Teri x Gumball: In between worlds

by FantasticSchaefer

Three months after a devastating break up, a depressed Gumball is surprised when Teri shows up at his house in the middle of the night with a monster chasing her. Soon Gumball and Teri find themselves caught in an invasion by invisible monsters known as "Nephilim" and have to prevent Elmore's destruction. Will this unlikely duo succeed or will Elmore be trampled underfoot?

9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Fear without form: part two

Teri x Gumball

(A/N): You know what I smell? The final part to a long chapter, that's what I smell! That's right Tawog fans and Terball shippers, we're now finally wrapping up Fear without form and let me say that I'm just so excited for this chapter. As promised there will be lots of action and without further ado, let's dive right in.

Side note: Tartarforas - the fear of God.

Also, I would like to mention that I've noticed some artwork attributed to my Fanfiction has been posted on DeviantArt and I gotta say, I'm very pleased with everything that I've been seeing. Seriously, it's crazy to see other people making things like drawings to express their likings towards the fan story I'm writing and I can't simply express how happy all this support makes me! TobiIsABunny and OzneSnitram, if you guys are reading this, you guys are freaking awesome and thank you, thank you so much for what you guys came up with, I really enjoy looking at stuff like that. Your drawings are amazing!

You guys are all awesome for supporting me, I keep getting positive reviews and messages regarding the story and it's all just marvelous. You guys have a rockin' day!

(I do not own The Amazing World of Gumball. All rights belong to Ben Bocquelet, the staff, Cartoon Network, and other respective owners.)

-Elmore Graveyard, September 22nd, 2013, 12:05 PM-

Carrie just loved dreary, rainy days and where better to spend such an abysmal afternoon then at the graveyard, of course! Today was a rather special day for her as her mother had dropped by from the realm of the dead to talk to her and her father. The three of them exchanged some lighthearted stories with one another and when Carrie brought up the trip to Transylvania, her mom became even more intrigued, leading to her parents talking about past experiences long after the trip was discussed. She got to learn a few new stories about her mom that she didn't know of and it was honestly a wonderful thing to know, seeing as she rarely got to see her.

Once her mother returned to the Underworld, Vlad told his daughter that he was off to conduct some paranormal business with an old colleague of his and left through the mirror shortly after, wishing his daughter a good evening. Knowing that he could be gone for about a day or so, Carrie decided to take the time to relax and do some things she personally enjoyed. Before the rain clouds settled in this afternoon, the little ghost girl had travelled throughout Elmore, pulling ghostly pranks on several classmates that she hadn't talked to in a while and hanging out at the record store to listen to some new tunes, one of her favorite bands being Broken Asylum, an emerging heavy metal group that had caught her attention and earned its place as one of her favorites.

When the storm finally began to bring in a light shower, Carrie decided to go to her favorite hangout spot and reflect on the morning's events. One such event being the message she received from Darwin and how it related to Gumball and Teri. When he asked if he could meet up with her some time soon, she politely declined, having got the message just after her mom popped in to say hello and just before she put the phone away, Darwin quickly responded with a request that she didn't see coming,

Darwin: okay, I see that you're busy, but before you go, I need to ask you something else.

Carrie: K?

Darwin: I had a conversation with Anais this morning and she told me that she believes the anomalies are somehow connected with Gumball and Teri, kind of like you said last Friday. She wants to start looking into these matters and I was wondering if you would like to join our investigation team?

Carrie: Certainly! If there's any way I can help, I'd be glad to pitch in. Are you guys going to confront our two enigmatic friends about it?

Darwin: Yeah, I will. It's just that, Anais doesn't think either of them are going to be cooperative and that I'd have to keep my eye on them.

Carrie: So, basically spy on them.

Darwin: I really don't want to go to such lengths, I mean he's my brother and Teri's a friend and it just feels so dishonest, but I really just want to make sure that they're both okay.

Carrie: I know how you feel and I don't like it either, I mean I spy on people for fun, but I won't do anything that's harmful, but if it helps, I can confront either of them myself and get to the bottom of this.

Darwin: For real!? Thank you so much! I love you!

Carrie: Yeah, don't worry about it, I know how to talk to people and if I can just corner one of them, then getting them to spill the beans won't be difficult.

Darwin: You're not going to do anything spooky or terrifying are you?

Carrie: No, no, no, but I am going to be very persistent.

Darwin: Whew! Once again, thank you! Oh yeah, before I forget, Anais' friends know about this too, just wanted to let you know.

Carrie: Thanks and it really is no big deal, really. Have a good day, see you on the bus tomorrow. I love you.

Darwin: Love you too and tell your parents I said hello!

And that was how that conversation went. Now Carrie was figuring out how she wanted to approach the problem because Gumball and Teri were both very crafty with their escapes, most of which just involved events that went entirely in their favor. She learned from her boyfriend that Gumball spent the night at Teri's house and was probably going to be there today as well. She could just visit them herself and ask them privately, but that could lead to disastrous consequences because if the two of them are together then they could just back each other up and avoid the issue altogether.

That was why catching one of them alone was a better option, although being pushy could also lead to a negative outcome and what's worse, if that plan fails then there was no chance in the Underworld that they would trust her ever again. She wanted answers, yes, but she also wanted to maintain their friendship too. She and Teri were alright together, though Teri wasn't exactly a fan of her lifestyle or her gloomy demeanor and Carrie could definitely go without her religious devotion to cleanliness. Then there was Gumball, who grown quite distant from her (and everyone else for that matter.) after Penny left and while he was doing better now, their friendship still wasn't quite on the same level as it used to be.

She cared about both of them and would be willing to put herself through a lot for the two, but breaking their friendship was something she was just not willing to do.

Then came the final option and that was of course following them. While Darwin was fundamentally opposed to this idea, believing that everyone's lives were their own and what they wanted to share was up to them, Carrie wasn't quite on the same track. Having been on this planet for 328 years now, she's seen a lot of things and understands the worst of Human and Bizarro behavior, so sneaking around and observing others whether they were aware of it or not wasn't too out of the ordinary for the ghost. She was willing to spy on either Gumball and/or Teri, but only for the sake of finding out what's really going on. She would never want to bring any harm to them and anything she saw or heard that she deemed useless or private would be kept to herself.

Alas she had a lot of methods to pick and they all had their downsides that she wasn't particularly looking forward to dealing with. Then again, they're the ones that are keeping important information from them, information that involves the deaths of three people and multiple cases of destruction and when things like that take center stage, being elusive just makes things worse for the both of them. In all honesty, Carrie could care less whether or not the secret they're hiding is so terrifying, she couldn't believe that those two would have the gall to decide that hiding such terrible things, things that left them both injured, was a form of protection.

While thinking about this, Carrie's anger had grown to such an extent that it was visible in the form of her telekinesis getting out of hand and pulling numerous tombstones from their foundations, dangling them in the air as though they were being operated by invisible strings. This went unnoticed by her, until a ghoul resting in one of the neighboring grave sites popped out from his private burial and began shouting at her,

"Hey! Could you put that back please! It's already bad enough no one knew me well in life, I don't want my family members to stop visiting because my name isn't here either." the bony, rotting cemetery sleeper was shaking a fist at the surprised emo spirit.

"Huh? Oop, my bad, I was just going through some- Hey, wait a minute! You're gravestone just reads "unknown soldier remains.", you mud brain!" she huffed, allowing the granite stone pieces to fall back in their places.

Baffled, the talking corpse rotated his partly flesh-covered skull and peered at the grave marker, seeing that she was indeed correct. A crossed expression formed on his sagging, green rotten features and he began to tunnel back into the earth, grumbling to himself,

"Damn, Reggie! Rotten cemetery keeper must have switched them again! I'll teach him to prank me once Halloween rolls around, yeah, I'll switch his-!" he was already reburied before Carrie could hear the rest of his angry spiel, and honestly could care less.

Resting back on the cross-shaped tombstone she particularly admired, Carrie began wondering about other depressing things that didn't make her too angry. She figured that the things she's been sensing as of late must be spiritual in some sense and thus, may have some connection to the Underworld. Maybe she could journey down there herself or perhaps ask someone who's already dead to look up any info. regarding any possible rogue spirits that are making appearances in Elmore. She thought that was a good idea, but then something else rang in her memory and caused her to wonder. On the day these things started happening, she talked to Gumball on the bus and then he asked her about-

Suddenly her senses began picking up on something and it was approaching her general vicinity very quickly. It was very familiar and when she focused on it, she began to realize it was coming right this way! Moving from her resting position, the big headed ghost floated over to the fence, close to where the entrance to the graveyard was and phased through the bars themselves. She was certain that whatever was coming this way was running along the sidewalk and was going to bump into her within a few seconds.

She was right and when she set her sights on the concrete pathway in front of her, something came bounding around the corner and shot right towards her at the same speed a fleeing streetcar would. It came so fast, however, that whoever it was that was running barely saw her in time before they threw up a single arm to protect their face before trying to skid to a halt. The running person passed right through her and continued to skid on their feet until a noticeable black trail formed on the sidewalk and the smell of bacon could be detected, not by Carrie of course.

Turning around to see the figure who had stopped after passing through her, Carrie spotted a large blue head, a grey scythe placed over his shoulder and some cat-like features, like pointed ears and a fluffy, blue tail,

"Gumball!" Carrie gasped in disbelief.

Gumball seemed to stiffen up right away and all the color drained from his body. He knew that voice and while it took him a second to register the fact that he just went right through someone, it became evidently clear as to who he just bumped into. And to be frank, he couldn't have ran into (literally) a more challenging person to deal with.

His first instinct was to run away, but she already saw him, with his scythe too, and given that she's the one who gave him the scythe, he couldn't just play it off as a figment of her imagination. This was really bad, so he was going to have to fib his way out of this one. Trying desperately to return some of the color to his sunken face, Gumball rolled his shoulders and slowly turned around to face Carrie, his face already filled with fake disbelief,

"Oh, h-hey Carrie, I was, uh, just running through here and, uh,... I didn't know you liked hanging out at graveyards!" okay that was really bad and he already braced himself for what was obviously going to follow.

Carrie's own disbelief was very prominent in her simple features as she went from genuine surprise, to a complete blank, and then to confusion mixed with anger as she pointed towards the graveyard entrance,

"Of course, I like hanging out here! Are you seriously trying to lie to me now, you know that I gave you that scythe, right! Did you think I wouldn't be able to sense it? Did you know that I could sense it every single time you brought it to school! Heck, that's not all I've been sensing as of lately, the strange anomalies, like the one that occurred in your neighborhood nearly a month ago, the one in the park the following day, the one on the bridge and don't think that I don't know Teri's in on this too, I can sense the strange magic in her bag as well!" she wasn't holding back and Gumball honestly could not believe that he'd been so stupid to believe that Carrie couldn't sense any of this.

"Gumball, I know that you and Teri have been up to something for quite a while now, so I'm asking you right now, what is going on?" she folded her arms across her chest and set a stern look upon him, patiently awaiting an answer.

Gumball's fake expression faltered, of course she knew and there was no way for either of them to back out of this now because he was too dumb to think of another route to get to the landfill. To make things more dire, he didn't have time for this, the Nephilim was going to appear soon and he couldn't risk getting anyone else involved. Turning around, Gumball began to walk away deciding it was best to worry about this situation later,

"Look, I know this all appears like some kind of conspiracy, but I'll talk to you later because right now is not a good t-HEY! WHAT THE WHAT!?" he shouted in surprise as he was suddenly lifted from the ground by an invisible force.

Dangling in the air now, Gumball helplessly kicked his legs and tried to return to the ground, but found that it was useless. After stopping Gumball recognized this particular move forcing him to turn his head around and he saw that this was in fact Carrie's doing. Holding him in place, Carrie's expression remained stoic, but looking into her eye, he could see that she was not intending to let him go,

Carrie, let me go! I don't have time for this-!" he protested, still trying desperately to free himself.

However, the response that came immediately after forced him to stop struggling and he heard her cry out,

"No more running! You're going to answer my questions and I'm not going to drop you unless you promise me that you'll do so." her voice was something terrifying and held an authoritative tone that could only be matched by a parent.

But there was something else to it. Gumball didn't notice it at first, but after taking a closer look at her, Gumball could see sadness. It was the same sadness that came with betrayal, a betrayal between two people who've trusted each other at some point and was slowly wearing away at them deep inside with every misdeed they did.

This was confirmed when Gumball felt his face softened up, causing Carrie to take notice and she too eventually broke the cold facade she was projecting at him,

"Gumball, please. I know what you think that what you're doing is right, but everyone is worried about you and Teri. You both sneak off often and when you return, you're full of injuries and it's just…" she trailed off, she was on the verge of breaking down and sobbing.

Seeing this, the sight of Carrie struggling to hold back her tears sent waves of guilt tearing through Gumball and the blue cat boy was almost brought to the same state as she was in. Putting himself in her shoes, metaphorically speaking, he too would be very upset if he saw any of his friends disappearing and returning every day with injuries that are only briefly explained, but never actually hinting as to why they always willingly show up to the places that kept leading them to harm. He and Teri had gotten it in their heads that the reason they couldn't tell anyone was because it was their burden to bear and that not exposing anyone to the terrors they faced would somehow keep the peace.

But with people like Carrie, who could see deeper into these things, anything out of place was just going to lead to more questions and when they couldn't figure these things out, it would only cause more stress.

He knew this all too well now and he already felt any resistance that was keeping him from speaking melt away the more Carrie spoke,

"... I just can't stand it, I don't want to see you guys get hurt any more and the fact that you're lying about it… it just hurts me so much more than anything could if I were alive." she cried, she hadn't released her hold on him, but it was clearly obvious that she was brought into a very vulnerable state.

There was no reason for Gumball to lie to her now, especially since she still held him captive, and with a sigh of defeat, Gumball whispered,

"Alright... I won't run." he looked at her as her head snapped up to see if he was being honest,

"I promise." he added in, hoping that she wouldn't take his word as a mere excuse.

There was an understandable moment of hesitation within the incorporeal classmate of his, she was really wondering if she should trust his word and when thinking rationally, she knew that she had him in a bind, so there wasn't much he could do. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Carrie slowly set him down and when his feet finally touched the ground, Carrie kept a close eye on him, keeping track of any movement that could indicate treachery. To her relief, he didn't run and instead motioned for her to follow him,

"I'm sorry for lying to you and everyone else, but we need to go right now. I'll explain everything on the way." he stated, already getting into a running position.

Seeing his earnesty, Carrie acknowledged him with an affirmative nod, quickly tossing her bangs a little as she moved next to him,

"Okay and you'd better tell me everything." she said, her tone forgiving, but also sharp. She was still upset with him, but she was glad he was being cooperative.

Gumball managed a quick nod along with a smirk and without another moment's hesitation, he took off with Carrie at his side. Activating his scythe again, Gumball felt his speed increase and the buildings all around him began to blur as he shot by. Not quite used to this speed increase, Carrie accelerated as well until she was keeping up with the speedy feline. Being a spirit not bound by the physics of this mortal plane had its perks, like being immune to the forces of gravity and air resistance. Once they were maintaining a steady pace, Carrie began to start asking,

"So that scythe of yours is allowing you to do this?" she was pointing at the glowing rune etched into the blade.

Gumball nodded and hopped over a car that had stopped at an intersection, clearing the vehicle with ease and replying once he landed,

"Pretty much. It draws out energy from my body and amplifies it so I can run faster and block heavy strikes as well as burn anything, though that's when it's at one hundred percent." he explained, cringing at the memory on how he figured that out.

Carrie seemed quite impressed, not with the thing's power, she already knew it was magic to begin with, but at how quickly Gumball was coming to understand it. She didn't think that Gumball could be so adept with using magic, given his shaky track record with his usage of dark spells and that one adventure with Mrs. Jotenheim that Darwin had told her about. Then again, spells were very hard to master whereas enchanted objects could be wielded by less talented individuals, as long as they had particularly strong souls.

Another question came to mind and after they weaved their way through multiple alleys and streets, making turns so sharp that most automobiles would be reduced to rubble after losing control,

"So what have you been using it for then?" she asked casually, not concerning herself with physical obstacles that were otherwise a major deal for her travelling companion.

Gumball kept his eye out for a certain overpass that will take them directly to the city dump while he answered the friendly spirit's question,

"To fight the Nephilim." he answered simply before continuing on when he felt a follow up question already forming on Carrie's lips,

"The presences you were describing, the random acts of destruction, the mysterious deaths, the blackouts, all that was caused by invisible giants that are trying to destroy this place and Teri, Rob, and moi, have been dealing with them for the past month now."

A look of realization and clarity was ever so present on the ghost's normally stoic face, it all made sense to her now. It was still bizarre, definitely no arguments there, to hear about this coming from Gumball of all people, for she herself even believed that the ancient giants were just a myth, but given all that's happened recently, it wasn't unlikely. Also, who the heck was Rob? Was he that nemesis Darwin mentioned a couple times back before last Summer started?

With all that being pushed aside, Carrie needed to know what was happening in the present,

"Okay, so why are we heading to the Landfill then? Is there a Nephilim appearing there?" she asked, following Gumball as he leapt up to an overpass that pointed them in the direction of the city dump.

Landing on both feet and taking off again, Gumball focused on getting to Elmore's trash heap with his ghostly partner following close behind,

"Yes, all three of us can spot the Nephilim in our sleep and our dreams show us where they're going to appear, which is usually within a short span of time." he spoke as though this were a normal thing and completely ignored how bizarre it actually sounded.

Carrie was able to accept this with ease and just decided to move onto the next step in helping her friend out,

"So how about I just teleport us over there then, instead of having us run all the way over and waste valuable time and energy. I mean you did say that your scythe fed off your own energy, correct?" she suggested.

This caused Gumball to come to a screeching halt and he turned to the little spirit who also stopped just short of him,

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot you could do that and also, good point." he remarked, dumbfounded.

With the matter being decided on, Carrie drifted on over and grabbed Gumball by the hand. Closing her eyes and concentrating, both the ghost and the cat vanished with an audible Snap! All that remained was an empty street that continued to gather rain and was becoming ever so reflective as the falling drops of water began to come down with more force.

Appearing instantaneously in front of the city's largest trash heap and home the Rexes, Carrie and Gumball peered into the gate that lead into such a foul place. The stench that flowed from the fenced-in area was overwhelming and repugnant, causing Gumball to gag a little. This was made even worse with the rain causing most of the trash to become even soggier and producing a mustier, more rancid smell. This brought Gumball back to the time when both he and Teri came here to fight a Nephilim that they both dreamed about and while getting Teri to actually enter the place (she was insistent that she circle around from above and only provide cover when was necessary.) was half the battle, going in there to find absolutely nothing was absolutely infuriating.

Now he was back here again, this time with Carrie and this place still looked just as foreboding as he remembered. He checked the clock on his phone and saw that it was two minutes past his predicted time for the Nephilim's arrival, so they should head in right away. There were two threats present within this lot and those were: The Nephilim, which could do a number of horrible things that he was currently unaware of and then there were the T-rexes that lived here, both Tina and her father, Mr. Rex, both of which were very territorial and did not appreciate trespassers.

It made Gumball wonder who actually worked in the dump, seeing as the two occupants weren't very friendly towards outsiders? Were the workers given a free pass in exchange that the dinosaurs were left alone or did Mr. Rex himself work here? Maybe that's how he was able to afford Tina a proper education, though probably not much else, since she did say she had to scrounge around for food and other basic necessities.

Already making his way through the front entrance, Gumball headed towards the spot where he saw the Nephilim appear before he paused to tell Carrie something,

"Alright listen up, the Nephilim should be in here somewhere, but it's very dangerous, especially for people who can't see them." he explained, remembering that Carrie was new to this whole thing.

Another reason he didn't want to bring other people into this was due to the fact that those who couldn't see them, were more likely to get killed when compared to those who could. All it took was one touch and that would be it for those who were unaware. If someone he knew tried to help him out and wounded up getting killed, then he didn't know what he would be able to do with himself if something like that were to happen. He was already sad that there was nothing he could do for Marvin and such grief would magnify if it were a classmate or worse, a family member.

Which was why he was worried for Carrie in this case.

Flipping her bangs from her face, she seemed to be just as weary, but put on a brave face nonetheless,

"It'll be fine, even if I can't see them, I can still sense their presence." she replied with confidence.

Gumball still didn't feel too comfortable with this because of something else,

"Yeah, but the thing is, they can kill people who can't see them with one touch. Silver Twelve even told me that regular people couldn't even approach them at his lowest level, whatever that means." he explained, rubbing his forearm slightly as his ears drooped to the back of his head.

This was concerning for the seemingly immortal classmate of his, but given that she was already dead, this didn't bother her too much,

"I don't think that will be much of an issue and is that seriously the name of the first Nephilim you've encountered?" she asked, casting him an unusual glance.

Gumball shrugged and shook his head,

"I really don't know, most of them don't introduce themselves so I just give them nicknames and even the ones that do like to talk about themselves, I give it to them just t-!"

"SHHH!" Carrie hushed, placing a hand over his mouth to cut him off.

Seconds later, a roar so loud that it vibrated the ground Gumball stood on cut through the air and Gumball could already feel his fur standing on end. That was without a doubt, Mr. Rex and Gumball knew this because Tina's roar was not as loud or deep as the older dinosaur's. Following the roar was a series of heavy thuds that shook the ground as well and were getting even louder as he drew closer.

Gumball and Carrie weren't exactly sure if he somehow detected them or was just patrolling his territory, but with Tina's very xenophobic father getting closer, neither of them were quite willing to figure out which one was the case. That's not all that was pressing onto them however, as Carrie began sense a very dark presence appearing nearby, a horrible being that felt so empty and so cold, it was as though a void were dropped into this very location. Gumball, on the other hand had it worse as he actually saw the crack open in the sky and release the formless body into the world, just like it had in his dream.

Facing threats on two fronts, Gumball was quick to formulate a plan given their strengths and weaknesses and turned to the very worried ghost right next to him,

"Carrie, take care of Mr. Rex, I'll take on the Nephilim." he couldn't have put it more simply.

Knowing she was definitely more than a match for Tina's father, Carrie figured the best way to take care of him would be to possess him and lead him somewhere else. However, her concerns then shifted to Gumball, he said that he and Teri have been fighting the Nephilim for roughly a month along with some other fellow, but if these things were so dangerous, how was he to fare by himself? One good look at him gave her the answer she needed, he definitely looked determined, but something about him seemed uncertain.

He was trembling.

At first she thought it was because of the rain, but upon closer inspection, it became painfully obvious that he was scared. While she wasn't sure how Teri had been able to help him during all his fights, she had her suspicions that the two were able to fight better as a pair. On a side note, where was Teri?

Ignoring the last question, Carrie moved closer to make sure the blue scythe wielder was okay,

"Are you sure that you're going to be alright?" she asked, another roar from Mr. Rex causing both of them to jump. He was definitely close by and getting closer.

Having already felt this kind of dismay before facing the Nephilim, Gumball was able to look at the spectral being in the face and give a self-assured nod,

"Yeah… should be no problem, but seriously, keep your distance, I don't know what that monster is capable of." he gulped before turning about and racing towards the threat that had dropped out of the sky,

"Good luck!" he shouted back with a single wave of the hand.

Carrie was fairly certain that there was nothing for her to worry about (maybe being an immortal ghost for so long has blinded her of caution.), she was still more or less worried about Gumball's safety. She knew that the prehistoric owner of the city's largest rubbish heap was going to have to be dealt with, for him being here was not only a danger for Gumball, but also himself as well, if Gumball's words about the Nephilim's power was to be trusted. Moreover, she knew how she could solve one issue and help Gumball with another, so she made a promise before she left,

"As soon as I'm done, I'll come back and help in any way I can!" she saw his running figure toss her another wave, indicating that he heard her. Though, whether he wants her help or not was another matter altogether.

With that, the transparent school girl shot off in the opposite direction and vanished behind a pile of refuse.

Rounding several garbage heaps comprising of discarded household items, kitchen waste, tattered clothes and so many other interesting objects left to rot, Gumball scanned the open lot that divided the piles and allowed his feet to carry him forward, further into the landfill. The rain was coming down harder now and Gumball was completely soaked by this point, his fur a matted mess that clumped together in soggy tangles while his shirt and gym shorts clung to his body like a second skin. While the cold was uncomfortable, Gumball was actually glad for it because it kept him alert and given the current situation he was throwing himself into, he needed to have his guard up at all times.

He was getting closer to the spot where the Nephilim had supposedly landed, his dream sense giving him deja vu as he wandered amidst the garbage, his feet making small splashes in the puddles that formed amongst the muddy ground and his scythe's blade raised ever so wearily above his head, the deadly edge already dripping as rainwater ran along in steady streams. He didn't activate it yet, preferring to do so once he had a visual of the target and would prefer not to charge in wildly without a plan. He also felt slightly uneased by the fact that he hadn't told any of his trusted colleagues about this, their ignorance to the situation meant no one would come for him if he were injured and with that realization said in mind, Gumball felt that he should have at least sent Rob a text before he departed.

He could not afford any mistakes, many lives depended on his actions here and he was going to see to it that the monster never left this place alive. He was going to prove to everyone who trusted him that he could do this and that all his hard work was going to pay off. Ever since Penny left, he always deemed himself a screw-up and thought very lowly of himself, but at least, he had a chance to show himself that this wasn't the case.

A few careful strides later and he was already upon the landing spot he dreamed about. Taking a moment to scan the area, Gumball didn't spot anything right away or rather, anything out of the ordinary. Keeping to the piles of garbage, Gumball sidled along and tried to remain out of sight, his ears were listening in on any possible disturbance that would alert him to the presence of a monster. In the background, Mr. Rex's roars were ceased and Gumball presumed that meant Carrie had taken care of the situation.

Something shot by and Gumball jumped back a few feet, his scythe already activating as he desperately got ready to defend himself. He was already on edge when he got here and the unknown object quickly triggered an adrenaline rush within the boy. Whatever moved was incredibly small and after tracking it through the rain, Gumball was surprised to see it was only a black swallowtail butterfly.

The little thing was fluttering about lightly on its wide, angular wings and Gumball wondered what such a delicate little thing would be doing here. While it was surprising, Gumball lowered his scythe and eased up a little, feeling slightly foolish for freaking out over an insect. However, he dropped his guard too soon as a voice rang out behind him, calling his name and alerting the boy to whomever it was,

"There you are, Gumball!"

The person speaking sounded female and at first he was lead to believe that Carrie had returned, but was caught off by how sweet the voice had sounded. It definitely wasn't Carrie's, but it did sound eerily familiar. It sounded like someone he hadn't heard from in quite a while and a sudden wave of nostalgia washed over him.

All these suspicions were answered the moment he turned around and when he saw who it was, he felt his jaw drop while his eyes dilated in a comical fashion. Standing there in the midst of the trash, in a small muddy clearing with all the rain falling around her and looking directly at him with beautiful brown eyes, was Penny Fitgerald. Anything Gumball felt at the moment had completely vanished in an instant, he neither felt the cold of the rain nor did he even register his own rapid heartbeat because all he could do was stare in utter shock and disbelief as he tried to process how it was that he was seeing his ex-girlfriend who moved away nearly four months ago.

He kept his eyes wide open, fearing that blinking would make the scene vanish entirely or to be more specific, the yellow, shape-shifting fairy that used to be his former love and it mattered very little to him how much pain his eyes were in. yet, as the seconds slowly ticked by, she remained where she was, still staring at him while smiling ever so fondly while her glowing form continued to get drenched in the constant downpour. She also spoke to him, using his name too and the voice that came from her was without a doubt her own, instilling the further fact that she was indeed standing right there.

Yet, as much Gumball wanted to believe that this was true and that he was seeing someone he once cared for so deeply, something was off. While being overwhelmed with joy and shock, there was a little voice echoing in the back of his head that something about her being here was wrong. If she was back then why wasn't he alerted, sure he hadn't made any attempt to connect with her over the web or anything, but she was still connected to many people here, so someone would have dropped by to tell him. And more importantly, if she were visiting in secret, what on Earth would she be doing in the Elmore landfill of all places.

Then it occurred to him all at once, in his dream he saw that the Nephilim was amorphous in shape, a living silver goo that fell from the sky. If he were to draw any conclusions based on what he'd seen, he could say that it's very possible that the Nephilim was a shapeshifter. Despite how much he wanted to believe it to be, he knew that the Penny Fitzgerald he was staring at was not actually her: It was the Nephilim in disguise!

Not quite sure why it was taking the form of Penny, Gumball was brought back into reality and slowly took up a defensive stance, sending a skeptical glare in Penny's, or rather the Nephilim's, direction,

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked in a tone that was calm, but on the verge of breaking.

Upon asking the question, Penny's charming smile and radiant look slowly faded and was replaced by a sneer that curled on her lips and a playful fire was lit in her eyes,

"I must say, my darling, you were always slow when we were together, but I guess four months apart must have sharpened your better judgement." she remarked, her tone laced with condescension before she added in,

"Well not by a lot because you chose to fight me on your own." her smile widened as her eyes flashed menacingly.

Gumball has just about had it at this point and with the confirmation that this was indeed a Nephilim, he shot forward with his scythe already curved back for a powerful swing. Aiming directly for the neck of his ex's sinister copy, the charging feline swung as hard as he could the moment the distance between them was closed. However, his attack was blocked simply by Nephilim Penny's forearm, causing a cascade of sparks to leap forth from the contact and Gumball could see that her arm had changed from yellow to a hardened steel, effectively preventing any harm to the limb.

Right before his very eyes, Penny's grin faded and she began to change in shape and size. Her form lost its glow and bright yellow, becoming darker until it was brown, bumpy and hardened like a peanut shell, her antlers, being thin and delicate like tree branches grew until they were thicker and more moose-like, and her size increased, becoming broader and taller than Penny already was. Eventually, Gumball found himself locking eyes with Patrick Fitzgerald, Penny's father, as he reeled back a meaty hand and curled it into a fist,

"I always knew you were a danger to my daughter, that's what made it so easy for us to move away when we got the CHANCE!" he launched his fist right into a surprised Gumball's gut and sent the winded boy flying into a nearby trash pile.

His impact with the trash heap sent debris flying every which direction as the kid was buried into the rubbish and a hard oof! leapt from the kittens lips as he felt his back strike something hard. The punch to the stomach definitely hurt, but what stung a bit more was the monster's words. It brought back certain memories concerning Penny's father and his distrust towards him. After he lost his job and transferred overseas, taking his family with him, Gumball secretly blamed himself for the family's quick decision to leave and what the Nephilim said brought back another wave of sadness.

