Help: Epilogue

The lower levels of the Persephone Protectorate's headquarters were kept dark at all times. The best sort of madness festered in darkness. Those that tended it called it the Incubator, though those who still retained memories of their former life found the name to be in bad taste.

The Incubator was regularly cleaned out and sanitized only to be defiled again before the day was out, so the place strongly smelled of sanitizer and formaldehyde undercut by the faint yet distinctive stench feces, urine, and vomit. The rooms were sound-proofed, which was considered a blessing by all, as the screams, snarls, weeping, and whimpers would become wearisome and troubling.

Those that tended it were first required to spend at least three months in the forest as gatherers. "To get them used to it," it was said. They were then checked regularly for any psychological or emotional abnormalities, as spending any amount of time in the Incubator was known to be trying, mentally speaking. Even without the blanket of corruption that filled the place, it was still a disturbing job, and the Protectorate could ill afford madness to infect their ranks. Sociopathy, however, was permitted, and in fact was even encouraged. It made things easier.

Those who were kept there were mercifully never there for long. Or at least, never longer than a few months, though to them it felt much longer. But even so, they all quickly learned to fear the sound of the thick metal door opening and armored boots descending the stairs.

True enough, today the door opened with a heavy, metallic clang, and the place filled with shrieks and cries. However, something about this visit was different. For one, the lights were turned on. Those imprisoned were stunned silent for at least a second. The lights were never turned on.

Those who entered had done so countless times in the past, and were supposedly long past caring. However, this trip was different. The one in the lead, a short, athletic Caucasian girl with black hair dyed with a single golden streak looked around at the faces peering at her from behind bars and her face went white. "Jesus Christ," she whispered. She sounded as like she was becoming ill. "We did this."

"Hold it together, Rollins," Janelle said, though she sounded a bit unsteady herself. "Let's just clear this place out."

Behind her, a tall, muscular Samoan girl with jet-black hair, looked apprehensive about what they had come to do. "Janelle, I don't know if-"

Janelle gritted her teeth. "Do it, Reigns. Last time, and then we can burn this fucking place to the ground."

There was a moment of hesitation, and then a twitchy, stocky girl with short brown hair went back into the control room and flicked several switches. The floors of the cages lit up, and all of the imprisoned madwomen dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Janelle closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath before say, "Thank you, Ambrose."

"Deanna."

"What?"

"That's my first name," Ambrose said as she reentered the room. "I'm not a private anymore. So call me Deanna."

"Huh," Reigns said, giving the smaller girl an appraising look. "You know, I don't think I ever heard your first name before. Mine's Rowan."

"Beth," Rollins said. "I'd say it's nice to meet you, but seeing how we've been working together for four months…"

Rowan shrugged. "Well, I guess this is the first time we've really met each other. I don't know who that sadistic monster you were working with was, but it sure as hell wasn't me."

Janelle had to smile, but it was time to get back on track. "Well, nice to meet you all. Now let's do this."

Silently she and those she had brought with her went to work. All of the cages were opened, and those lying within were loaded onto floating gurneys to be taken outside.

"What are we gonna do with them?" Rowan said at last, breaking the silence.

"I don't know," Janelle said.

"But you gotta have some idea."

"I don't know."

"But-"

"I told you already, I don't know!" Janelle snapped. "Did you bloody listen? I don't know!"

"She's got a point though," Beth said as she loaded up one of the gurneys. "We don't have any place to keep them, no way to send them off."

"Probably just let them go," Deanna muttered.

Rowan stared at her. "You're shitting me."

"Hey, what else we gonna do with 'em?"

Janelle sighed. "You're probably right. It's be better than here at least."

"What?" Rowan gaped at her. "Look, we spent the last several years doing some really fucked up shit to these kids. Now we're just going to send them out again, to be taken back into the covens?"

Janelle's face twitched, but she kept her voice steady. "Rowan, I promise you: once this shit is sorted out, we will tear this sodding forest down, branch by branch. We will break apart every single coven, one by one if we have to. And I swear to God and all of Her apathetic angels, we personally make sure that every single wild girl will get all the care and hugs they need, and will then live happy and sane lives, and none of this will ever happen again. But we can't do that now. Everything's so fucked up that all we can do is clean this place out and help the wayhouse rebuild. Once that's done, then we can atone for our sins. But we can't now. Got it?"

Rowan Reigns held her gaze for a long moment. Then her head twitched with a short nod.

"Good." Janelle turned away and put her hands on her hips. "That's…that's…"

"Holy shit, I know this girl," Beth said suddenly.

Everyone turned to her. "Wait, say what?" Deanna said.

Beth pointed at short, pudgy Korean girl that was curled up in one of the cages. "I used to go to school with her. Before, you know? I helped her with math."

Nobody had anything to say to that.

Soon the cages were cleared, and the doors were closed on the Incubator for the last time. "This sucks," Deanna muttered to Rowan as they moved the gurneys through the hall. "I mean, c'mon! There's gotta be some way we can get these kids to someplace decent."

