossible, t' win a war without a single casualty," he reasoned, hugging the lady back as he tried not to cry himself. "An' while I did hope t' not be killed in action by the time it was all over, I was more than willin' t' lay my life on the line for her, as well as t' make sure the battle was won in the end an' that Sequin Land could enjoy peace an' freedom from harm by that despicable pirate woman. The needs o' the many far outweigh the needs' o' the few or the one, as I once learned. Of course, I… I loved Shantae so much that I didn't even bother t' think about what I gave up by savin' her. It's not exactly what any of us would call a 'happy' ending, but it's far better than how things could've turned out. Maybe… this is the best ending we could realistically get, all things considered… I don't really know, because I'm so torn about what's happenin' now… but at the very least, uh… Thank you for givin' me just the push I needed t' do what was right," he confessed as he held the woman tight. After a moment of a tense, heartbreaking silence that even had me in tears, the lady looked up at him while they hugged. In return, he looked back at her.

"…You are such a noble soul…" she spoke to him, barely above a whisper as they separated. "If it were possible, I would restore your life in full, so that you could get the second chance at life you deserve…"

"Funny you should mention that..." he pondered. "Is... Is it possible at all t' be wished back t' life? At the very least, to avoid what would happen under this list o' circumstances?"

"I'm... afraid not," the lady admitted with a shake of her head. "Genies are incapable of using magic to raise the dead. We are not divine beings, despite what is said about us, and we have no conceivable capability of manipulating the life-and-death cycle as we see fit. As such, resurrection of any kind... is out of a genie's power, whether it was wished for or not. The only case of resurrection of any kind performed by a genie happened when someone infiltrated the confines of the Village of Lost Souls, smuggled the spirit of a recently deceased person out into the living world, and returned that person's soul to their body. That method is entirely forbidden and yields unprecedented consequences if one is not lucky. Since that occurrence, it was decreed that anyone else, genie or not, who attempts to repeat that event will be met with a harsh punishment that may very well follow them for all eternity. I... I'm sorry to have to tell this to you..."

"Hm. I see. Well, it'd probably cheapen the idea of a 'sacrifice' if I wound up bein' resurrected anyway, however appropriate it is t' say that. Death is... well, as far as I learned, it ain't somethin' that's t' be taken lightly, nor is it somethin' people could just turn on or off like a light switch. Otherwise, next t' NOBODY would choose t' be dead if they had that power... I mean... I can't say I ain't disappointed t' hear what you're tellin' me, but… again, it is what it is…" he somberly replied with a seemingly nonchalant nudge of his head, though I could read every bit of the pain in his voice… "Besides, I… I feel like I used the chance I had in life here as appropriately as I could. It wasn't perfect in the slightest, but it was worth it. Like I said... If my death made sure Shantae an' her—or rather, OUR friends could live t' fight another day, an' as long as those weapons an' that contraption have been properly disposed of, an' Risky was made t' answer for her crimes in some way, shape, or form, then... then my mission is complete."

"Indeed…" the woman shared with an understanding nod, though she was still wearing this incredibly guilty frown that it honestly killed me all over again to see. "…I… I owe you so much more than I could ever hope to give you for the sacrifices you made for her and your other friends… and for Sequin Land as a whole... but… I-I suppose that granting you the opportunity to spend your final days with them is the best thing I could do… at least, for now… I promise you that if there is some way to at least extend the time you have, or stabilize the Soul-Link, or... or anything that would allow you to live and be happy with Shantae, then I will work tirelessly to discover it..."

"You won't hear me object t' that," he accepted with a solemn nod. "An' I appreciate the gesture. But, as we discussed... the only reasonable choice I have for right now is t' go back to her if I don't have t' be here… In any case, you said you needed this, right?" he asked, pulling out that rusty old oil lamp he showed me the last time we spoke. Without saying anything at first, the lady took the lamp off his hands, looking at it for a moment and sighing with what sounded like… I'm not sure… Hesitation? Regret? I don't know. This lady's overall demeanor was completely down, which saddened me as much as it confused me.

"Thank you… With this, I will be able to take you to her…" she whispered as more tears poured from her eyes, some of them dripping onto the lamp as it began to glow in her hands. What… What the heck is going on? And what did she mean by that? Is… Is Tayshan going to leave now…? I wasn't sure of anything at all, but… I… I didn't want him to go… Not like this…!

"Take me to her? How?" he asked, understandably confused about what she meant. But, before he could get his answer, I rushed toward him, startling him and the lady as I approached.

"By the stars...!" the lady proclaimed, clutching her heart as she jumped back in fright.

"Whoa! Oh… it's you again! Hey…" he turned and greeted me in almost equal fright as the mysterious lady, though he immediately noticed the tears running down my cheeks as I stopped in front of him.

"Tay… You… You're leaving already?" I was compelled to ask, heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to hang out with him anymore...

"Hm? How did you…?" he was about to ask.

"I… I overheard…" I confessed, weeping as I tried to keep myself together. "I… I didn't get much chance to spend time with you… I-I mean, I'm glad you're back to normal and that you remember everything now, but…" I rambled, though my urge to cry grew stronger and stronger with each passing second as I let it sink in that… that he was going to leave me again...

"Hey," he called, kneeling in front of me and gently cupping my face with his warm hands as I tried to hold it together. I couldn't, though… I just… I couldn't… "I wasn't expecting things t' carry out like this, believe me. The last thing I'd want t' do is up an' leave before you an' I got the chance t' figure out how we know each other. Unfortunately, it seems like we didn't have near as much time as I thought we would… I… I hope you at least got t' enjoy the time we spent together, however short."

"I did, but… I… I'm not ready to lose you again," I confessed, moving forward to hug him as tightly as I could. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressed my face on his shoulder, and just held him…

"Ooh…! Hah, some grip you got there…" he noticed with a strained voice as he returned my hug by wrapping his arms around my waist while he was still on one knee. He felt so… so warm… and the embrace itself… felt… so familiar… like we'd done this before… and… as I hugged him, an image started to sprout up in my head… where we did this. Only, he was standing straight up, and I was wrapping my arms around his waist… it was broad daylight… and… and… "Listen… If I ever figure out how I knew you, then I'll be certain t' honor your memory if it ain't possible for us t' meet again, okay?"

"Huh?" I hummed, moving my head from his shoulder to meet him face-to-face while we still held each other.

"I mean I'll never forget you… even if we never could figure out what your name was…" he told me, smiling as best as he could. It didn't take much investigating to see that he was sad, too, though... "Of all the things I remembered about my time before I got here… I… I unfortunately couldn't figure out when or where we met, but weirdly enough, the memories we did uncover… they're still fresh in my head."

"What are you talking about, stud muffin? We know each other already… Don't you recognize me?" I found myself saying… without actually meaning to say it. I… I didn't mean to say that at all. I wasn't even thinking about saying that. So why…?