He knew that their moving away wasn't his fault though, Patrick's construction business was very small and when it was bought out by another company, he understood why they had to leave. He wasn't sure how the Nephilim was able to know about this, but he was obviously just trying to get into his head and he knew that keeping a stable concentration was the only he was going to be able to stand up to the beast. With his determination returning quickly, Gumball felt the fire being stoked within and was able to lift himself up, clearing the bits and pieces of human wreckage off as he began to work his way down to the bottom of the pile.

When he did eventually reach the bottom, he was given very little warning when the Nephilim struck a second time, barely catching the fist of the Patrick copy before it connected with his head. The force of the impact combined with the monster's charge caused Gumball to slide to the side and he struggled to keep from breaking his stance. All the while, Patrick continued to make snide remarks to the struggling boy,

"Actually now that I think about it, you're not a danger to her, you're just too weak to protect her! Heck, you can't even protect yourself, kid!" the Nephilim shouted with its voice sounding just like Pat's, causing Gumball to feel a little uneasy.

Realizing that he wasn't going to break away from him at such low power, Gumball begrudgingly increased the power outlet to fifty percent and pushed back against the Nephilim. The two immediately stopped moving, forcing the Nephilim's overly confident smile to vanish entirely and Gumball used the inner part of the blade to grab Patrick's fist as he forced it away with ease. Once he did just that, Patricks face was left wide open and Gumball reeled his free hand back, clenching it into a fist,

"SHUT THE HECK UP!" he shouted with rage.

He swung as hard as he could, putting his shoulder and back into the punch as it slammed into the monster's face. At fifty percent power, the force of the empowered pre-teens fist caused Patrick's face to completely cave in around the tiny fist and a small shockwave was sent to the other side. Soon after the shock wave came, the Nephilim's body was sent sailing several meters away, a pretty impressive feat for Gumball given how large it was, and crashed into the muddied ground with a heavy crunch followed a wet splash!

Drawing his power back down to a quarter again, Gumball wanted to revel in how awesome that was, but thought better of it, he wanted to take care of this guy first and celebrate afterwards. He may have sent the beast flying, but he was far from done and moments later, the shape-shifting Nephilim propped it's bulky arms behind its shoulders before flipping itself back onto its feet with an agility that should have been impossible for a person of Patrick's bulk. Upon reviving itself from Gumball's counterattack, Gumball got a good look at its face and saw that the outer shell was cracking, which was slightly vexing, seeing as he remembered its face being rather flexible when he punched it.

Very slowly, pieces and shards fell from the anthropomorphic peanut's face and eventually Gumball was able to see the monster's face, or it's lack of one he should say, seeing as it was only a skull that was staring back at him. While the sight was indeed gruesome to behold, having gotten to know Penny's father somewhat and developing some respect for the overprotective father, Gumball just bared his fangs, hissed, and began circling around the monster with his weapon at the ready.

The Nephilim didn't attack right away and just continued to berate the defensive kitten,

"Oh how hurt do you think the others will be when they find that you can so easily hurt Penny and her relatives. You truly are a monster!" the faceless opponent continued to speak in Patrick's voice, further enraging Gumball.

Pointing an accusing finger towards the form changing monstrosity, Gumball shot back another snide comeback,

"Impersonating those people is an insult, you creep! If you think you're scaring me, then you're sorely mistaken, cheapskate! Now why don't you drop the disguise and tell me why you're here! Are you trying to avenge someone too because trust me, I can keep this revenge plot going as long as you guys are constantly lining up!" he was trying to appear composed, hoping it would somehow intimidate it as well as give him a little info too.

The Nephilim changed once again, becoming smaller and slimmer in build, until it finally resembled… his mom! With a wicked smile painted across her cat-like features, the older cat woman crouched down and lunged towards him. The smaller cat boy yelped in surprise when he saw how fast she was moving and given how terrifying his mom really was, he couldn't help but go on the defensive as a flurry of strikes and kicks began bouncing off his scythe. He kept backing up, trying to keep his distance from the speedy monster, but her tenacity and lightning quick strikes allowed her to keep up with him.

Unable to get any strikes in, Gumball continued to deflect every one of the Nephilim's attacks as they came close to landing on his body,

"I'm usually not one for sharing classified intel, but seeing as you're on the verge of death, I may as well tell you why I'm here." she stated while trying to tear his throat out with her claws. With a powerful palm-heel strike, she forced Gumball's scythe above his head before planting a kick to his stomach and sending him flying.

Once he landed on his back, Gumball got up and saw her slowly approaching from afar, the claws on her right hand extending until four, three foot long blades stuck out from her fingers. She continued to speak while wiggling her fingers, causing said claws to gleam as they danced about the air,

"I was sent here by Babyloth high command to locate the traitor, Uriel, and execute him for abandoning his post as well as disobeying his orders." she announced, still walking towards Gumball.

Picking up a metal pipe laying by his feet (given its shape and size, it was probably attached to a road sign at some point.), Gumball held two weapons in his hands now and got ready for any sudden strikes that were to come. He knew the metal pipe on its own was useless against the Nephilim, but he felt as though he could use it for something. Keeping his focus on the Nephilim, Gumball pointed out the obvious fate of the Sun king and his sun throne,

"Well, hate to break it to you, but all three of us took care of that little problem when it first came here. I know it's frustrating when someone does your job for you, but at least you can report back to president Nimrod or whoever it is you follow, and take a coffee break. Now why don't you scram before you're punished for loitering!" he brandished his scythe as a menacing means of highlighting the punishment aspect of his warning.

However, the thing that wore his mom's face did not seem interested at what he had to say, regarding him with little concern as it lowered its claws to its side,

"Oh, you're quite the assumptious little vermin, are you! You know I can read into your fears and from your past terrors, I can already see that you've fought and triumphed over Uriel, just as you have against all of our forces in the past. Which is why I was given a secondary objective by the president himself…"

Without warning, the deceptive Nephilim raised its other hand and the appendage shot outwards towards Gumball, stretching impossibly as it drew closer before grabbing onto the pipe Gumball raised just in time and wrenching him off his feet. As Gumball was pulled even closer to the monster, he could already see it preparing to skewer him with her claws and was flashed with a toothy grin filled with pearly white fangs. The Nicole monster was nearly shouting with delight as Gumball was brought even closer,

"...to eliminate the local defenders as well as the rest of the filthy abominations that inhabit this place!"

Seeing the end of the line hanging at the tips of her claws, Gumball acted quickly and let go of the metal pipe he had been thoughtful in grabbing. Allowing his momentum to carry him forward, Gumball rolled through the mud right beside his mother's copycat and narrowly avoided a close call. Completely caught off guard by the surprise stunt Gumball had pulled, the Nephilim dropped the pipe that was already melting in her hand (A/N: I mentioned in an earlier chapter that non-enchanted objects usually melt when they come in contact with the Nephilim's skin, except the ground that is. It also depends on their power level, which is usually raised when dealing with people who can see them.) and whipped around with her claws raised in preparation to deal with the small child.

Unfortunately for her, the moment she spun around, Gumball had utilized his increased speed and was already closing in with a swipe. Aiming directly at its mid-section, Gumball felt the curved blade tear right through her without much difficulty and the disturbing image of his mom being cleaved in two unfolded before his very eyes. The upper half of the monster dropped straight to mucky ground and was quickly followed by its lower half, which crumpled at the knees before setting into the mud.

What made the sight even more gruesome was the fact that the Nephilim had replicated his mother's internal organs, which had spilled out in a shower of blood upon being bisected and without even realizing it, Gumball had cupped a hand over his mouth as he froze up in terror. Not only did this creature terrorize him by taking the form of people he knew and someone he loved very dearly, but even upon defeating it had it managed to scar him with the sight of his mother's mangled form. Still set upon by the sight, Gumball's breathing rate began to increase as well as his heart rate and he began to feel a wave of nausea begin to rise within his bowels, causing him to drop to his knees.

He knew that this wasn't his mom that he destroyed, but he still couldn't stop the terror from spreading throughout,

"It's just an illusion! It's just an illusion! It's just an illusion! It's just a-!" he thought in desperation, trying to reassure himself, but said thoughts were interrupted by someone speaking.

Looking around he saw no one except the Nephilim's remains in front of him, except the monster wasn't dead and was instead raising its head while chuckling,

"Get used to this." it said, his mom's dark eyes now white as though she were now dead,

"You won't be able to save everyone, not from what's really coming!" her voice was ragged, as though she were in excruciating pain.

Jumping up from his knees, Gumball began to back away from the talking cadaver in front of him, he was still full of fear and he needed to recompose himself if he were to use his scythe again. He began to search for his resolve, he needed to burn this thing away completely and rid Elmore of this nightmare. He can't listen to it anymore and he couldn't believe in any of the things it was saying, they've been through a lot and survived, whatever else was coming could be dealt with.

"Elmore is doomed." said a small girl from behind.

"You're not capable of saving us." an older man followed, his tone grim.

"You'll let us all down." a high-pitched voice cracked from the side.

Taking in all these newcomers, Gumball spun around and saw the rest of his family there as well. However, just like his mother, they were all horribly mutilated and deformed by terrible accidents. Anais was rotting from head to toe, exposing most of her internal organs, an ear was torn off, her orange dress was in tatters, and the look of despair was frozen upon her decaying face. His father was in a similar state, except that multiple areas were covered in oozing, yellow boils and his lower jaw was missing, making it a mystery as to how he was speaking. And then there was poor Darwin, whose scales were seared from his body, exposing all the muscles underneath as well as some cartilage and his legs were chopped off, forcing him to crawl with burnt flippers: his face was that of pure agony and suffering.

Gumball choked back a sob when he saw his family being presented to him like this and he could already feel the fear he was trying to repress resurging back in his mind. It was everything his worst nightmares could conjure up, no, it was the very thing he never wanted to see come to pass and that was the failure to protect his loved ones. One part of him even wanted to agree with the Nephilim, there was simply no way they could protect Elmore forever and this image could very well be a reality. Clutching his hands to his head, Gumball dropped to his knees again and tried to block out everything as the deathly apparitions of his family drew closer.

"Stop it! Just stop it! Don't use my family like this!" Gumball thought despairingly to himself, hot tears running down his cheeks that were washed away by the rain.

This is by far the most terrifying Nephilim he ever faced and he wished that he wasn't facing this alone, he wished that Teri was here, dragging him to his feet and bringing him back to his senses. This Nephilim understood what he really feared and he wasn't even sure if he could handle this opponent anymore. He never should have gone alone and now he was being tortured by images of his family.

Opening his eyes once more, Gumball's vision was blurry from crying, but he could see the ghastly apparitions of his family members drawing closer, claws and fangs extending as they prepared to rip him to shreds. This monster was going to tear him apart by using his own demons to do so, such a coward! The more he thought about this monster's tricks, the more his emotions began to change. It wasn't fear, or regret, or dread, or despair that came flooding back in when he looked upon the twisted faces of his family members: it was fury!

Snatching up his scythe, Gumball was quick to stand up, grinding his teeth together and staring down every mutilated face that looked back at him with lifeless eyes. This monster was going to pay for daring to use his family's image against him, no, it was going to burn for daring to threaten his family and their future. With a hunger to see all these fakes vaporized, Gumball's desperation ignited the silver inferno and with a wild spin directed first at Richard, Gumball lopped off his large, deformed head.

The apparition fell to the ground after spraying blood from the exposed stump, just then Gumball turned to the Anais copy and with a few quick strokes, left the little thing writhing in pieces. Turning to the insulting image of Darwin's burnt, amputated body trying to claw at him, Gumball finished the job by driving the scythe blade straight through the center of the fish's body and allowed the fire to reduce him to ashes. With his scythe being turned on at full power, this whole ordeal happened within seconds and he then turned to the battered form of his mother, whose mouth was left open in shock.

Catching his breath and quelling his rage, Gumball lowered himself back to twenty five percent before delivering the final strike to the monster. Raising his scythe the same way a lumberjack would their axe, Gumball allowed the energy to rise up from his body and collect within the crescent blade itself. With all the blazing energy being pent up in such a small space, Gumball knew he had to release it and with a vertical swing down to the ground along with a roar from the wielder, a wave of grey fire shot out from the blade.

With the fire now being controlled by Gumball, the arc that was fired from the weapon was very smooth and concentrated, unlike the first two times where the fire was an uncontrollable torrent of energy that destroyed so much within its path, and when it met with the Nephilim, the silver crescent made a clean path straight through her, eliminating most of her body mass in the process. The wave itself smashed into a nearby trash pile, cutting straight into it and exploding in a brilliant orb of silver that sent burning debris flying about the place. Luckily the rain would take care of the flames and there was no danger of the fire spreading.

With only the sides of her upper torso remaining, the middle part completely vaporized by Gumball's strike, the two parts fell down and Gumball was left with only the heavy sound of rain and some thunder in the distance. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Gumball did not dare to look at the remains of the illusions he massacred and wondered if there was an effective way to beat this monster. He's cut it down multiple times now, but it still hasn't burned away yet and he was starting to worry about Carrie along with Mr. Rex because if the fight was taken all the way across this junkyard, then both of them could get caught in the crossfire.

As if on a que, the remains of the sliced up Nephilim apparitions formed into silver goo again and began to move towards the spot where the Nicole illusion was resting. Back in a battle stance, Gumball saw the silver muck collect together and take the form of Nicole once again, this time with her forearms and hands being replaced with sharp blades. Infuriated that the Nephilim insists on sullying his mother's image, Gumball charged the monster and met a barrage of double strikes with each sword arm.

The two blue cats went back and forth with each other, both slashing and dodging rapid strikes being put out by either opponent. While he was better able to keep up with the Nephilim, Gumball found it very difficult to land a solid strike on her, mainly due to the issue of her having an extra weapon to fight with and every time he would knock one blade away, another one would quickly take its place. Not long after the fight began, Gumball already sustained a few injuries and was already starting to feel the effects of using his power for too long. He figured he had about ten minutes left as long as he kept its current level, but given that he hasn't gained any real advantage yet, he may have to go one hundred and try to wipe her out at full strength.

Swiping again at her left blade, Gumball knocked the weapon aside and went for the kill, but the ambidextrous Nephilim parried his strike with ease. With their weapons locked, Gumball put his weight against his scythe and began to press down on Nephilim Nicole's right arm weapon. He spotted her raising her left weapon in an attempt to pierce his neck, but Gumball caught it just in the nick of time between his thumb and pointer finger.

Remaining in a deadlock, the two wrestled for a good minute before Gumball let loose another remark directed at the monster,

"You know mom, you should really eat a Snuckers bar because you're not you when you're hungry." he chuckled, though a bead of sweat ran down the side of his head.

The beast snarled in response and with a quick motion, disengaged her blades from Gumball's lock. Gumball raised his scythe at chest level to prevent any incoming attacks, but was caught off guard when his mother's look-alike sprang up in the air, twirling as she did so. Her tail shot outwards, elongating into a whip-like appendage that smacked Gumball upside the head, sending the small child skittering to the side and tripping over his own two feet. It wasn't too hard of a strike, but it did leave him a little dizzy and after a moment, he felt something warm running down the side of his head where the Nephilim's tail had struck him. Groaning, he noted to never aggravate a creature that resembled the hard working, supreme butt kicking member of the Watterson household with a lame joke and got up before the violent entity could launch another attack.

He spotted the shape-shifting creature dashing towards him with both of its blades extended out to the sides like a pair of very thin wings on some odd specimen as its eyes stared a bloody murder towards the recovering child. With only seconds to do something, Gumball decided his best option was to put a little distance between him and the fear mimicking Nephilim and come up with another strategy. He did so by leaping straight up into the air, feeling the already frigid slamming into his back as he propelled himself backwards and kept his eyes on the figure down below. Surprisingly the Nephilim did not leap after him and instead continued to keep an eye on him as it ran in the same direction he was flying in.

Realizing he wasn't in any danger until he reached the ground, Gumball began to jostle his mind space for any good ideas,

"Okay, as soon as I land, she's definitely going to attack." he mentally concurred while also reminding himself that the Nephilim hasn't revealed its gender yet and shouldn't use gender specific pronouns to describe it,

"There's no way to fight it at the level I'm at, I'll have to go full power and destroy it entirely with a concentrated blast. Hopefully that will do the trick and if something goes wrong, I'll only remain in that state for only ten seconds. That's it, no more than ten!" he gathered what he needed to do in his thoughts and began to increase the output as soon as he began descending.

Within the span of a second, he was at full power and the curved blade was coated with flaming tongues that shone like the moon. Getting a swing ready, Gumball felt the energy begin to gather at the deadly end of the shaft and was about ready to release it when he landed. Once he did so, it'll be at point blank range so he'll have to fire right away and destroy the Nephilim entirely: it was do or die time!

Descending like a wingless bird, Gumball's anticipation began to climb as he spotted the Nephilim getting even closer as the ground drew nearer and he could even see the whites of older cat's eyes as well as the gleam of its pointed teeth. Its blades were still leveled at its sides and looked like it was about to catch him in the deadliest embrace anyone could imagine. He counted the seconds in his head as he was about to touch the ground and he had four left when he was almost in range.

Three…

The Nephilim's blue fur switched to silver.

Two…

Its form began to melt and reshape itself into something else.

One…!

Looking directly at him with an innocent smile complimenting her cute, drawn on features was Teri.

As if a switch in his mind went off, Gumball halted his attack and the fire was snuffed out instantaneously. Why was this happening? Gumball knew this was a monster that could take the form of his worst fears and had no qualms with killing him along with everyone else in this town. So why was he preventing himself from attacking it and falling directly into its trap?!

Knowing he was in trouble and reacting only on instinct, the moment Gumball's feet touched the ground, he spun about, nearly tripping on himself in the process, and ran the opposite direction. Just as he managed a few steps, he felt something sharp and cold graze against his back, tearing through clothing and flesh alike. He was fortunate enough to have gained some distance from it in the first place and received only a shallow wound. However, it still burned like a wildfire and he could already feel blood start to soak into his shirt.

He turned his back on an enemy, how careless of him.

He heard the Nephilim cackle from behind, the voice was Teri's alright, but it definitely wasn't her laugh, and found that it was enjoying itself,

"Aw, what's the matter? You were so confident just a second ago and now your tail is showing! How embarrassing, weren't you trying to show me just how strong and capable you are?" she spoke in such a slow, malignant tone. She was using Teri's voice and her form to mock him, as well getting into his head to spread salt into the open wounds.

This was just cruel and disparaging to say in the least, Gumball could already feel his vision blurring from the tears that sprung from his rage. Humiliated and just about done with this creep's condescending words and mockery, Gumball pivoted on his heel and was already aiming for its head. He wanted to do anything to shut this thing up and decapitating it was the most cathartic method of doing so. He roared, using his full volume as he released his fury into one swing,

"STOP IT!"

Yet, when he saw her looking back at him with those big dark eyes, again, he slowed his advance, not by much, but just enough for the beast to brush him aside. He wasn't using any powers so it was rather easy for the Nephilim to deflect his advance and the upright cat simply stumbled off to the side, keeping out its reach. His face was contorted into an angry snarl, his eyebrows knitted tightly together and if his eyes could burn, then this paper replica would be kindling at this point.

The Nephilim regarded him with a playful look, a look that painfully matched Teri's cheerful expression, but with a modagram of malicious scrutiny,

"You must love her so much, that you wouldn't even dare to scratch her image." it teased, remaining where it stood, for it believed that no harm could come to it.

Still keeping his angered expression, Gumball wondered what the darn monstrosity could be going on about now,

"What?!" he snapped.

Ignoring his attitude, the bear-shaped Nephilim continued to pry into him, searching his feelings and drawing out the most obvious conclusion, even though he was unaware of it,

"Such a dull creature, the worst of fears are drawn out best when it involves those we love. From desires come our fears and you desire your family's safety, but with Teri it's not just protection you desire for her, you wish for her to respect you and for her to see you as reliable." the tone was very casual and while Gumball continued to get even more aggravated he lashed out defensively,

"I don't know what you're going on about! I don't…" he trailed off as something began to arise within his mind, something he either didn't understand or had been denying from the very start.

The Nephilim was right, he was in love with Teri. His reasoning for being out here in the first place was because he was thinking about Teri and he embarked on a dangerous journey just because he wanted to see her happy. He figured to himself that if he could finish this task while she practiced with her friends that he would be doing her a service and that she would come to appreciate him even more. What's more, she was always saving him every time he screwed up, so now he wanted to be the hero and do something just as great for her.

And reflecting back on all the little instances between them, he had in fact been falling for her, little by little until he was going out of his way to make sure that she was at her highest and that was his reason for doing the things he did. He did in fact, love Teri Pepakuma and now that realization was starting to invade his mind with regrets. In his supposed "selfless" act, he'd duped himself into believing that he was going to be her hero when in fact, he was just doing this for himself as well and hadn't even factored Teri's feelings into the matter.

Without her assistance, he ran into Carrie, revealed the truth to her, and jumped into a fight he had no hopes of winning in the first place. He had been a fool. This revelation managed to put everything else on hold as he tried to grasp these feelings,

"...I… I'm not sure what… oh man!" he gasped when he found that he could not deny his romantic feelings towards his paper classmate.

The Nephilim seemed to sense his mental conclusion and a sinister chuckle parted from its thin lips, causing Gumball's head to snap up while his tormentor continued to rattle off what she knew,

"Love is a wonderful, yet terrible thing. It can draw people into doing something they'd otherwise never even attempt to do had they any second thoughts on the matter, but it can also lead people into making such irrational decisions." she paused to place two fingers against her chin as she began to think of something else,

"You know, I have people I love back at home as well, but at least I know where my boundaries lay-AAUUGGHH!" the Nephilim screamed as a wave of grey burned the right half of her body into nothing as it continued into another pile of trash before exploding.

Holding his scythe up, Gumball had delivered a grey fire wave at ten percent while she was speaking, he was no longer seething with rage, but he was still angry. At least the Nephilim helped clear his head of some issues he'd been having and he was glad that he knew of his feelings towards Teri. It had been bugging him a lot as of late, but at least he understood now and could move on with his objective,

"First off, I hate all you Nephilim talkers who just monologue about things I already know and second, I'd like to thank you for clearing some things up for me. I was always worried that I may have been nothing but a loser and a reckless child and I still am a bit, but at least, I know where to start improving." he looked back up at the charred, half being that was glaring at him with a single hate filled eye as it struggled to get itself upright,

"And yes, I do love Teri, but that doesn't excuse my actions today, so I'm going to win this battle and go back to tell her I'm sorry." he proudly declared, his confidence returning once again.

The first rune on his scythe glowed brighter as he prepared to face off again and the Nephilim seemed to shrink back in fear itself, as ironic as that may be. Before he could do anything however, his only opponent began to change again and began to grow larger, increasing in height and width. Soon the Nephilim was towering over the little kitten as well as several trash piles in the surrounding area,

"I don't care what you believe will happen, you have no chance of defeating us!" a mouth formed on the slightly humanoid mass that still kept changing, snarling at the boy,

"Especially me. I am Tartarforas and I will help my kin liberate this world from the likes of you and all the other demons that threaten to destroy it!" the creature's feminine voice had a harsh, dry tone now and when it let out a resounding roar, it's transformation was complete.

Standing at thirty five feet in height, was a living nightmare that broke Gumball's confidence and caused him to waver. Out of all the Nephilim he ever had the misfortune of encountering, the true form of this one was hideous and unsettling to look at. With the clouds bringing about shadows and blocking out the sun, it was difficult to see the thing in its entirety, but that was minor when it came to the fact that Tartarforas' body was already dark to begin with. Gumball managed to spot the silhouette of a human woman, hunched over and very thin as though famished. Her jet black torso was laced with numerous silver markings, some resembling ribs and her arms were covered in thorns of the same color. Her legs (if she had any.) were covered by a dark skirt draping over the ground that was made of hundreds of individual arms, writhing with clawed fingers that desperately grasped and reached out seemingly at nothing. It was as though her outfit was tailored by some sick fashion designer who gathered his materials from multiple cadavers.

Following her astounding metamorphosis, Gumball was already backing away from the thing that manifested before him and wasn't even sure where he was going to begin when it came time to confront her, especially when it looked like every part of her body could kill him. Her head was just as hideous as the rest of her, consisting of a cranium that was shrouded in messy, raven hair tipped with silver and a face so pale that it shone like a beacon against the shadow of her body. Her facial features were anything but charming, with a pair of dark circular eyes that possessed a single white light at the center that served as a pupil and a twisted mouth with only a few incisors that guarded a black hole. What made her face so unsettling for Gumball was the fact that it looked like a mask, a mask that was hiding something far more sinister.

Standing in her terrifying new form now, Tartarforas wasted no time in attacking and opened her disgusting mouth to release a torrent of black slime straight at the panicking cat boy. Already sensing the imminent danger he was in, Gumball dodged the tar-like spray by leaping backwards, as high as he could go and found himself landing upon a mountain of discarded items. Now that he had gained the high ground and some considerable distance from the giantess, Gumball considered his next course of action.

Seeing as she now possessed a ranged attack, Gumball was going to have to strike back with his own and considered decapitating the creature. He knew that such a move would only slow it down, but if it melted into a silver goo again, maybe he could hack at it with a hundred percent of his power until it was completely vaporized. He knew that it could take him a while, longer than he was willing to go at full power even, but the thing's gotta have a weakness somewhere and he was willing to completely burn himself out if it meant finding it.

His plans were brought to a screeching halt when Tartarforas began calling out to him,

"Don't even think that you can outrun me and my nightmares!" her voice rang out, almost like a hollow whisper.

Confused as to what she could referring to, he searched the place, finding nothing until a flash of lightning lit up the landfill and Gumball noticed a new terror making its way up the garbage pile he was on. At first he believed it to be a shadow creeping its way up the rubbage heap, but after squinting really hard, he could see that it wasn't a shadow as it was coming from the base of the Nephilim's skirt. Spawning from the black substance the Nephilim spewed all over the ground were thousands of little things that crept their way up the trash hill and when another bolt of lightning tore its way across the sky, Gumball realized with terror what those things are: Spiders!

Gumball could already feel his skin crawling as the basket ball-sized eight-legged creepy crawlies swarmed over the debris pile, nearly covering everything in a squirming black sea of arachnids. With his instincts telling him to run, Gumball wanted to dash down the garbage mountain and out of the landfill, away from this horrid place and away from the Nephilim along with her legion of spiders. Unfortunately, despite how much his arachnophobia was trying to get his legs to carry him as far away in the opposite direction of the dangerous bugs, he remained firmly planted where he was and already began tracking the creatures, seeing which ones he should take out first.

The problem was: there were too many of them and given that their fangs and knife-shaped legs looked especially deadly, he wouldn't last long if he took them all on.

Realizing there is no way to beat them all, Gumball decided his best option was to retreat and find an opening somewhere that would allow him to effectively counter the monster. The first line of spiders were about ten feet below him and closing in very fast, their sharp little legs clanking against the various metal objects within the trash and their fangs were snapping together rather loudly, in stark contrast to the rumbling noise that was getting louder by the second. At first, Gumball believed this to be thunder, but he was quickly proven wrong when the ground began to shake and a deafening roar sounded shortly after,

RAAAUUUGGGHHHH!

Flinching at the tremendous sound that could rival aircraft engines, Gumball wondered if the Nephilim had conjured up another beast, but when he frantically panned his head in Tartarforas' direction, he could see her glancing about as though perplexed by the very sound he heard as well. Then in the next instant, the trash in front of him, as well as all the spiders on it, violently exploded, flinging rubble and spiders everywhere. As soon as the spiders were clear, Gumball was completely taken by surprise when he saw the thirty-five foot nightmare get pushed to the side by an invisible force shortly after.

The Nephilim crashed into another pile, completely toppling it as it was buried in all the soggy refuse and if that wasn't humiliating enough for a monster of its size, then Gumball didn't know how things could get any worse for her. Now as for what caused the strange spectacle, Gumball cast a glance opposite of Tartarforas' direction and spotted a very large T-rex standing in the muddy pathway he himself had come through. Seeing as the tyrant lizard king (according to the Greek language.) was at least twice Tina's size and had darker green skin than his seventh grade classmate, this was without a doubt Tina's dad and while he was glad that Tartarforas has been temporarily disabled, he was on the verge of another panic attack because he didn't want to deal with two monsters when he was already having so much difficulty with one.

When he peered into the T-rex's eyes however, he saw that they were a glowing crimson rather than their usual dark yellow and a sense of relief washed over him all at once,

"Thanks for the assist, Carrie!" he called out to her from his high perch.

The large T-rex snorted in response, a fine mist billowing from its thin nostrils as it replied a deep voice much like its own, only raspier,

"Hmmph, No problem. I was going to make him go to sleep, but I heard shouting coming from this direction along with a few explosions and I couldn't stand aside while something may be wrong." she used the tiny claws in front to scratch a spot under her chin while she spoke.

Skating down the mountain of trash and rushing up to the possessed dinosaur, Gumball stopped a few feet short of its giant taloned feet,

"Thanks, but why did you bring Mr. Rex along? You could have left him in his den and came here yourself, you know." he asked, not sure how the lumbering bipedal lizard would be any use to the normally swift spirit, unless of course she wanted a lot of brute strength to back her up.

She didn't seem too offset by that question, however Gumball could see by the look in the T-rex's eyes that she was uncertain about something,

"Well, you see, when a being that is of the dead possesses the body of something that is living, several of our powers are amplified." she explained to the best of her abilities, mainly because she was worried Gumball might not understand.

This actually was perplexing to Gumball and the blue cat struggled to understand why that would make sense, but for the moment he was just glad she came to help, even though he told her to stay back. Also, there was the Nephilim they needed to deal with and time spent asking questions regarding the ghost's powers was time wasted in coming up with a plan. He was right in his concerns as the moment Carrie finished her explanation, the other spirit began to stir within its trashy burial.

Using his power to hop atop the T-rex, the powerful feline was given a better scope of the scenario unfolding before him as well as a better place to discuss strategy with his empowered companion,

"Alright, as awesome as that is, we're going to have to use it to take down Tartar sauce over there. Can you see her by the way?" he asked, wanting to make sure he understood his ally's strengths and weaknesses.

He felt the dinosaur nod its enormous head and Carrie responded using its voice,

"If you're talking about a thirty-five foot, hideous woman with an amazing fashion sense, then I think that qualifies as seeing her." a sarcastic laugh somehow managing to escape her.