"Go thank Katie," Rowan responded. "She's the one that jammed everything up."

"Katie?" Beth said with a frown. "The techie? What'd she do?"

"You didn't hear?" Deanna said over her shoulder. "She went and got a little revenge on everyone Lily was doing business with." She grinned. "Can't say I blame her, but it does make things a wee bit complicated."

"Huh? How?"

Sighing, Janelle was the one to answer. "Katie decided that it would be a great idea to dig up every single transaction the Protectorate ever made and leak them to the world. All of it, except our identities. Everyone we've ever sold to, bought from, made deals with, the whole nine yards. It's all public knowledge now."

"What?" Beth squeaked, looking stunned. "But that means-"

"Yup." Janelle shook her head. "There are a lot of people having all kinds of a horrible day right now. Unfortunately, that includes us."

…

There wasn't much left of the Etherdale Wayhouse. A pile of singed beams, some twisted pieces of metal, a few gobs of melted plastic, but not much else. It was to be expected though. Though it had been built to last, it had still been mostly composed out of wood. Magically reinforced wood, but wood nonetheless. And even concrete would have eventually bent to the all-out assault that it had tried to withstand. Honestly, it was a miracle that the building had remained standing as long as it did.

Though in this case, the fact that most of the building was gone was actually a good thing, or at least a step in the right direction. The wayhouse workers and the former members of the Persephone Protectorate had been hard at work clearing the rubble away, and though less than a day had gone by, most of it was already gone. In fact, they probably would have had the whole place swept clean by now if it weren't for the many other problems occupying their attention.

Nearly all of the wild girls that had attacked them had fled back into the forest, and very few felt compelled to stop them. A few of the wayhouse workers had tried, but even they had known that it was pointless. Unfortunately, many of the ones they had been trying to treat had left as well, with only those that were the closest to sanity opting to remain behind, though a handful of those were gone as well, to their caretakers' dismay. And as for the workers themselves, only about half were in good enough shape to be of any use. Temporary or not, getting gunned down or hit with a rocket wasn't something that was easily walked off, at least emotionally speaking, and this was to say nothing of those that had been trapped in the main building itself.

The former Protectorate were pitching in any way they could, but many of them weren't exactly all there as well. Several had been under Lily's thrall for so long that simply allowing them to realize what their hearts had known all along made it difficult to even function. More than one was now probably in comparable shape than the wild girls that they had hunted. The others were pushing themselves to work as hard as they could, partially to ease their consciences and partially because concentrating on labor meant that they didn't have to think. It was going to be rough once it finally came down though.

So far, the two previously warring factions were working well together, though some tension was still evident. Most of the wayhouse workers understood what their former enemies were going through and were being gracious, though there were those that weren't so quick to forgive.

And as for the Protectorate's newest recruits, they were dealing with some additional problems of their own.

Mami turned over a piece of burnt wood with her boot. Beneath was the charred remains of a book. She picked it up and thumbed through its pages. The edges flaked away, but she could still pick out bits and pieces.

…spoke today. Not much, but she was able to…hopefully a sign…seems to like being around us. Here's hoping…

It was a journal, written by one of the therapists that had been working with the wild girls. Mami swallowed. She wondered which one she had been treating, and if her patient was still here or had fled with the rest. She wondered how close she had been to bringing the poor thing back to sanity before the Persephone Protectorate had showed up to tear down everything they had worked so hard to build. She wondered…

Drops of moisture appeared on the brittle pages, and her fingers dug into the book, causing more of it to crumble away. Mami bit her lower lip as her throat clenched up.

Then a warm hand rested on her shoulder. Turning, Mami saw Charlotte standing there, a look of concern on her china doll face. Without a word Mami closed her eyes and leaned into her wife, who put her arms around her and held her close while she cried, softly.

Neither of them said anything until Mami calmed down. Then Charlotte said, "It's not your fault. You know that, right? It's not your fault."

Still sniffling, Mami said, "Don't. Please, just don't."

Charlotte winced a bit, but nodded. There was a time and place for everything, even the truth.

Eventually Mami drew back. Wiping her eyes with her palms, she asked, "Any news?"

Charlotte breathed out. "Yeah. I think so. They, uh, want us over at the base."

Mami shuddered. Though the Protectorate's headquarters provided shelter and protection, no one wanted to go back, and those that did only did so to free those trapped there and round up supplies. As she understood it, it was too full of corruption to be of any use and was probably going to be stripped and abandoned. Just as well. She certainly didn't relish going back, even if it meant learning more about what had happened to Kyoko and Oktavia.

The two of them walked through the commotion over to where the trucks were, near the of the clearing. It was strange, seeing so many of the ex-soldiers hard at work without their armor. By nearly unanimous decision, they had discarded the Persephone Protectorate's green metal uniforms and weapons. The few vehicles they had were busy going back and forth between the wayhouse grounds and the base, taking over pieces of hardware and coming back with food, clothing, and other necessities. A few had protested, claiming that practical concerns outweighed emotional ones, but they had caved quickly. Even if they did have a point, nobody wanted to use that stuff anymore. At least now Mami saw actual human faces instead of blank visors. She didn't even really mind that most of the faces she saw were filled with some combination of pain, grief, and anger. At least they now looked human.