"Hm…" he hummed, prompted to stare directly into my eyes. It… looked like he was on the verge of figuring something out. A bit puzzled, I stared back at him while tilting my head and raising an eyebrow. It wasn't long before he seemed to get an idea, as he moved a hand from my waist to my glasses…

"What are you…?" I was about to ask before he gently lifted my glasses above my eyes. After that, he studied my face with just a little more intensity. I… found myself growing just a TEENY bit uncomfortable, but… I'm… also hopeful he discovers something. And, before too long, he gasped in shock as he set my glasses back in their proper position.

"It's you…!" he exclaimed in total astonishment, completely catching me by surprise as we separated from our hug and he rose back to his feet. He remembers me…? He remembers me!? "I started t' have a feelin', based on what we talked about in our other conversations, but it's really you!"

"Finally, you see it!" I spoke again, though I didn't mean to say that either. I don't know what's happening here, but without any control over myself, I lunged at him and hugged him again. "Oh, thank goodness… You've been gone for a week, and every day without you here has been torture...! I miss you so much...!" I further involuntarily confessed as I burst into a fit of woeful tears. What in the heck is going on here…? What the heck am I saying? Gone for a week? I haven't known the day or time since time immemorial... Why did I say that? And... Why can't I control myself anymore...?

"I miss you, too… I mean, I don't have a clue how you wound up here, or why you look so different from before, but I'm so glad t' see you again…" he told me as he returned my hug with just as much strength.

"Me, too… and… well, in case this is the last time we'll see each other… I want you to know that I love you… and I always will. And for that matter, so will the rest of our friends... especially Shantae... We love you...!" I blurted out through my tears as I unintentionally hugged him tighter to the point that my heart began to pound in my chest... I can't for the life of me figure out why I'm suddenly unable to control anything I'm saying or doing... It's like someone else has completely taken control of my body, and I don't have a clue what's going on... but… at this point, I'm… okay with letting this play out just this once… especially because I'm starting to fade again… and so are a great deal of my memories as I start to lose consciousness...

"I love you, too… Thank you for always bein' there for me. An'… I'm not sure what's gonna happen from here, but no matter what, keep your hopes up that you'll eventually rediscover your identity and get your chance t' get up out o' here… I'm rootin' for you, always…"

"I will… Thank you so much for being my friend… No matter what happens, though, I'll never forget you," I vowed, after which I looked at the lady standing behind him to see that she's patiently waiting for us to finish up. And… as my vision started to blur, I realized I was running out of time again… Tay and I separated from our hug, but not before I cupped his cheeks, pulled him toward me, and planted a meaningful kiss on his forehead... without meaning to do a single bit of it. My body was completely on autopilot by this point...

"Whoa… Wha…" I heard him try to ask as we separated, but my senses began to completely turn off again. Darn it, I really, really wish this didn't happen every single time I was ready to make a huge discovery or have an important moment with someone. I could only be glad I managed to inadvertently pull that off, at least… because even if I never see him again, we'll always know how much we appreciated each other...

"Goodb…" I involuntarily mumbled as everything started to move in slow motion and become completely blurry… Whooh… I… I'm fighting to try and stay awake, but… it's a lot harder than I thought… and it's inevitable I'm going to black out again… but… with what little sense of sight I have left… I see… I see Tay… standing and turning around to face the lady in blue… The lady starts to glow… and… I think she's holding that weird lamp over her head… she's… she's belly dancing, too…? Huh… just like Shantae… but then… Tay… Tay! He's yelling…! He seems surprised… but… he's… being sucked into the lamp!? What…? Did she just capture him!? Oh, no… Oh, no…! She captured him… I wish I could do something to stop her…! But then, just before I black out, a gigantic flash of white fills my eyes…

---

...

...Hm? Oh! H-hey, there you are. I was wondering where you went... You just up and vanished on me out of nowhere. Do you have any idea what happened? No? Ah, of course not... how could I expect you to know when some unprecedented magic phenomenon happens like that? Silly me... Er, that aside, I'm glad to see you're safe. I hope you weren't shaken up too badly with that fancy disappearing trick you did, because we've still got a little bit more to catch up on. I'd ask where you went, but... I'll just presume you needed a break or something. Anyway, I'll try to catch you up on what you missed. So, hopefully without any additional ethereal hiccups...

Getting back on track...

LOCATION: SKY'S HATCHERY, SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND

DATE: OCTOBER 8TH, 16 P.G.F.

TIME: 2159 HOURS

"Rotty, come on… You've been crying yourself to sleep, and then waking up just to cry yourself to back to sleep for the last twelve hours now…" Sky worriedly informed a distraught Rottytops as the girls sat at a table in the bird tamer's humble abode. Sky had been rubbing her friend's back as she tried to console her. The zombie maiden, however, appeared not to have been soothed in the least. She sat atop a stool, a half-empty tissue box sitting in front of her with a multitude of balled-up tissues strewn about the table's surface. She'd been sobbing profusely as she buried her face into her arms on the table, seeming completely crestfallen. "This is worse than the last four days combined. At some point, we're gonna have to learn how to cope with it…"

"I don't know where to start, though… I had yet another one of those dreams…!" Rotty revealed through her tears. "I can't sleep anymore…! I'm too scared of what I'll see when I do, and then I wind up popping up in the middle of the night anyway…!"

"I probably should've asked you for more details when we talked about it before, but now I'm curious... What exactly are you seeing in your dreams?"

"Every time I go to sleep, I see him…" she began, sending a pang through Sky's heart. Sky knew exactly who Rotty was referring to, but she chose to remain silent for the moment as she continued to pat the grieving maiden's back. "And when I see him, we keep having these bits and pieces of conversation, or we're in the middle of some adventure where he's risking his life to save me, but I can never remember what we talked about or what sort of adventure we were on… but what I do remember is the look on his face when he shows up in my dreams… Sky, it breaks my heart over and over again to see him the way he was when we last laid eyes on him… all beaten up and covered in dirt and dried blood with this devastated frown on his face… and even when he smiles and laughs, it's dripping with soul-crushing sorrow and hopelessness... I can't bring myself to believe this is really happening…! My brothers couldn't figure out how to help me when I talked to them, and Shantae's been asleep since the day Tayshan died…! I want to talk to her, but I can't... I… I feel so confused… and so alone…! What do I do…?"

"Listen to me when I say this: You're not alone," Sky made it a point to let Rottytops know as she instinctively hugged her. Choking up a bit herself, the bird tamer breathed a quick, heavy sigh before continuing. "We've all been hurting immensely because of what happened. We're probably going to be hurting for a long time before the pain starts to ease. We lost a dear friend, no doubt. But we've got to start finding out ways to begin healing from it. I know I can't really speak for him, but I'm positive Tay wouldn't want us to be perpetually helpless and distressed about what happened… and based on what we talked about the other day, he… h-he gave up his life to ensure we could live ours…" she further tried to explain, though she began to weep as well. "I know it might not be much to offer, but… if you need someone to talk to in case Shantae's not available, you can always come to me."