Feeling glad for her ability to see the evil specter, Gumball began to relay what he knew about Tartarforas,

"Great! Her name is Tartarforas and she has the ability to change her form based on what you fear. I'm not sure how we can defeat her yet, but I think- LOOK OUT!" Gumball shrieked.

His explanation was cut short when a long, thorn covered arm shot out of the pile and straight towards the two of them. Startled, the possessed dinosaur took a step back before Carrie used her telekinesis to stop the approaching clawed hand from tearing into the T-rex's skull. The limb remained paused in mid-air as the claws curled and uncurled furiously, intent on ripping the two (technically three if you count in Tina's father, the unwilling participant.) to shreds.

While Carrie struggled to keep the limb in place, which was a first for her because there weren't many creatures on this planet that could put up such a struggle, the rest of Tartarforas' body emerged and she began to slink towards them, her glowing eyes piercing the two of them from her behind black and silver locks. Both of them could see the garbage that covered her already disintegrating as she joined up with her detained hand and Gumball could see a frown twisting upon her white mask. As if her seething glare plus her towering visage wasn't enough to cause an internal round of fright within the two, they were very startled to see the hand that Carrie was holding back began to start spewing a black substance that bubbled and encased the limb itself,

"Dark exorcism!" Tartarforas hissed.

The hand suddenly broke out of its psychic lock and continued on its path towards the occupied lizard, whom was frozen with terror. Gumball didn't know what this move was capable of, but given the fact that it used the word "Exorcism" and was aimed towards Carrie and the being she was controlling, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Gathering the energy for another slash, Gumball rushed forward until his scythe was clear of Mr. Rex's snout and fired off his third blazing crescent energy attack at the Nephilim.

The grey arc of energy cut a clean path through the arm and exploded at the giantess' shoulder, knocking her aside a little. Gumball was amazed at how quickly he was getting a handle on his weapons powers, prior to this fight he only fired off two of these attacks, once during his fight with Flakey Platter and then during his skirmish with the Uriel copy. Ever since he figured out how to control the scythe's energy, figuring out how to store and discharge it was all theoretical, but thanks to this encounter he was able to figure it out.

Tartarforas was temporarily knocked back, but that only served to buy him and Carrie a little time. Seeing as it broke out of Carrie's telekinetic hold and his own strikes didn't carry enough devastation to completely put her out of commission, they were going to have to hit her with something bigger. Turning about and checking the area for any helpful items, Gumball found a solution in the shape of a discarded dining room table.

"Carrie can you keep her distracted for a bit?" Gumball called down to the spirit possessing the prehistoric beast he was currently standing on.

He felt her nod a little and a growl could be heard,

"Probably, but she is very strong!" she was very nervous and her eyes remained locked on the entity that was nearly twice the size of Mr. Rex.

Gumball understood this and began to run down the male T-Rex's backside,

"Don't worry, just keep her attention on you and wait for my signal. Once you hear it, fling that table behind you at her and run!" he shouted, before leaping off the tail and racing his way towards the broken table.

Carrie swung the dinosaur's rounded snout in the direction of the running scythe wielder and spotted the table he was referring to. She had no clue as to what he was planning on doing with the piece of junk, but if it helped them defeat this thing then she was going to have to trust him on this one. While her head was turned, she heard an otherworldly screech followed by a gust of wind and when she tried to see what Tartarforas was doing, something thin and spiky struck the T-Rex's face.

Her head snapped to the side and for the first time in decades she felt pain, not the misery that plagued her dreadful immortality, but actual burning pain that could only be felt by those with a tangible body. She felt it through Mr. Rex and while it was hard for her to describe precisely, she knew she didn't like it and wished to avoid it at any cost. She was also brought upon by guilt when she felt blood beginning to run from a gash on the dinosaur's snout and realized that her slow reaction had caused physical harm to Tina's father.

Quickly recovering from the Nephilim's strike, Carrie glanced at the dark nightmare being and quickly discovered that the arm Gumball destroyed had regenerated into a whip-like tentacle covered with silver thorns. It curled and uncurled right beside her as though it were flexing, Carrie could see a nasty sneer forming on the Nephilim's pale face,

"Hurts doesn't it, shade?" she asked rhetorically, using the derogatory name others have given the incorporeal residents of the Underworld.

The name offended Carrie to the highest degree not only because the way the Nephilim used it was insulting, but because throughout most of her early life before she came to Elmore, people would call her and others like her shade in a negative pretext. There are several evil spirits that exist in the world, spirits filled with so much malice and hatred that they'll cause turmoil wherever they go, those intangible beings have been given the name "shade" due to their shadowy nature, but the term unfortunately came to describe all ghosts by frightful people. Carrie had been forced out of many dwellings in the past by both Bizarros and Humans alike and hearing the same name they called her being uttered through the lips of this invader was beyond insulting!

She let out another roar through the T-Rex, one that displayed her fury and with it, a powerful psychic wave that slammed into Tartarforas. The wave blew back heaps of trash and even pressed the giantess back a little, the only thing she could really do was cover her face with her arm and weaponized limb as her dress limbs were forced back against her body. The roar was so loud, that the beast even felt her ears ringing painfully and could tell that the specter was ticked.

Once the wave passed over, the amorphous creature charged her claws with the black energy of dark exorcism and coiled her whip arm back for another strike. Carrie recognized the dark energy emanating from her claws and with her other arm reeling back for another strike Carrie forced the male Tyrannosaur to move forward towards the left,

"She's probably going to use the whip in order to secure me in one spot and then exorcise me with her other arm. Better close the distance and make her weapon useless!" she thought as she charged at her.

Seeing that the possessed dinosaur was quickly closing the distance, Tartarforas smirked as the ghostly school girl began to wander straight into her trap and charged her whip with the same energy before swinging it right at her. Stupid girl must have assumed that her weaponized limb was incapable of generating the harmful substance and once she was removed from the reptile, the dinosaur will join the rest of its kin and the specter will fade. All seemed to be falling into place and afterwards, there were only three defenders to deal with, plus the two anomalies she was secretly dispatched to investigate.

Sadly for the clever soldier, Tartarforas didn't catch the small object shooting right towards her left whip arm, not enough to cause damage, but to deflect her thorny tentacle away from Carrie. Caught by surprise, the Nephilim shapeshifter couldn't do anything as she felt the powerful jaws of the spirit infused reptile clamp down on her right arm, crushing the limb effortlessly with its fangs. With a hard tug and a snap of her head, Carrie used Mr. Rex's immense strength amplified with her own energy to effortlessly toss the giantess like a ragdoll into another messy cushion of rubbish.

Being plowed into the garbage again by the same measly spirit really set off the evil entity, now opting to utterly decimate the incorporeal insect that dared humiliate her like this. Several limbs from her dress shot outwards and secured themselves around the Tyrannosaur's neck, arms, and leg joints. The arms wrapping around the occupied father's neck began to tighten like snake coils, choking the living being and the claws at each end dug right into his scaly hide, making it near impossible to tear them off without further injury. Horrified at the aspect of being choked to death, Mr. Rex's possessed body gasped for air and desperately tried to tear off the attacking black limbs with its bloodied jaws. Her first close-up attack had caused some injury to the dinosaur seeing as Tartarforas' entire forearm was covered in curved spikes.

Suddenly Carrie could feel herself and Mr. Rex getting heavier, as though the planet's gravity was increasing, further locking her in place. What came next was an eerie red light, a vibrant hum that rattled her borrowed body's skull and a heat so intense, the pouring rain was evaporating just by being in its vicinity. A single scarlet eye traced the light to its source and she could see that the silver/black haired nightmare beast had already repaired her mangled limb and was producing an orb of black energy surrounded by a red aura at the tips of her index and middle fingers.

The light being produced by such deadly magic was enough to cast ghastly shadows over her ghoulish face,

"Mixing Dark exorcism with my Doom blast creates a powerful attack that destroys both living and dead creatures." her words had a deadly aire to them, sounding very final to the ghost girl. The orb grew brighter illuminating the Nephilim and the surrounding area in a single shade of crimson,

"Why don't you and that fossil tell Mephistopheles I said hello!" she bidded a gruesome farewell.

For the first time in her eternal afterlife, Carrie felt the fear of death and the knee-jerk, sudden impulse, flighty feeling of needing to escape with her life. This fear was only reserved for those who were living and Carrie need not fear such trivial feelings, she was cursed with an infinite existence along with all the other weary souls who have passed through the eternal gates. Now right here, in this very instant, her life was small and finite causing her to realize how much she was going to miss out if her existence came to an abrupt end.

She wasn't going to graduate from Middle school, go through high school with her friends, listen to anymore of her father's stories, and most importantly, she would never see Darwin again. That last thought brought her more pain than any of the Nephilim's thorny limbs and piercing claws, actually forcing a tear from her host's eye as she wondered how Darwin would go on without her. Another thought that crossed her mind was that of Tina's father, who was caught up in all of this against his own will. He was going to die here along with her and that would leave poor Tina without a father or any family really.

She would be orphaned and alone.

All this intense fear and existential dread manifested into the ghost girl as a powerful last-ditch attack. Now more than anything, she wanted to live and to also protect her host because there was more at stake here now. With an overwhelming burst of pent up psychic energy followed up with an earth shaking roar from the T-rex itself, Tartarforas' clawing limbs were blown off her body and the she-giant was thrown back several meters.

Gripped with shock at what the ghost managed to do, Tartarforas merely gaped at her and could only speculate as to where such a powerful outburst came from. With her Dark Doom blast shut off from the surprise attack, the thirty five foot nightmare giantess was unable to defend against Carrie's next psychic attack and with a loud Snap! her head was twisted backwards by an invisible hand. She began to shriek and flail her scrawny limbs about as she tried to reorient her head, but was caught in the stomach by a thick, whip-like lizard tail that battered her hollow insides,

"You've got to be pretty twisted if you want to eradicate both the living and the dead from this world, demon! Don't call me shade and don't you dare threaten Tina's father!" she shouted defiantly through the old Rex's maw before surrounding her tail in telekinetic energy and blasting the nefarious entity away with a powerful tail swing.

The combined might of the Tyrannosaur's tail and Carrie's power was enough to fling the Nephilim effortlessly through the air and through several garbage heaps as well, carving a trail through the ground. She came to a stop near the fence, but once she was already slowing down, she began to morph again and had already taken another shape. This time it was a creature that resembled Darwin, only far more twisted looking with a jagged sail that ran along its spine, sharp webbed claws instead of flippers, needle-like white fangs and dull orange scales with black edges. It regarded her empty white eyes and with a gurgling hiss, began to sprint on athletic human legs matching the creatures hide towards the possessed dinosaur owner of the landfill with incredible speed.

Carrie was unsure what to make of this new transformation, it wasn't scary by any means, but she hated that Tartarforas was using a degrading image of her beloved to attack her. The monster was very fast and seeing as the Nephilim was now the same size as Carrie's borrowed body, she knew that once the Nephilim got close it will tear Mr. Rex apart with its claws and teeth. It could also use another one of its unusual magic tricks to destroy them both, but that didn't matter because Carrie was going to have to deal with an opponent that was faster and probably more agile than she was,

"NOW, CARRIE!"

That was Gumball's signal! Looking far back to where he was, Carrie could see that the blue cat had finally finished whatever he was doing and was standing next to the broken table with a strange symbol carved into the top, presumably by his scythe. Following his command, she lifted the table with her invisible force and hurled it at the incoming monstrosity. The hexagonal rune glowed orange and when it collided with the now surprised Nephilim, it exploded violently, causing the monster to be swept up in a fireball.

Watching the giant plume of flame fade away into smoke, Carrie was stunned speechless and turned to the one responsible for creating the spell she used on Tartarforas, who was already at her side once the explosion was no more,

"So, both you and Teri, have been fighting these things for a while now, huh! Are there other spells you guys use that I should know about." she asked, still completely awestruck by what she had witnessed. She's seen magic in use before, but rune magic was not used all that often and with Gumball readily using two powerful ones with ease, was quite intriguing.

Looking rather tired, the little cat boy just lazily shrugged and leaned on his scythe for support,

"Me, Teri, and Rob actually, but the other two are the ones who use the runes the most, I just use the scythe because it's handy. Teri's got her origami to help her out and Rob's got his inventions along with a lot more… wait a minute! Where is he getting those new runes because he never tells us?" he questioned out loud, scratching the side of his head as he thought about it.

"Isn't he that one guy that tried to blow up the bus and nearly destroyed you at the airport? If so, then he doesn't sound very trustworthy." Carrie answered with her own honest opinion.

"Yes and also, good point! I will have to…?" he trailed off when he saw something move in the dissipating smoke.

Without warning, a pair of black, leathery bat wings shot up from the smoke cloud and with a horrific screech, something large and fast shot out towards them both. Gumball and Carrie barely had any time to react, Gumball managing to utter only a single curse, as the Nephilim (surprisingly still not dead.) managed to bat Carrie and Mr. Rex away with ease before snatching up Gumball with its talons. With another ear-piercing screech that shattered any glass nearby, the monster took off with Gumball in its clutches and Gumball could see the Tyrannosaur's body zip away from him along with the landfill as he ascended very quickly into the grey sky.

Being carried underneath the flying behemoth like a rodent captured by an owl while shooting through the clouds at high speeds was enough to set the fear factor for Gumball and having been through quite the emotional roller coaster today, he was amazed that his pounding heart hadn't given out yet from all the stress. It was already too dark with all the thick, wet condensation surrounding them, but when Gumball managed to turn himself about to get a good look at the Nephilim, he saw that she had taken the form of some goblin-like creature with sharp features, beady glowing white eyes, and scraggly hair with the same colors as her giant form had. Her wings were beating heavily as she continued to carry him to some unknown destination and Gumball managed to wriggle his scythe arm free,

"What the heck is the matter with you? Why won't you die?" he shouted over the wind.

Tartarforas let out another screech and stared down at him with those lifeless eyes of hers,

"The only one's dying here are you and the rest of your weak kind!" she snarled.

Gumball tried to get his bearings, but couldn't figure out where they were thanks to all the clouds and nearly became dizzy trying. A fall from this height would most certainly kill him and if he wasn't near anything that he could use to slow himself down, it would be pointless to try and free himself. However, once he remembered that the Nephilim are hollow on the inside as well as gigantic in stature, he quickly formed a plan and turned back to her with another quip ready,

"How about you? Are you afraid of death?" he asked.

The Nephilim seemed to take offense to this seemingly innocent question and Gumball could see her blackened lips curl back into a sneer, revealing two rows of white shark fangs,

"The only one I fear is the one who stands above all, the Jade Emperor! Death does not begin to frighten me because he is on our side!" she chanted, sounding almost pleased to hear her own words.

An arc of lightning traced its way across the sky, nearly missing the flying spirit and her prisoner, and the whole sky was washed with white light. The thunder that followed was deafening and very distracting for those who were flying close by. Which was good fortune on Gumball's part because he was already charging his scythe up for another blast,

"How about falling?" he asked with a wicked grin that displayed some cockiness.

She sensed the build up of spiritual energy, but too late to stop him from attacking. She had been so sure that the cat's fear of heights would prevent him from doing anything reckless and that they would be able to reach his partner's current location without much hassle. She was proven very wrong when both her arm and corresponding wing were cleaved from her body and the both of them were sent tumbling down through the grey, cloudy abyss to the dark earth below.

-Joyful Burger, 12:37 PM-

Okay, so while Rob had initially planned on going to the void today straight after picking up some food, he may have gotten dragged into doing a few errands and after all of that was out of the way, his stay at Joyful Burger was extended by half an hour. He had gotten sucked into a few online sales and trades while grabbing his first meal at a fast food restaurant that was currently his favorite amongst them. While plowing through three large burgers and fries that he had just started getting to, his large, yellow eye remained transfixed on the screen in front of him as he browsed through several tabs showcasing the newest electronics from the Mechheadz Electronics and devices store, a minor tech shop that sells quality devices for a reasonable price and is his favorite place to grab some top of the line parts for his various inventions. When he spotted a new drone being sold on the site, he quickly checked Begslist to see if anyone had offered anything for the old motor he had managed to pry out of a used car last week and tweek up a little bit so that it was running better and more efficiently.

His fingers scraped the sides of the paper fries container for any more deep fried, salted potato slices and he pulled up the other tab,

"Hmm, three buyers and one of them is willing to pay 700 for it! That's 200 more than I was offering in the first place!" he half whispered excitedly. There weren't many people in the fast food joint, the melted cheese guy, a large man with a blue body and tighty-whities (okay, he knew that there was no real line in terms of decency in this city, but that just seemed a little too indecent.), and the rock headed worker that seemed to have multiple relatives working everywhere. He wasn't sure why there were so few customers here, but could guess that it had something to do with the dreary weather.

Happy with his lucky break, Rob began to message the buyer when all the lights went out along with the radio and all the other electronics within the building. Alarmed, Rob wondered what the problem was and raised his head from his computer to check out the area. He figured that it could just be a blackout due to the storm hanging overhead (he was mildly annoyed by the weather mainly because he had to go back and get his coat once it started to rain.), but when he looked outside, he saw that every car in the street had stopped moving, all the lights lining the roads were out, shops were now dark and people inside or near these various locations were scratching their heads in confusion once their devices had ceased to function.

It was a total blackout and Rob could already feel the air starting to get colder.

It was considerably darker now and the only thing he could hear was the sound of the rain hitting the roof of the building as well as splattering against the glass windows repeatedly, along with the sound of the two other customers complaining,

"Hey, counter guy, what's going on here? Why are the lights out?" the voice of the melted cheese guy called out.

"It seems that were experiencing a blackout, sir. Just take a seat, the power should be back on soon and you can go back to your meal." the scrawny employee replied, his voice slightly on edge.

There was another reply from the blue guy in his underwear,

"It's not just the lights, everything's gone dead and my phone's out too!" his raised voice drowning out the pouring rain outside,

"And I was just about to order another large soda on the JB app too." he whined.

The rock headed burger worker seemed rather perplexed by the blue blob's last statement,

"Um, you could just order one from the counter." he pointed out.

The melted cheese guy turned his goopy head towards the counter and his eyes widened in shock,

"Wait, there's a Joyful Burger ordering app?! Why did I even waste my time coming here then?" he exclaimed with shock, clasping his forehead with his hand.

KRRRRNNNCH!

It came from above. Reacting right away to the sound, Rob reached into his bag and placed his hand around the miniaturized rail cannon's handle, ready to withdraw the weapon at a moment's notice. He checked the plastered white ceiling and noticed right away that it was dented, with dust and chips of ceiling paint raining down onto them from the forceful impact. With both the power outage and something dropping onto the roof, this was no doubt a Nephilim attack! Rob gulped audibly and kept his grip tight on his weapon, he wondered why the Nephilim would be appearing here of all places.

"Crap! Is it after me? Is it trying to get revenge for Uriel! Gumball did say that Uriel's arrival was driven by revenge for his sister and we don't know how many allies he had either." he wondered frantically, seconds ticking by slowly as he carefully surveyed the area,

"I should call for reinforcements, but that could take some time. This rail cannon is loaded with Ruby Sun rune printed bullets and while its pretty good on its own, I'm going to need something that packs a lot more firepower and distance too." he looked out to where his car was, but he didn't know if he could get to it without that thing attacking him first and there were also people in the building, people he could not leave undefended.

His anxiety began to rise when he heard something move on the roof again. He listened carefully, following what sounded like rapid little footsteps as well as a few heavy ones and realized that there appeared to be two of them on the roof. Fearing the worst, Rob turned to the three people standing around and listening curiously at the commotion happening above them, they looked very troubled,

"Everyone out, now!" Rob shouted, waving an arm towards the exit.

Rather than do what they were told, they all just stared at him like he laid an egg,

"I can't, sir, we're still open!" the worker said, sounding even more nervous than before, probably because of the things on the roof or perhaps there was something about his job that he feared.

"Yeah, I don't want to go anywhere until my 12th -er, 3rd burger is done, so why should I listen to you?" the melted cheese guy demanded.

Without another word, Rob pulled the rail cannon from his bag and pointed it at Larry, clicking a button until it hummed and shot the oversized Elmore citizen a villainous glare,

"Because if you don't, then I, Doctor Wrecker, will blast all of you into last week!" he warned, throwing in a menacing laugh to further terrify the three.

"Everyone out, store's closed!" Larry quickly shouted, clearing the counter easily with his stick-like legs before scrambling out the door and screaming for his life.

The others followed suit, running and screaming while Rob continued to laugh, pose, and throw insults like a villain would. There were times when he really enjoyed his villain gag too much and he found that he still revelled in seeing people flee in fear. He actually wished Gumball was here to see this and going along with it like they used to.

He kind of got his wish, when said person was thrown through the window after something large hurled him inside from the roof top and came crashing through the dining area, knocking over tables and chairs before tumbling to the floor in a heap. Seeing Gumball of all people come flying through the window while a Nephilim attack was going on, didn't strike the cyclops as too odd, (it was a bit unexpected.) but he was more or less confused as to why he didn't contact him before the fight. Heck, even Teri hasn't mentioned anything either, even though it should be possible given that their phones were EMP resistant.

"Gumball? What's going on?" he finally asked, rushing towards his fallen body.

He could see right away that he was roughed up, covered in a few lacerations and bruises, but what really caught his attention was when he looked up at Rob, he almost screamed and began to frantically back away from him,

"Rob! Behind you!" he shrieked.

Realizing that Gumball wasn't looking at him, rather behind him, the mad inventor whipped around just in time to see a formless mass hurling towards him and was taken for a wild ride when he was sent sliding over the countertop, knocking over the cash register, and crashing onto the floor. He uttered a pained groan as his hand shot to the back of his head, his vision was dotted with bright lights and when he tried moving, he could feel bits of broken machinery and money shifting underneath himself, scattered all over the floor.

His rail cannon was flung from his hand when the Nephilim knocked him back and the disfigured ally of Gumball knew that he wasn't going to put up much of a fight if he wasn't armed. Slowly getting up while shrugging off the surging pain in his back as well as his head, Rob used both hands to pull himself up with the counter as support and when he was standing again, he tried to shake off his dizziness. He must have hit his head rather hard because what he heard and saw next made him freeze on the spot:

Standing on the other side of the counter and staring right at him was Rachel.

Dumbfounded, the one eyed kid shook his blocky head a few times and blinked to see if he was hallucinating, but she was definitely here alright when he found that he couldn't make her go away. The lingering question was why was his roommate and only real friend at the restaurant in the middle of all of this? When he left, she was sleeping soundly in her room and where was the thing that attacked him?

Before he could think too hard on this, she held her hand up to her face, looking at it as though she didn't recognize it herself and then back at him with a look of horror, causing Rob's pale grey skin to crawl,

"Rob…" she started, choking back a sob.

Rob reached out to her, trying to grab her hand, she looked so terrified and he wanted to get her out of here,

"Rachel, we need to get you out of here!" he exclaimed desperately, trying to grab her hand from over the countertop,

"How did you get here anyway?" he couldn't help but ask, seeing as he hadn't the faintest idea how the rainbow lass managed to find herself in this situation.

While he was concerned with her well-being, there was a heavy suspicion clouding his mind: something wasn't right here.

Still looking terribly confused, the multi-colored teenager began to break down completely, sobbing into her hands and muttering to herself in a broken string of words,

"...I don't know… I can't remember… can't remember anything… so lost…" tears streamed down her cheeks and Rob was reminded of the various nights when he heard her crying in her room, completely caught up in her identity crisis as she tried to piece back together everything that was lost,

"...I don't know who I am…"

More crying and silence.

And then,

"Rob." she was still covering her face and her voice was broken.

Rob felt a chill run down his back and his eye widened, something was definitely wrong here.

She then lifted her hands from her face and Rob screamed in terror when he saw that her features were visibly warped. Her once beautiful black eyes were pools of static with veins stretching from the sockets, creeping across her cheeks and her skin had lost its color, turning a shade of steel while her teeth became more jagged and black. She dug her fingers into her scalp as she howled in pain,

"HELP ME!" she screamed.

Rob wished he could look away, better yet, run, but his back was against the wall. He couldn't face away from the horrific scene playing a few feet in front of him and he swore he could feel his breath starting to speed up to levels near hyperventilation. This was something out of his worst nightmare, Rachel was being corrupted by the void just like he was and the look of pure agony on her face while the process took hold was something that he was never ever going to forget.

But what happened next was just as, if not, more scarring for his psyche. Clasping the middle of her cranium very tightly, Rachel's already broken face began to split down the middle and a glowing crack could be seen weaving its way down her body. She then split herself open, as though committing a brutally violent act of self-destruction, and what came pouring out of her body was not Bizarro innards, but a shower of static, static from the void.

The formless wave of bland material began to flow outwards and took on an almond shape, forming an opening in the air in front of the register area. Rob gaped at the man sized hole and another wave of fear washed over him, whatever this thing was it was trying to trap in the source of his misfortune and misery. Without any gear, he would be pulled in and lost forever, everything about him would fade into oblivion as he went mad with loneliness.

Not being able to take it anymore, Rob suffered a complete meltdown. He let out another blood curdling scream before making a mad dash for the kitchen, furiously scrambling through the cooking area, knocking over various utensils as he dashed by them and constantly whipping his head back around to see what the portal was doing. To his despair, a massive hand began form from the opening, matching the scrambled background of the void as it reached out to him, it's fingers curling menacingly. Rob's mind went into overdrive as he began searching for an exit, he first spotted the service window, but found it too small to fit through and when he reached the back exit, he also found that it was inaccessible.

He gripped the bar tightly, pressing it rapidly, but the door wouldn't budge as a result. Furious and impatient, Rob began to slam his shoulder repeatedly against the door causing loud sounds to reverberate throughout the building and even though his shoulder had begun to hurt after the first few attempts, he still put everything into making the door move. However, the door remained locked and unmovable causing Rob to sweat furiously,

"Come on, come on, come on, open god damn it!" he roared, now kicking it a few times.

He heard something crash behind him and when he turned to see what the nightmare was doing, he saw that the void hand had knocked aside a prep table and was still steadily making its way towards him. Realizing there was no escape, the lanky pre-teen began to search the kitchen for something to defend himself with. He spotted a metal spatula sitting on the burner and opted to grab it, turning to the disembodied limb with the greasy cooking utensil pointed at it like a sword.

Fortunately, he need not defend himself with such an inferior weapon nor face a grim death, as Gumball swung in through the drive-through window not too long after with his scythe in hand, leaping towards the approaching void hand and with an elegant swing of the blade, cut down Rob's attacker. The limb fell in two pieces, severed at the wrist, and melted into silver goo that split into several pieces before scattering into various openings. With the threat temporarily dispatched, there was a brief silence as the two took a moment to catch their breaths before Gumball stood up from his crouch and grabbed Rob by the wrist, dragging him towards the main dining area,

"Come on, we gotta get into a more spacious area before she reforms and also, don't fall for her tricks, she can create your worst fears." Gumball blabbed out all at once, not caring for the fact that he was speaking very fast and that Rob wasn't in the know with Tartarforas.

Obviously confused, Rob yanked his hand out of Gumball's grasp, but continued to move alongside him,

"How did you get outside on the roof? I saw you laying down in the dining area before that thing attacked me?" he asked in a demanding tone.

They hopped over the counter once they reached it and Rob retrieved his fallen weapon, charging the electric coils. Thankfully no one was around, even the people outside had fled the blackout area once glass had started shattering throughout the restaurant. Checking around for the beast, Gumball answered Rob's question,

"I was never in the building to begin with." he shot back, causing Rob to cast a confused glance his direction,

"When we fell from the sky and landed here, her severed arm became a copy of me and jumped in here, probably to fool you and I saw her wing make its way in here too, although it had a different shape. I was dealing with the rest of her on the roof and after I destroyed it, I heard you shouting from the kitchen and came to assist you. And seriously, a spatula! Who are you, SpongeRob?" it was his turn to shoot him a look.

Keeping his sights on the windows, Rob's gun was held at a steady level and he waited for something to move out in the shadows. It was considerably cold in here, with all the broken windows and no power, Rob shivered from the drafty air. If they ever survived this, they were probably going to have to avoid this area for a while, actually Rob was probably going to have to keep a low profile now given the stunt he pulled earlier with the other people.

"It took another form?! What kind of Nephilim is this and also where is Teri, how come she's not with you?" he asked, feeling both surprised and concerned. He also wasn't going to answer Gumball's snarky question even though it did annoy him.

"Teri's at cheerleading practice and this one's able to shapeshift. To make matters worse, I haven't located a weakness yet." he replied with a grim honesty. He also felt a little guilty when he told him where Teri was.

Another flash of lightning and the boys could see several unsightly silhouettes surrounding the building. There were over a dozen of them, manifesting seemingly from thin air and all of them were tall, intimidating, and very warped versions of themselves. The ten foot doppelgangers were staring in on them through the windows like they were some kind exotic exhibit, with glowing white eyes, pointed fangs and fingers ending in dagger-like claws, both the boys went silent and decided to save the bickering for later.

Gumball charged his Nephilim killing weapon with spiritual energy, the blade's rune glowing like a silver candle in the dim room, and kept his eye on a demonic clone of himself that was clawing at the glass, carving a screeching trail within the smooth, transparent surface while grinning at him tauntingly. Rob was already picking his targets, choosing to focus on the ones behind him and Gumball, deciding to go back-to-back with his shorter blue partner. One of the giants opened its mouth, allowing its long, black, lizard-like tongue to roll out and slather the glass with saliva. This was the one that Rob decided to take out first, pointing the bulky, pistol-like electric weapon until the single barrel was aimed directly down his evil clone's throat.

BRAKKA!

The enchanted bullet leapt from his weapon the moment his pointer finger clasped the trigger, shattering the window and burrowing itself into the monster's maw. Right as the bullet made contact with the creature, the Ruby Sun rune activated, exploding into a spiky, basketball sized orb of ruby shards and causing the Nephilim's head to violently explode from the sudden expansion. With its head reduced to silver globs and shattering ruby shards, the Nephilim's body crumpled and slumped over the window's edge.

All at once, the other giants exploded into action, bursting in through the windows and charging towards their awaiting targets with their claws raised and a screech leaving their lips. With a battle cry of his own to match theirs, Gumball shot forward, easily outpacing his enemies and catching them off guard. Electronic gunfire ripped through the air as Rob continued to place round after round into various charging opponents and ripping several apart with his enchanted expanding bullets of death. The restaurant was a complete madhouse filled all sorts of horrible sounds as the fight began.