The ones she didn't like were the ones that stared back at her with emotionless faces. When she came across someone with nothing in their eyes, she looked away quickly.

"You know, I think they'll be okay," Charlotte said.

Mami jerked her head toward her. "What?"

"Well, I mean, yeah it's going to be rough. Um, really rough. But you know. Lily's gone, and everyone seems to be getting along. Mostly. But hey, they're all…working together. And stuff. Charlotte's voice went up an octave. "And a new wayhouse is being built real quickly. So, there's that. Though I guess supplies are kind of a problem now. But maybe they can just buy from whoever Lily was buying from. Like, keep things under wraps, you know? And, uh, when everything's settled, go…to the local marshals? They've got marshals here, right? Or do they call them something different?"

"Charlotte…"

"Well, whatever they've got for law enforcement. I mean, once word gets out what they went through, people will be lining up to give them whatever they need. It'll make headlines through hundreds of territories!" Charlotte swallowed. Her shoulders had started to shake. "And…hell, maybe then we can go home and just, I don't know, get lots and lots of therapy and pray to God that no one finds out what we did and deal with the fact that oh God we just handed Oktavia and Kyoko over to the Void Walkers…"

This time it was Mami that drew her wife in and held her close until Charlotte was able to calm down. They had fallen into something of a routine over the day: one of them would start to freak out and the other would comfort them until they were able to regain control. In the event that their breakdowns occurred simultaneously, they clung tighter. Those ones tended to last longer. It didn't help that they hadn't been able to sleep much.

Finally Charlotte's shoulders relaxed. "I'm okay," she said, drawing back. "Thanks."

Mami nodded and gave her hand a squeeze. "Let's just go see what they want. Maybe it's good news."

The look Charlotte gave her indicated that she believed otherwise.

They passed through the bustling crowd and made it to the perimeter, where supplies were being brought in and unwanted hardware shipped out. Mundoroun, the tall vaskergoros, was overseeing matters with the help of a couple other wayhouse workers. Mami recognized one of them as the red-haired girl she had seen get shot down by a sniper the day before.

Clearing her throat, Charlotte walked up to Mundoroun. "Uh, hey," she said.

Mundoroun glanced down at her. "Yes?" she said, her deep, bass voice rumbling.

The top of Charlotte's head barely reached Mundoroun's bellybutton. "I'm Charlotte, and she's Mami. Janelle sent for us?"

Mundoroun's ears twitched. "Very well. This truck leaves in ten minutes." She didn't sound at all friendly, but at least she didn't sound like she was going out of her way to be threatening.

"Uh, thanks." Charlotte and Mami edged their way out of her vicinity, but Mami held back.

"Uh, excuse me?" she said. "Mundouron?"

Mundouron's ears lowered, a sign of irritation. "What is it?"

Mami kept her head bowed. "You…probably don't recognize us, as we were wearing armor at the time, but my wife and I fought you directly yesterday. And I, ah, wanted to offer you our, ah, our sincerest-"

"Hmmm." Mundouron's ears lifted, and her face seemed to soften. "Well. Think nothing of it. We all know who was truly to blame."

Gulping, Mami nodded her thanks and scurried off after Charlotte, who was looking at her as if she had lost her mind.

With nothing else to do, Mami and Charlotte helped load up the truck. "Hey, four O' clock," Charlotte muttered at one point.

Mami looked, and her face fell.

Annabelle Lee was hovering nearby, talking to one of the wayhouse workers, this one a Japanese girl with green hair and…Were those hands at the end of her legs? A quick glance confirmed that they were. She didn't seem to have any difficulty standing on them though, even with her upper hands full holding onto a squirming child with blonde hair and red eyes. Both of them looked incredibly familiar, though Mami couldn't place where she had seen them. In contrast to most of those Mami had seen, the green-haired girl was smiling and talking animatedly.

As for Annabelle Lee, she seemed uncomfortable but not entirely averse to the attention. And she had been getting a lot of it. Once word on exactly how Lily had been her demise had gotten around, Annabelle Lee and the other Void Walkers had become something of celebrities among both the Persephone Protectorate and the wayhouse workers alike. The Protectorate seemed to look upon them as the redeemers that had struck down their oppressor and freed them from captivity, while the wayhouse workers viewed them as bold heroes that had risen up in their time of need and saved them from a horrible fate. More than once, Mami had to bite her tongue and remain silent when hearing one of the others sing their praises.

"You know what the most damnedest thing is?" Charlotte said as they watched.

"What?"

"Even I want to thank them. But I also want to shoot them." Charlotte smirked. "You think there's a way I could do both?"