"…Thanks, Sky…" Rotty expressed her gratitude as she took a moment to lift her head from the table and grab another tissue to wipe her face with, prompting Sky to let go of her. Choking back another wave of tears, Rotty sighed and cleared her throat before sitting upright and turning toward the bird tamer. And suffice to say, Rotty… had looked better. Her hair was frazzled (well, more so than usual), her eyes were swollen and puffy from a mixture of constant crying and lack of sleep, and her purple tank top had been soaked in her tears. It went without saying that Rotty was still not doing well at all. "I… I know I've been a pain to you in recent times, but I can't thank you enough for giving me the time of day…"

"Don't mention it," Sky dismissed, wiping her own eyes with the palms of her hands before sighing away some of her own grief. "As I've been saying, none of us should have to deal with this alone."

"I know… but… I never imagined what it was like to lose a friend like that…" she began to open up once again. "I feel like time should've stood still until we were ready to move on… like the whole world should've come to a screeching halt because of what happened… but it didn't. People are already working on rebuilding Scuttle Town as we speak. They're repairing the buildings that got damaged, and they're trying to reopen businesses as soon as possible. Even Bolo's out there helping clean up the streets… and Shantae's uncle volunteers to feed the Palace Guards and displaced townsfolk while also keeping an eye on Shantae. And based on what I saw in Genie's Hem, they're making a huge amount of progress undoing the damage caused by Hypno Baron… and you're tending to your birds and lending a hand to the townsfolk as much as you can, in as many ways as you can… and if Shantae was awake, she'd definitely be volunteering to help Scuttle Town recover. I… I want to help, too, but… I can't stop myself from crying my eyes out over what happened the other day… It keeps replaying in my mind like it happened ten minutes ago… and these dreams don't make it any better. I feel totally helpless…"

"Well, you shouldn't feel forced to contribute, Rotty," Sky consoled, laying a hand on the distraught zombie's shoulder. "We're… all dealing with the loss in our own ways. And, much as I hate to say it… Time doesn't stop for anyone, no matter what happens. Trust me, I wish time would've stopped, too. But then, if it did, then we'd never get the chance to figure out how to… well… how to accept it as something completely out of our control. As they say, time heals all wounds."

"R-right… I see your point…" Rotty acknowledged with a dejected sigh as she kept her eyes locked onto Sky's. "But how is it you guys are able to just jump back into the swing of carrying on with your daily lives? I can't wrap my head around it at a time like this… My heart still hurts like someone ripped it out of my chest, filled it with screws, and put it back in… and every time I so much as blink, I… I see him… and I can't stop the thoughts from racing through my head, and I'm pretty sure that winds up leading to me having all these dreams…"

"I see… Well, it's… not as easy as it sounds, believe me," Sky did her best to explain. "There hasn't been a moment since the day we got back here that I don't think about it… and none of us is going to be able to simply forget about it. I speak for everyone when I say it's hard… REALLY hard… not to think about that day… a-about Tay… and how I wish… um…" she trailed off, turning her head downward and away while removing her hand from Rotty's shoulder. As much as the grief-stricken bird trainer tried to fight it, the urge proved too heavy. As such, she began to cry again as she pressed her hand over her forehead. Try as she might to excuse herself for breaking down when she was trying to be the strong one, Sky's tears poured from her eyes like waterfalls as she fell into a bout of pain-addled sobbing. "...Tay...!"

Rotty, while not surprised, found herself hit just as hard as she remained glued to her seat and stared for a moment. For some strange reason, she wasn't sure of what to do right away. Her first instinct was to hug the bird tamer, but she found herself hesitant to do so. She'd thought about patting her on the back or the shoulder, but she felt like that wouldn't be enough. She'd even thought about sitting and doing nothing, which she knew for herself wasn't an appropriate option right after Sky just offered her support. She acknowledged that, even at a time like this, the two of them weren't necessarily close. If anything, they'd probably be enemies if it wasn't for Shantae. What she did acknowledge, however, was that Sky was in pain… much the same way she was in pain. They'd both lost someone very important to them, and they'd both been hit harder than they could've ever imagined. And as it stood, they both needed support of some kind. The very thought brought forth another fresh cascade of sorrowful tears from the undead woman's eyes as she made her next move without another thought. Climbing off her stool, Rottytops fought through a brick wall of hesitation and wrapped her arms around Sky.

"H-huh…?"

"…I guess the both of us need a shoulder to cry on…" Rotty began, unable to hold back her own grief as she tightened her grip on her acquaintance. "And… it's only right that I offer back the same kindness you showed me… S-so… if you need to let it out, I… I'm here for you, too…"

"…Th-thank you…" Sky whispered through her tears as she continued to weep. Much to Rotty's surprise, Sky returned her embrace with just as much strength as she laid her head on the other young woman's shoulder. In turn, Rottytops laid her head on Sky's shoulder as they mourned together.

"…Y-yeah, don't… don't mention it. It's the least I could do…" Rotty assured, rubbing the Sky's back as they continued their tearful hug. After a few minutes of the girls holding each other for comfort, Sky's front door opened with a *click*, revealing Bolo with two armfuls of food items. He found himself shocked to see Sky and Rottytops of all people hugging each other as he nearly froze in place after closing the door behind him.

"Aw, jeez… Did I come back at the wrong time? Do you two need privacy?" he asked, uncertain of what to make of the truly unusual image of the two young women, who'd normally been at each other's throats, warmly and intimately embracing one another like they'd been friends all their lives.

"Oh! No, no… You came back just in time," Sky assured, sniffling and separating herself from Rottytops before taking a tissue to clean her face off with. "Come on over here and set the food down on the table," she further requested, prompting the young man to oblige. Rottytops remained silent for the moment as she did her part by clearing her mess of tissues off the table and tossing them into the nearby trashcan at the far corner of Sky's living room. She'd been rather slow in her movements, however, as she processed just what that moment was between herself and the bird tamer… and how it made her heart beat a little faster in her chest as her breaths became heavy with uncertainty… and how it reminded her of one of the dreams she had… It wasn't long before she lost herself in thought shortly after taking a seat on her stool near the table. However…

"Rotty?" Bolo called to her, snapping her out of her daze as she hastily turned her attention to him.

"Y-yeah?"

"I don't know if you heard me a second ago, but I was asking you if you wanted this pecan pie slice to go with your macchiato. I also got a deluxe BLT for you in case you were feeling hungry," he shared as he laid the varied food choices across the table and set Rotty's beverage near her.

"Oh? Y-you didn't have to do that…" she rather sheepishly informed him, surprised that he would go the extra mile to make sure she was fed. She wasn't going to say no to free food, of course, but she could hardly fathom the idea of Bolo going extend such courtesy to her. "I owe you one," she further offered, graciously taking the pie slice and the club sandwich.