With the first being a look alike, Gumball stopped short about five feet and ducked down in order to avoid a swipe from the giant's claws. Simultaneously, he swung hard and kept the blade at a distance, easily catching the Nephilim's knee within the blade before separating the limb easily. Collapsing into a kneeling position, the ten-foot demon cat was quickly decapitated when its smaller clone hopped atop its shoulders and delivered the final blow.

Taking the opportunity to attack him while he was dealing with the first giant, another one lunged at him, easily ripping into his shoulder with its claws and Gumball could feel the piercing talons cutting through at least an inch of his flesh. Upon seeing a creepy version of Rob attacking him, Gumball was quick to react and while he took a nasty hit to his shoulder, he managed to jam the stock end of the grey weapon into the monster's single eye. Completely blind, the Nephilim pulled back with a loud shriek, furiously clawing at its injured orb, and when it had taken a step back, Gumball was quick to split its head open with the sharp end of his preferred weapon.

He heard another horrendous screech and spun around to see two more Gumball giants making their way towards him, claws raised and long tongues slithering over their sharp teeth. Stepping off the liquified corpse of the first one he killed, the blue cat's ears flattened against his head as he let out another hiss towards his approaching adversaries and felt his fur stand on end. It's been a while since he was this ferocious, his first time being at the playground when he was in kindergarten when a group of kids tried to steal a toy of his from him and he managed to scare them off with his feline attributes. Later that day, he was reprimanded by his mother, she told him that it was not okay to use animalistic traits to scare other people and that he needs to use his words to resolve his conflicts.

He'd never been overly aggressive to begin with, but after that incident, anytime a situation threatened to spill out of control, he would try to deal with it in a more human-like fashion. Luckily such problems were so few and in between and normally whenever he found himself in a dangerous situation with other people, he just resorted to running away. The only times he'd ever go feral is when he was caught off guard or when he was really ticked.

Like right now.

He hated this Nephilim, he hated that it was impersonating him, but as a monster, as though it were mocking him and he hated the fact that it was nothing, but sadistic and uncaring. His blue paw shifted forward and he found himself getting even closer to the ten foot creatures looming over his small figure. Right before he was about to jump up and take off their heads, Gumball felt that something was wrong and that he was getting weaker.

While this was going on in his head, he hadn't slowed his approach and darted towards the closest Nephilim, which raised an elongated clawed hand to swipe at him with. He swiftly dodged the first and second attack from the beast, but his movements have become slower. He cut off the monster's hands once they were close enough and when he saw the other one circling around them both, he realized a strike from behind was imminent and dove forward, in between the giant's legs just as the flanking creature leapt forward. The resulting collision left the giants in a tangled mess that was rather easy for Gumball to clean up.

After cutting them into several smaller pieces, Gumball realized what was happening to him and saw that he needed to end this battle quickly. His strength was draining due to his extended use of the scythe's magic. At one hundred percent, he could only go for a few minutes before tiring out and while a quarter of this power allowed him to go for longer periods, he was still using up energy.

"GUMBALL!"

However, his waning strength was not the greatest of his problems as he heard Rob shouting his name and when Gumball looked to see, he saw that Rob was fending off a herd of Nephilim cats and cyclops with a gun that was starting to run dry,

"Not that I'm saying you can't catch your breath or anything, but could you give me a hand here!" Rob shouted once he saw that Gumball was watching him. He shot a Gumball giant in the eye as it drew too close and quickly jumped away when a Rob giant snapped at him with its jaws.

When Gumball analyzed the situation, he saw that there were only five attacking the retreating gunman and that they were continuously attacking in order to throw his aim off. There were also two more moving throughout the restaurant, preparing to flank him or perhaps fend off Gumball himself, but Gumball decided not to worry about those ones and went to help his ally. When the mad inventor punched a basketball-sized hole in a Nephilim's sternum with another well-placed round, Gumball spotted a giant to his right preparing to sink its teeth into his cranium and called out to his companion,

"Rob! Duck down!" he shouted.

He did as he was told and Gumball with a ten percent charge, quickly cleared the distance and rolled himself over on Rob's exposed backside while swinging his scythe down into the Nephilim's skull. The Rob giant let out a dying whimper before it went limp as the roof of its mouth sprouted an extra fang and with a quick kick to the abdomen, Gumball sent the giant flying into the other two that were sneaking up behind them. With the danger of being outmaneuvered averted, Rob was able to take out two more opponents in front of him, first by gun lashing a cat Nephilim in the knee, causing the evil creature to stumble and then was used as cover by the distorted cyclops when a monster of a similar appearance tried to attack. Ripping its own teammates throat out, the first one went down and Rob delivered a shot to the other's hip, causing a blossom of red crystalline spikes to tear its left leg off. The helpless monster fell to the ground, screeching angrily and Rob kicked its only eye in before putting his last bullet into its head.

The last one went to help the other two with Gumball, but when it got close enough to attack, Rob flipped a nearby table over and sent it skidding towards the lanky Nephilim copy of himself. The table struck its legs and the giant crashed to the floor, left in a daze for a brief moment before Gumball eyed it and bisected it. Once that was done, Gumball killed off the other two and went back to Rob to wait for the next attack. He spotted something small flying about the restaurant, but given how dark it was, it could have easily been a moth.

Once the final two were dealt with, Rob took the brief opportunity to reload the rail cannon's ammo stock with more Ruby Sun bullets and checked out the state of Joyful Burgers dining area. The place was a complete mess: multiple tables were overturned (some broken when the horde of giants stormed the place.), chairs were strewn about the open area and broken glass was covering the floor. The place looked even dingier with all the water from the pouring rain splattering the tile floors and furniture and the darkness provided by the heavy cloud cover was unsettling. Then there was all the silver goo remaining from the various fear-based enemies that trashed the place and left both Gumball and Rob shakened by the experience.

After a moment had passed and the restaurant showed no signs of movement, the two kids began to investigate further into the building. The giants were reduced to goo, but they haven't burned up yet, so something was off. Pulling out his phone, Rob turned on the flashlight and began scanning the seemingly empty fast food joint,

"Yeesh, Carrie's mansion looks better than this place!" Gumball muttered upon seeing the mess left by the skirmish.

"Who's Carrie?" Rob asked, knowing almost nothing of Gumball's classmates.

Gumball answered, but kept his guard up,

"One of my classmates, she's a ghost and she also helped me fight Tartarforas in the landfill." he replied, feeling as though the last part was important to mention.

Rob's face shifted from straight to alarmed and his head snapped in Gumball's direction,

"Wait, what?! You brought one of your classmates in a fight against the Nephilim?" he shouted, his voice laced with disbelief.

Gumball shrunk back a little and immediately regretted bringing her up,

"U-um, actually I didn't invite her, I more like bumped into her while I was on my way to the dump and she kind of figured everything out from there. Turns out she can sense the Nephilim when they appear." he explained, his voice a little shaky.

Rob was still beyond frustrated and just scowled when it dawned on him that the Nephilim are spiritual in nature and another spirit sensing them shouldn't be that inconceivable,

"Why didn't you contact me or Teri? You could have avoided detection if you'd just allowed us to transport you there and were you seriously planning on fighting that thing alone?" he asked, his gaze now falling on Gumball's uncertain features.

"Well, I, uh…" Gumball began to freeze up because he knew his reasoning was completely illogical and wouldn't exactly play well with his very concerned companion,

"I thought that I could handle it on my own because if you guys were busy then I could do you both a favor…" Gumball stopped talking because he already knew where this was going and wanted to spare himself the pain of Rob's harsh verbal chastisement.

However, the polygonal cyclops only seemed agitated (how much was Gumball's guess.) and he just turned back in the direction they were heading, letting out a disgusted snort as he shined his light in said direction,

"Good job, you managed to rope in a person who had nothing to do with this, you went by yourself without contacting anyone and you allowed the Nephilim to drag you all the way here where it can cause more destruction, thanks, you've done us all a great favor." Gumball felt his head lower in shame as the weight of Rob's words crashed down on him and he wondered if he was even worth helping either of them out in this conflict. He wanted to apologize, but with the way Rob's back was turned to him, he decided that now was not a good time, especially since they hadn't defeated the monster yet.

Once he was certain that there were no Nephilim hiding anywhere, Rob brought Gumball back to the counter area and hatched a plan,

"Okay, so you said this thing can shapeshift and can take the form of our worst fears." he listed off, to which Gumball nodded,

"anything else?" he asked.

Gumball shrugged and answered quietly,

"It doesn't die, no matter how many times I cut it down and I even used a bomb rune, which did nothing." it was evident that he was low in morale given the tired look on his face and the dull color in his eyes.

This struck Rob as curious, up to this point, there was never a Nephilim that couldn't be killed after sustaining enough damage to its body and while they projected a broad range of abilities, this one was definitely high tier. Like most of the Nephilim, it came alone, but was far more capable than its predecessors. Rob began to wonder if this was a different class of Nephilim with a different range of abilities that included increased durability. So far all the Nephilim that came were silver, black, and gold/bronze in color and he always wondered if their colors meant anything significant, but was unable to draw a conclusion given their abilities.

Either way, Tartarforas was a different Nephilim and thus, had a different weakness. So basic strikes and magical attacks were not enough to take her down because she could always reform. So Rob wondered if there was a limit to her overall durability and figured if they could keep her trapped in this building while he destroyed it entirely, maybe she will be completely obliterated all at once. She couldn't regenerate if there was nothing left to spawn from, right?

With this theory in mind, Rob's face lit up and he placed a hand on Gumball's shoulder, grabbing the kitten's attention,

"Okay, I think I figured out a way to defeat Tartarforas." he replied finally and Gumball could feel his spirits lifting, so he listened eagerly,

"It's a bit risky, but when she returns, I need you to keep her contained in here while I go to my car and get some magic bombs to reduce this place to-!" he was going through his plan when he heard something and his head snapped up in the direction of the noise.

"There's nothing you two can do to stop me." Tartarforas hissed from the shadows.

Rob shifted his phone's flashlight in the direction of her voice and when the light was shining in the specific area, the two were alarmed to see the Nephilim glide around the corner where the main counter was located and stopped a few feet short of them. She was in her feminine horror form again, except that her height was now at twelve feet and instead of a face, there was a void containing two glowing white dots that served as her eyes. She peered down at them while the various limbs that made up her skirt shifted and twitched as they reached out and grasped nothing but air.

The two felt a chill run down their backs and were already backing up in fear, but she did not seem to care about this as she continued to speak,

"You talk of destroying me as though it were child's play, but what can I expect from two naive Earth abominations. You know, I could have destroyed both of you in this very restaurant with my puppets because your silly toys can't really destroy fear without form!" she jeered, narrowing her eyes at the two and if she had a mouth, Gumball and Rob would have assumed that she would be smiling.

Rob raised his rail cannon until the stubby barrel was pointed at the space between her eyes,

"Thanks for your generosity, I guess. Want a medal? Sorry if the only ones I can give are made of copper, but they are quite valuable when you touch them." he joked in a threatening tone.

Gumball stepped in and threw in another jibe aimed at the nightmare giantess standing where the customers lined up,

"At least she made an improvement on her face, the last one didn't have much going for it!" this earned him a snicker from his one-eyed companion.

All comedy is derived from fear, Tartarforas knew this and she could sense that the two idiots were hiding their own fright. She appreciated their attempts to stand up to her, she knew these brats were trouble for the Nephilim's work here and seeing what they were capable of was interesting. Unfortunately, playtime was over and she had a mission to complete.

From her back sprouted two enormous butterfly wings, adorned with glowing lights that spread across the dark surface like the stars that bathed the galaxy and in the center were two eye-like markings that were striking in design. Startled by this transformation, Gumball moved in front of Rob while the latter pointed his electronic ranged weapon over Gumball's shoulder. It was a good defensive and offensive position, with Gumball protecting Rob against anything the Nephilim could dish out and Rob being able to return some punishment. Rob was smart and didn't bother waiting for her to make the first move, already lighting up the frightful entity as he shouted to Gumball,

"Back up towards the exit and prevent her from doing anything!" he continued to pump round after round at the beast as they both began to retreat towards the building entrance.

Despite his advancements and powerful enchantments, the bullets had little effect on Tartarforas as the limbs covering her lower torso would shoot up and catch the projectiles without much effort. The bullets would collide with her hands, making loud pinging sounds before exploding into their Ruby mace heads and she would simply lower the damaged limb before discarding the crimson spikes entirely while allowing her hands to regenerate. Rob reminded himself to always keep different kinds of ammo runes in his bag at all times, as he could feel his dread rising with every bullet that was fired and caught with ease.

With his weapon having no effect, the eyes on Tartarforas' wings began to glow and both boys could feel themselves getting heavy until they could no longer move,

"You have a plan, thus you have hope and that comforts you, it keeps you going despite the impossible odds. To your misfortune, such hope is in vain because the Jade Emperor himself wishes for your demise and that demise is to come by the hands of the Nephilim." she spread her arms and the eyes on her wings lit up like spotlights,

"You never had a chance!" she shouted, her voice quickly drowned out by the vibrant hum that emanated from her wings.

Seconds later, multiple trails of white light sprang from the glowing spots and curved their way towards the trapped fighters. There was nothing Gumball could do, he had to deflect all the incoming bolts or else he or Rob will perish. Unfortunately, in order to move he needed to withdraw more power from himself and amplify it through the scythe. There was no hesitation, he could not afford to do so and once he was already moving, he pushed Rob back with one hand and quickly batted away every energy projectile fired upon them.

Going all out was quite the rush given how long he was using so little of his power, however as soon as the barrage was negated, fatigue washed over him like a tsunami and he was brought to his knees. Gasping, he felt as though his breathing had become more shallow and his vision was darkening, making it feel as though he were about to pass out entirely. Keeping his body propped up on shaky arms, Gumball fought to maintain consciousness and get back up, but he could barely move, he hadn't the energy to do so.

After dropping from exhaustion, he had no chance against Tartarforas when she came forth and snatched him up from the ground. Holding him up by the head, the giantess carried him towards the main exit and when Rob tried getting up from his spot on the floor, she backhanded the cyclops through the exit door's window. Rob was effortlessly flung across the parking lot and into the back of a nearby car, smashing head first through the rear window.

Gumball saw this happening and tried to cry out to him, but found that he didn't have the strength to do so. He barely even had the strength to hold on to his scythe as it is and he wasn't sure how long it would be until he would be able to recover his strength. Not that it mattered anyway, he was now in the clutches of the Nephilim he so foolishly tried to challenge on his own and now Rob was seriously hurt as a result of his blindness.

Desperate to do something, he drew out his claws and tried to lift his arm so he could scratch at the hand that was holding him by his head, but his arm was quickly restrained by one of her other limbs along with his other arm too. Feeling her grip tightening on her head, Gumball gritted his teeth and hissed at the pain that was surging through his noggin before he was brought up to her empty face. Now staring directly into her glowing eyes, Gumball froze in terror and wondered if this was where it all ended for him,

"Tired already?" she asked rhetorically,

"You needn't fear anything just yet. I'm going to take you to your beloved and you'll have a front row seat to her murder." while she seemed to be teasing, her voice had a coldness to it that made Gumball's hair stand on end.

Gumball felt all the color drain from his face. She was going to take him to the football stadium where the girls were having cheerleading practice and where Teri was, helping them out. She had no idea what was going on and if this Nephilim arrived undetected, then there was no way Teri and the others were going to fight her off.

And it was going to be all his fault.

Once again, Gumball tried his best to attack the fear bringing Nephilim with whatever ounce of energy remained, but it was futile. She seemed to delight in his despair and lowered him until he was at her side. He was no longer a threat to her, now that she had worn him out completely and she wanted to bring him to absolute lowest before bringing about his dreadful fate,

"They deserve this, all of them!" she thought to herself,

"For desecrating this beautiful Earth that they've wrongly inherited and for all our fallen comrades, I will break every last one of these vile creatures."

Being able to sense the whole of Elmore, she located a powerful soul mark nearby and spread her wings for an immediate take off. There were few people nearby the place Teri was located at and that was fine with her, she wouldn't mind killing a few more of this town's sprogglets while dealing with the bothersome defenders. There was also an especially powerful being located quite a ways away from here and she was informed to stay clear of that one until she has taken care of the local defenders. It was after all, one of the anomalies she was sent to investigate and she was quite startled by how powerful such a being was.

Before she took off, she stared at Rob, who was still stuck in the back of the car and rendered unconscious, deciding that she will kill him after she finished off the other two. It would be very amusing too because he had someone he cared about deeply and the sadistic Nephilim would like to pay that girl a visit as well. With that in mind, she took off into the sky with a single beat of her wings and disappeared into the grey skies above, carrying a struggling Gumball with her. Behind her a small black butterfly pursued and also faded into the grey.

-Elmore football stadium, 12:49 PM-

Despite the terrible weather they were having, the Elmore Junior High cheer squad was undaunted by the rough rain and stormy clouds. They may not be the absolute best when compared to the school's other cheerleaders or that of their competing schools, but their combined determination to lift morale for the Elmore Ducks football team was enough to bring them together no matter what the situation may be. It was this sense of unity and determination that made the girls and Leslie one of the middle school's greatest teams.

It was one of the many activities that Teri still enjoyed despite everything that's been going on in her life and served as a simple anchor to a nicer reality when compared to what she has to counter since near the beginning of September. While she did appreciate the fact that those events brought her closer to Gumball and helped rid her of some earlier issues she was having, the whole invasion brought her a lot of stress and cheerleading was a wonderful way to help lift some of it off of her. It was small stuff like this that kept her going and she was going to enjoy it to the fullest extent.

Today's meeting was nothing out of the ordinary, just a couple drills and practicing some new moves. Sherry was especially working hard in the squad today, given that she was still one of the newest recruits and while she was very agile and strong, she still had a bit to learn when it came to team cohesion. Most of the practice actually revolved around her, as Carmen believed the mermaid needed the extra attention and was helping her fill the gap Penny left behind.

To all the members of the cheerleading team (minus Sherry.), Penny's departure still hung in the air like a thick fog and while nobody felt as though this was going to be a huge detriment to their performance, it still felt odd to not have the shapeshifting fairy practicing with them. Teri herself even felt slightly off with Penny's moving away to Japan, she was the most expressive of the six of them and brought a kind of flare to the group that helped them stand out in the stadium, even when she had her shell. She was especially good to have as a friend because she was one of the few people who would talk to Teri without being too bothered by her obsession with cleanliness and also brought a sense of comfort to the group because everyone felt as though they could confide in her.

Teri took a look at Sherry as she came dashing over to Molly and Sarah, two of the strongest girls, her reddish orange scales glistening under the constant downpour and her tied back hair had a wonderful shimmer to it with the added effects of the rain. Even though she was wearing a grey tank-top and pink gym shorts, she still looked really pretty and Teri could feel herself frowning a little when she remembered how she felt about her when Gumball brought her up. She still felt guilty about that and noted that she still had nothing left to fear from her because in short she could never replace Penny and even the others felt rather put off by her secluded attitude. There was also the fact that she was one grade above them because there weren't any others in seventh grade who were willing or able to fill in for Fitzgerald and this kind of drew up a slight divide between the mermaid and them.

The paper girl found herself cheering along with Leslie and Carmen when the athletic, aquatic eighth grader landed in the brace formed by Molly and Sarah's limbs before they launched her up in the air to do a flip. She did so somewhat gracefully before coming back down again and landing in her awaiting companion's arms. Clapping and giving her praise, Carmen marched on over to her,

"Nice job, Sherry! That was really good, your acrobatics are really improving!" she cheered, giving her a high five with her stick-like appendage, the only part of her that wasn't prickly.

Merely shrugging, the taller girl began to make her way to one of the benches,

"Yeah, sure, but when I was in the air, I almost twisted myself in the wrong direction." she replied quietly before pulling out her phone again.

She wasn't wrong when she pointed that out, Teri as well as the other girls noticed how she tensed up while she was up there, almost reversing her direction as a result. In all honesty, it was probably just nerves, Sherry was pretty new to the team and cheerleading in general, so doing these kind of moves could be somewhat jarring to a new recruit. She was picking up pretty well though and with some practice, she can probably pull it off in no time.

Sarah moved over and placed a hand on the mermaid's shoulder, giving her a confident smile,

"That's okay! I noticed how you tensed up when we threw you and just wanted to let you know that there's nothing to worry about." she said, shrugging her shoulders.

The ice cream girl was followed up by Molly, who also came over to offer support,

"Sarah's right, we're both pretty strong so we'll definitely catch you." the blocky sauropod wasn't lying when she said that, both of them were probably the most physically fit of the six followed up by both Carmen and Shelly herself.

While Leslie had a strong stem and roots, his limbs were rather weak due to their flimsy nature and Teri was, well, flimsy in general.

Sherry seemed rather pleased by Molly and Sarah's reassurance as she smiled a bit before checking the others to see what they had to offer. Naturally Carmen had something else to say and was quick to jump by the eighth grader's side,

"And if you're still rather timid about acrobatics, we can move to the gym and get some air cushions to practice with." she said after pointing towards the school.

Sherry paused to think about it for a moment before deciding she was up for it,

"Yeah, actually that sounds like a good idea and I would also like to get out of the rain as well." she answered in a plain voice, making her sound rather indifferent.

The other members were quick to agree and verbally acknowledged the scaly female student before making their way towards the exit. They didn't bring any of their gear with them and didn't need to grab anything else, so they were able to leave right away. While they went through the exit hall, Sarah began thinking of other things they could do while they were all at the school and started talking the moment an idea popped up in her head,

"Hey, maybe we can grab a soda from the vending machine too." Sarah replied.

Carmen frowned at the walking ice cream's suggestion and checked her watch,

"It hasn't been long enough to warrant a break yet, also, soda is not a healthy beverage. Water is a good option and if you're in the mood for something with a little more flavor, I would go with organic juice." she stated as a matter of fact. This caused the other girl to frown a bit and slump her shoulders.

As if on an instinct, Teri immediately butted in with a pun on the tongue,

"Aw, come on, she has such a bubbly personality though!" she uttered with a sly smile.

Everyone walking with her groaned, while Molly just snickered and Teri just continued to smile as she walked,

"Quit with the dad jokes, already! I know you only used one, but that one was just awful!" Sherry said with clear disdain.

However, Teri would not be stopped and she already had another one ready to dish out,

"Well, I just thought that since we're on the topic of beverages, I oughta milk these puns and not keep them bottled up." she could barely hold in her own laughter as more groans came her way as well as more snickers from Molly.

"Where do you get all these puns, anyway?" Carmen asked, shooting Teri a curious glance.

Leslie was quick to answer that one and the flower boy sounded rather unimpressed when he did,

"None other than the king of lame dad jokes himself." he glanced at Teri with a smile that made her slightly nervous when she knew who he was referring to.

"Her dad?" Molly asked, obviously not picking up on Leslie's clue.

"Gumball." Sarah corrected.

"Gumball's not her dad! He's our classmate." she replied, still somewhat oblivious.

This brought a chorus of laughter straight from all the cheerleaders, including Teri herself, that just left the quiet dinosaur more confused than before. To the paper girl, that was actually quite hilarious seeing as it kind of came out of nowhere and that only someone like Molly could manage to pull off something that great. Wiping a tear from her eye, Sarah looked back at Molly and snickered some more,

"You're the best, Molly." she said with a pat on her shoulder.

"Not just the best, she's soda-lightful!" Teri was still going on strong.

Everyone groaned even louder and Sherry replied with,

"Seriously! Just stop already or I'll get Carmen to demote you to bench warmer." she warned though, her hazel eyes flickered with slight amusement.

Carmen chuckled at this and rolled her eyes at Sherry's sassy comment,

"That won't happen and even if I wanted to that, I wouldn't be able to because I don't hold that kind of power." she said simply.

Sherry merely huffed at this and dug her phone out of her pocket,

"Well, since I outclass all of you, maybe I can have some sway in the politics of afterschool activities." she mumbled to herself before checking her messages.

This brought something to Leslie's attention and he spoke up to the girls walking behind him,

"Oh, speaking of class, does anyone know what the homework was for U.S. history? I tend to really tune out during that class." he asked, displaying his lack of interest in his fifth hour class without much care.

Jumping up and down, Molly quickly raised a hoofed hand as though she were in class and kept repeating that she knew the answer. Seeing as no one else was saying anything, Leslie nodded and Molly settled down before explaining to her plant-like friend,

"We had to fill out pages seven through thirteen in our Colonial era packet and Miss. Simian said it was due tomorrow or we'll get detention. She also assigned extra credit questions on the back that we could do and since history class is easy to remember, I already answered them. There was an assignment from last week too, an essay on English and French expansion that was also due tomorrow for those who hadn't turned it in last Friday, plus three other assignments from three different classes." she explained excitedly with great detail too.

Impressed, Leslie remained silent for a moment as well as the four other people present in the hallway and the pouring rain could be heard echoing throughout the stadium's interior,

"You actually remembered all of that?" Leslie finally asked, completely taken aback.

Molly seemed a bit more shy than she was a second ago and placed her stubby hoof behind her bent, trunk-like neck,

"I, um, have a really good memory and my Grandma said that I had a good eye for details too." she said after panning her head to see everyone's faces and once she saw that everyone was quite amazed by this new fact she felt the need to bring up an event that happened a while back,

"Which remind of this one time when I was assembling a jigsaw puzzle with a house picture on it with my Grandpa and there were one thousand little pieces to sort through. At first, my Grandpa thought that it was going to be very long and difficult, I thought so too, but it really wasn't. First, I spotted a piece that had a doorknob printed on it and after a minute, I spotted another that had the rest of the door and then…" she continued on with her very descriptive story and her five friends began to zone out pretty quickly.

Deciding to continue on with the subject regarding classroom assignments, Teri leaned in towards Carmen, who was on her right and with eyes that were starting to glaze over, before whispering to her,

"I did the assignments Friday night and helped Gumball with his on Saturday." she said before asking,

"How about you?"

Having been broken out of her bored daze, Carmen was eager to speak when Teri spoke to her,

"Did mine Friday too! I also did the extra credit questions and as for other assignments, I'm all caught up." she replied before casting a comical glance at Teri,

"Did you and Gumball work on chemistry together too?" she asked with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

Having gotten used to all the teasing about her and Gumball, Teri just glared at her with a look that said really? Before cracking a smile,

"Ha ha ha, funny." she whispered sarcastically, placing her hands on her hips,

"I'd rather not think of chemistry after what happened last Friday, that blob monster was so disgusting. How are you feeling by the way?" she asked, remembering how alot of people including Carmen were injured during the blob monster's attack.

Carmen seemed rather content as she only shrugged and kept a positive smile on her simple features,

"Pretty good, all things considered. I was more worried about Molly seeing as she ran into me during the panic and got a stomach full of sharp spines. I'm glad she wasn't hurt too bad and that they only left a few puncture wounds that were easy to patch up. I only went to the hospital because I was worried that the blob's goo was contagious." she said, keeping her optimism.

Teri was glad to hear the news from someone so optimistic, seeing as the blob monster wasn't the only major threat that unexpectedly showed up that day and she was thankful that the crisis was averted. Given how close they were to losing though, Teri wanted to increase her training with Gumball so that they would have less close calls like that and considered contacting Rob about the runes, figuring she could acquire more to help her fight. Then she thought about Gumball's strength enhancing grey fire and wondered if she could get a rune that could enhance her strength and speed as well, but without the dangerous setbacks Gumball's scythe had. Did such magic even exist?

Speaking of Gumball, she was kind of disappointed that he couldn't come today and watch her practice. Sure, the weather alone was enough to send anyone scrambling indoors, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't have bothered him as much and only left for home because he wanted to shower before catching a nap. They could probably meet up sometime in the evening, provided she got all her chores done in time and maybe continue where they left off or she could just meet him at school tomorrow. Either one was fine with her.

Thinking about school and home also brought something to light and Teri's head snapped straight up, eyes wide open as she remembered something. On her way to the football field, she texted her parents and told them what was going on and they told her to call them when she was going somewhere else, for safety reasons, obviously. Looking towards Carmen who was still walking beside her, she got her attention by clearing her throat and pointed to her cellphone in hand,

"I gotta go make a phone call, my mom told me to let her know if I was going somewhere else and since were travelling all the way back to the school…" she said, directing her attention back to the entryway they just came from.

Carmen immediately caught on and nodded her head in acknowledgement. She understood that Teri's parents were very protective of their kid and the prickly plant girl motioned for her to head out. Teri nodded back in response and told her friends that she will catch up to them when she gets done with her call.

"I won't be long, hopefully. My mom can get pretty chatty sometimes and there's someone else I want to contact too." she called back to them while moving in the opposite direction.

Another smug look painted itself on the cactus' features and she shouted back to Teri,

"You know, if you want to skip practice for today, I won't call it in and I'd also recommend A walk in the rain, it's pretty tame by my standards, but it's a good film to get a certain mood swinging!" her voice echoed through the empty hallway.

Teri looked back with a flustered face and angrily began her rebuttal,

"It's not like that, you don't even know who I'm going to call next! It could be my aunt for all you know!" she thought that was a good coverup, but it was true, she actually wanted to see what Gumball was doing right now as well as how he was doing. He was probably sleeping, if she were to guess.

However, none of the others were convinced and all of them just laughed before Leslie replied with,

"Have fun and tell him I said, 'quit being shy and ask her out already!'" to which everyone laughed even harder, forcing Teri to ignore them before pivoting on her heel and making her way towards the field with a face that was growing redder by the minute.

The laughter eventually died down and the five other participants in Elmore's cheer squad continued on their way. They began talking about other things that fancied their interests and put the topic of Teri's love life aside for another inappropriate moment to embarrass her with. While moving about, Molly took one last look behind her, feeling uncertain about something and wondered if it was a good idea to leave Teri on her own. There wasn't anything Molly personally found troubling about the football stadium, but Teri was pretty frail and she was afraid that she could swept up in the wind or something. She mentally decided that she would check up on her if she was gone for too long and continued to silently keep her pace behind the others.

Reaching the rectangular entryway pretty quickly, Teri stopped herself just short of the opening and took a moment to catch her breath. She had run all the way here to quickly lose the teasing group and their constant laughter, wanting some peace and quiet to herself. Once she was alone, she placed her back against the wall and slid herself down until she was sitting. The rain outside was coming down really hard now, creating a sound like a thousand angry wasps that echoed down the halls and whited out any other noise. The clouds were very thick too, almost blotting out all the light minus the hall lights as well as a few surrounding the grassy rectangle where Elmore's most fit players would pummel each other for a ball.