Mami sighed. "Just leave them be. These people need their heroes. Even if it's them."

…

"…seriously though, this is incredible," Patricia all but gushed. The four-handed witch was all smiles, even with a fair amount of her attention devoted to handling a very fidgety Hungry, who couldn't seem to make up her mind about whether she wanted to run off or find a part of Patricia worth gnawing on. "I mean, you saved us. All of us. And now the Persephone Protectorate is actually helping us and we can rebuild…" She shook her head in amazement, though that might have been to dislodge Hungry's pawing hands. "It's more than I could have dreamed of."

"Uh, well, think nothing of it," Annabelle Lee said, albeit a bit awkwardly. She was struggling to keep what she hoped was a friendly smile on her face, but it was making her mouth hurt. "I was mostly trying to save my own skin, so…"

"Well, you certainly saved a lot of skin." Patricia let out a nervous sounding giggle. "It's like, wow, I thought for sure they were going to take us all. But here we-Ow! Hungry, no!"

Yeah, there they were. Limited food, too many mouths, no shelter unless they gave in and started using the Persephone Protectorate's base, and allied with a bunch of people who were probably missing a few screws thanks to that whole brainwashing thing. Okay, so actually managing to defeat Lily and release the forest from the Protectorate's grip was kind of fantastic, and being stuck in an undersupplied, overpopulated was miles better how she was expecting to spend the day. And fine, so her part in making that happen was made for a nice, not to mention extremely rare, boost to her ego. That didn't change the fact that, despite their victory, things kind of sucked.

"Well, you're not out of the woods yet," Annabelle Lee remarked, entirely unaware of the pun she was making. "Don't get excited until the new complex is up and running."

Having pacified Hungry, Patricia giving her a knowing smile. Annabelle Lee frowned and drew back a bit. "What?"

Shaking her head, Patricia said, "You really can't turn off the pessimism thing, can you? I mean, we won! You won! The covens rallied to our side, and you and your friends tore Lily apart. Now everyone she was controlling is helping us! We're safe now. We can rebuild. Don't you understand how amazing that is?"

Annabelle Lee didn't bother keeping her eyes from rolling.

Patricia tilted her head to one side. "It's your job, isn't it? Those criminals that got away."

Sighing, Annabelle Lee turned away. Patricia's gushing enthusiasm may be sort of annoying, but she wasn't stupid.

There was a short pause, and then Patricia said hesitantly, "You know, just because you've hit a…setback doesn't mean-"

"It's more than a setback," Annabelle Lee said, her voice harsh. "Found out that they ended up in Lily's hands after all."

Patricia's head jerked up. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah. And she sold them off to…" Annabelle Lee had to catch herself before namedropping the Brothel. "…our employer two days ago."

Now, as much as Annabelle Lee hated the Tomoes, she could still manage some measure of sympathy for their situation. Being ensnared by Lily and having their minds twisted into joining a group of leechers wasn't something she would wish on anybody. And seeing the utter horror they had experienced when Lily's hold on them had been released had actually made her feel a little sorry for them.

Still, all of that had gone right out the window when, in the depths of their despair, they had confessed their sins. Annabelle Lee wasn't really sure if they had been actually talking to her or were just babbling at her because she so happened to be nearby, nor did she care. She had gotten the message. And in that moment, she had been sorely tempted to turn them into leaking bags of skin and hair.

"Oh," Patricia said.

"Yeah," Annabelle Lee. "So, that's that. Game over." It felt weird, actually saying those words. In a way, it was practically an admission of damnation.

The weird thing was just how serene she felt about it. Maybe she was just numb. Things had changed so quickly that perhaps her soul had yet to realize the enormity of what had happened. She just hoped that she wasn't someplace public when it finally hit. The collective concern would be stifling.

"Then what are you going to do?"

Annabelle Lee shrugged.

Hungry let out a loud snort. She had fallen asleep while nestled against Patricia's shoulder. No wonder she and Nikki had understood each other so well. They were practically from the same tribe. Adjusting her hold on her, Patricia said, "Well, you know, if…if you can't go back…"

And here they went again. Annabelle Lee almost snapped back with a flat rejection, but to her surprise, her heart wasn't in it. In fact, sticking around with the wayhouse was sounding better and better, at least when compared to certain alternatives. Which really did make for a fitting reflection on Annabelle Lee's luck: face the wrath of the most powerful person in the afterlife, or hang out in a muddy, impoverished camp full of crazies. So instead, she just said, "Why do you want me to stick around so bad? The whole Lily thing was just luck. I surprised her, yeah, but she kicked my ass right after."

"Well, because you're tough, and we need that now," Patricia said, shrugging the shoulder Hungry wasn't sleeping on. "Besides, don't sell yourself short. Just getting the drop on Lily is nothing to sneeze at."

Annabelle Lee snorted. "Really? Because it seemed to happen quite a lot." She pointed at the sleeping girl. "Hell, that little terror did better than I did. If it's protection you need, just sic her on whoever's bothering you."