"It's on the house," Bolo dismissed with a casual flick of his hand as he sat on the opposite side of the table and unwrapped a steaming hot boxed poutine dripping with gravy. Meanwhile, Sky got set to dig into a delicious vegetarian kabsa, which had also been emitting steam from the moment she opened the box it came in. Before anyone began eating, however…

"I'm guessing that last box and drink there were for Shantae?" Sky asked, wondering about the unclaimed food box and milkshake.

"Yeah," Bolo confirmed as he began to eat. "I was hoping she'd have woken up by now, but she's still just as deep asleep now as she has been over the course of this past week…"

"Goodness… I know she was really worn out by the time she finished up her business with Risky, but I didn't know it'd hit her this hard…" Sky murmured in worry as she took her first bite of the kabsa.

"Yeah, it's honestly starting to make me wonder how much longer it'll be before she's awake again. I checked up on her again earlier today, and she looks almost the exact same as she's been all week... She's not mumbling or tossing around near as much, but she's still completely conked out," Bolo revealed, slowly shaking his head in disbelief and sighing in worry.

"…Is she still clinging onto that shirt and those I.D. Tags?" Rotty hesitantly asked as she took a sip of her caffeinated beverage. The knot in her throat made it rather difficult to enjoy one of her favorite delicacies, however.

"Tighter than ever before," Bolo confirmed with a nod. "We didn't dare try to take them away from her. Even with her being asleep all this time, there's zero doubt that she really misses him…"

"Oh…" was all Rotty could respond with as she stopped drinking her coffee and shot her gaze elsewhere for a moment.

"I'm surprised you haven't even been over to the Workshop to see her today, Rotty," Sky mentioned as she took slow, careful bites of her dinner. The mere suggestion made the knot in the zombie maiden's throat grow three times its initial size as she continued to hold her grief in. Nevertheless, she turned her gaze to the bird tamer sitting next to her. "Granted, it's hard for any of us to see her in the state she's in, so I won't hold it against you…"

"I want to see her again… Really, I do…" Rotty admitted, her eyes watering up again. "But I want to see her awake, not like this... and even then, I'm not even sure if I'm ready to be there for her. I-I mean... I thought that maybe after a few days of processing it myself, I'd be ready to cope along with her, but I feel even WORSE now because I haven't been able to actually talk to her since the day we came back…"

"Well, don't be too hard on yourself. Coping is a process, and we all have to move at our own speeds, whether we're coping together or separately," Sky did her best to console.

"I know, but Shantae needs strong friends who can help her while she's recovering… and you two have been able to be there for her before. I'm not even strong enough for myself, let alone strong enough for her… I can't go in there and see her like that again… I just can't... She's in so much pain, and it destroys me inside to know how much she misses Tayshan…"

"Then we'll keep relying on each other," Bolo asserted after taking a sip of his lemonade. "You don't have to try to be strong alone. And… I can acknowledge that no amount of pain we feel from what happened could ever compare to how Shantae must feel… but we've got each other's backs, right?"

"Right…" Rotty hesitantly agreed, taking in a sharp breath as she was hit with a series of images in her mind that shifted between that fateful night and some of the dreams she'd been having since.

"Adding onto what Bolo's saying, we've… also got to do our part to make sure we're taking care of ourselves," Sky interjected. "Rotty, it's… pretty clear that… that you were also close to Tayshan, and what we're feeling right now is natural. But, the first step to coming to terms with his passing is to make sure you're getting enough to eat and getting enough sleep, like I've been saying all week."

"Yeah, I know…" Rotty acknowledged with a dejected sigh. "…but like I've been saying, I haven't been able to sleep a single night through this entire week. My appetite's been coming back because I've barely eaten anything in the last couple days, but I'm still being haunted by these dreams…!" she further complained, scratching her head as a tear streaked down her cheek.

"What dreams?" Bolo asked as he took another bite of his poutine. "Or rather, what are you seeing in your dreams that has you constantly popping up and crying or screaming every night?"

"Bolo!" Sky chided, shooting him a disapproving frown. "Be a little more sensitive, would ya?"

"Ah, he's fine…" Rotty forgave as she lost herself in thought for a moment. "I… I can't remember very much of them, but every single night, I see vague glimpses of him, like I was saying earlier…"

"Ohh… So, is there something being said or done that scares you awake, by any chance?" Bolo inquired further.

"Not… really…" the undead young woman pondered, trying her hardest to mentally claw up some memories of her ominous nightmares. "I… can only remember vague fragments of conversations I have with him… about us knowing each other, but not quite knowing each other… or at least, not remembering each other..." she began to explain in-depth. "…and every time, we're in this creepy ghost-filled tunnel… or city, or something… and then I remember him saying something about not remembering anything about how he got there… he couldn't even remember his own name… but then, the dreams wind up ending before I get the chance to say or do anything else…"

"And you said you've been dreaming about him every night since you slept over here?" Sky curiously prodded.

"Without fail… but I can't make sense of why," Rotty admitted, not even touching any of her food by this point. "And it isn't even like it's been the exact same dream, either… Every instance, a different conversation is had between me and him… I even had one a couple nights ago where I think he was rescuing me from monsters in a dungeon, but I can't remember at all what we were even doing in the dungeon… and then I think there was another one the night after that where some huge monster attacked me, but then he stopped them and saved me again... but then, when we actually got to talk to each other in those dreams, I... can only remember that he said he still couldn't remember anything except that he died protecting Shantae, but he couldn't remember her name or what happened… and for some reason, I can't remember her name either in the dream, so I can't tell him... but then most of our talks about anything else are a huge, garbled-up blur... Yet, I vaguely remember apologizing to him for not being able to save him when I thought I had the chance… I-I might be mixing up details between these dreams, so forgive me... but every time I think something big is about to happen in ANY of the dreams I had, I wind up being jolted awake, screaming about random things that don't make sense for me to be screaming about…" she tried to explain, though she found herself growing frustrated as she tried and failed to get the details straight. "Gaaah, why can't I remember anything...!?" she complained, scratching her head as she glared at the table for a moment.

"Jeez, that sounds really scary…" Bolo commented as he found himself focused enough on his undead friend that he stopped eating his dinner. "It's one thing to lose someone, but to be hit with all these spotty, haunting dreams like yours every day since? I couldn't imagine… How do you feel right now?"

"Awful…" Rotty candidly answered, frowning with grief as she looked up at him. "I've been exhausted all week, my appetite's still not where it should be, I'm extremely angry that Risky Boots took him away from us, and… and I'm still so... so furious at myself for not saving that Fake Brain… I'm torturing myself wondering how things could've been different had I been able to use it..."

"That's not your fault," Sky compassionately consoled her once more. "We're right with you when it comes to being absolutely angry at Risky for what she did… She's lucky she got away, or else we'd have ALL made her pay…!" she fervently asserted before taking a step back and sighing away some of her venomous hatred for the Pirate Queen to refocus. "But listen… er… despite the uh… invasive method you had to use for your Synchronized Brain Bite thing, I… can get past it just enough to say that healing me and Bolo wasn't a wasted effort. Thank you for that. Seriously."