This dark and noisy day was actually quite settling for the young paper puppet, being able to relax and let her heart return to its normal pace. In hindsight, she probably should have kept her mouth shut about the second person she was going to call and shouldn't have easily gotten embarrassed like that. This was seriously starting to affect her in a negative way now, seeing as she couldn't even have a discussion with someone else about Gumball without it being dragged into another series of ridiculous conversations that left her completely red-faced and feeling fluttery. This was getting ridiculous and she didn't even know why.

She knew that Gumball was the center of all of this and she felt as though she may need to discuss this with someone close to her or him perhaps. No, no, no, definitely not him, that was a bad idea in Teri's mind and what's worse is that she couldn't explain this feeling so trying to do so with him might make her sound obnoxious. It was bad enough that she already did manage to annoy him the past and doing so over something so vague might just irritate him further. Best to keep it to herself for now and figure it out later.

Right now she had a call to make and she dug out her phone in order to dial up her mother. She thought about also explaining her weird feelings towards Gumball, but was kind of on the fence with that one. She knew that her mom could be very serious, but there was also the concern that she would start joking around the moment she brought it up. Sighing to herself, she decided to drop the matter altogether and just focus on what she had to do.

She scrolled down to her mother's contact info and was about to hit the "dial" button, when all the lights within the area went out, including the one's within the hallway. When it occurred, Teri at first had no clue what was going on and stood up frightfully while scanning her immediate surroundings. It was really dark now, despite it being noon, although there was a little sunlight that slightly lit up the veil of clouds and gave her a little bit to see from. Her first thought was that the storm disrupted the power, seeing as it was pretty heavy, but she got the real answer when she heard something in the distance.

It was the sound of someone screaming, but not just anyone: it was Gumball!

Clearing her thoughts from before, Teri snapped up to her feet and peered out into the rainy outside, trying to locate the source that was definitely Gumball's terrified shrieking and found nothing in the football field that stretched out before her. With the sound getting louder, Teri grew increasingly desperate to figure out what was happening and stepped out into the grassy flat area to get a better vantage point. The cold rain striking her skin like a million soft beads of water did nothing to deter her and she wondered to herself why she could hear Gumball screaming yet, have no bearings on him.

She scanned the bleachers, but still had no luck,

"Oh my gosh, why can I hear him screaming, better yet, why is he screaming? The power is out, so there must be a Nephilim nearby, but why would Gumball be here too? I have to find him and I have to save him! Oh my gosh, where is he?" her internal monologue was just as frenzied as her attempts to locate her cat boy companion.

Then, in the sky above, Teri spotted something. It was very large and was coming in fast, descending upon the stadium like a bird of prey returning to its nest. To Teri's horror, she saw that it was a giant with butterfly wings and a dress made of human-like arms. What really caught her attention though, was the small figure that it carried within its hand and with a closer inspection, she saw the form of a cat boy wearing gym clothes and wielding a scythe in hand.

There were a few things Teri could have done in that moment: she could have screamed, she could have called out to him, or she could have rushed out there in some vain attempt to help him. She didn't do any of these things because none of them would have altered the current situation playing before her. She didn't even have her tools with her because she left her bag in her locker before she headed off to join Carmen and the others for practice. In other words, she was completely helpless to do anything and could only watch despairingly as the Nephilim lifted a struggling Gumball upwards with only one arm,

"Why don't you take a seat, seeing as you're so exhausted." laughed Tartarforas as she reeled her arm back before pitching the male kitten towards the rows of chairs that surrounded the player's arena.

Like a bullet from a rifle, Gumball shot straight towards the seats and slammed into the ground with enough force to break multiple chairs. He was knocked out as a result and Teri screamed when she heard the painful sound of his body snapping the plastic chairs into smaller fragments as well as the sight of him bouncing off the ground and draping over another chair, coming to a complete stop in the process. She couldn't tell if he was dead or not, but given the speed of which he was thrown as well as the fact that he wasn't moving was a clear warning that something horrible had happened to him and was possibly in critical condition.

Screaming again, Teri started to run towards where he was, which just so happened to be across the field and in the middle of the seating area. Her feet made light squishing noises on the wet grass and her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her bosom as she was kicked into high adrenaline mode. She wasn't sure what she would be able to do given what she saw, but that didn't matter because she just wanted to make sure he was still alive and that she could get him out of here to safety. While her mind was completely on Gumball's safety, she had forgotten about her own and didn't realize what the Nephilim was doing until it was too late.

From the top of her vision something bright lit up and she was forced to stop to check it out. Instead of a giant lady with butterfly wings and a set of glowing eyes, all Teri could see was a swirling column of burning red flames snaking its way towards her. With her primal fear of fire kicking in as well as her realization that the Nephilim had spotted her, the paper pre-teen was sent from a stationary position to a full on sprint back to the main entryway from whence she came. The entire time she ran, she could feel herself cursing this very action because she was abandoning Gumball in order to preserve her own life, but seeing as she lacked any proper defenses against the shape-shifting monstrosity, there was very little she could do now.

She heard the flaming column crash down behind her, scorching the earth as its flames fanned out and she could feel the intense heat wash over her backside, prompting her to run faster. She was very close to the tunnel now and could possibly escape this monster if she kept going. But what was she to do afterwards: if Gumball was still alive and she left him there with the Nephilim, then surely it will finish him off and what if it chased her down this hallway? She wouldn't have a chance against it unarmed and what if she encountered her friends down there as well? Surely they had left the stadium at this point and given that the Nephilim EM fields don't spread very far, they probably haven't noticed, but what if they stuck around and were heading back here to investigate? They would all be in trouble one way or another!

"There has to be a way out of this!" she whispered desperately to herself, as she looked around for any other paths that lead out of the stadium.

Down the racing track that circled the football field she could see another exit that lead to the northern parking lot and she figured that she could try running there instead. Changing her direction, she made a break for the other opening and prayed that the Nephilim wouldn't catch her while she ran. Despite the constant rainy torrent that was drowning the sports stadium, Teri could see that the fire was still raging behind her and wondered what this Nephilim was like in terms of abilities.

While she pondered this, she heard someone calling to her and when she stopped to see who it was, she was horrified to see that it was all of her friends from the Elmore ducks cheerleading squad,

"Teri, what is going on here?" Molly asked, staring at the flames with a mixture of awe and confusion.

"We wanted to see how you were doing and then we find you here in front of a blazing inferno!" Sarah commented, sounding very vexed.

"What did you do?!" an alarmed Carmen asked in horror.

Teri ignored all of their statements regarding the strange fire and what her possible involvement was, trying instead to warn them to leave and to stay away from the football field,

"Guys, get out of here! It's not safe, there's something really bad here and-!"

From the red flames, a beam of light matching in color shot out and swept the area, catching Carmen, Molly, Leslie, Sherry, and Sarah in one fell swoop. The five students were instantly vaporized, burning away into nothing with a single agonized, yet brief scream from all of them. Just like that, they were gone and there was not a thing Teri could have done about it.

Nothing happened at first, Teri just watched as the world seemed to slow down to a crawl and not even the heat from the fire, nor the stinging cold from the rain could reach her. What just happened? was all she could say to herself, as it all seemed so unreal, like a nightmare and that she would wake up any moment now. It wasn't though, she could feel everything that was happening and right now she could already feel the tremendous weight of loss starting to crash down on her.

But the terror did not stop there,

"Teri?" another familiar voice called in question.

Unsure of what to think, the bear-shaped paper cutout just turned slowly to the ones from behind and felt another oncoming force of dread bearing over her. Moving down the racing track, at a steady pace with horrific looks on their faces, was her mom and dad. This had to be a nightmare, not only did she just witness her friends turn to dust in probably one of the most brutal acts of murder, but now her parents were here somehow and were about to see, or rather not see, the horrible reality that she had been painfully hiding from them.

"Mom… dad… why are you…?" she struggled to ask, her voice as well as her mind completely broken from everything she had bore witness to,

"GET AWAY FROM HERE!" she screamed, remembering that they were in danger and that she couldn't do anything to protect them, like Gumball and her friends.

However, her desperate shrieks did not seem to reach them, as they just continued to stare at her as well as the blazing inferno behind her with looks of shock and disappointment,

"Did you do this?!" her father snapped, his face contorted in anger and his pace sped up as he angrily marched towards her.

"How could you?!" her mother shrieked, her tone and speed matching her husband's.

Teri backed up quickly, away from them now, she hated seeing both her mother and father angry, especially at her, and even though it didn't happen often, every time it did was enough to send her reeling in absolute fear. She knew that they did whatever they could to keep her safe and that's why honesty was crucial to them. Any time she broke these rules was enough to set them off and while they did nothing to hurt her, their anger, frustration, and sometimes shame was horrible enough on its own and made her feel even more alone and hateful towards herself.

Seeing them acting like this, especially towards something that she was desperately trying to handle, but couldn't control was just breaking her heart even more. She tried to open her mouth to say something, anything to defend herself with, but there was no way she could explain herself or the horrible situation that was playing out before their very eyes. How could she explain something that was unseen to them and yet, was able to cause so much disaster to this city?

They didn't seem keen on waiting for an answer, as they both continued to tear into her with their accusations and expressions of disappointment,

"We come all this way to see what you were doing and you decide to set the football field on fire?" her father snarled, his brow furrowed together in rage.

"What do you think is going to happen when we have to answer to the police and tell them that not only did our daughter set fire to public property, but also murdered five students!" her mother was hysterical now and looked like she was about to pull her own ears off.

The younger Pepakuma continued to back up and kept a cautious gaze towards the flames, the Nephilim could strike at any second now and she needed to get them out of here,

"But, I didn't do this!" she shouted back in defense, tears almost filling her eyes now,

"I can't explain right now, but you have to leave now! You're not safe here!" she begged, hoping to save them from the same fate that her friends had met.

This seemed to further enraged her father as the rectangular paper bear man exploded in anger as he pointed a single digit in her direction,

"Don't you dare talk to us both about safety! Everything we do is to keep you safe and look what you've done behind our backs! We've trusted you and not only have you been keeping secrets from us, but your reckless behavior has killed multiple people!" he was getting closer now and Teri could already see him looming over her now.

"You've always been careless with the safety of others. Your insistence on hygiene has endangered us all and has also left you isolated, No wonder no one wants you around!" her mom added in, joining up with her husband.

And then something began to happen, forming on their skin were horrible infectious blotches and diseased lumps that protruded from their very bodies. Teri's voice was caught in her throat as she watched the rapid decay of her parents and her mind was whirling with terrified questions as she didn't understand what to do. Was this one of the Nephilim's tricks? It had to be because she wasn't the cause of this, she couldn't be, she tried to keep everyone safe and her methods were supposed to prevent all of this from happening.

Yet the sickness that was spreading over her parents like wildfire told her otherwise.

Unable to take it anymore, she dropped to her knees and just started to cry, to scream out in sheer desperation to make it all stop. She clutched her head in her hands and closed her eyes tightly, desperately trying to block out the morbid image. She continued to scream as her parents made their way towards her, hands outstretched as they prepared to tear her to shreds with their rotting fingers and at this point, Teri wasn't sure if death was a better alternative to experiencing all this hell.

Then another voice broke the air of despair surrounding the poor girl as well as the tormenting illusions,

"Leave my Teri alone you ugly, rotting, disease ridden, cheap imitations!" shouted an incoming Gumball, who had miraculously survived being thrown at breakneck speeds into a stadium full of chairs and concrete foundations.

Startled and caught completely by surprise, Teri watched in amazement as Gumball came tearing through the immense inferno and leapt over her crouching form, landing behind her fake parents in a single bound. Before the realistic depictions of her folks could so much as turn around and face their sudden foe, Gumball made short work of them by cutting the two diseased Pepakumas in half. The two paper bear adults melted into silver goo and vanished into the ground, leaving Teri and Gumball alone.

While seeing her parents getting cut in half by her trusted companion was rather jarring to see (and she didn't care if they were only realistic imitations, it was still unsettling to watch.), she was glad that the horrid image had vanished and that Gumball was somehow okay. She thought about her cheerleading teammates who had perished not too long ago, but then wondered if that too was just an illusion.

Either way, she was just really glad that Gumball was here and that he could help her defeat this nightmarish Nephilim. Getting up, she first just stared at Gumball, who just kept his gaze on the ground before scanning the area for any other possible threats and then finally settling his attention on her. He flashed her a smile that was wrought with both relief and concern, as he began to make his way towards her,

"Oh thank goodness you're okay! I was temporarily knocked out when she threw me into the stadium and when I came to, I saw a fire and then I saw you in front of your parents and then I-!" he was cut off when Teri rushed over and wrapped her arms around him,

"Wait, wha-! Um, did something bad happen?" he asked, completely thrown off by the hug she was giving him.

She didn't answer and instead continued to hold him tightly. She was just glad that he was alright and that he saved her when she was at her most helpless. She was so worried that he was badly hurt or worse, dead and that she was going to join him as well as everyone else here. She just needed some reassurance that things were going to get better and that they still had a chance of pulling through this without anymore damage.

"Thank you…" she whispered into his ear, she thought she was going to say something else, but didn't know where to start because she had already been put through a lot in just those few minutes alone and was just glad that he was here.

Realizing the emotional state she was in, Gumball didn't ask any more questions and hugged her back. They stayed like that for a minute before Gumball quickly pulled away and raised his scythe again. When Teri looked at him in surprise, she saw the crescent blade rising and Gumball had donned a serious look on his face,

"I'm glad that you're okay." he replied in a comforting tone that didn't match the face he was making,

"That Nephilim is Tartarforas and she is capable of generating life-like copies of our worst fears to attack us with. She's very strong and I haven't found a weakness, yet." he explained, his eyes shifting towards the fire that had spread somewhat over the field.

Teri also found herself turning about to view the fire that was blazing behind her, it was more like a bonfire now and the red flames were wildly flaring into the darkened sky without giving off any smoke, strange enough as it was. Seeing as the body of flame had no physical weakness, Teri wondered if it had a weakness elsewhere and wondered if there was a way to locate it. If it was anything like the Nephilim Leliel, then maybe it's body was just an extension of its real form that was kept nearby.

She didn't have her gear with her, but she could be a great help to Gumball by being an extra set of eyes,

"Okay, Gumball, I'm going to scout around for a possible weakness and I want you to protect me in case she-!"

SHCK!

She didn't see it coming. How could she? Within an instant, both of her legs were cut clean from her body by the curved blade of Gumball's scythe. She had only caught a glimpse of it, but that didn't stop her from wondering as she fell, why? She thought that she knew better, she thought that she could trust her own instincts, she was wrong, and she was stupid to have believed that the person who had come to save her was actually Gumball, yet she believed it anyway.

She fell face first into the grass, tasting the freshly cut plants in her mouth as well as feeling the prickly sensation of all the grass blades brushing up against her face. This didn't matter to her of course, as she was quick to flip herself onto her back and when she stared down at where her legs used to be, all she saw were two stumps that had been cut cleanly through by the now-grinning, sadistic entity that was staring down at her with eyes that were twisted in sick amusement. The wicked Gumball look-alike spun the scythe around with some expertise as it rested the weapon on his shoulder and began to quietly approach the girl who's legs lay in front of her like useless shreds of paper.

Despite knowing the dire situation she placed herself in, Teri began to use her hands to move herself backwards and away from the approaching monstrosity,

"Horrifying isn't it?" the Nephilim asked, the darkened sky barely doing anything to mask the menacing look splayed across her false face,

"To be betrayed by someone you love and trust so much. Actually, I find it quite hilarious because I always thought that you were the smartest of the two. The other idiot charged in thinking he could take me on himself and you, well you're just a useless burden!" she spat, insulting the poor girl who was still trying to get away.

She was getting real close now and in a desperate attempt to somehow save herself, Teri raised a hand to her,

"Please, stop!" she begged.

As quick as a cobra strike, the Nephilim swung the scythe and took off the upper part of Teri's hand as well as the upper tip of her thumb. Teri screamed in pain and retracted her fingerless hand, cradling it in her other one. The Nephilim merely laughed at this, her voice sounding painfully like Gumball's own and this somehow made it hurt even worse. The Nephilim began to change once again, this time forming into a small living cloud and when Teri got a closer look at her hollow, empty eyes she recognize this form as Masami.

The little cloud also wore the same psychotic grin as her previous form and she leaned in even closer until she was only a foot away from her face,

"You know for all your talks of ridding the world of disease, you sure do have a habit of making everyone sick to death of you." she said, her voice now sounding like Masami's now,

"I say you should let nature run its course and rot, for the sake of everyone else." she jeered, before turning black and stormy, much like Masami did when she was angry.

Teri felt her blood run cold when Tartarforas uttered those words through Masami's mouth and another horrible memory cut back into her mind like a knife through a canvas. Last year, she had finally managed to get someone to come over to her house to spend the night and that someone just so happened to be Masami Yoshida. It took a lot of convincing on her end, but she finally managed to get her to consider spending one night at her place and just like that, she was having her first sleepover with someone she considered a friend. She knew fully well that not a lot of people would have considered her request due to her rather obsessive traits with keeping everything sanitized and when Masami decided to come over, she was determined to get on her good side.

However, things didn't work out so well for her and while she did her best to keep her germaphobia at bay in order to have a fun time with her slumber pal, her constant nagging and insistence on making sure that she was having a good time seemed to only get on the cloud girl's nerves. Feeling bad for her overbearing nature, she tried to select an activity that was both relaxing and didn't require any talking, deciding that watching TV was a safe option. Unfortunately, this too was a failure as neither of them could decide on what to watch, with Masami even going as far as saying most of what she watched was garbage, to which she tried to defend herself without setting up a larger conflict, but in the end, both of them wound up arguing anyway.

The last straw was when Masami decided to bring out snacks for them to eat, but when Teri saw what she had brought along, she found that most of these foods were probably very dangerous to her and politely refused. At that point, the wealthy cloud daughter of Rainbow Factory's owners had just about enough with Teri's ridiculous traits and questioned whether or not most of the symptoms Teri claimed to have were even real, a question that Teri was not at all happy to answer. Finally, after Teri told her to not eat in her room because of all the crumbs that would scatter about, Masami just gave up and stormed out of her room, eventually leaving her house in complete anger.

Before she left, she said the exact words the Nephilim had repeated verbatim and from that day on, Teri felt truly alone. While she and Masami eventually got on better terms, she was still fearful of getting on her bad side and did everything within her power to make sure she didn't ever annoy her. As a matter of fact, throughout the whole week she had been afraid that Masami would tell someone about their horrible sleepover and get all the other students to hate her more than they already did, but whenever the sleepover was brought up by her friends, she just didn't talk about it and Teri was grateful for that. She was more aware of her germaphobia ever since, but it never went away along with her compulsive need to clean everything and everyone of any potential microscopic threat.

Having that memory brought up again and in an already terrible situation brought Teri to an all new low causing even the pain she felt in her damaged hand and legs to feel insignificant. More tears sprung into her eyes as she curled up into a ball and just waited for the end to come. It would have been better anyway because she was completely helpless throughout this entire scuffle and even the Nephilim's insults held some truth to them.

Seeing her defeated opponent curling up and accepting her fate brought a twisted satisfaction to the psychotic giantess, but she also couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at how quickly she gave up. She guessed that these primitive ants could not hold up against what they feared the most and was ready to wipe her from the face of the Earth. One such as herself found it unbelievable that such feeble creatures were able to cause so many casualties to the mighty army of the Babyloth Republic and internally scoffed at her failed comrades.

Growing larger in size, Tartarforas morphed into her feminine form once again and prepared to fire off a doom blast at her amputated adversary, she didn't even need to activate her gravity well to hold her in place because she definitely wasn't going anywhere. She didn't have the strength nor the willpower to do so. The red orb formed in front of her raised finger, gathering heat and energy to reduce her to atoms.

Teri expected the end to come in a bright flash and followed quickly by nothingness, but didn't experience it because she suddenly stopped charging up her attack. Confused, the damaged paper puppet twisted her flat head until she could see her and noticed right away that something was up. The twenty foot black and silver abomination was looking towards the stands as though something was drawing her attention there.

Or rather someone.

-2 minutes earlier-

When Gumball came to, the last thing he remembered was, well, being hurled towards the stadium chairs at a hundred miles per hour before everything cut to black and now he found himself draped across the back of a chair. One thing that surprised him right away was that he wasn't in any sort of pain when he regained consciousness and when he moved his fingers and toes, he found that nothing was really wrong. He felt the rain pounding his back and that he was cold, so he slowly got up before observing his surroundings.

He first saw the broken chairs that was caused by the impact of his body and once again, he wondered how he was not in any pain whatsoever, even his head felt fine, despite the fact that it was the first part of him to come in contact with the ground. After checking to see if he had been scratched up, he also quickly discovered that there wasn't a single mark on him and even his earlier cuts had stopped bleeding to instead resemble dry red markings. He was however, completely drained of energy and felt his fatigue tugging down at his joints.

While his mind wandered and tried to form meaningful conclusions as to why he was surprisingly unscathed when he noticed something at the top of his vision. It was very bright, contrasting the shadows the sky brought and when he first saw it, he couldn't believe it at first, but there was an enormous bonfire in the center of the football. Startled, he began to wonder what happened while he was out and his mind immediately went to Teri as he frantically began to search for her as well as the nefarious being that brought him here. After carefully scanning the area that was lit up by the open flames, he located two figures close to the red, raging inferno and when he peered in closely, he felt his blood run cold. Lying on her back and with both her legs missing was Teri and standing above her was Tartarforas shaped in his image.

From all the terrible things that this giant had presented him with: his fear of inadequacy regarding Penny and Patrick, the horror of losing his whole family, the frightening image of hurting Teri and the terror of being the monster he sometimes saw himself as, nothing was as bad, no, downright nightmarish as seeing this very scene playing out before him. Teri, his friend, his trusted companion, the one who always stood by his side the moment these monstrous invaders invaded, the one who has saved him so many times, the very person that brought him back to his old self, the girl he loved for some time now, was on the verge of death at the hands of the Nephilim he wrongly tried to take on his lonesome, the very one that beat him around like a ragdoll and brought him here so that he could suffer.

This was all his fault, he brought Carrie into this mess and eventually dragged in Mr. Rex as well, they both got swept aside, with Gumball unaware of their conditions. He ran into Rob and they fought side-by-side, but he ran out of energy, got captured, and Rob too was tossed aside, his fate also unknown. Now he was out of energy, his weapon was not in his hand and Teri had nowhere left to run, all because he couldn't be bothered to call for backup.

Without remembering telling them to do so, Gumball's legs started moving and he began to quickly make his way down the stadium towards the field below. He didn't know what he was going to do when he reached the bottom, but that was all irrelevant, all he knew was that he had to reach Teri and pull her out of the mess he made. He kept running, hopping over several chairs as he descended the rows while keeping an eye on Teri and Tartarforas, who has taken the form of a small cloud,

"Is that Masami she's mimicking?" Gumball wondered why that was, but quickly brushed the question aside as it was trivial to the real task at hand.

He hopped another chair, but his foot got caught on the edge and he quickly face planted on the seat, the smell of plastic stinging his nostrils, before tumbling onto the floor in front of the seat. The feeling of his face meeting concrete was nothing short of painful and Gumball could already feel his nose bleeding from his humiliating fumble. Unphased by the pain, however, he quickly scrambled to his feet and was about to set off again, but was stopped when something caught his attention.

Tilting his head towards his right, he spotted the unmistakable glimmer of his scythe several feet from him on the floor he hit his head on, the crescent blade catching the red glow of the fire, and he realized that it must have fallen here after his first impact knocked it out of his hand. He quickly rushed over to grab it and when he did, he tried to summon some grey fire only to draw upon nothing to the blue cat's frustration. It didn't matter to him though, he was armed and a powerless blade was more than enough to draw Tartarforas away, hopefully.

He turned to the aforementioned giant again and saw that she was taking her giant form once more, forcing him to kick it into high gear. He figured he didn't have much time left, so he decided that when he got to the bottom he will shout and try to draw her away from Teri or at least try to buy her some time. He didn't care what happened to him, just as long as he could save her. He was nearing the bottom when he noticed something on a nearby bench:

A black swallowtail butterfly.

Still moving, Gumball was about to shrug it off once more until something ticked in the back of his head,

"Wait a moment? I've seen that butterfly before." he realized as his eyes settled on the insect for a second time now,

"First at the junkyard, then at Joyful Burger, though it was a little difficult to see, and now its here, of all places."

Piecing it together very quickly, Gumball realized that it was not a coincidence and that it was most likely linked to Tartarforas. As a matter of fact, when he thought about it, Leliel had a whole pocket dimension that served as an extension of her form as well as the white plasma that she used to attack them with, but her true form was a harmless golden sphere. Same with Concretin, he could manipulate concrete into various tools and weapons, but his true form was stuck within a shell of concrete he used to protect himself with. If Tartarforas couldn't be destroyed with all his and his allies attacks then that would mean her true form is really…

Switching targets, Gumball reached the bottom of the seating area and began racing towards the bench where the butterfly sat, very small and very harmless. It was at this point when Tartarforas sensed something wrong and cancelled her attack to see where Gumball was heading to. She had sensed him coming this whole time and had planned to annihilate Teri just before he reached her, but when she felt him shift directions she was completely baffled.

"He's going the wrong way. We're over here and he's heading down the track, right towards…!" her glowing white eyes lit up in pure dread as she felt the looming realization of what was happening hit her like a wall of bricks,

"NO!" she screamed, and shot towards the running feline.

It was a race now, with Tartarforas realizing that her life was about to become more finite in a matter of seconds and without the ability to catch him with a Doom blast, for he was moving too fast, she reached out to crush him with her own hands. Crashing through the fire of her own making, the two story, monstrous image began to close in on Gumball with flames clinging to her dress and lighting her up like the world's ugliest chandelier. Gumball, on the other hand, had already reached the bench and when the Nephilim realized she was in danger, the butterfly began to fly away with a quick flutter of its wings.

Too little, too late.

Before the fear-mongering insect could get out of his reach and into safety, Gumball brought his scythe down in a diagonal slash, cutting Tartarforas at the head and upper wing. The two halves fluttered to the ground like falling leaves before turning into a husk and erupting in Amethyst flames. The giant illusion, which had come so close to killing him, only managed to reach out with a single hand, her long, gnarled, claw-like fingers surrounding Gumball like a half cage before she froze in place and began burning up like her real body,

"What I feared most happened… Jade, my emperor, I'm sorry, I failed you." were her last thoughts before everything faded to black.

Watching the butterfly disappear as well as the giant and the red flames, which were also an illusion, Gumball stood still for a moment before melting to his knees and dropping his scythe on the ground in front of him. The lights came back on shortly after her death, but Gumball didn't notice and just stared at where the Nephilim once was, fearing that she would reappear. She didn't and Gumball sighed in relief once he realized that her brief reign of terror was finally over. He was so tired now, everything that happened this afternoon was just God awful and he was at a loss for words and emotions. Everything just felt numb and bleak to him, he thought it was because of the rain, but given how much he was really shaking, he realized that it was more damage than just the rain.

After remaining where he was for who knows how long, his contemplation was interrupted when he heard someone cry out and with a mental knife stab to the head, Gumball realized that Teri was still here and that he needed to go to her. Getting up and turning about, he spotted her white form on the grass, still curled up in fear. With all thoughts being completely replaced with just her, Gumball raced over to Teri, his legs moving as fast as they would allow, which was not fast enough in his opinion, and settled down beside her.

Having gotten closer to her now, Gumball could see the extent of the physical damage done to her: her legs were severed cleanly at the mid thigh level and her right hand was missing its upper half as well as a thumb. She was sobbing continuously and when Gumball was first struck with this image of her mangled and defeated form, he froze up, unable to believe that this is what he was actually seeing. Then came the choked-back sob and the flood of tears that followed right after.

She wasn't damaged just physically, she was completely broken by Tartarforas and once again all the guilt came rushing back to him,

"No, no, no, no, no, no…" was all he could say, he covered his mouth with his hands and let out another sob. There were no words that could further explain just how sorry he felt and how much he would have done anything, anything, to take all of this back.

Through her troubled mind and the sound of her own crying, Teri heard Gumball letting out a sob, but feared that it was another trick by Tartarforas. When she left to go attack Gumball, having realized that he wasn't dead, Teri felt a little relieved as well as hopeful when this occurred, but after remembering how the Nephilim had easily tricked her before, she collapsed back into despair and just tried to blot out everything that was happening. Keeping her back towards him, Teri continued to just cry and ignore all the pain that was burning through her frail body, it was nothing when compared to the sheer mental strain the demonic entity's illusions brought her.

Then after a few minutes of doing what she was doing, she felt a pair of arms begin to slip underneath her.

This set her off right away, she screamed, she hollered, and she thrashed about with whatever remained of her limbs. She wound up landing a few blows on the figure, but they just bounced off with no real effect. During her frightened outburst, Gumball repeatedly called out her name and did his best to calm her down,

"Teri! Teri! It's me, uf! I'm not going to hurt you, please stop freaking out!" he desperately pleaded, having gotten smacked in the face mid-sentence.

Hearing his voice begging her to calm down, Teri was still certain that this was some kind of trick and continued to struggle, that was until she heard him starting to cry. Upon hearing this, she slowed down and took a good look at him. She saw that his face was now wet with tears and was now quietly pleading with her. Her arms slowed to a stop now, and then she decided to cautiously take a look around the immediate area. Through her own tearstained eyes, she noticed that the fire was gone, the lights were back on and that there was no one else there besides Gumball and her, she even saw that the spot Gumball had landed in when he first arrived was vacant.

Having noticed that she wasn't fighting anymore and that she was now looking at him with recognition instead of with frenzied, frightened eyes, Gumball gently spoke up,

"Teri, it's alright, she's gone." he said, looking back towards the bench where his scythe was sitting.

The paper girl also peered in the direction he was looking and saw the same sight he was seeing. It was the same place the giant ran off to when she noticed him and even though she was still scared beyond belief, something told her that this was the real Gumball. Looking back at his face again, she saw no hints of betrayal and his eyes, despite being red from all the crying, were full of concern, warmth, and friendliness,

"..." she wanted to say something, but everytime she opened her mouth to do so, nothing came out. She didn't know what to say, everything that happened left her speechless and the only anchor that was keeping her from slipping away in another sea of terror was the person sitting beside her. Could she even trust her feelings now?