"Well, short of Lily herself, I doubt we'll be seeing anyone that deserves that," Patricia said wryly. She gave Hungry an affectionate pat on the back.

Annabelle Lee smirked. She was about to respond when something caught her attention.

Nearby, a familiar form was huddling near one of the campfires. Polly was sitting hunched over, her head bowed, her large eyes wide open and unblinking. She was wearing one of the Persephone Protectorate's navy green shirts and pants, both of which were too big for her, and had a rough brown blanket draped over her shoulders. Her eyes were blank and her face emotionless, as they got whenever Mary Anne spoke. However, the doll was gone, though her hands were still held to her chest as if she still had it.

Annabelle Lee's thin mouth thinned out even further. Polly was one of the few tough cases to have stuck around after the attack, and that was probably only due to her catatonia. With Mary Anne gone, it was highly likely that all of the progress that had been made with her was lost. If anything, she was probably worse than before, given everything that had happened.

"Has she moved at all?" she said to Patricia.

"Huh?" Patricia looked in the direction Annabelle Lee was pointing, and her face fell. "No, she hasn't. I mean, she'll follow if led, and she'll eat if we put food in her mouth, but that's it. We haven't been able to get any response from her at all. Losing Mary Anne…Well, I think it took something from her."

"Why not give her another doll then?"

Patricia sadly shook her head. "We don't have one. They were all lost with the wayhouse."

"Tch." Annabelle Lee thought for a moment, wondering if she should just move on. It wasn't any of her business, and given enough time, the wayhouse would probably be able to coax Polly back on their own. That is, assuming they lasted long enough to rebuild, and if they didn't it would be a moot point anyway.

Then she sighed. Oh, what the hell.

Going over to where they were organizing the supplies coming in, she zeroed one of the Persephone Protectorate flunkies helping out. "Hey! You!"

The flunky jerked up, surprised. "What?" she said. Then she saw who she was talking to and her eyes widened. She quickly straightened up and saluted. "Uh, I mean ma'am!"

God, this was bizarre. "Socks! Do you have any?"

The flunky stared at her, her eyes reflexively dipping to Annabelle Lee's skirt and her conspicuous lack of feet. "Socks? I, uh…"

"Not for me, you idiot. Do you have any or not?"

"I…" The flunky quickly, and a little frantically, started a search through the piles near her. "I don't think so, but there may be some coming in…"

Annabelle Lee sighed. "Oh, forget it. Just give me yours."

"M-mine?"

Annabelle scowled. "Did I stutter? Yes! Your sock! Just one though. Don't need two."

While she was obviously bewildered by Annabelle Lee's strange request, the flunky complied, pulling off her left boot and peeling off the sock underneath. The sock in question was light grey and fortunately reasonably clean.

"Yeah, okay," Annabelle Lee nodded. "So, how about a marker? You got any of those?"

Once she was done, Annabelle Lee floated over to where Polly was still sitting as still as a statue. "Hey Polly," she said, hoping her voice wasn't threatening.

Polly didn't move.

Annabelle Lee took a deep breath. "Um, look. I don't know how deep you are in there, or if you can even hear me. But, um, about Mary Anne. I…I know you relied on her a lot, and…" She sighed, and held up the sock. "All right, look. Maybe this will help."

She held up the sock and slipped it on her hand. On it she had scribbled a face. It wasn't a very pretty one, but it was still a face.

"This is, uh, this is…Jenny," Annabelle Lee said, choosing the first name that came to her mind. "And Jenny is, uh, Mary Anne's cousin. And, uh, she's here to take over for her." Though she felt incredibly foolish in doing so, Annabelle Lee worked her makeshift sock-puppet and spoke in a high-pitched voice, making it "talk."

"Hello there, Polly! I'm here to help you! So if you, uh, need someone to talk for you, just, uh, let me do it!"

Polly didn't move.

Well, okay. "So, here you go, I guess." Annabelle Lee quickly pulled the sock off her hand. She gently moved one of Polly's hands away from her chest and slipped the sock over it. "Good luck."

That done, Annabelle Lee hastily moved away, silently thanking whoever was listening that neither of The Twins were here to see this. They would never let her hear the end of it.

Hearing someone chuckling, Annabelle Lee turned to see Patricia watching her, a huge grin on her face. "What?" Annabelle Lee said irritably. "She grew on me, okay?"

Shaking her head in amusement, Patricia said, "Are you sure you don't want to stay?"

"Look, I gave her a sock. That doesn't mean I want to adopt her."

"If you say so."

"I do." Annabelle Lee turned her back to her. "So stop smi…"

Noticing Annabelle Lee's hesitation, Patricia looked at her curiously. "What is it?"

Annabelle Lee stared as Mami and Charlotte Tomoe climbed onto the back of one of the supply trucks. It engine rumbled and it started off back to the base.

"Well, huh," she said as she watched as it disappeared down the path into the forest. "There's the knock of opportunity if ever I heard it. Say, you wouldn't happen to know where Arzt and Nie are, would you?"