"I can attest," Bolo added, however reluctantly. "Seriously, you pulled through for us on that."

"I appreciate you guys being cool about the Symbiotic Brain Chomp now, even if I did sort of spring it on you without warning…" Rotty acknowledged, though she didn't feel much satisfaction from their offers of praise or gratitude. "…but if I'd been able to use it on him right then and there…"

"Rotty, listen," Sky interjected, preventing Rottytops from going on another guilt-riddled tangent. "We can acknowledge that you feel like you could've done more in that situation or that you should've saved that extra brain, but beating yourself up over it won't make coping with it any easier. I'm not saying this to tell you how you should feel, of course. No one can tell you how to feel."

"Got it… I see your point, Sky," Rotty replied with a nod. "I mean… I can't stop wondering what would've happened if I got the chance to use it on him, but… I… I know what you're getting at…"

"Right."

"We should consider what would've happened if you didn't heal us, though," Bolo shared. "I know Sky had the Apple Pie slice, but when we think back to it, all three of us got really roughed up in that battle. Didn't help that Risky also shot all three of us when we least expected it. Things could've been drastically worse off if you didn't heal us and, by extension, yourself. We couldn't share a single pie slice between the three of us, so… of course… your Brainy Kiss thing came in handy… not that I'd want to repeat the experience…" he voiced his mild discomfort as his cheeks heated up and he batted his eyes away. At that, Rotty giggled a bit, much to Sky's and Bolo's surprise.

"I'd believe that more if it was coming from her," the zombie maiden teased, gesturing her thumb toward Sky while grinning at Bolo. "I have a sneaking suspicion you're not being entirely honest about your real thoughts on it, bud…"

"What!? N-no! I don't have a clue what you're talking about!" he tried to deny, evidently quite flustered as he tried to save face by crossing his arms and turning his head away while still shooting a side glance at Rotty. "I-I'm just saying it was weird, but helpful. That's all!" It… didn't exactly work out as he expected, as Rotty chuckled a bit more. Sky, somewhat relieved to see the other young woman's spirits lifted just a bit, merely grinned in appreciation of the moment.

"Whatever you say, dude~!" she lightly prodded, enjoying every bit of putting the young man on the hot seat. "I just hope you're not expecting it to happen again anytime soon."

"As if!" Bolo protested, glowering as he did his best to hide the fact that Rottytops flustered him.

"Right…" Rotty conclusively remarked with a sigh as the three of them let the moment pass. "I… kinda needed that laugh, though, if I'm gonna be honest. Thanks."

"Hmph. I GUESS you're welcome," the embarrassed young man begrudgingly acknowledged.

"Cool. And now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'll very smoothly shift gears from this awkward subject by asking you if Mimic is coming here tonight like he said he was going to, Bolo," Sky asked... very smoothly, of course.

"Thank goodness for that," Bolo remarked with a sigh of relief as he relaxed his position and committed himself to finishing his poutine before it got cold. "Also, no. He said he's gonna keep a watch over Shantae because she's been sleeping more peacefully lately. He also said he was worried because she's never been out for this long before."

"I see…" Sky worriedly murmured. "Well… In that case, I suppose the memorial ceremony we were going to have is still on hold…" she mentioned, the reminder dropping the mood once again.

"…Y-yeah," Rotty hesitantly acknowledged as she reached for her BLT and finally took her first bite of it. The apartment/hatchery went quiet for a moment, save for Rotty chewing on the bite of her sandwich and swallowing it.

"…Um… H-have we figured out a way to carry it out?" Bolo asked just to break the awkward silence.

"Not a clue," Sky answered with a shake of her head as she took her last bite of her kabsa before closing the lid on the leftovers. "Honestly, I'd been too distracted with helping the town rebuild… on top of trying to deal with the fact that he's gone…"

"I see… I… I haven't come up with much of anything, either…" Bolo also admitted, thereby revealing their uncertainty of how to celebrate their fallen friend.

"Aw, come on, you two!" Rotty cut in with a notable tone of annoyance at her friends. "The guy gave up his life to save us, and we can't come up with one single idea on how to properly celebrate his memory or at least send him off? How disrespectful does that sound? He deserves far better than that, and you know it!"

"Hey now, it isn't like we don't want to hold a ceremony," Bolo countered, his heart sinking a bit at Rotty's accusation. "It's just that we haven't found an appropriate way to go about it."

"That, and… well… I can't even think straight long enough to figure out an idea before I'm bursting into tears over the reason we need to do it…" Sky admitted with a disheartened frown. "I've been brainstorming ideas all week, but nothing I've thought of seems good enough. Candlelight vigil, fireworks display, funeral, or even a designated spot to place tributes and gifts in remembrance… I don't really know… Have you come up with anything, Rotty?"

"Sort of… My idea was for us to write letters addressing him, where we each got a turn reading them aloud over a campfire or something, and we all get to write about how much we appreciate him for everything he did for us and with us… and even how much we're gonna miss him… It's kinda like that journal idea we mentioned before, but a bit more… personal, I guess?"

"Wow… That actually sounds like an excellent idea," Sky praised. "We'd all get to contribute, and we'd all get our turns to say our final goodbyes. Where'd you get that idea from?"

"Partly from our conversation with Mimic the other day… and… also from the last dream I remember having last night…"

"Oh? What did you see in that dream?"

"I… can't remember very much of this one either, but what I do remember is clear…" Rotty pondered as she scratched her head for a moment. Once she figured out what to say, however, she continued. "I remember seeing him one last time, dressed in a totally different outfit from the one he was wearing when he died… I can't remember what he was wearing, but I remember seeing a lot of black and gold, and he was all cleaned up... and... I think he had a halo hovering over his head... and… I vaguely remember him telling me he recovered all his memories, and that he finally recognized me… I… I remember him saying he had to go away somewhere because he couldn't stay in the cave anymore, at which point I told him that while I wasn't ready for him to leave me, I understood what it meant... I-I told him I loved him… and he said he loved me, too… We hugged each other… I… I kissed him on the forehead… but then, I… I remember seeing Shantae… or rather, someone who looked like Shantae if she was older, taking him away after we were finished saying our final goodbyes… I can't remember how she took him or where they were going, but with a single flash of white, I woke up again…"

"Wow... now THAT'S a powerful dream..." Sky acknowledged, choking up a bit as she offered her praise. "It sounds like just the kind of dream you have when you're about to get the closure you need to move on..."

"Y-yeah, but... even with a dream like that, I... I still don't feel any better about this situation..." Rotty admitted, frowning as she mentally sifted through the images of her last dream. "If anything, I miss him even more... I wasn't ready for him to go, and all this dream did was drive a nail in my heart as I'm reminded that I'll... or, WE'LL never get to see him ever again...!" she further confessed, another set of tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to keep it together.