Luckily she didn't need to say anything because not a second after she closed her mouth, Gumball threw his arms around and let out another bawl,

"I'm so sorry!" was the first thing he said after crying for a full minute, before he repeated himself a few more times,

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he continued to sob into her shoulders as he hugged her tighter, almost as if he was afraid to let her go.

There was no doubt now, this was definitely Gumball, and Teri felt a breath of relief leave her before she too began crying. She wrapped her arms around him as well and held him tight, not wanting to let him go either. They didn't know how long they stayed like that, it could have easily been five minutes and even the shower of rain that was coming down barely touched their senses. In spite of the damage caused by Tartarforas, the two were now back together now and were just overjoyed that they were alive.

They did come to their senses eventually, Teri being the first and asking that Gumball bring them both out of the rain. Gumball complied and scooped her up in his arms, taking a moment to gather her discarded limbs as well. He then brought her to a small booth located at the stadium's entrance, having to kick the door open because it was locked, and once the two of them were safe from the rain, Gumball searched the place before finding some tape and glue in a drawer located beneath the desk.

Both kids remained in relative silence as Gumball helped reattached Teri's limbs, first by gluing the torn areas together and then placing tape over the sealed areas in order to keep it together. Once they were finished, Gumball inspected her injuries and saw that they did a good job patching her up. He asked her if her parents would notice and she assured him that it wasn't going to be a big deal, that she could come with a pretty good explanation on the fly.

Another pang of guilt ruptured from within Gumball's heart and he felt his eyes lower to the floor in shame. The booth they were sitting in wasn't big by any means, about the size of a small office, but it felt even smaller to him now. Teri took notice of his sudden change in emotion and realized that he appeared regretful,

"Gumball…" she was afraid to ask this, but given his reaction to her injuries, there was something she really needed to know,

"...what happened today? I left to go to cheerleading practice and you went home to sleep, so why did you show up with a Nephilim carrying you here?" her airy voice was quiet, but stern.

Flinching, Gumball grabbed his upper left arm with his right one and felt his gaze shifting away from her questioning one. He knew this was coming, but he couldn't bear to answer the question because the answer was already painfully obvious to begin with. If there was anything he wanted to do right now, it would be to vanish, to disappear from this and not have to face her disappointment with him. He hasn't said anything yet and she hasn't reacted either, but to the blue cat, it already happened and standing here with her was already tearing him apart.

Seconds ticked by and Teri was still awaiting his response. However, there was no need for him to answer, it was right there on his face and in his body language. For Teri, who's been through all sorts of horrible things in her brief time on this planet and thought that she could push herself through even harder things to come, the moment this realization came to her, the pain that Tartarforas, no, all the Nephilim and all the bullies in her life inflicted upon her paled in comparison to how she was feeling right now.

Sitting still, Teri's tears began to flow from her eyes and she lowered her head into her hands as she started to weep. When Gumball saw this, he too began to cry,

"Teri, I'm so sorry." he apologized, even though he knew the damage had already been done.

Like a hunter stepping on a rattlesnake, Teri's head snapped straight up, her eyes filled with hurt and rage, the likes of which Gumball had never seen before on her,

"FOR WHAT?" she roared, being unable to hold back the anger in her voice,

"What did you do, Gumball?" she asked, her voice dropping volume very quickly, but the venom was still there.

Jumping back, he was on the verge of breaking down and leaving, but for some reason his feet had become like lead, forcing him to stay where he was. It was pointless to answer, he knew this, she knew this, but she wanted to hear it from him and he knew she was going to want to hear it now. Gathering up his courage, Gumball wiped the tears that were welling up in his eyes with his forearm and allowed a sigh to escape his pursed lips,

"I-I tried to fight the Nephilim on my own." he finally said, his voice a little shaky now.

Crossing her arms and still glaring at him, Teri didn't seem impressed,

"Way to state the obvious. What happened?" she asked again, demanding that he fully explain himself.

And then Gumball told her everything that had happened right after they departed. He told her about the dream, his decision to take it on by himself, running into Carrie on the way there, her interrogation, the entire fight in the landfill and the Joyful Burger restaurant and concluded the explanation at the skirmish in the football stadium. He left some things out though, like the fact that the Nephilim had shape-shifted once into Penny and into Teri, his miraculous survival in the stands and the realization that he was in love with Teri. He was still confused about that, but now was not the time to dwell on such matters.

Having quietly listened through his entire explanation, albeit with a look that could melt steel beams, Teri remained still for some time, giving Gumball the chills when a full ten seconds passed by and still nothing happened. She wasn't crying anymore and neither was he, but the atmosphere was still thick was tension and Gumball felt as though he were suffocating in it. Then, finally, did Teri move, quietly getting up and placing two fingers on the bridge of her nose while squeezing her eyes shut,

"So Carrie knows now, does Mr. Rex know too?" she questioned, still not looking at him.

Gumball lifted his drenched shoulders once before releasing them and shaking his head slightly,

"I don't know, she was possessing him and from what it looked like, Carrie was in complete control." he explained as best as he could.

Placing her hand back down to her side, she turned to him and gave him another frightening glare,

"Well, I'd hope he doesn't remember, but now that he's suffered some damage, he's going to have to try to figure that one out on his own." she hissed,

"Did it ever occur to you that your careless actions could have landed Mr. Rex in the hospital or worse, left Tina an orphan! She's already got it rough as it is and how do you think that kind of tragedy would have affected her had you screwed up!" she was raising her voice again causing another involuntary flinch from the Watterson kid.

"I know that." Gumball responded defensively,

"That's why I tried to defeat Tartarforas on my own and for the record, I wasn't the one controlling him, Carrie was!" he snapped back.

This caused another outburst from the paper bear, who was now a bit more active with her retort,

"First off, she was there with you because you were careless and got caught, second, she only came to your aid because she thought you were in trouble and she was correct!" she shouted, waving her arms while she spoke.

She had him there, there was no way he could have known that the ghost was by the graveyard when he passed by and even if he did manage to avoid her, he would have been overwhelmed by Tartarforas' many projections. Even Rob told him that he could have avoided being detected had he just called one of them to get a lift and if he had either one with him, defeating the evil giant probably would've gone a lot smoother. Going at it alone meant that he had no backup, he was lucky when Carrie agreed to help him, but when Tina's father was also brought into the skirmish, it could have easily resulted in someone getting killed. Mr. Rex's death could have easily been on Gumball's hands.

Going through all of this, Gumball knew that there was no way to defend himself and just tried to apologize once again,

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to make everyone's life easier by being the first to respond and take care of the Nephilim. It didn't seem like a threat and I want you guys to do the things you love without having to worry about fighting them all the time." he said, his ears flattening against his head in sorrow.

This wasn't anticipated by Teri, who just paused for a brief moment to look at him with shock and disbelief, and she shook her head in dismay,

"Gumball, every time we fought them we never left those fights unscathed and there were moments where we could have easily been killed. Do you really believe I would rather be cheerleading while you're off on your own, getting hurt or worse?" her voice was no longer angry and was replaced with hurt.

it was a rhetorical question, but Gumball shook his head anyway. Of course she would be upset if he was all alone and putting himself up against a foe that gave not only just the two of them, but even Rob a hard time. Putting himself in her shoes, he would probably have reacted the same way had he found out that she or anyone he knew for that matter did something so stupid.

Seeing that he was on the same page, Teri decided that it was now time to call it quits for today and began to make her way to the door. She was tired, wet, and worst of all, in pain, not just physically, but emotionally. She just needed to get home and process all of this while also not seeing Gumball, she was just too upset to deal with him any time soon.

"I'm going home." she muttered quietly, with some bitterness,

"Please don't talk to me or follow me." she added as a final warning before opening the door and disappearing out into the empty hall.

Gumball was about to reach out to her, stop her, and ask for a second chance or just do anything for her to forgive him, but he only found himself staring at the empty doorway. She didn't want to be bothered. She was upset. With him. If he were also to be fair, he was upset with himself too. Feeling as though something were pulling down at him, Gumball found a seat in the chair and put his head in his hands, he wanted to cry, but found that his eyes were already dry, so he just sat there in silence.

"Why? Why do I always mess everything up?" he silently cursed himself.

He could have sat there all afternoon and evening pondering that question, but there was something that wouldn't allow him. After silently contemplating his failures for some time, he checked his phone to see what time it was when he realized that he had gotten several messages from both Carrie and Rob. Seeing their names light up on the screen, sent another wave of guilt through him before he pushed aside his self pity and decided to answer Rob's message first.

Putting him on dial, Gumball raised the phone to his ear and waited for him to pick up,

"Gumball, is that you?!" Rob's frantic voice sounded through the speaker.

Normally Gumball would have thrown some sarcastic quip his way as a response to such an obvious question, but seeing as he was already tired and beat down (both literally and metaphorically.), he just got straight to the point,

"Yes, I'm alright and don't worry about the Nephilim, I took care of it." he stated simply, his voice groggy and hoarse, a result of his earlier crying,

"How about you? I saw you get smashed through a car window and you weren't moving afterwards." he asked, genuinely concerned about his ally's condition.

There was a pause and then a surprised response from Rob,

"I'm doing fine, I was knocked out for a bit, so my head hurts a little and there are still glass shards located in places all over my body. Ow!" he shouted in discomfort as he plucked out another one from his elbow,

"So, you defeated Tartarforas? That's good, um, was anyone else hurt?" he asked.

"Teri was." was the first thought that came to his mind and he had to fight off another wave of sadness that threatened to send him into another bout of tears,

"Um, about that. She carried me all the way to the football stadium, where Teri was doing cheerleading practice, she wanted to kill her so I would suffer even more and Teri got attacked as a result." he replied, a stroke of sadness prevalent in his tone when he reached the last bit.

On the other end of the line, a raspy sound could be heard and Gumball figured that Rob was sighing. He was probably worried or at least frustrated with what was happening. Gumball didn't get to know because Rob just asked a question soon after,

"Is she alright?" he asked finally.

Gumball thought about lying and telling him that she was doing well with the two of them brushing this fight off as though it were like any other. But it wasn't though, and no lie can cover up how she was feeling, especially with the possibility of her not wanting to fight by his side any more. It could be very possible that she was done fighting altogether.

"No, she isn't." he said, feeling the brutal honesty of those words smash his heart to pieces,

"She was attacked and came very close to dying, but I managed to save her in the end. However, she was really upset when she found out that I went by myself and… and… she doesn't want to talk to me anymore." he couldn't stop himself, he was crying again and Rob could hear it clearly on the other end.

"Okay, okay, okay, I get it, things went a little sour between you two and-Hey! You listening?" he shouted into the phone speaker, causing Gumball to sniffle and start rubbing at his eyes.

After he managed to collect himself a little, he held the phone up to his ear again and sputtered an apology,

"I'm sorry, I just- I'm just feeling very stressed right now and- and I just hate myself because I was so stupid and-!"

"Hey, hey, HEY! Listen up, would you!" Rob shouted over Gumball's self harming speech, cutting him off completely,

"You're right and so is she, you were very stupid! Heck, words can't even begin to describe how furious I am with you, but that's not what I'm going to focus on. Right now, I want you to go home and rest, then tomorrow, you can start making things better by straightening this out between you two. I would talk to her myself, but she's got a closer connection to you, so that's your responsibility. I'm going to do you a favor and handle the Nephilim from now on, while you focus on clearing things up with Teri." he proclaimed.

This came as quite a shock to Gumball, if he was correct then he could have sworn that Rob was doing him a solid. A small, barely traceable grin made itself present on Gumball's face as he reveled in the fact that his arch nemesis was helping him out with a problem and actually found it pleasant to have him being considerate for once. There was one issue Gumball had with this arrangement and he quickly brought it to Rob's attention,

"Okay, but are you sure you will be able to handle this on your own because I hate to break it to you, but trying to convince Teri to forgive me may take more than one day." he replied somewhat nervously.

"That will not be a problem, I have multiple weapons and devices at my disposal as well as plenty of runes that I haven't field tested yet. If I need any help, I'll call you and pick you up straight after, but for now just worry about the current issue." was the response that came over the phone and if Gumball was to go by anything, he was sure that Rob meant what he said.

This made the cat child relatively happy and a feeling of ease came to him, a feeling that he had been longing for ever since the fight with Tartarforas began. He thanked Rob for his help and the cyclops told him to take it easy and that he was heading home to go rest as well before hanging up. The moment his phone went silent, Gumball dialed Carrie's number and while he waited for her to pick up, he walked out of the booth and started to make his way home.

A few seconds passed before there was a clicking noise and Carrie's voice sounded on the other end,

"Gumball?" she asked, her monotone voice giving off a slight hint of concern.

Still walking towards the exit, Gumball spoke to the emo ghost after confirming that she was there,

"Hey, Carrie. I saw all of your messages and I just wanted you to know that I'm fine, the Nephilim is dead too." he briefly explained.

"I know, I sensed its death a while ago and I'm glad that you're okay. I can now see why you kept this a secret and I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for my angry outburst earlier." she said, adding in the apology out of guilt.

Shrugging his shoulders up and down, Gumball breathed a sigh of relief and felt some tension leaving his body. He was glad that she was okay and he wanted to know if Mr. Rex was okay too, seeing as he hadn't meant for either of them to get dragged into all of this. Teri was right about him being careless and had the Nephilim decided to act differently, both Mr. Rex and Carrie could have been killed.

He kept the phone close to his ear and spoke in a calm manner,

"No, it's alright, you had every reason to be upset because you sensed that something was wrong and you wanted to make sure that everyone was safe. You were just looking out for Teri and I." he was being genuine, having thought it over when his fight with Teri had ended.

A relieved sigh could be heard from his end and he heard Carrie tell him something about the fight itself,

"You know, I've had my fair share of encounters with evil spirits before, but this experience brought something to me that I thought could never happen. For a brief moment, I really thought I was going to disappear, just like that, and then I wouldn't be able to see anyone any more. When you're like me and you've lived a few centuries, there is no fear of death because that's just what you are and that's how it's been for me since, well, forever. If these things are capable of bringing death to those who are already dead, then they must be stopped." she declared.

It was very odd to hear Carrie talk about that, but it was also just as odd to hear her talk about her own fear of death. Being an immortal ghost was simply just a fact to Gumball and the others, a fact that was just as absolute as the sun forever shining and that gravity would always pull you down to the Earth no matter where you stood. The Nephilim came here with the intent of destroying the living and the dead, sending a feeling of absolute resolution that flooded the Watterson's eldest child's mind.

With his fist clenched, he nodded in agreement and spoke his mind to Carrie,

"I couldn't agree more." he announced before bringing forth his next question,

"By the way, what happened to Tina's dad?" he demanded to know because he was very afraid of what may have happened to him after he saw Tartarforas knock him into a trash pile.

"He's fine, he took a couple hits (which was totally my fault.) and I put him back in his home before I went off to look for you. He isn't going to remember anything when he wakes up because I used my power to knock him out before possessing him. What happened to you by the way? I sensed the Nephilim fly towards the school, but I couldn't get there fast enough because my teleportation only works at short distances." she asked after answering Gumball's lingering question.

Seeing as that was quite a lot to tell and Gumball really wanted to get home to rest up, he dodged that question,

"Um, it's quite a long story and I'm feeling a bit ragged right now, so I'll tell you later at school." he replied with a yawn.

"Gotcha. Listen, I'm going to help you and Teri out with this Nephilim problem, I can do some research down in the Underworld about the giants and perhaps ask some folk that may have lived during the time they were alive on Earth." she relayed her plan and Gumball got it pretty easily.

He was about to wish her good luck and hang up soon after, but there was something he nearly forgot,

"Sounds like a plan and I was also wondering…" he paused for a moment to get a response from the incorporeal speaker.

"Hmm?" was all that came from her.

Taking that as his cue, Gumball continued,

"Could you please keep this a secret between just you, me, Teri, and Rob? You know how dangerous these guys are and I don't want to send the entire city into a panic." he pleaded. He was actually very nervous when asking this of her and his palms were sweating a little.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence at first before he finally heard her voice again,

"I don't know about that, I mean, can I at least tell Darwin? I don't like keeping things from him and I'm sure both of them along with Anais' friends are getting closer to figuring everything out." she said, her voice containing some anxiety.

Gumball suspected an answer like this, but he couldn't risk anyone else finding out about the giants that have been attacking Elmore for about a month now, especially Darwin. He knew it was asking a lot out of her and he didn't like it either, but he was already afraid of everyone else reacting out of fear, or the worse-case scenario, everyone he loved getting involved only to get hurt or worse in the process. Then the vision Tartarforas showed him would come true and he was determined to make sure she remained wrong.

Rubbing his thumb along within the crook of his index finger, Gumball took a deep breath and calmed himself,

"Darwin can't know either." he answered, his tone somber,

"You know what he'll do if he finds out, right? He'll either freak out or he will try to follow along to make sure we're safe. I don't know if he can see the Nephilim or not, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. Carrie, I'm begging you, please don't tell him or anyone else." he asked in a pleading tone.

Another round of silence, Gumball swore he could feel the conflict shrouding the ghostly female even though she was nowhere near him. He knew, without a doubt, that both Carrie and his little brother shared a close bond as two people who were in love with one another and that asking this of her was in some degree breaking that bond a little, but he was one-hundred percent positive that this was the better alternative. He feared the worse though and was scared that he was going to have to explain a very difficult situation to his little sibling when he got home.

However, this proved not to be the case when Carrie finally gave her answer,

"Okay, I won't tell him, but I can't promise that I can keep it from him for too long. When he wants to know something, he can be very persistent and also very perceptive." she said and Gumball could feel his shoulders slump downwards as all the wound-up tension left his system.

He wished that she could further guarantee the secrecy of the ongoing invisible conflict, but this was the best he could ask for and he was thankful that she was cooperating,

"Thank you." he breathed,

"I promise that once this is over, we will tell everyone everything and you won't have to keep any other secrets from Darwin." he proclaimed reassuringly.

"Okay, I will also help out by leading them astray whenever the Nephilim show up, that way you have a little time to fight and get away before they come to investigate." she added in after thinking about it,

"Anyway, get some rest and I will see you at school tomorrow." she said on a final note.

Gumball replied, stating that he will do so and wished her a good day, thanking her once more for all her help before hanging up. Now alone in the long, winding corridor and in total silence, the blue kitten began to go over several things in his mind. His focus was mainly on Teri and how he was going to apologize to her, but after giving it some hard thinking, he decided it was best to give her some space, probably for tomorrow too.

He was still upset with everything that went down back there and wished to himself that he could have done things differently. He believed that he would never intentionally bring harm to her, but he did, and now she was angry at him. When thinking about this, he felt as though he let not only Teri and himself down, but her parents as well because every time they would leave together, they would make him promise to keep her safe. This stung even more because over the course of time that he spent with her, he did come to believe that this was his duty and wanted to do everything he could do to fulfill that responsibility not just for his own sake, or the sake of her parents, but for the sake of making sure Teri was happy.

He knew now today that he was indeed in love with her, thanks to his enemy understanding what he feared the most, which was hurting the person he loved, and was able to use that against him. Ironically, despite her death, she was still able to bring harm to both him and his paper companion, like some sort of revenge from beyond the grave. To be honest, he's fought so many Nephilim at this point and all of them were able to dish out considerable damage, but this one managed to go beyond physical damage and hurt him in the one place the other's couldn't.

He could just picture Tartarforas laughing triumphantly in the world beyond the living and such an image was enough to bring a crude scowl to his face, putting him in a darker mood.

He soon found himself stepping out of the stadium's interior and back into the pouring rain. It was lighter now, but still very cold, causing Gumball to break into a bit of a jog in order to get home as quickly as possible. Right now, all he cared about was getting back to his dwelling and removing the fatigue wrought upon him. His parents were also bound to be home soon as well as his siblings and he wanted to make sure they were okay, even though what he saw wasn't real. He would sort through his feelings and his plans for tomorrow once he was well rested.

-Rob's duplex, 1:27 PM-

Stumbling through the door, a sopping wet Rob threw his car keys in the glass jar he kept on a shelf located next to the front door and dropped his bag underneath said shelf. Making his way over to the couch, he wanted to just flop down on the cushions and rest his sore body. He was covered in multiple cuts, which he'd bandaged up after he stopped alongside the road (he didn't have any blood to spill from his body, but whenever he received damage, his figure would glitch out even more and make it harder to perform any functions unless he treated his injuries.). There was a pretty good reason he always preferred to take the Nephilim on at a distance mainly due to his lack of skill when it came to close quarters combat and when he found his gun again, he saw that the barrel was partially melted after making contact with the Nephilim's skin when he pistol whipped it. Grumbling to himself, he placed the rail cannon back into his bag to deal with later and was not looking forward to constructing a new outer casing for the rail cannon's barrel.

Another thing that irritated him today was the fact that he couldn't make the trip to the void thanks to the Nephilim's surprise attack that left him with multiple injuries and the combined fact that he was going to have to cover for both Gumball and Teri now until they could sort out their issues. The only reason he cared for such a thing in the first place was simply due to the fact that both his nemesis and the flimsy hypochondriac were actually an effective team when it came to fending off the invaders, which gave him the necessary room to advance in his research and development of magic-enhanced technology.

Feeling the warm air of the apartment greet him with a comfortable embrace, Rob could feel his senses getting dull and gravity was already threatening to pull him down to the carpet, which felt surprisingly comfortable under his feet. It made the couch even more inviting, but sadly, the couch was to remain out of his reach until he put his equipment away. Once he was in the living room, his eye swept the empty living domain and found not a single person there.

"Guess Rachel is still asleep or probably out on a walk or perhaps, at a friend's house." he wondered to himself, feeling bummed at her absence. What he witnessed today made him very uncomfortable and when he thought about Rachel, he just wanted to see her fine and healthy.

Deciding to put his equipment away, Rob made his way towards his room and came across Rachel's bedroom door. He thought about pressing his ear against it to see if he could hear her in there, just to make sure she wasn't home, but decided not to and went straight for his domain. He strode towards his private sleeping quarters and wrapped his hand around the doorknob before twisting. He didn't get a chance to turn the knob all the way when his hand distorted and began to painfully glitch out, causing him to clutch it tenderly as he groaned in pain.

Then he heard Rachel's bedroom door swing open, slamming against the wall, and when he turned his head, out stepped a drowsy-looking Rachel.

Standing there in the door frame in a simple black night shirt, the rainbow lass looked like a total mess like she normally did when she woke up. Her colorful, frizzy hair was all over the place and sticking up in odd angles, dark circles lined the bottom sides of her bleary eyes and her movements appeared very sluggish. She let out a yawn while slowly stretching her arms and Rob took that opportunity to quickly open his door to toss his bag on his bed before shutting it once again. Luckily this seemed to go unnoticed by Rachel, who had just finished her yawn and let her arms flop down to her sides before turning to look directly at the cyclops,

"Morning, Frankenstein." she yawned while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Rob checked his phone and saw that the clock read 1:32,

"Must've slept all day again." he realized before sighing inwardly,

"It's half an hour past one, genius!" he greeted with some snark.

She stood there for a moment, thinking about what he just told her and then came to the conclusion that she had been asleep for quite some time. Rob then found himself caught in the cyan-skinned girl's wrathful gaze as she made her way towards him and began rapidly punching him in the shoulder. It didn't really hurt, as a matter of fact she was so tired that her shoulder punches were even weaker than usual, but Rob found himself already trying to back away from Rachel's adorable assault,

"You don't have to remind me and when someone tells you "good morning!", you're supposed to respond with the same thing!" she exclaimed, still lightly punching his shoulder.

"Heck no! If you're going to sleep past noon then greet me properly with a "good afternoon" you bed-headed goof!" he retorted all the while trying to slip past her so he could escape to the kitchen.

Before continuing the debate regarding proper mid-day etiquette, Rachel's vision had adjusted itself and she could see that Rob was covered in bandages. This put a halt to her barrage as she stepped back to further inspect the damage done to her cyclopean roommate's body and when she saw the full extent of the damage, a hand flew up to her mouth as several questions began to take up her headspace. Rob noticed her frightened reaction and realized that he had completely forgotten about his injuries causing him to freeze up as soon as he realized this.

The silence between the two was brief when Rachel quickly began speaking after getting over her initial shock,

"What happened to you? You look like you were pushed through a wood chipper!" she gasped.

Now Rob was lucky that all the security footage in Joyful Burger was wiped out by the Nephilim's EM field, so no one could find out who had threatened Larry as well as the other two customers during the black out. He was going to have lay low for the next few months though because all three people present in that restaurant were eyewitnesses and could prove quite a threat once they provided the police with their descriptions of him. Knowing that there was no way Rachel could find out about his involvement regarding the incident at the fast food joint, the disfigured inventor was able to concoct a story on the fly and he told her his own version of what had transpired,

"Oh, um, I was testing out another one of my inventions in the Northern woods and it kind of blew up in my face." he quickly blurted out.

This didn't put any ease on the teenage girl's mind mainly because this was always a concern of hers when it came to her best friend and his secret projects. She never understood why he was always obsessed with building devices that she rarely got to see herself, but she knew that he had to have some common sense when it came to these things and that he would be cautious enough to avoid any accidents while testing his new designs out. Seeing him like this was the exact reason she stresses out about him being by himself and constantly messing around with machines, anything could go wrong,

Pinching the area where the bridge of her nose should have been, she shook her head and let out a disappointed sigh,

"This is why I keep telling you to get some sleep before you start working on these mad science projects of yours, you're not careful when you're tired!" she groaned.

Rob felt his shoulders relax when he found that she believed his story, only to feel them rise up again as soon as he recognized a few flaws in her argument,

"Hey now, just a sec! You don't sleep much either, especially during the school week!" he shot back.

Rachel felt her hand slide down her face in a clawing motion that dragged on some of her skin before it dropped back down again and her face was that of a fed up sibling,

"At least I still get good grades and can function like a regular person during the daytime, and for the record, MOST OF MY PROJECTS DON'T BLOW UP WHEN I MAKE A MISTAKE!" she finished with a shout that rocked the hallway, causing Rob to shrink back a little in fright.

Rob blinked once as soon as her shouting came to a stop before pulling himself out of his shock and raising a finger in objection,

"Number one, regardless of whether I get enough sleep or not, I know what I'm doing and I rarely get injured from my mistakes and two, what do you mean when you say "most of my projects?"" he pondered, giving her a quizzical glance.

Realizing that this was going nowhere and that she was still too groggy to further this argument, she found herself pinching the space between her eyes while sighing for the umpteenth time. Man, he drove her crazy and if she could count the various times his activities stressed her out, she could fill an entire log with all the incidents that have occurred since the day he found her. At least he wasn't doing crime anymore, that was one thought she could enjoy and she looked up at him after feeling the tension slowly leave her system,

"Do you need to see a doctor?" she asked, motioning towards the bandages that covered his upper torso.

Rob wasn't sure if there was anything a doctor could do to help him, seeing as his body was a bit of an anomaly after leaving the void and he wasn't even sure they had enough to afford a visit to the hospital. Plus, he was a fast healer so he wasn't too worried about his injuries, but he was glad that Rachel was concerned for him. It made him feel like he belonged here,

"No, not really and besides, it's no big deal, I'll be feeling chipper as soon as I wake up from my nap." he said with a smirk.

Rachel merely nodded and smirked herself before stumbling off towards the kitchen,

"Okay, you enjoy that while I go make myself a cup of coffee and watch Mr. Majestic." she said back to him.

Feeling the weariness tug at him again, the polygon cyclops turned about and began to open the door leading to his room where his warm bed awaited. He hoped that he wouldn't be receiving any nightmares regarding invisible giants while he slept, but lightly brushed it off when he remembered that the Nephilim only appeared once a day and probably won't be back until tomorrow or the day after. When he thought about nightmares, his mind wandered to Tartarforas and the image of Rachel's breaking form came to mind once again, cementing him in place with fear. Quickly turning back to the doorway, he called out to Rachel and watched her peek in the hallway from the kitchen,

"What?" she asked, brushing some of her snarled hair out of her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked back, placing both hands on either side of the door's wooden frame.

A perplexed look made itself known on her tired face and she tilted her head in confusion,

"What? Why are you asking me that? Is there something you think is wrong?" she responded.

It then came to him that she wouldn't know what he was talking about because she didn't know about the Nephilim attack today and he mentally facepalmed himself for asking her something without thinking about it first,

"Um, I uh, was just worried about you because I, uh, heard you crying a few times at night and thought that it had something to do with… that place." he said, nearly whispering the last two words.

Her eyes widened a bit when he mentioned the former dimension that held her prisoner for so long as well as the negative effect it had on her after she had been liberated and she found her fingers already starting to fidget in discomfort after having to relive that memory. Rob noticed this and immediately felt bad for bringing that up. He was about to just tell her to forget about it when she spoke up,

"Oh, you heard that." she said, feigning surprise,

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. I just- I sometimes worry about that and other things too from time to time." her voice was shaky as though she were about to break down, but she swallowed her fear and looked Rob in the eye again,

"But it doesn't matter anymore. I'm happy with what I have and I'm glad that I have a chance to move on. But, um, thank you for asking." she said with a pleasant smile, although her black eyes still showed unease.

This made Rob feel slightly better, he was actually shocked that she went ahead and admitted that some of the past events were keeping her up at night. When Tartarforas showed him that image of her breaking down at the loss of her previous life as well as the life she had gained before forming into the void, it set off all those fears he held for himself and for her too. He was glad to see that while the void's influence still had a lasting effect on both of them, they were still able to move on and leave that behind. At least she was able to.

After an air of quiet had befallen the duplex, Rob felt it necessary to break the silence before he went off to bed,

"Great! I'm glad that you're doing better. Um, if you ever want to talk about it, then we can do so, I mean, I'm here all day most of the time and I could always use a break from my mad science projects, like you suggested." he stated, feeling as though he made the right decision in telling her that.

This brought another smile to Rachel's face and the shorter teenager nodded in appreciation,

"Thanks, I really appreciate that." she said gratefully before disappearing back into the kitchen,

"Now go rest up!" her shout came from the other room.