"The Twins? Yeah, sure. They're still in their tent, I think. But why would you want them? I thought you hated-"

Annabelle Lee was already moving away, toward the southern part of the camp. "Nifty, that's where I left Nikki. Hey, good talk, yeah? Keep an eye on Polly for me."

The southern tents mostly housed the wayhouse workers and what few wards they had left, which included. Despite the limited housing, The Twins had a tent to themselves (and they were welcome to it), while the Tick-Tock Sisters had another. Or rather, Nikki had the tent to herself. Annabelle Lee had preferred to sleep outside. When she had left to head over to the supply station in hopes of news, Nikki had been fast asleep. Annabelle, who knew a thing or two about Nikki's sleeping habits, expected her to remain as such for a few more hours at least. It wasn't going to be easy rousing her, but Annabelle Lee felt that she was going to need her help.

Annabelle Lee really hoped that The Twins had their clothes on, though the odds of that happening while they were in any sort of private space wasn't enormously high. She had chosen a tent well out of earshot of theirs for a reason. Though to her surprise, once she reached the tents, Arzt and Nie were not only fully clothed but outside and wandering around, apparently searching for someone.

That someone turned out to be her. "There you are!" Nie declared when she saw Annabelle Lee. Marching over to her, she demanded, "We need to leave. Right now."

Annabelle Lee blinked. Even with everything that had been going on, Nie looked unusually distressed. "Yeah, uh, okay. Any particular reason?"

"These people won't stop loving us!" Nie all but wailed. "Endlessly! Everywhere someone keeps stopping us, wanting to thank us." Her face twisted in disgust. "As if we did it for them."

"Ah." The corner of Annabelle Lee's mouth twitched. "Well. Thought you'd enjoy getting all that love."

Nie stared at her like she had suddenly regrown her legs. "Are you serious? They won't leave us alone, even when we're in our tent! And Arzt is still frail and needs her rest, but no, they have to come by every hour, every minute, every second it seems, wanting to know if we need something! Yeah, we need something! A little privacy! But that just seems to be too much for this twice-dead cretins? No! And to top it off, they always show up just as soon as we've-"

"Okay, okay, shut up," Annabelle Lee said before she learned something she would have rather not know. "We're leaving."

Nie started. "What? We are?"

"Yeah. At least, I'm pretty sure we are. Just stumbled across an interesting lead."

…

The door to Lily's office was wide open.

Based on what Mami had heard, Janelle and the head of the wayhouse (she had been told the woman's name a couple of times, but given everything that had happened it had flown right out of her head) had been there since before the sun had come up, digging through Lily's files and doing their best to tear down what remained of that liar's hold on the forest. They had gotten in contact with the soldiers manning the blockade and was arranging to have it torn down. As for the anti-air installations, they had been deactivated and added to the To Be Dismantled list, though all things considered they probably had low priority.

As for calling for help, the rumors coming in from the supply runners were all over the place, both in their variety and how quickly they had spread throughout the camp. The one thing that everyone could say for certain was that someone had leaked their story to the public. Beyond that, when it came to who did it, how much had been disclosed, and what sort of impact it was having outside of the forest varied greatly. Some said that the leak had been an accident, others claimed that Janelle had ordered it to put pressure on the government, still others were certain that Lily herself had arranged for it to happen as a failsafe against treachery. And no two people could agree on whether it was just Lily's clients that were screwed or if the entire Persephone Protectorate was to be arrested.

Mami knew that she ought to care more. After all, being charged with leeching would be the final nail in the coffin for her and Charlotte to rebuild their lives, to the point where they might as well just become Void Walkers themselves. But they had willingly given Kyoko and Oktavia up to Oblivion. They had attacked a wayhouse. They had slaughtered wild girls that had only been trying to protect their only chance at recovery. They deserved no less.

Though there still was the mystery of why Janelle would want to speak to them in person…

Though Mami was hesitant, Charlotte walked right up to the open door and rapped her knuckles against it. Apparently Janelle had been deeply engrossed by whatever she had been doing, as she immediately jerked up with a look of surprise. "What!" she all but shouted.

Not an encouraging start. "Uh, it's us," Charlotte said. "Charlotte and Mami Tomoe."

Janelle stared. There was something not right about her eyes, some broken. In contrast to the laid back officer they had come to know over the last week, she now looked frayed, ragged, worn almost to her breaking point and was now holding things together through nothing but sheer force of will. "Who?" she said.

Mami winced. No, not a very encouraging start at all.

Charlotte cleared her throat and said again, "Uh, Mami and Charlotte Tomoe? The new guys? You sent for us?"

Janelle stared blankly at her for a moment longer. Then her face twitched, as if something had just been shoved into her mind. "Right, right. Come in, come in." She looked down at Lily's desk. It was covered with everything from papers to datapads to freestanding holographic images. "Sorry, everything's just been…" Then she glanced over to the room's other occupant, a tall, dark-skinned woman with her hair shaved away from her temples. She was sitting in Lily's chair and was busy poring through a virtual computer at the far end of the desk. "Uh, this is Demeter. She's the one in charge of the wayhouse we spent most of yesterday burning down. And, uh, sort of in charge of everything now."