"…Uh-huh…" Bolo murmured after a brief pause, eyeing Rotty up and down as he sipped his lemonade.

"Well now… I can understand that. Even for the lack of details, that dream sounds a lot more vivid than the others you've had if you can remember seeing that much," Sky remarked with a pensive nod. "It… almost kinda makes it seem like you've been having visions rather than simple dreams, if I had to say so myself..."

"Visions?"

"Yeah... like, the way you're describing them seems to kinda... tell something of a story... where you're having visions of some sort of purgatory or afterlife not unlike a certain place hidden within the confines of Mud Bog Island..."

"Hmm..." Rotty hummed, listening intently to Sky's philosophical interpretation of the context of these harrowing phantasms...

"And like, you're watching the spiritual journey of someone who lost their way after they died as they come to terms with their mortality before they ascend to the great beyond..."

"Wow, Sky... That's... that's profound..." the zombie maiden complimented in awe, her crimson eyes widening as she found herself highly intrigued by the theory posed to her.

"Sorry..." the nervous blonde young woman apologized with a sheepish chuckle, shaking her head to keep from speculating too much about the deeper meanings about her friend's dreams. "It's just... it seems like a pleasant way to interpret what you've been seeing, even for how terrible an experience it's been for you. Granted, the only person we're aware of who's actually had visions in her dreams is Shantae, but... I'd like to believe she's not the only one capable, y'know? At least, in a spiritual sense... Sorry if it sounds like I'm babbling on like some sort of delusional basket case..."

"No, you're completely fine," Rotty forgave. "I actually really like that you put it that way… It makes me feel at least a little bit better about the experience," she further assured with a heavy sigh. "I kinda wish they were visions, though… like... I dunno… if, like, I was somehow connecting to him, wherever he is, and speaking to him through my dreams, just so I'd know what happened... and even to get some idea that he's at least resting peacefully now, like this last dream suggested... I-I think he'd deserve that much, at least, after all he'd been through... I at least want him to be happy... and maybe, if I could, I'd make him as happy as humanly possible just by seeing him in my dreams and spending time with him..."

"I hear ya," the bird tamer acknowledged, taking in a deep, tear-riddled breath as she listened to her friend's wistful, grief-stricken ideas about the fate of their fallen friend. "That's... I won't lie, Rotty... That hits deep... Much deeper than I can even hope to explain..."

"Sorry… I just... I'm still trying to get a grip and figure out how I…" Rotty was about to confirm before she turned toward Bolo, whom she'd caught suspiciously eyeing her up and down. Growing just a tad wary of his unwarranted stare, the young zombie woman cocked an eyebrow at him. "…Can I help you?"

"Hm? Oh, no, don't mind me. I was just… daydreaming," Bolo attempted to dismiss as he cut his eyes away.

"Yeah, well the last time you stared at me the way you just were, it turned out to be because you were 'just daydreaming' about something that I can't say I appreciated," Rotty sternly reminded him. "So, what is it this time?"

"Nothing, Rotty. Don't sweat it," he assured as he looked back at her. "I just got lost in my own thoughts again. I'm… also sorry for what I said to you before. I was just irritated about how that talk was going, and I shouldn't have jumped the gun like that."

"Right, because staring at me after I got teased by those other girls, and then accusing me of having a crush on Shantae when I got annoyed at you gawking at me was a totally appropriate way to express your irritation," she barked at him. "If it doesn't have anything to do with that this time, then you should just spit it out. So, are you gonna come out with it this time or what?"

"Whoa, hey, you two…" Sky tried to step in, not at all expecting the sudden tension between her comrades. "What the heck is happening here...?"

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Bolo defensively shot back. "I made an assumption that I shouldn't have. Simple as that. There's no need to-!"

"Then what's your 'assumption' this time, hm?" the zombie maiden challenged, growing perturbed with her friend's unwillingness to come forward with his 'idea.' "I'd like to hear it, since it's got you so curious about me all over again."

"It doesn't matter, Rottytops. I'm not even assuming anything. Jeez, give it a rest," Bolo advised, growing irritated with Rotty's attempts at prying into his head.

"Oh, no. You don't get to do that this time, bucko," she challenged, glaring at him and climbing out of her seat as she demanded that he reveal the thought he'd rather have kept to himself. "Try and lie to me all you want, but I'm not letting you slither your way out of this one. Either spill it now, or I'll make you spill it."

"Rotty, calm down," Sky intervened again, holding a hand out in front of the other young woman. "Whatever it is he might be thinking, I doubt it's anything worth getting so worked up about."

"I wouldn't be getting worked up about it if he'd just come out and speak his mind instead of being such a wimpy little coward about it," she aggressively accused, causing Sky to gasp in shock.

"Hey! What's your deal!?" Bolo demanded to know, highly agitated by the zombie girl's name-calling, though his comment went ignored in the wake of Rotty's unexpected frustration growing as quickly as it had.

"Rotty, chill! You're blowing this out of proportion!" Sky warned to try and deescalate the situation. "What exactly has got you so angry at him out of nowhere!?"

"It ISN'T out of nowhere! He keeps staring at me with some weird idea in his head, and now he's refusing to just tell me what he's thinking because he knows that whatever's on his mind is going to tick me off again! He did it before, spouting some dirty accusation at me like it was no problem, only to clam up when I asked him to repeat what he said because he got me angry," Rotty continued to argue, merely glancing at Sky before turning her full attention back to Bolo. "So go ahead, Bolo! What is it you want to say to me this time?"

"Why is it even such a big deal to you, anyway!?" Bolo loudly asked, tensing up as he rose to a stand as well, though his response only confirmed the zombie maiden's suspicions. "It was one comment! I didn't think it'd hurt your feelings so bad that you'd be holding onto it for close to a whole week! I didn't mean it, so stop badgering me!"

"I'm not hurt by the comment, Bolo! I'm irritated that YOU of all people could say such a thing when you know full well how important Shantae is to me as a friend!" she yelled, fully expressing her dissatisfaction with the young man standing before her in the apartment. "I was already embarrassed enough that those two blonde chicks completely misinterpreted what I said when I shared my story with the group, and the LAST thing I needed was someone I thought I could trust buying into what they were teasing me about and then DARING to accuse me of harboring romantic feelings for my BEST FRIEND! Are you KIDDING ME!?"

"Okay, okay, I get it! I messed up there, but-!"

"No, I don't think you get it at all, Bolo! I hope you understand how hurt I was that YOU of all people could say such a thing to me! You had me wanting to pummel you into the dirt right in front of everyone! And now you're here again, making these weird faces at me because I'm sharing another story about our friend that just DIED!" she roared, growing angrier at Bolo by the second as he tried to take the moment for what it was. "So, what!? You gonna accuse me of having a crush on Tayshan, too!? Huh!? You gonna tell me that it's weird for me to have these dreams about him because I miss him!?" she continued to lambaste, motioning to march toward him. "I can't control what I see in my dreams, and it isn't like what I'm telling you is inappropriate! So, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM!?"