Rob couldn't agree more with her command and closed the door before making his way towards his mattress. He felt slightly guilty, not just for lying about the Nephilim attack but also for the fact that Rachel was trying to move on from the void in a natural way while he was forcing himself to find an artificial amendment to the void's trauma. Every time he saw her happy and heard her talk about moving on, a part of him wanted to just accept that way forward and give up on the quest he put himself on. However, as long as he had hope that he could repair the damage done to them both and defy fate altogether, then he was more than willing to go the extra mile. To him, he was saving them both, he was being the hero, and what better way to prove it by doing the impossible. He knew he was going to be busy tomorrow, but like someone who enjoyed their work, it didn't really bother him that much and he was able to go to sleep with a smile on his face.

-Elmore Junior High cafeteria, September 23rd, 2013, 12:08 PM-

Mondays are supposed to be terrible as was decreed by Miss Simian and for once, Teri found herself agreeing with the ape. When the paper girl reached her abode yesterday, she ignored all the texts and calls coming from her friends on the cheerleading squad (although she was happy to see that they were alright.) and went straight to her room without saying anything. Her mom was home, she gave her the biggest hug when she saw her and when she asked to help her with the chores, she did so without saying anything at all and kept on a mask of apathy throughout the entire ordeal. Her mom then wanted to ask her some questions, but when she saw that Teri was not in the mood to talk, she let her go without further inquiry. This was highly unusual to the Pepakuma child because she knew her parents to be strict and when they wanted answers they usually hounded her until they got them, so her mom letting her go without a further question was rather odd.

Regardless, it didn't really matter that much to her and she spent the entire evening in her downed mood. After waking up from a terrifying dream that replayed yesterday's events only with Gumball's nightmare image actually killing her this time, she got her morning chores done like she normally did and got ready for school. On the bus, she saw Gumball sitting by himself and when he waved at her, she passed on by without even acknowledging him. He must have known that she was still upset over yesterday's incident because he looked very cautious and when she didn't reciprocate his gesture, he didn't call after her or even attempt to further grab her attention.

Classes went by in a blur and she barely noticed anything the teachers were saying, instead thinking about how she barely avoided death once again all the while being completely helpless to do anything about it. It was terrifying and humiliating to be brought down so easily like that and it brought her back to when she encountered Silver Twelve for the first time, where all she could do was helplessly run away until she came across Gumball. Every time she thought about the blue cat, bitterness would creep into her mind and she would often find herself grinding her teeth in anger and disappointment,

"Looks like I was right all along, I am useless! Gumball didn't even bother to call me yesterday before he went out to fight that monster and all the while he was getting hurt, I couldn't do anything." her thoughts stung as they burned through her mind,

"First we agree to fight the Nephilim together, then he tells me that I'm important and that I've been helpful, and then we train together. And for what?! Despite all that we've been through, why do I still feel like I've been put on the back burner?" she questioned herself with some self-loathing. She really hated feeling useless and while most of her anger was directed at the kitten in particular, she was still mad at her own feebleness.

She wondered if she should even bother to fight the Nephilim anymore, especially if Gumball wasn't going to be a team player all the time. She figured she could try teaming up with Rob, but given his secrecy and general solitary behavior, such a team-up didn't seem favorable. So with both boys acting like lone wolves, what was she to do?

While she played around with her food, she thought about what Gumball had said to her and deep down, she knew that he was trying to do something nice, but it didn't change the fact that he still betrayed her and her trust in him. She didn't know which felt worse, being at the complete mercy of a genocidal monstrocity or being backstabbed by someone she considered a close friend. She thought about these things while she continued to poke at the disgusting peas the cafeteria served up as lunch,

"Now there's a face I can sympathize with." a voice came from beside her.

She slowly turned her flat head to the side and met a single black eye accompanied by a simple, white transparent face that somewhat smiled back at her. It was Carrie of course and before Teri could wonder why she was visiting her at her lonely table, she remembered when Gumball mentioned that Carrie found out about the Nephilim conflict. She didn't say anything back to her, but she did allow her to take a seat right next to her.

Once the ghost had set her tray right next to hers, she waited for her to say something and when she didn't, she spoke herself,

"I'd ask how you're feeling, but given what kind of stunt Gumball pulled yesterday, I can see that you're quite upset with him." she said, as she started levitating the peas until they formed a spinning ring.

Teri felt her plastic fork start to scrape the inside of her tray, listening to the little screeches the utensil's teeth made against the plastic surface and she tried to keep her voice steady,

"I think using the word "upset" doesn't do the feeling justice, betrayed is better, but that doesn't begin to compare to all the things I would like to do to him. Did you know that shallow wounds sting a lot because that's where the nerve endings are located? Would be awfully painful if some lemon juice was poured on some poor sod's paper cuts and that's just the light stuff I can think of." she snarled, covering her feelings pretty well in that statement.

While Carrie wanted to say she was stunned to see Teri acting so venomously towards someone, she was actually able to understand Teri's pain rather easily. Yesterday, she saw how strong the Nephilim was when she first arrived, she even managed to save him before he was overwhelmed by killer spiders and right then it became abundantly clear to her that Gumball was not used to fighting the Nephilim on his own. If Darwin ran off to go do something so dangerous without telling her, she too would feel betrayed and probably become resentful for a little bit,

"I see. I agree with you on the betrayed part, I noticed how Gumball was handling the monster on his own and I understand why he needs you there to help him. That's why I came to his aid when things were looking real rough." she said, glancing occasionally at Teri to see her reaction.

"Well, I'm glad he had someone to help him out, Jade knows how many times someone needed to save his hide whenever he was up against something he couldn't handle." she grumbled, unable to hide the disdain in her voice.

Now the ghost girl was unsure as to whether she should be worried that Teri was resentful towards her for helping Gumball out or that she was angry at Gumball for choosing another companion over her, even if it was unintentional,

"Yeah, he is a bit of a mess when left on his own, I mean, he left his scythe at the stadium yesterday and Molly found it. He's lucky that she came to me first with the weapon and didn't even ask any questions when I took it back. He really needs to be more careful." she explained, folding her arms and giving her hair a toss.

Teri didn't say anything afterwards and just went back to messing with her food. Once again, the fact that he thought he was good enough to go out on his own and somehow managed to find himself in a dire situation soon after left her at a complete loss of words as to why he did the things he did. It was almost funny really, the simplicity of it all and Teri could almost feel a smile creep onto her face, not a pleasant one though.

Watching Teri's movements, Carrie set her peas down and began messing with the milk in her carton,

"You know, I understand why you guys kept this whole thing a secret and the more I think about it, the more I begin to understand it all. When I battled that thing yesterday, I gave it my all and almost died in the process. I mean, me, an immortal ghost, nearly met my demise at the hands of another spirit. I have never been so terrified throughout the entirety of my existence, yet Gumball had a plan like he always does and worked to help destroy the Nephilim. It made me realize how much you guys must go through. Were you just as terrified when you went up against them the first time?" she asked, showing a side of her Teri rarely saw.

Having been slightly moved by what she said, Teri set down her plastic fork and intertwined her fingers together before pressing them against her upper lip while resting her elbows on the table,

"Of course I was. Back then, I didn't even have magic to fight the first one and my only option was to run until…" she trailed off when she found herself about to finish the sentence with, "I went to Gumball's place, as my first option too."

She realized that both she and Carrie were caught in the same situation during their first encounters with the Nephilim, albeit with their conditions in reverse. Gumball never stood a chance against the Nephilim on his own, yet relied on them to make his plans work. However, this realization didn't help her mood one bit as it further proved her point as to why Gumball needed her when it came to these situations,

"Where are you going with this?" she finally asked, turning a suspicious glance in Carrie's direction.

The emo ghost merely sighed and dropped her milk back in the carton, showcasing that she was serious now,

"I want to help you guys in your conflict." she said.

An eyebrow rose and Teri was taken aback,

"What?" she responded in confusion.

"Well, seeing as I already know what you three are up against, I figured you guys could use an extra pair of hands, I mean don't tell me you guys aren't feeling just a bit overwhelmed?" she explained while keeping her voice and gaze steady.

She had a fair point, as much as Teri wanted to keep anyone else from getting involved in their own little war, they were kind of in a pinch right now and with the way things are currently, a little extra help was needed. It made her wonder if she should confront Gumball and form a team once again, but her bitter side told her otherwise. He made his choice, he didn't need her help apparently so why should she reform a team with him.

Taking her silence as an answer to her question, Carrie continued,

"Anyway, I'm sure you guys are in the dark as to how to actually defeat the Nephilim, correct?" she further inquired, having seen Teri doing some research in her spare time, although she wasn't sure what it was at the time.

Feeling as though her incorporeal friend was reading her like a book, Teri slowly nodded and looked to her for the answer she was about to receive,

"Well, I don't really have the answer either, but I can visit the Underworld to dig up something there." she said.

"True, but the Nephilim are also attacking the world as a whole, there are even others like us. There's gotta be someone alive who knows more about this than we do, but we're not sure how to find these people." Teri quickly added in.

Carrie acknowledged her with a simple nod and spoke,

"I see. Well, living or dead, there are people who can help us and I'm sure I can find them if I look hard enough." she proclaimed positively. Then she remembered something else and quickly got to it,

"Oh, and there's something else you should know, Darwin and Anais are on to you guys." she explained urgently.

With her eyes lighting up in recognition, Teri knew who she was referring to, but asked anyway,

"Gumball's siblings?" she asked.

Uttering a positive grunt, Carrie continued,

"Along with a couple of her friends too, but yeah, basically. While I'm sure Anais has just been looking into all the strange situations surrounding Elmore and you two, Darwin and I have had our suspicions for quite a while now." she said somewhat nervously.

Teri felt a palm race up towards her forehead and the impact of her own hand sent the top of her head flying backwards before recorrecting itself. Of course they knew too, she knew that there were only so many times she and Gumball could sneak around before people started catching on. While she was fine with silly rumors cycling around about the two of them, she really wanted to be inconspicuous and even tried fixing up these issues by creating a schedule to help keep them in school during the attacks. She'd hoped that no one would catch on this soon, but given Carrie's senses and the other Watterson's perceptiveness, they'd wound up figuring things out sooner rather than later. This was a disaster!

Sensing Teri's distress, Carrie raised her arms and got her attention by telling her the good news,

"But that's why I'm helping you guys! Darwin doesn't believe I'm in on the secret and thinks I'm helping him along with the others, but I promised Gumball that I would keep your problem a secret, so I'm going to keep them off your backs." she said reassuringly.

The paper bear's face lit up a bit and she turned to the ghost with a bewildered expression,

"Really? You'd lie to your own boyfriend? Isn't that messing with his trust because if it is and it damages your relationship with him then I don't want you to go through such measures." she said, hoping to avoid even more disasters, especially if it involved a friend.

There was a momentary look of discomfort on Carrie's blank face before she resumed a more composed appearance, she was getting really bad at hiding her emotions and she mainly blamed Darwin for that,

"It doesn't sit well with me." she replied earnestly,

"believe me when I say this, lying to Darwin is the absolute last thing I would ever do, but after Gumball told me how dangerous the situation is and from what I've experienced myself, I too would rather keep him out of it. I love him and as much as I hate doing this, I want to keep him safe too. That's my biggest reason why I'm helping you guys, I want to end this quickly so that way I can keep him and everyone else safe and not have to lie anymore." she was rubbing her own arm now and looking away.

This struck a chord with the only child of the Pepakuma household and Teri felt even more sympathetic towards the spirit. She remembered her own grief towards having to keep something so big from her own family and realized that Gumball must be going through the same troubles as them. He even had to ask Carrie to keep a secret from Darwin, her boyfriend and Gumball's little brother, surely this must have been a hard decision for both of them. It was really odd how contradictory this all seemed: in order to keep everyone they love safe, they have to harm them in some way.

After taking a moment to think about all of this, Teri slowly lifted herself from her thoughts and came back to her ghostly friend,

"I'm sorry to put you through all of this." she apologized, although it was technically Gumball who made her promise. This whole situation started when the two of them decided to take on the burden of fighting the Nephilim themselves.

Turning, Carrie's eyes met Teri's and she gave her a small smile,

"Thanks, but you don't really need to apologize because like I said, I know what you guys are going through and I understand why you kept it to yourselves." she responded kindly.

Teri shook her head and leaned forward a bit,

"That's just it though, I want to apologize for keeping this from you and having you worry about us constantly. I should've known that as a ghost, you would be able to sense them and that you could have helped us because this is a spiritual matter, as bizarre as it may be." she explained regretfully,

"I'm sorry." was her finishing line and she really meant it.

While Carrie had long since forgiven the kitten and paper girl for being so elusive, her apology was enough to stun her to silence. She knew that all of this had to be hard on the two of them and their reasoning to foot the bill all on their own was understandable, yet she still felt remorseful for what she'd done. Teri cared deeply for those around her and was showing that through her own apology,

"Thanks." Carrie said, finally responding.

Teri gave her a weak smile before turning back to her food, she was still upset, but felt relieved to get all of that off her chest to someone. She and Gumball have been through all of this since the beginning and both of them understood how they felt about the whole conflict, but being able to apologize like this to someone who was fairly new to the whole situation took a huge load off her shoulders. Plus, she was glad to have another friend to share all of this with.

After a few moments had passed, Carrie got up with her tray and began to leave the table. However, before she could completely wander off, she turned once more to Teri, who had been watching her leave with curiosity. She didn't know what else she had to say, but given the look in her eye, Teri could tell that it was going to be something heartfelt and important.

The floating spirit cast a glance towards Gumball's table, then back at Teri once more,

"I'm not defending him for what he did yesterday, but I think he did it because he really cares about you." she said softly.

Teri just stared at her, not really giving a response. She knew that he went on his own yesterday because he thought he was doing her a favor, but all he did was cause her more trouble than necessary. Regardless, Carrie understood this and continued her statement,

"He understands how stressful this all is and I think he wanted you to enjoy your life. Yes, he's an idiot for taking on such a daunting task and for thinking that he knows what's best for you, but what I'm trying to say is I know he wouldn't do this with the intention of hurting your feelings." she finally said before drifting back to the table where Gumball, Darwin, and Clayton sat.

She said her good-bye and left Teri by herself. Once she was gone, Teri let out a long winded sigh and set herself back on the task of playing with her food. She was actually glad to have some more alone time because she was now thinking about Gumball's reasoning for his actions yesterday. Unfortunately, she was still angry at him and thinking about the matter just burned her out even more. She couldn't finish the meal she hadn't even started, so she dumped it in the garbage bin and walked out of the cafeteria, towards the nurse's office.

On her way out, she caught a glimpse of Gumball playing with his food, completely removed from the world around him and she realized that he was in a miserable rut too.

"Good." she thought bitterly to herself, although deep down, she knew she didn't mean it.

-Watterson residence, September 25th, 2013, 6:27 PM-

The weather hasn't been very pleasant all week, which wouldn't have been a problem for Darwin because the optimistic goldfish always believed something could be done indoors and wouldn't even let the gloomy weather set the mood for him or anyone else that was around. However, the past three days haven't been very pleasant in the slightest and some of that could be attributed to how the residents of the Watterson household have changed in those three days. Sadly, the changes everyone had undergone weren't exactly the best and Darwin was starting to worry that there was an actual crisis in their hands.

Sitting on the living room couch while reading a book he checked out from the school library, he heard his brother playing computer games upstairs in their bedroom, but paid it no attention. He found that his brother was in a sour mood that started last Sunday and has persisted for the past three days. He knew it had something to do with Teri seeing as when he came home Gumball gave everyone a big hug and when Mrs. mom asked him what was wrong, he dodged the question before disappearing upstairs. The way he hugged everyone made it seem as though he were checking to see if they were okay and while that was odd, the next three days Gumball and Teri have been avoiding one another.

He asked Carrie if she knew what was wrong after seeing her talk with Teri during lunch and she told him that they were going through a difficult problem, but didn't allude as to what that problem was. Well it certainly explained Gumball's behavior, but that was really bad for him because he couldn't ask Gumball about anything that included her. It was already frustrating as it was to barely know what he was doing, but he wasn't the only one annoyed by that aspect, as a tiny, pink bunny came into the living room shortly after him thinking that and took a seat right next to him.

His eyes left the page he was on and soon landed on the face of his five-year-old sibling, who was waiting expectantly to start questioning him,

"What are you reading?" she asked politely.

Saving the page he was on, Darwin shut the book and held it up so its cover was facing her,

"Trident launch, it's a book about an alternate timeline where World War three is happening in modern times and this guy named, Callus Foster, captain of the U.S. naval submarine USS Water Sprite has to track down an enemy sub that threatens to nuke the entire west coast and destroy it before the war reaches America." he explained cheerfully.

This brought a question Anais' mind as she gave him an odd glance,

"Isn't that a little violent for your tastes?" she asked, knowing that her adopted brother was very sensitive when it came to violent stories.

He didn't seem bothered though and just continued to beam at her while tapping the lower portion of the book's cover where the author's name was listed,

"A little, but it was written by Max Ackerman, the same guy who wrote one of my favorite adventure books Squid-Sub so I wanted to branch out a little and see his other works." he happily chirped before setting the book beside him.

Anais nodded slowly, his explanation made sense, but if the author had written other books that were adventure oriented then why Darwin didn't go for those ones made little sense to her. However, that was not a topic worthy of talking about, plus she had no right to judge other people's tastes in literature and got to the reason why she came here. She knew that it was just her and Darwin in the living room, seeing as Gumball was still sulking in his room and both parents were out with dad's lady friends. She heard them mention something about a loss within the group, but she was too busy looking into things to really pay attention to what was going on in her dad's life, also she found dad's identity as Samantha rather weird, but didn't judge.

Scooting closer, she spoke softly in case Gumball decided to head downstairs,

"Have they been doing anything suspicious as of late?" she asked in her hushed tone.

Darwin knew that Anais was referring to Teri and Gumball, which he still felt odd for interrogating them and having Carrie spy on them. Luckily he had nothing to report and told Anais what he's observed in the past four days,

"Nope. Teri's still mad at him and Gumball's still sulking about it." he replied with a shrug.

A loud smack was heard in the living room and Anais fell back in her seat with a palm placed upon her big forehead,

"Ugh!" she groaned, the top of her head already burning from the slap,

"Do you even know why she's mad at him?" she growled, not taking this too well.

Once again, Darwin was in the dark on this one,

"I'm not really sure." he shrugged,

"Carrie only told me that they had a disagreement of sorts, but given that they constantly argue like a married couple, I have a feeling that some time this week one of them will apologize and they'll make up." he said with his usual optimism.

Anais rolled her eyes and let out another frustrated sigh,

"Well I hope it's soon because I know it had something to do with Sunday. Macey called me that day telling me that Chimera had a dream that something came to the landfill and when I got there, I saw signs of an immense struggle and then later on, the Joyful Burger restaurant on Rauster rd suffered a blackout before sustaining serious damage and then the football stadium lost power too. Something was moving between these locations and given the evidence it looks like a battle was going on." she listed down to the quietly attentive fish boy.

"Do you think that the monsters Chimera is seeing in his dreams are attacking Elmore?" he suggested.

This was definitely a peculiar topic for the scientifically inclined five-year-old member of the family, for she knew things like spirits and monsters do exist in this world, although most of these entities do not pose much of a threat to civilized societies. Therefore, it was completely plausible to say an invisible force was attacking their city, for if they couldn't perceive the threat what was there to stop such forces from wreaking havoc amongst them. It was a disturbing idea to think about, but monsters and spirits were a part of their reality and seeing as the world held many secrets, the emergence of a new threat was undeniable.

"Well, seeing as things like ghosts and monsters do exist in our world, it wouldn't be difficult to say yes, but we got to know what's really going on around here. If there are people who know about these things then we need to find out what we can because if it's true and monsters are attacking Elmore, then something really needs to be done." she declared before getting up from her spot on the couch, which actually involved her hopping down from the furniture seeing as she was so small.

Curious as to where she was heading, Darwin asked her where she running off to and she told him that she was going to make a phone call to Macey. She wanted to know what the monsters looked like in Chimera's dreams so that she could gain a better idea as to what to research. Getting ahold of Chimera wouldn't be that difficult seeing as he lived in the Barnes' shed out in the woods and Anais told him that she was going to be on the phone for a while. Leaning back in his spot, Darwin picked up his book and started flipping through the pages.

He was actually glad that Anais was on the case, but he was also kind of sad, seeing as that's mainly what she obsessed about ever since she decided to further start investigating. He didn't mind these days of gloomy rain, but when his family members were wrapped up in their own little problems, it made him feel very lonely. He was scared, he didn't know what was happening and while the abnormal happenings were frightening to hear about, he didn't like how much his relatives were wrapped up in these events.

Ironically, he was so wrapped up in his book and in his own worried state of mind that he completely missed Gumball coming downstairs and marching towards the door,

"I'm grabbing some groceries, be back in a little bit." Gumball said with a look of determination written all over his face.

He closed the door and set off into the rain while Darwin sat on the couch with his nose in the book. He thought he heard something, but didn't pay it much attention and continued to read his book. He liked these simple little stories and wondered why the world couldn't be this straight forward.

-Pepakuma residence, 8:12 PM-

Sitting at her desk, Teri continuously scribbled away at her homework, her thoughts lost in the biology assignment Ms. Simian gave her and the others as well. Today was wednesday and she had been busying herself with schoolwork to keep her mind off of certain things. It was honestly very odd for her to be having a normal school week and not having to worry about fighting every day. According to the various texts Gumball had sent her, Rob had taken over fighting the Nephilim for both of them and that there haven't been any appearances since Tartarforas. She never replied to his messages, but she was glad for the break nonetheless.

She was writing down the final page in her review packet when she heard the knocker lightly tapping her door and she allowed whoever it was to enter. Her mom came in, a little wet from the downpour while wearing her white medical coat from work and Teri could smell the scent of her office lingering around her, so she must have just gotten home. The circular Pepakuma approached her from the side, offering a little greeting before peering at her homework assignment,

"What are you working on, Teri-bear?" she asked, smirking at Teri's eye roll at the usage of her pet name.

"A review for Biology class, we were going over different biospheres today. After that, all I have left is Chemistry and some reading from ELA 2." she said, feeling very accomplished because those were the last ones out of many and she loved reading, so she was saving that one for last.

Nodding her head in approval, Yui checked the packet herself and found no notable errors,

"Good job so far, remember to turn this in tomorrow and don't forget to drop off that permission slip for the school field trip as well." she commanded,

"Are you excited? San Francisco is a pretty city and is way bigger than Elmore. Your father and I have lived there for quite a while before you were born and trust me when I say it's a lovely place!" Yui stated cheerfully, her eyes shining with nostalgia.

Teri was always happy to see her mother get excited about the things going on in her life, but she didn't share her enthusiasm. Her classmates have been going on about this and even Gumball told her that he was very happy to go, but despite everyone's eagerness and anticipation, she herself wasn't all that fond of the city. Actually, any city made her exceedingly nervous and being far from home didn't exactly make her feel any better, especially with all the things that could happen.

She tried her best to smile, but the rest of her face couldn't match her fake enthusiasm so she just gave up and came out with it,

"No, not in the slightest. I hate being in places with lots of people, too many places being touched and so many possible infections ready to happen." she said with a disgusted shiver,

"Sorry, but I'm not going to put up with that kind of stress, I have enough on my plate as it is." she then turned back to her homework and started checking it over.

For a moment, Yui just silently stared at her daughter, slightly baffled by her mood towards the trip and then folded her arms across her chest,

"Teri, I know you just want to keep yourself safe and I admire your dedication to proper hygiene, but you need to relax. You can't spend all of your time stressing over little things, you'll just keep yourself from enjoying life as it is and I honestly think this field trip will be good for you."

"Besides, what about that one time your father and I took you to Daisy Land? You certainly weren't concerned with germs while you were trying to ride the donkey train." she remarked, lightly tapping Teri's shoulder.

Flipping her head to the side, Teri looked her mother in the eyes and noticed her sly grin before letting out a breath,

"I'm just trying to stay safe and I don't want to bring home any sickness that could affect you two as well." she explained, remembering the horrible images of her mother and father being diseased ridden at the football field.

She shook the memories away and went back to her homework,

"And for the record, I was nine back then! Of course I was naive!" she added with a huff.

Again her mother was silent, but with that same smile on her face. She knew her daughter was just being silly and while yes, she was indeed worried about her safety that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to sap all the excitement from her life. She was glad that her little Teri was cautious and could keep a level head, at times. She had no doubt that Teri was going to go on this trip with her friends and enjoy herself while she was there.

Speaking of safety and friends, Yui's smile melted into a small frown when she recalled her encounter with Nicole Watterson the other day at the grocery store,

"While we're on the topic of stress, there's something I've been meaning to get to since last weekend." she said, casually bringing up an important matter.

Teri's hands froze and the trail of ink her pencil left stopped at the edge of her paper, she was feeling very nervous as to what her mother could possibly be alluding to. Did she find out about the attack in the stadium yesterday? Her friends had brought it up in class a few times in regards to her disappearing on that day, Carmen herself said that she along with the other girls noticed the blackout and Molly even went back to go check on her.

She quietly turned to look at her mom, but kept silent and listened,

"I met Gumball's mother while I was out shopping on Sunday and she told me that her son was coming home with cuts and bruises." she said, her calm voice failing to hide the alarm that was present.

"Oh Jade, she knows!" Teri thought with fright while keeping a straight face.

"She told me that it all started when you two began hanging out and I told her that you were also coming home with various injuries right around the same time." she walked over and took a seat on Teri's bed, her stern face riddled with questioning concern now,

"Teri, I don't want to think you two are getting into trouble, but is there something going on that we're not getting? Are you being bullied or... is there something going on between you two." she asked, her tone having a slight edge to it.

It took her a bit of willpower to keep herself from breaking down and fessing up, but she knew given the nature of the question that her mom didn't suspect anything otherworldly. No, she was sensing a problem with her and Gumball's relationship and while she didn't really want to talk about the blue feline right now, she knew that her mom was noticing the pattern with her injuries. She needed to work her way out of this without getting both herself and Gumball in trouble.

Taking a deep breath, Teri's mind worked up a simple excuse that she gave to her caring mother,

"Nothing's wrong, we're both just a little clumsy when we hang out with each other." she said, adding a little snicker for effect.

Unfortunately, Yui didn't seem to buy into this explanation because it was too vague and she knew that her daughter wouldn't be on the cheerleading squad if she wasn't well-coordinated. Gumball on the other hand, she could actually see being very klutzy because he wasn't exactly… observant. Pursing her lips, Yui folded her arms and her glare became a bit more intense, causing the other paper girl to tense up,

"Teri." her mother said, her soft voice being replaced by something very cold,

"I know when you're lying. You're too careful to be stumbling around, though I am curious as to how Gumball managed to get so far in life when he's so… you know, but that's beside the point! I know something happened between you two because you were very upset when you came home from cheerleading practice, which also happens to be the last day you two hung out with another and you were all cut up when you came back." her voice was louder now and Teri could tell her mother was reaching a breaking point,

"So please, just tell me what's wrong. I don't like it when you come home hurt and it tears me up inside when you try to lie about it."

More silence. Teri didn't know what else to say, it was already difficult for her to keep so many things from them, to keep them from worrying, but now she knew something was up and it was getting harder to keep getting away with it. What if she did tell her? What if she just let the truth be known that they've been fighting invisible giants that were responsible for all the terrible things happening around here? How much worse would things get from there? Could they get any worse? Would she have to say good-bye to all her friends in Elmore and leave the city for some place safe? Is that how far her parents would go if she told them?

It all seemed so simple, yet horrifying in its own right and Teri did not want to face those possible consequences,

"Gumball and I…" she had to think about this, it had to be really convincing or really honest, for her mother's sake,

"...we're… taking care of a baby bird in a tree that's in front of the school!" she lied, this time keeping a simple expression.

This seemed to catch Yui off guard as she had to pause for a moment before uttering a,

"Huh?"

Teri continued to unravel this simple, yet convincing story she came up with on the fly,

"Yeah, we found a baby bird in the tree in the front of the school without its mom and we wanted to keep it a secret because we didn't want anyone else coming over to disturb the little thing. We couldn't bring it home either because we were worried that neither of you were going to let us keep it and Gumball's mom has a strict rule against keeping pets." she replied as though this was an actual thing.

Now that Yui was getting a better picture of what was going on, it started to make sense to her, but she still had some questions,

"Um, okay, that's nice of you two, but how are you two getting injured all the time?" she asked, looking at the tear marks decorating her legs, arms and right hand with worry.

Luckily Teri had already thought of that part and went right into it,

"The baby's nest is surrounded by a lot of branches and despite how careful I try to be, I tend to get cut up while climbing up and down the tree. Gumball is just plain clumsy and sustains more injuries than I do." she explained, giggling mischievously at the last bit.

Now Yui could breathe again and suddenly all the fear she was previously holding in her heart was lifted. She was so glad that everything was alright between her daughter and her friend with no signs of abuse or bullying. Now there was something else she needed to know and she asked her little girl,

"I see, but what happened on Sunday then? What did he do to make you so upset with him?" she leaned in a little bit to hear what she had to say.

That was a question that Teri was going to have some difficulty answering and to cover this pause, Teri lowered her head as if in sadness. Seeing this reaction, Dr. Pepakuma was really wondering what had occurred between them and suddenly developed a fear that it somehow involved the bird that they were taking care of.

Finally, an answer came to her once Teri had written one up in her mindscape and she lifted her head with a look of discomfort and betrayal burning in her eyes,

"While I was out cheerleading, I got a call from Gumball and he told me that he decided to move the bird somewhere safe. He took the bird to the forest without even telling me and when I went after him, I was attacked by a few animals. Luckily, he was nearby and heard me screaming so he came in to help. We wound up having an argument and after finding a safe place to put the chick, I told him he could take care of it himself since he obviously… (sob.) he obviously didn't need my help." she explained, bursting into tears after remembering what actually happened that day.

As soon as her tears began to fall from her eyes, unseen by the naked eye because she has yet to draw them, Yui had moved from the bed and was holding her daughter in a soft embrace. The smell of her doctor's office was even stronger now and Teri felt very warm, she felt very comfortable soon after. She kept crying as her mother rubbed the top of her head soothingly and whispered softly,

"Hey, hey, hey, it's all right." she whispered, now gently rubbing her left ear, a move that has always calmed her down since early childhood and it started to work as Teri stopped crying so loudly, though her tears were still flowing.