Mami exchanged a brief look with her wife, both of them wondering how to properly greet the woman who's home they had helped destroy. "Uh, hi," Charlotte said, giving a weak little wave.

Demeter briefly nodded but didn't look up from what she was doing. Which was better than screaming accusations, Mami supposed.

There were several folding chairs already set up in front of the desk. Janelle half-walked, half-stumbled her way to one and all but collapsed into one. She hunched over and rubbed her face with both hands while she let out a long and weary groan. "Okay, sit down, sit down," she said, motioning to the others. Once Mami and Charlotte had done so, Janelle shook her head and said, "Now look: we're in something of a spectacular mess."

"We know," Charlotte said, a bit of sleep-deprived sarcasm leaking into her voice. "Lily brainwashed us."

"Right," Janelle sighed. "That. And as you've probably figured out, that whole bit about Demeter and her people being leechers was complete bunk. We were the actual leechers, and…"

"It's okay," Mami was quick to say. None of them needed to relive that. "We put it together."

"Right." Janelle shook her head and let out sad little laugh. "Well, let's just skip over the tearful apologies and soul-tearing breakdowns and get to the, uh, get to the…Well, to it. Let's get to it."

She squeezed her eyes shut and mumbled a bit under her breath. Mami and Charlotte remained silent, letting her gather her thoughts.

"All right," she said at last. "Now, here's the deal. Under…well, I can't say normal circumstances anymore, can I? But whatever, under normal circumstances we would not be having this conversation. The Persephone Protectorate has…had. The Persephone Protectorate had over a thousand members, all of them taken from whatever lives they had been living before Lily sank her bloody talons into them. Some of them had been with her longer I have. And seeing how we gotta…you know, rebuild, resupply, get a metric fuckton of help from whoever'll give it, your guys' case would be at the end of a very long queue."

Mami's heart sank. It was as she had feared.

"We're going to make an exception."

"What?"

A flash of irritation swept over Janelle's face. "I said we're making an exception, okay? What part of that wasn't-" She clamped her jaw shut and grimaced. Once it looked like the anger had subsided, she breathed out and said, "Sorry. Stress. Lots of it. But yeah. See, it's like this: the difference between you guys and everyone else is that you're the only ones working with a very immediate deadline."

Deadline? Mami tried to fight the small flutter of hope she felt rising up, but she needed something to latch onto. "Kyoko and Oktavia?" she said, trying not to sound desperate.

"Yeah." Janelle swallowed. "That. See, we're in a bit of a bind here. We've…" Her voice trailed off, and she seemed to be struggling to regain her train of thought.

Seeing that her partner was floundering, Demeter stepped in. "We've managed to contact the outside world and call for help," she said, not taking her eyes off of the holographic screen. Her eyes narrowed. "The problem is that, thanks to certain…hasty decisions, it might take some time to get here."

Charlotte made a face. "You mean the bit about everything Lily was doing and working with being leaked?"

Janelle's mouth twitched. "You know about that, huh?"

"Everyone does," Mami said.

"Damn." Janelle pressed two fingertips to her forehead and muttered in exasperation. "Okay, yes. That's sodding it. And because of that, a whole lot of pies with Lily's fingernails in them got thrown out into the streets. Including some very high up in Achelonia's government."

Mami said, "But we didn't send them to-"

"It's chaos out there, okay?" Janelle snapped at her. "Yeah, I know, it's chaos here too, but they're all freaking out in a completely different way. The Persephone Protectorate was bribing the Minister of Integration, and now she's pulling strings like crazy to avoid getting arrested, and all of her allies are making a royal mess of things to cover their asses, and I have no idea how the public is going to react once the shock's worn off, but given just how many territories we had contracts with, I'd say there's a lot of territories that are going to have some real bad days, you see where I'm going with this?"

Charlotte's mouth set in a thin line. "Yes," she said, her voice cold. "You're saying we're stuck here. Our friends are gone, and there isn't a goddamned thing we can do about it."

Uh-oh. Mami reached over to touch her wife's shoulder. "Char…" she said, half placating, half warning. Charlotte's fingers clenched up, but she averted her gaze.

Fortunately, Janelle didn't take the bait. "Sort of. Here's the deal: Lily's been working this game for a long time, okay? A real long time. Even before she formed the Persephone Protectorate. So we've got over a thousand people here that she had twisted around her finger, some of which have been with her for so long that they're likely to go as nuts as those kids out in the forest if we don't get them some help." She leaned back and gestured to the pile of records on the desk. "Now, since the government is going to be completely bloody useless for a while, we're making calls to…just about everyone else. Private organizations. Charities, rehabilitation centers, other wayhouses, that sort of thing. And a lot of them have responded. So, with any luck, we, uh, should be able to start moving people out soon, and, uh, oh I don't know. One step at a time."