"Rottytops, cool it!" Sky put her foot down, getting up and wrapping her arms around the infuriated zombie maiden before she did something they'd have all regretted. Rotty, in a show of unprecedented strength, kept on marching despite Sky digging her heels into the floor while holding onto her. "Hey! Chill out! There's no need to-!"

"Go on! Tell me what you're thinking already!" Rotty demanded again, getting in Bolo's face as he stood there. He was both confused and moderately unsettled by her sudden outburst, but he couldn't figure out anything he wanted to say. He understood she was mad at him. He understood that maybe this wasn't such a great time to be making speculations about the nature of her relationships with either Shantae or Tayshan. But, for her to get this upset over an innocent observation? He could hardly believe what he was seeing of her as she stared bullets into his face while Sky was holding her back. "Don't just stand there and stare at me like I'm crazy! I want to know what's so wrong about being close to someone I care about! Someone I love with all my heart! Someone who's always been there for me when I needed her, and who I'd do anything to protect!"

"Er… I…" Bolo stammered, caught way off-guard.

"And while we're at it, I want you to tell me what's so wrong about missing someone who did everything in his power to protect us, and who lost his life to make sure we were safe! Someone who, despite the hardships we all went through, stuck by our side and fought to the bitter end! And since you're so fascinated by it, I loved him with all my heart, too! There! I said it! I loved Tayshan just as much as I love Shantae! And I still do, as a matter of fact! Happy now!? Is that why you were staring at me with that STUPID look on your face again!?"

"Rotty, that's enough! Stop it!" Sky urged her as she tried to snap the other woman out of her indignant tirade. The bird tamer cut in front of the undead maiden and nudged her backward to keep her away from Bolo, but Rotty wasn't done.

"I don't care how little time we got to actually spend together! He was one of my… one of our best friends…! And now he's gone, and there's nothing I can do about it…!" she continued to rant, though she'd quickly switched from boiling anger to gut-wrenching sadness as her heart began to beat heavy in her chest and her tears came flooding from her eyes once again. "You have NO idea how much this hurts me…! How badly I wish I could've used my Brain Chomp to save him…! How MISERABLE it is to have to accept that I'll never get the chance to see him or hear his voice again, after we'd just become best friends…! How awful it feels to see Shantae in tears I can't do ANYTHING to stop, or even seeing her curled up in that bed, clutching those tags and that shirt in her sleep because of how devastated she is that she lost the love of her life before she could really enjoy being with him…! You don't understand anything, and you never will… Just leave me alone…!" she finished in a sadness-riddled whisper as she finally relented, hugging Sky and falling into another spell of sorrowful sobbing.

"…J-jeez, Rotty, I get it… I'm sorry…" Bolo guiltily apologized, choking up a bit at the sight of Rottytops in such unbelievable emotional distress. He felt awful for making her so upset, but the nature of her outburst threw him for a loop he never expected. The swirling amalgamation of frustration and grief on the face of someone who was usually always known for giving off the brightest of smiles… and the fact that she'd been brought to this point because of him… Bolo gulped, casting his crestfallen gaze to the floor as got lost in thought once more.

"Go on ahead and get yourself settled in, Rotty," Sky was heard suggesting to Rottytops, who'd still been hugging her while she cried again. "I'll be right there after I get the table cleaned off," she further informed as the two of them walked across the hatchery to the doorway of Sky's room. Sky ushered Rottytops into the room and gently shut the door to provide the zombie girl her privacy. The girls remained in the room for what felt like an hour, their voices echoing off the walls within the confines of the bedroom. What they were saying to each other, however, was a mystery. All that could be heard was Rotty crying and Sky doing her best to calm her down. Before too long, however, the crying came to a gradual halt. Afterward, Sky emerged from the room alone and returned to the table. Immediately, she got set to pack up any leftovers that went uneaten while also gathering the trash left from whatever food had been finished. Bolo, seeing the heavily concerned look on Sky's face as she tidied up the dining area, barely found it in himself to say anything to her. Yet, with a lot of mental encouragement, he did so.

"…Sky?"

"Yeah?" she answered as she rounded up the waste material and dumped it in the trashcan.

"Um… I… I think I'll… go sleep at Mimic's tonight," he hesitantly informed her, prompting her to stop cleaning up as she turned her full attention to him.

"You don't have to do that, Bolo," she advised, already knowing his reasoning. "We're all a bit on-edge right now, and Rotty's gonna need some more time to cope. I'm not sure what that argument was about, but it's clear she's still not ready to accept it yet…"

"R-right… I still feel like maybe I shouldn't be around her, though. She's furious at me."

"Well, I can't really deny that," she acknowledged. "It's up to you on what you feel is best, though. You're still welcome to stick around, but there's no issue with you going to Professor Mimic's until Rotty gets the time she needs to settle down. That said, what is this about assumptions being made and you looking for answers from her?" the falconer prodded, putting Bolo on the hot seat as he instinctively gulped again.

"...Long story short, we… had something of an argument back on that deserted island that night…" he began, finding little reason to avoid it at this point. "She was upset about Twitch and Vinegar making fun of her, and while you were talking to them, she caught me looking at her. Uh… the conversation went south from the minute we started talking, she lashed out at me and made fun of me a bunch, at which point I… kinda got a little angry and... and I accused her of having a crush on Shantae…" At that, Sky exhaled in a mixture of shock and disappointment in him. "And… I guess she never got over it, which is why she screamed at me just now, when I was looking at her again…"

"So, that's what she meant…" Sky realized with a sigh. "Look, we may not be quite as familiar with her as Shantae is, but getting to know her shouldn't include analyzing her behind her back and drawing conclusions about her before we know what we're talking about."

"Got it," Bolo readily accepted Sky's advice.

"Granted, I say this with the full acknowledgement that I'm still trying to figure her out myself. She and I had a talk about something related to this a week or so ago, and I can't really say it ended with me gaining a full understanding of how she makes friends or keeps her company. Either way, we've got to do better to be more considerate to her. She's… really sensitive right now, and it isn't helping her in the slightest that Shantae's been practically comatose all week."

"I know…" he admitted, scratching his head and sighing.

"And while I won't ask you what brought you to the conclusions you drew about how or what Rottytops truly feels toward Shantae or Tayshan, I will say that at the end of the day, it's her business and her business alone unless she lets us know something herself. So, maybe we'd also be better off if we didn't try to pry into her personal life like that."

"Agreed. I mean, I won't lie; I was only trying to understand her myself," he reasoned. "We don't get to hang with her often, and when we do, Shantae is usually directly involved somehow. These last couple days have been the longest we've spent with Rottytops without Shantae, and it seemed to be going really well, despite the reason we've all been hanging out together lately. I… I don't know, Sky… I feel bad for jumping to conclusions the way I did. I feel worse that I made her cry… but all I really want to do at this point is understand her better…"

"I hear you, but we all know that sort of thing happens gradually. I mean hey, you and I are still getting to know each other better despite how long we've been friends. Spending as much time together as we have, has definitely opened my eyes on just how… I guess, 'unfamiliar' we really were with each other whenever Shantae wasn't around. I mean, unless I'm wrong about something, perhaps?"