She led her from the desk and sat her down on the bed before taking her place right next to her distraught child. She kept a hand on her shoulder and made sure Teri was looking her in the eye while she spoke. She knew this situation all too well and wanted to share a story with her,

"I understand how you're feeling right now-!" she started to say, but was cut off by her own child's angry outburst,

"How?! He betrayed me, mom! I trusted him with something so precious and he didn't even hesitate to go off on his own. He got himself hurt and then I got hurt right after! He doesn't even know how much suffering he's caused!" she shouted, completely forgetting that she didn't tell her mom that Gumball got hurt first in her story, but she was too upset to care.

Forgiving her intrusion while she was speaking, Yui kept calm and continued to rub her daughter's shoulder comfortingly,

"I do understand. I never took care of a baby bird with your father or any boy I cared about back when I was your age, but I did go through something similar with Fukijima." she explained, allowing her shoulders to slump down as she pulled up the memory.

"You know that family heirloom in our bedroom?" she said.

Giving it some thought, Teri was sure that her mom was referring to that Buddha statue that was sitting on their dresser right next to their alarm clock,

"You're talking about the statue, correct?" she guessed, hoping that she was correct.

A swift nod and a brief smile was all Yui needed to give to confirm Teri's guess,

"It's not actually a family heirloom, well, not ours at least." she said, her eyes shifting a little and Teri could see that she was sad about something,

"Before my parents and I split, they gave me a little statue of the Jade Emperor carved out of jade stone that was worth quite a lot. They said it was very lucky and that I should keep it to stay safe. I did and even though I don't necessarily miss them, the statue was very precious to me and I think it did bring me a lot of luck because I met your father after all." she said fondly as she looked back at Teri, who smiled a bit when she got the hidden meaning in that final statement.

She then squared her shoulders and breathed through her nose, a sign that she was about to talk about something unpleasant,

"We were in college when we met and when we started dating, we moved in together, staying in a little apartment that we paid for with our part time jobs. We were very happy together, but we eventually fell on hard times when the restaurant I worked for burned down and I lost my leg as a result." she lifted her leg and Teri could see that the limb was a slightly different shade of white all the way to the upper thigh. While the years that came after helped shade the new limb until it was nearly matching the rest of her, there was still a notable difference and Teri could tell that the leg wasn't originally hers. It was the same with the finger she burned off six years ago.

"I told the paramedics that I didn't need to go to the hospital, but they took me anyway and I got treated, but they left me with a bill." she continued,

"Add that to the rent that we needed to pay plus the need to study for classes, we were a bit short on cash and things were getting very stressful for both of us." Yui pressed a hand against her forehead as though she were reliving those moments,

"I must have given your father the wrong idea about the statue when I brought it up to him the first time because he knew that I detested my parents, but not the statue evidently and so he sold the statue for cash to pay the rent." she finally said, getting to the part of the story that caused her the most grief.

Teri felt her jaw drop a little, this was something she'd never heard of before mainly because she never really bothered to ask about the old artifact that helped decorate her parent's room, but whenever her parents were together, they were always so trusting and honest with one another. They were her examples of love and trust, so hearing her father do something so careless, especially to her mother, just felt completely unreal. She suddenly began to feel a sense of familiarity and it didn't take her long to realize she was thinking about a certain someone who let her down.

"I didn't find out until the next day, when he suddenly came back after disappearing for a few hours and with an extra wad of cash in his pockets. I had been looking for my family's good luck charm since before he came back and when he told me that he sold it, I was enraged. We screamed and shouted at one another for hours, he told me that he thought I hated the statue and wouldn't mind it being gone, plus he was trying to help me by covering both our ends of the rent so I can focus on studying as well as finding another job." she said before going silent.

Once the quiet lingered around for too long, Teri couldn't help but wonder happened next and asked for the next part out of curiosity. Her mom's body language still displayed her discomfort, but a small smile was visibly present,

"I threw him out of the apartment and didn't see him again until the end of the week. He came back with the Buddha statue and told me that he looked everywhere for my charm, but couldn't find it. He bought the other statue as an apology and told me that it too brought fortune upon those who possessed it, but I didn't like it because it couldn't replace the precious item I lost. He spent a lot of time and effort trying to get me to forgive him, but I was still very mad at him for what he did."

"And then, he disappeared for some time. At first, I didn't really notice his absence nor did I care, but after some time had passed, I forgave him and wanted him back. Suddenly, I get a phone call after five days of his absence and he tells me to come over to his family's place. So I go, ready to apologize for being very harsh on him and when I get there, he was waiting for me along with all of his family members. Turns out he put together a big party with his family as a means to apologize and he told me, right in front of everyone, that he was sorry and that I meant everything to him. His family was there to show their support for both of us and even welcomed me in as part of the Ikari family." she was smiling very fondly now and Teri couldn't help but smile as well.

"That's amazing, but how were you able to forgive him after all that?" Teri asked, still slightly confused.

Yui shifted in her spot until she was facing towards her and her gentle smile was still visible,

"While he did hurt my feelings, he did everything he could to make me happy again and even brought his family together to give me the support he needed. Did you know that before that Fukijima's family had been very distant from one another, even his younger brother, Brian, now your uncle, hated him, but when he told him what had happened, he called everyone together to help us out. They paid for my hospital bill and even let us stay over at their place just so I would feel more welcomed. After that, he never did anything behind my back and we kept that statue as a reminder to never do anything without the other knowing. And all that is the reason I still love your father to this day."

It was a good story to Teri, she liked stories that had a happy ending, but she still wasn't sure about Gumball because he hasn't really done anything to show that he was sorry. She was worried that she may have pushed too far when she told him not to talk to her and now he was probably too ashamed to approach her. If that was the case then she was glad that he was regretting his actions, but she wondered if she should perhaps talk to him some time to tell him how she felt.

She felt another wave of tears coming to her face once she realized that she may have destroyed her friendship,

"I think I may have messed up." she sniffled,

"I got so angry at him for what he did that I told him to never talk to me again and now I think he doesn't want to talk to me anymore." she sobbed.

She was very confused now, while she was still mad at him for hurling himself in danger for some stupid display of chivalry, she couldn't help, but feel bad for some reason. It was just as Carrie said on Monday, he did it because he cared about her and after hearing her mom's story, she realized that Gumball wasn't without flaws and his mistake wasn't intentional. Now she's tossed him away and she felt terrible for it.

She suddenly felt a hand caressing her ear and she started to calm down,

"You didn't mess up, Teri-bear!" her mom said, understanding her distress,

"Gumball didn't mean to hurt you, but he understands what he did was wrong and he's giving you space because you asked for it. Sure, he may be dumb sometimes and a little unobservant too, but he's defenitely respectful." she assured her.

Her words brought some comfort to the paper doll and her face lit up a little, but her mind was still in disarray,

"Really? You think that Gumball is not doing anything because he's giving me space?" she asked.

Her mom's only reply was a swift nod before she stood up and walked to the center of the tiny bedroom before spinning around to face her again,

"Of course he is!" she exclaimed before lifting a finger directly in front of her face,

"If there's one thing I know about boys like Gumball, it's this: they aim to please!"

She then struck a pose, pumping a fist in the air before bringing it back down and twisting her body to the side until she was facing the window in a warrior's stance, she finished by then pointing at said window. It was a very silly display, but it did its job and Teri soon found herself snapped out of her bad mood. She wasn't happy though, just bamboozled at her mom's exotic behavior.

Seeing Teri being snapped out of her early mood, the motherly Pepakuma stood up straight in a military fashion and brought her finger up as though she were about to make a point,

"What Gumball really needs is an assertive woman to keep him on his toes, that's why you have to march over to him, tell him how you feel, and when he understands, you drag him all over town to paint the whole place red. Once he's exhausted, you make the first move by finding a nice secluded spot to push him into and-!"

"Okay mom, I need you to stop talking before I actually die from sickness!" a red faced Teri shrieked, cutting her mom off before she could bring a conclusion to such a weirdly exciting tale,

"And for the record, that's not the kind of romantic advice you should be giving to your middle school daughter!" she pointed out.

Her mom was cackling with laughter now and Teri, who had undergone another color change at this point, was kind of wishing her mother would be a little more consistent with her "serious mode." when it came to these matters. Once her laughter had died down, Yui got up and made her way towards her bedroom door, but didn't grab the knob just yet. There was still something she had to say before she left,

"In all seriousness though, you should talk to him as soon as possible and sort this out." she suggested, lightly hinting at the amount of time that has passed since she last spoke to him.

Teri understood and got up to go to her mom. She threw her arms around her and pulled her into a hug,

"Thanks, mom, and I will think about it." she murmured, squeezing her tight.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you two, but I'm glad to know that you two are safe and not hurting each other on purpose or being bullied." she replied, remembering the reason she came up here in the first place, before hugging her back,

"Please take your time and if he comes up to you to apologize, at least hear him out before you tell him off. If you're still too upset, just tell him you need more space and I have no doubt he'll give you what you need." she said.

Teri moved her head a little to show that she was listening and her mother gave her ear a rub once more before turning about towards the door. She grabbed the knob and twisted, swinging the door open with a loud creak,revealing the well lit stairwell that lead down to the first floor of the house. She began to descend down the stairs, but before she got more than five steps she said one last thing,

"And Teri, there's no need to be nervous around him. With the way he interacts with you, I'm sure he shares the same feelings you have for him and I would tell him soon." she could see Teri clearly and wasn't surprised by her response right after.

Confused as to what her mother was alluding to, Teri physically expressed this by tilting her head, cocking an eyebrow, and verbally expressed it by saying,

"What are you talking about? Are you saying that I have a crush on…" she trailed off because she remembered something from last Sunday.

After Tartarforas utilized the guise of Gumball to cut off her legs, she said something about it being painful to be betrayed by someone you love and at first, she believed it to be mere insults to taunt her with. However, Gumball described her power and it became abundantly clear that Tartarforas was very manipulative. She was easily mislead because she trusted Gumball, when he was around she felt safe because he was willing to take on the worst opponents they've ever encountered and even put himself in danger just so she could do something or to keep her safe.

And when they're not fighting the Nephilim, they were always together, doing something they both enjoyed and it was during those times she started to feel something very strong for him. It's eluded her for so long because she didn't understand the feeling, she's never really felt this way for anyone before and even with the recent events, she never felt this kind of pain before. Everything from what she had been feeling, what Tartarforas told her, and what her mom was referring to pointed towards one conclusion:

She was in love with Gumball.

Now she was burning up again, but it wasn't embarrassing this time and she didn't even move to cover it. It all made sense to her, too much sense really and there was this overwhelming fear strangely accompanied with an equally overwhelming feeling of comfort that caused an odd clash within her head. Somehow, sometime, and some way she fell in love with that dorky, bumbling ball of blue fuzz that made her so happy and yet so furious at the same time, it was causing her to lose all touch with reality and she didn't even realize how long she was standing there in a daze.

Being a mother who raised her child with great care and attention, Yui was able to recognize her little Teri's expressions and was quick to catch on to what was going on in her head. Up until now, she never even recognized her own emotions towards him, thanks to her isolated nature at school, and now it was leaving her paralyzed with sudden clarity. It almost brought a tear to Yui's face and she was just so happy to see her daughter discover something so wonderful for the first time in her life.

She cleared her throat and barely got Teri's attention, the paper girl actually jumped in surprise when she realized that she had been lost in thought during a conversation,

"It's getting close to that time, I'm going to go pick up your father from the hospital, he had to stay late for another operation and it's almost half past eight, so we'll be back in about an hour. Finish your homework and be in bed by ten, also don't forget about the permission slip. And on a final note, remember to take it easy." she said.

Teri told her that she understood, although she was still in a bit of a stupor from earlier, and they both exchanged their farewells before her mom headed off to go retrieve the third member of the household. Once she was gone, Teri went back to her assignments and got to work on finishing her review. She did this as well as her chemistry assignment in roughly ten minutes with the only thing left being reading. She thought about how she felt throughout the entire assignment and fought between whether she should go to Gumball tomorrow and tell him how she felt about the battle last weekend plus her new feelings or if she should remain silent to give herself more time to think. One thing she definitely knew though, if a Nephilim showed up that was too much for Rob or Gumball to handle, she was willing to help out, but was probably not going to talk to Gumball afterwards.

DING DONG!

That was the doorbell. Right in the middle of packing her books and notes away, the recognizable sound of the house's bell struck and Teri wondered who could possibly be at her place when it was so close to nine in the evening. She figured it could be one of her classmates coming to check up on her and she hoped that it didn't have anything to do with Gumball, she was really not in the mood to talk about him with anyone else. Realizing that she was never going to know unless she actually went and answered it herself, she got up with a hefty sigh and proceeded downstairs.

The doorbell continued to ring as she made her way through the house and she was really getting annoyed by the constant chime the device made. Whoever was at the door was really going to get it and Teri didn't care if she was a lightweight, her voice will do all the heavy lifting when it came to retaliation. She got to the door and opened it, freezing with shock when she saw who it was.

Standing in the rain, completely soaked with one hand on the doorbell and another holding a plate of brownies covered with a plastic wrap, was none other than Gumball Watterson.

When he saw Teri at the door, he seemed taken aback as he expected one of her parents to be home and answering the door rather than the person he came here to see. Teri, however, was over her initial shock in an instant and her drawn on bear face switched to anger when she saw him standing there. She didn't care if she loved him, she was still angry about what happened and didn't know whether or not she wanted to see him yet.

Unfortunately, he was here now and she might as well ask him why, although she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew what it was for,

"What are you doing here?" she growled, keeping the screen door shut.

Gumball shivered nervously and fought the urge to apologize before running back home. He didn't believe that she was going to be happy to see him, especially this late at night, but he remembered that he owed her a reward for winning the game of tag last weekend during their training and he got the radical idea of baking her brownies to fulfill that promise as well as apologize to her for being a complete butt that same day. Seeing her now though, made him feel like he made a foolish error and that he should've waited 'til morning.

Still he quickly sputtered out an explanation,

"W-well, I-I was-s-s-s just dropping by to ap-p-pologize for what I did." his teeth were clicking against each other, making it really hard to speak. Man it was cold out!

Yep, it was just what Teri suspected and she wasn't surprised one bit, nor in the mood for this. She was about to slam the door in his face, until she finally noticed that he wasn't wearing any protective clothing and was shivering due to being exposed to the elements. She knew it had been raining all day and given how far away his house was, meant that he walked all the way in this frigid weather to go see her.

Jade, he was so stupid,

"What are you doing out in the rain without a jacket, you moron!" she asked demandingly, not caring if she sounded harsh.

"Y-you st-still have it!" he exclaimed, he wanted to yell that to her, but the cold weather had already tightened his diaphragm, making it hard to breathe.

She did. As soon as he said that, it dawned on the paper girl that she still hadn't given back that red jacket of his and now that she knew the reason as to why that was, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed now. She was red in the face again and she was regretting it, so she retaliated,

"Well, you didn't ask for it back, idiot!" she shot back defensively.

"I d-did! Three t-times!" he snapped, nearly dropping the brownies as he threw his hands up.

He did. Three times at school during their classes and in the hallways, he asked for it back, but she just teased him instead. Once again, knowing why that was the case didn't exactly make her feel better and it was bad because she knew that the weather was going to get worse as Fall began to pass. Realizing that this was going nowhere and that she couldn't send him home without proper attire, she invited him in,

"Ugh, fine you can come in and dry off, but you're not staying long!" she said, still carrying some resentment.

That was good enough for Gumball, who just thanked her and silently went in once she moved away from the screen door. He remained in the doorway so he wouldn't tread water anywhere else in the house and Teri ran off to go get him a towel. When she got back to him with the dry rag, she asked him if he had any spare clothes with him and he told her that he had his gym clothes in the bag he wore on his back. She then instructed him to go shower and change into his spare clothes after he dried off while she threw his wet ones in the dryer.

Twelve minutes passed and the two did their separate tasks before meeting up in the living room again. Before they did though, Teri noticed the plate of brownies she took from Gumball when he went to grab a shower and noticed that they looked very scrumptious. Even with the plastic wrapping protecting the dozen or so treats, she could detect a wonderful scent coming from them and realized that they were homemade, meaning he baked these himself. She felt a twinge of happiness befall her when she smelled the sweet pastries and figured he made these for her, then again why else would he show up at her place with a plate full of sweets he made himself.

Back in the present, the paper puppet was sitting on the couch while staring intently at the brownies when Gumball came back out feeling very refreshed and dry. His eyes soon landed on Teri's sitting form and he noticed where her gaze was directed. She was so concentrated on the chocolate pastries that she didn't seem to pay him any attention and Gumball wasn't sure if he should disturb her. She still wasn't happy to see him and probably doesn't have anything nice to say either (he knew he deserved it too, so he wasn't too upset by this fact.), plus she looked really cute when she was concentrating like that.

She did eventually notice him standing there, watching her, and at first she didn't react at all because she wasn't sure how she wanted to address him. She eventually settled for leaning back in her seat and bringing her gaze to a small spot on the ceiling so that she had something else to look at. Gumball knew he was probably making another mistake by opening his mouth, but he wanted to express his gratitude,

"Thanks for the shower and for drying my clothes." he said humbly, nervously rubbing his upper arm.

She didn't say anything and the room remained uncomfortably quiet for several long seconds, so he decided to try something else,

"Um, I know you don't want to see me right now, so as soon as my clothes are done drying, I'll call my mom and go home. You can have the brownies because I made them for you, you know, for when you won that game of tag. I wanted to go give those to you because I didn't want to break another promise and I also wanted to let you know that I'm sorry. I guess it's a bit too late for that though." he stopped himself before he started rambling out a long winded apology that did nothing more than fill up the uncomfortable silence.

"You didn't promise anything."

The words cut through the air like a hot knife through butter and after Gumball had shut himself up, they felt really odd when they followed his apology. It was like they weren't supposed to be let out and now it was just unnatural. He felt his ears perk up when she spoke and his attention was back on her now,

"What?" he asked.

She stopped looking up at the ceiling and was now concentrating only on him. He saw that she wasn't furious, but the look she was giving was uncomfortably akin to his own mother's disappointed stare. He felt a chill run down his spine when she began to speak,

"You told me that you were going to make me something if I won the game, you didn't promise me anything. I trusted you enough to follow through on that premise, I also trusted you to be a team player and contact me or Rob before running head first into a suicide solo mission!" her voice had raised several notches now.

At this point, Gumball had long since gotten the idea that what he did was a horrible mistake that nearly took the lives of several people, including his own, and he had spent the past three days feeling the appalling aftermath of said decision. Fighting Tartarforas had taken a terrible toll on him as well: He saw things that still kept him up at night, he figured out very quickly that even with better control over his scythe's power, he still was not good enough to take on a single Nephilim by himself and nearly died multiple times throughout the confrontation. He knew far better than anyone who had encountered that living nightmare, how utterly unprepared a single person could be against an enemy shrouded in mystery.

Getting over his worry, Gumball's mind was clouded with anger and he took a step forward, almost deciding to walk straight up to her,

"Okay, you know what! I know how terrible that whole ordeal was and yeah, I should have contacted someone as back-up! However, there's little question that just keeps popping up in my head and that is why did you let me fight the Uriel puppet clone on my own even though we were both outmatched?" he questioned in retaliation. Deep down though, he already felt that this question wasn't going to get him anywhere and that he was just being defensive, but his mind was already on the attack.

Now it was Teri's turn to take a step forward, although she was flaring up more and her eyes were two black pools of rage that challenged his own,

"I let you go because I knew you would come back! We both fought Uriel and we both knew how he fought, a smaller one was less of a match, especially for you! If you had been in trouble, then I knew you would have called us and we would have figured something out. You even said so yourself, that Rob was close by after you had contacted him BEFORE you started fighting Uriel. I trusted you Gumball and what you did last weekend shattered that trust." she shouted back.

At a complete loss of words, Gumball opened and closed his mouth several times, but could not find anything to say. She was absolutely right, he knew that she wouldn't send him to his death and that she believed in his ability to fight Uriel's puppet because they had already seen his capabilities. She also had the assurance of contact because on that same day, Rob had gifted them both with EMP resistant phone cases to assure that they could aid each other regardless of distance and that alone was enough reassurance for both himself and her as well.

Letting out a sigh, Teri loosened up a little and brought your volume down,

"I never doubted your abilities, Gumball, but we've both been through a lot and as horrifying as the Nephilim can be, none of that compares to the fear of you dying alone without any assurance of anyone backing you up. That's why I'm upset, I thought that I was someone you could rely on, but you went on ahead without giving it a second thought." her voice was trembling now and she was bringing both hands up to her head. Whether it was to shield her eyes from the tears that were threatening to break loose from the dam that was her lids or two grab either side of her head as a means of comfort, she didn't know.

Now it was very clear to Gumball and he saw where the real conflict was. A while back, he told her that she was special and that she belonged on their team, that she was more than just reliable, but that she was capable as a fighter. When he chose to go on his own during that dreadful afternoon, all that which he said was thrown out the window and even though he thought he was doing her a favor, he'd actually proven what he said was a lie.

She was wrong though and Gumball to lay it out to her,

"Teri, I was the unreliable one, not you." he replied very softly, his voice wrought with sorrow and regret.

It was a pain for him to get those words out, but he did it and Teri was now looking up at him, her face a strange mixture of confusion and skepticism. He's always had a problem with his pride, even before they started hanging out and it was no real secret of his that some of the things he says/does can seem suspicious to others. It's what lead to so many people distrusting him in the past and the real reason why he couldn't move on from Penny after she had left, he was worried that no one would ever want to trust him that deeply again.

So he had to be careful with his words,

"If it had been you that got the dream first, you would have texted me and let me know what was going on. We would've confronted Tartarforas and we probably would have destroyed her in that very landfill within a few minutes, like we always do. You would've even put everything else aside to make sure that she never left that dump and without a second thought too." he said with a nervous rub of his arm.

"The day following the fight, Carrie came to me and gave me my weapon back. It turns out I accidentally left it at the field that day and Molly found it. Another dumb move of mine and when Carrie gave it back to me, I didn't even want it back, but she said that it was still my responsibility to correct things." he finished, turning away from her.

Now there was something that Teri never expected, she suspected that Gumball was going to apologize and try to explain his actions, but actually giving up his scythe was shocking. He was so ashamed of himself that he refused the very thing that allowed him to stand up to the Nephilim and only took it back when someone told him to take responsibility. As impressive as that was, there was still an issue here,

"So what are you going to do then? How are you going to prove to me that I can be relied upo-!" she stopped when Gumball pulled something from his backpack and presented it to her.

It was his scythe, all folded into its compact form and he was offering it up to her like a gift. Teri's mouth hung open as her eyes darted from the weapon to Gumball's face and she could tell that he was being serious,

"I want you to keep it." he said, answering the silent question hanging on her lips.

"What? Why?" she gasped, completely flabbergasted.

"Because I can't be trusted with it and it's my greatest tool, but I want you to trust me again. You're trust and friendship means everything to me, I want you to know that by giving this to you to keep. Whenever a Nephilim shows up again, you bet I will come to you first and if you think I can be trusted then I will fight by your side." he explained, pressing it into her hands before letting go of the silver handle,

"Teri, I want to let you know I'm sorry, but I know that simply saying it won't be enough, so this is the best I can do. I'm sorry for what I did and I wanted to let you know that…"

"...I love you." is what he wanted to say, but for some reason, now did not feel like the right time, so he instead went with,

"... you mean everything to me." he finally spat out, hoping that it wasn't giving anything away.

Holding the scythe now, she was mesmerized by the actions done by the upright feline and felt the device resting lightly in her hands. Even in its collapsed state, the feeble school girl could feel just how dangerous this thing was and why it suited Gumball very well. It was a dangerous, yet effective tool and Gumball was giving it to her so that she could decide whether he could use it or not. She could easily hand it off to someone more capable of wielding it or just use it herself whenever the going gets rough and Gumball accepted that. She felt her knees start to wobble and her mouth contorted into a frown as she closed her eyes tightly.

Then she shoved the weapon back into Gumball's paws, completely catching the cat boy off guard, he stared at her with disbelief as though she had gone crazy, well, crazier than she already was,

"What the what?! Teri, if you don't think I can be trusted then you should keep this in case I-!"

"Just hush for a second, will you!" she cut in and Gumball politely shut his trap.

She took a deep breath before calmly letting it all out,

"I'm not going to keep it from you because it's still your weapon and your responsibility. I'm moved by your dedication, but I don't want to take this away from you." she closed the small amount of space between the two of them and Gumball could already feel himself starting to shake a little,

"What I want is for you to promise me this time that you will prioritize your allies over your impulsive need to be a hero and I'm not saying that I'm no longer fed up with your previous actions because trust me, it's going to take a while for me to forgive you." she warned, feeling glad that she was taller than him thus making her more intimidating than her frail nature would allow.

It came as a no brainer to Gumball that this was the best that he was going to get in terms of moving forward with her, but he was not one to complain with such conditions and made his move to promise her that he would prioritize her along with Rob over his own selfish actions,

"I definitely promise to always contact you whenever a Nephilim or any kind of terrible situation occurs and if I break that promise, I will give my scythe to you and cut off my own hands, er actually, you would have to do that because it would be really difficult if I chopped off one hand and then I wouldn't be able to- wait, wait, wait I can just use my dad's buzzsaw he keeps in his shed and-!"

"Okay, okay, enough! I don't need you to mutilate yourself in order to atone for any future failures!" she said, waving her hands in disgust.

She then threw herself around him and Gumball paused a moment before hugging her back,

"Thank you, I promise that I will never try to take this all on my own again." he promised a second time mainly because he needed to assure himself that he was going to follow through on this one.

Teri smiled and kept him in her embrace, he smelled really nice and his fur was really soft against her face,

"You better not…" she said in a somewhat ominous tone because she was going to hold him to that promise. She also wanted to add in "...because I love you too much to see you hurt." but felt rather odd when considering it and decided to just keep hugging him instead,

"... and also, even though you did mess up, thanks for saving me at the end." she said finally and she could feel Gumball shudder in relief as he hugged her tighter.

The hug lasted for a while and remained uninterrupted up until it then came to her attention that there was still a plate of brownies sitting on the table and Under the stethoscope was probably starting in a few minutes. She knew where her mind was taking her and while a part of her was still mad at him, after three days of bitterness she was willing to give it a rest for tonight. Afterall, there was still a conflict going on out there and she couldn't keep this going for ever, time was of the essence. She was also glad to have Carrie's help now because having another friend helping out felt far more relieving, yet still terrifying when she thought about it.

Slowly pulling away from Gumball's arms, Teri took a moment to look him in the eyes and was happy to see peace within them before she turned around towards the table. She grabbed the plate of brownies and lightly shoved them into Gumball's gut, who just took the plate while tilting his head somewhat. He was about to say something before Teri pointed a finger in the direction of the stairwell and ordered him up to her room,

"Under the stethoscope starts in five minutes and seeing as you made a lot of brownies, I'm going to need your help finishing them!" she casually explained.

Overjoyed, Gumball nearly raced up to her room himself, but stopped when he looked towards the laundry room, then at the clock, then at Teri's parent's room, and finally at the front door,

"Um, are you sure that I'm allowed to stay over because I don't want to get you in trouble." he replied somewhat nervously, although his mind was saying to heck with the consequences!

However, Teri was way ahead of him, and by that, she was actually walking behind him and pushing him towards her room,

"There's no need to worry, my family trusts you and will probably not mind your sudden visit, just bake them something in the morning if they get mad. Now upstairs, mister!" she ordered, giving him another shove that sent him forward a few feet. She could not believe that she was taking her mom's advice, but she had to admit that it felt nice to be giving orders.

"Woah, woah, okay there, captain Pepakuma! No need to shove!" he remarked while picking up his pace.

Teri felt her face turn red and a wily smirk followed after, Jade, she loved this dork,

"Darn straight, I'm the captain!" she proudly exclaimed,

"Now go make yourself comfortable, I'm gonna go get the air mattress and some other sleeping materials before I go up there. Don't you dare get any crumbs on my bed and don't start without me either!" she said before making her way to the closet.

Gumball got the message and shot straight up the stairwell, eager to make himself comfortable on her bed. It felt so refreshing to be doing something like this again after some time had passed and even though he understood that there was still some tension between both of them, he was going to make up for it somehow. Eventually, the two were settled in and within a few short minutes, they were both laughing their hearts out while occasionally munching on Gumball's chocolaty treats and pressing up against one another, both feeling very content.

A/N: Gosh darnit! Another one written and done, good God that was so long! There was a reason that I couldn't publish all in one chapter and after looking over the 117pages written here, I'd say that reason is perfectly justified. I'm just so glad that it's done and over with, this chapter is being published with the next one on the way.

So yeah, with that little outburst left to settle, let's get talking about the chapter itself and the first thing I want to talk about is the villain because I feel like she was the major focus of the chapter itself. To start off, the name "Tartarforas" is a reference to the final form of As Nodt, a minor antagonist in the Bleach series whose main ability revolved around fear itself. The Nephilim also practice worship in the Jade Emperor and Tartarforas herself is a fanatic. She has her own beliefs regarding her role in the Republic Army of Babyloth and follows president Nimrod loyally. This villain has long since been in the making along with this chapter because I wanted to showcase a scene where Gumball is confronted with all of the things he was secretly terrified of throughout the story and how he would deal with them. There's still so much that he needs to get over because fear itself is never easily dealt with as well as Teri, Rob, and Carrie.

Speaking of Carrie, she is now in fact a part of the defenders of Elmore and will be further aiding the established trio in their quest to keep Elmore safe. She will be involved in more action scenes later on and her trips to the Underworld will play a major role throughout the upcoming chapters.

As for Rob, his quest to obtain more power has been slightly held back, but not for long as he will be journeying to the void again… soon.

I felt very bad for Teri in this chapter mainly just because of everything that's happened to her and whenever she is placed in a helpless situation like that, it just makes me feel more for her character because of how her life is. I wanted to display an actual conflict between Gumball and her because we don't really see much of that between them, plus one thing I learned un storytelling is that conflict is a great way to develop characters which share a close bond with each other. I really hope that I didn't mess up on the whole argument thing because I don't usually write stuff like that and I kind of ended it within the span of a single chapter, so I hope that doesn't upset anyone. If it does, than I'm sorry if this feels like a shallow attempt to further develop the two main characters.

On a final note, in the next chapter we'll be getting some more action with Hector and some OC's will be introduced as well, as in actual made up characters that will be relevant to the story! So excited!

Have a fantastic day everyone, I hope you all liked the chapter, please favorite and post a review down below and I will be working on chapter ten: Paper, scythe, and golden eyes: a field trip of terror.