"Nah, you hit the nail on the head there…"

"Thanks for that. Of course, we'll all get closer as time goes on, as long as we stick together," she assured him as she approached him and patted him on the shoulder. "Regarding Rottytops, though, we both know that for the longest time, she considered Shantae to basically be her only friend until this situation carried out the way it did. Even beyond us working together to stop that Dark Magic from taking over Shantae's mind, it didn't exactly serve as a catalyst for us all to open up to each other. We more or less went right back to the same old pattern of letting Shantae be the glue that held us together as a group. It… kinda sucks to admit it, but… um…" she hesitated for a moment, choking up as she fought the urge to shed more tears. Before long, she cleared her throat and continued. "…but… it probably goes without saying that Tayshan's death and Shantae's absence since then played a huge factor in all of us coming together as a group like we've needed to do for the longest time… and for that matter, it also plays a factor in how much we should appreciate each other while we're all still here to do so..." That very statement shook the young man to his core, his eyes immediately welling up with tears as he was reminded of just how suddenly they'd lost the soldier in question when it seemed like everything was turning out in their favor, in conjunction with what it meant for the rest of the group...

"…Y-yeah…" Bolo barely managed to utter as he took in a heavy breath and clenched his fists at his sides to keep from breaking down.

"But even then, it doesn't mean we'll immediately know everything about each other within a few days. And hey, this is coming from someone who absolutely couldn't stand Rottytops until just a couple days ago. Regardless, if our goal is to get to know her better, then we're gonna have to take our time and avoid jumping to conclusions from this point on."

"You're… You're right," he acknowledged, managing to keep himself in check as he nodded in agreement. "Thanks for clearing that up, Sky. You uh… You always have been really smart with this sort of thing."

"Aw, I appreciate that, Bolo," she smilingly accepted his compliment as she patted him on the shoulder again. "And I'm sure Rotty will come around after a little while. I should go and talk to her now, though. Do you know what you want to do for tonight, regarding your sleeping arrangements?"

"…Um… I'm still on the fence about it, to be honest," he admitted. "I'd rather stay here, but I know Rotty's mad at me. I think I should at least make myself scarce for a bit, so I'll… go ahead and take a walk to clear my head before I make up my mind."

"In that case, just knock when you come back, no matter what your choice is. I'll try to stay awake long enough to open the door," she advised him once more, turning and walking toward the bedroom where Rotty had been cooling down.

"Cool," Bolo agreed, turning and heading in the opposite direction to reach the front door. "Whatever my decision is, I'll let you know."

"Alrighty. Try not to stay out so late. Oh, and Bolo?" she called to him as he opened the door to leave.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around to face her once more.

"…I love you. Stay safe, okay?" the bird tamer bade, her heart pounding heavily as she realized more than ever how important it was to keep her friends close while they were still around. Though initially shocked to the point that you'd have thought he grabbed a live electrical wire with his bare hand, Bolo heard her loud and clear. And, though he had to fight through five mountains of discomfort to come out with a response…

"…I love you too, Sky. And trust me, I will," he confessed back to her before hurrying out of the hatchery and shutting the door behind him. After watching him go, Sky breathed another heavy sigh like her lungs were filled with syrup as she turned her attention to her bedroom door.

"Please wake up soon, Shantae… We're doing the best we can to hold it together while you're asleep, but this is a lot harder than we'd ever imagined… We'll keep pushing forward as best as we can, so you'll be able to stand with us like always, nevertheless..." Sky murmured to herself, wishing the best for her absent half-genie friend before she entered the room to have another heart-to-heart chat with Rottytops...

And there you have it. Everyone we knew of who was directly affected by the pirate crisis in one way or another had all been going about their own respective ways of coping with it to try and make tomorrow a better day. As we can see, it didn't come easy for anyone, regardless of what adversity they'd suffered from start to finish. It still appeared, nevertheless, that everyone's main motivations revolved around coping with the aftermath of the crisis and living on past it. And we could only hope that those affected were able to embark on some form of an appropriate recovery path. Of course, we're also still left with the curious case of a certain set of dreams that a certain zombie girl talked about having. We were also left in the dark about what exactly had been going on with her to warrant her dreams occurring as frequently as she said they did. Why be so curious about it, you ask? I'm not entirely sure, but considering how particularly… enigmatic dreams can be when certain people have them (as we've previously been informed by Shantae herself in the recent past), one would be hard-pressed not to at least prod around and ask a couple questions about what they mean. Also, speaking of 'dreams…'

Elsewhere, later…

I figured we'd check in right quick to see how a certain sleeping beauty of a half-genie had been doing. Of course, as discussed by her friends, she'd still been sound asleep. Her long, silky hair basically wrapping around her like a caterpillar's cocoon as she cuddled up to that same tattered red tank top and those dog tags, Shantae's slumber remained entirely undisturbed as she rested up in her uncle's workshop. And, as we also learned earlier, she'd been asleep like this for… one, two, carry the nine… A whopping FIVE whole days (and some change) since her most recent successful campaign to save Sequin Land from total destruction had ended. Now, how someone could be asleep for almost an entire week without needing to get up to eat, go to the bathroom, or at least stretch is far beyond me. Like, FAR beyond me. But then, I'm not terribly familiar with genie anatomy and how severe the toll of overusing magic is on their bodies. All things considered, though, it appeared to be quite severe. One could only be glad that her rhythmic breaths could be used as a signal that she was still alive. However, just as we made that observation…

"…Hrmm… Hm…" she grumbled in her sleep, shifting to wrap her arms around her abdomen as though she'd been dealing with some sort of discomfort. "Mmh… Where… where are you…?" she murmured again in an alarming turn of events that no one was around to witness. "…I can… feel y… You… coming... closer... Hmmmh..." Shantae muttered one final time before taking a deep, heavy breath and settling back into her original position of tucking her legs into herself while maintaining her iron grip on those cherished items in her hands...

Huh… For a second there, it seemed like she was about to spring awake. All things considered, she definitely needed to. If not for miraculously popping up to save Scuttle Town, and by extension Sequin Land like she'd done a week earlier, then at least to get up out of bed to let everyone know she was still alive... while also getting a chance to see how much she missed out on by conking out for so long. Strange… Even stranger that she was frequently mumbling to herself as she had the last time she was put into a state like this. We're… unfortunately out of time now, however, and I'd rather not be the weirdo to get caught staring at a beautiful young woman as she slept peacefully… for the most part. So, maybe within the next few hours… or days… or weeks… or, I dunno, by the end of this YEAR, she'll have awoken, so we can properly wrap this up. Whelp… I guess we'll just have to wait until then. Nighty-night~!