"What does it matter?" Charlotte muttered. She was trying not to sound bitter, but her success was negilible. "Seriously, what does it matter if we're in the front or the back of the line? Oktavia's gone. Kyoko's gone. The Void Walkers have them already. Might as well stick around here."

Janelle shot her a sharp look, but her voice remained level. "Not exactly. See, Lily cut a deal with the people we gave them to. They wanted those Void Walkers you were fighting with too, so they decided to wait until after the attack to contact the Wither Lands. You know, in case they were at the wayhouse."

Mami's eyes brightened. "Wait, so that means…"

"There's a good chance that your friends haven't been delivered to the Void Walkers yet. In fact, it's unlikely that they've even contacted the Void Walkers. They're probably still there, at the Starlight Motors. That's, uh, that's the Brothel's front in Marsters."

Charlotte gagged. "Wait, we gave them to a brothel?"

This made Janelle blink. "No, the Brothel." She looked from Charlotte to Mami's face, brow furrowing at the lack of recognition the name was getting. "You've never heard of…"

The Tomoes shook their heads.

Then Demeter spoke up. "It's a criminal organization. They mostly do mercenary work, but they have their hands in just about everything else as well. Including soul harvesting. Lily was one of their suppliers."

"Oh," Mami said.

Janelle nodded. "So yes. That is another thing we have to worry about. All of Lily's customers coming after us." Her lips twisted into a ghastly smile, and she let out a slightly crazy sounding chuckle. "I am going to kill Katie. I am literally going to kill her."

Demeter sighed. "Well, the point is, thanks to the leak, the Brothel's going to be too busy protecting itself to worry much about trading favors with the Void Walkers. They'll probably have to end up abandoning their holdings in Marsters and move on, now that everyone knows that Starlight Motors is bogus."

Charlotte stared. "But our friends?"

"We're…" Janelle spread her hands. "We're trying to contact the Marsters Militia, let them know that Starlight Motors is holding two hostages. But on top of everything else…"

Charlotte's eyes narrowed, always a dangerous sign. "Wait, that's it?" she demanded. "Call the local marshals, hope they can sort it out?"

"There isn't anything else we can-"

That did it. "You dragged us into this!" Charlotte all but shrieked as she sprung to her feet. She kicked her chair aside and jabbed a finger toward the door and the deserted base beyond. "You sold our friends, put armor on us, and sent us to go attack a freaking wayhouse just so you could keep sucking people dry to make drugs! And now you're telling me that there's nothing you can do about it except hope the marshals sort it out? Bullshit!"

A long silence followed. Even the sound of Demeter's typing stopped. Mami gaped at Charlotte, who was now literally shaking with rage. As for Janelle, she had remained seated and staring, her eyes unblinking and unreadable.

When she finally spoke, her voice was more calm than it ever had been. "Lily had me under her thumb for a little over two years. Before that, me, Demeter, and a few of the others we shot at yesterday worked together at a number of wayhouses. It's because of me that Lily even found out about Etherdale, that she was able to hijack the plans to build a new wayhouse and turn it into her headquarters. I've spent the last six months helping her do unspeakable things while readying an attack on my friends, and I did so with a smile in my face while my heart was screaming." She licked her chapped lips. "This is quite literally the first day in two years I've been able to think for myself."

Now Charlotte looked a little less certain of herself. She glanced over to Mami and then back to Janelle. "Uh, so you're saying…"

Janelle took a deep breath. "I'm saying that if you raise your voice like that at me again, I won't be responsible for what happens next." Her fists clenched, making the knuckles pop. "Got it, love?"

Charlotte's neck tensed up, and she looked like she was torn between screaming again and slinking away with her tail between her legs. Pursing her lips, Mami reached up to take her hand and gently, but firmly directed her to another chair. Taking the hint, Charlotte sat back down, her fingers digging into her knees and eyes focused on the floor.

"Okay," Charlotte whispered. "Okay. I'm sorry. I know, not your fault. It's just…" Her voice cracked. "We just stood there while they took them. We waved goodbye and smiled."

Janelle's face softened, and some of the tension left the room. "I know. And we're…and we're doing all we can." She glanced over to Demeter, who had resumed her work like nothing had happened. "But…there's so much…"

"We understand," Mami said. "Thank you for trying."

"Yeah," Charlotte mumbled. She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her finger.

Janelle nodded. "All right. We'll let you know as soon as we hear something. Just…don't get your hopes up or anything, okay?"

"It's better news than what we expected," Mami told her. "Again, thank you."

Janelle reflexively lifted her hand to salute. Then, catching herself, she settled for a nod of acknowledgement and stood up to silently turn back to the desk. Taking the hint, Mami and Charlotte got up as well. They turned toward the door, but Charlotte held back.

"Uh, hey," she said. "I know you've got a lot to do, but out of curiosity…"

Janelle gave her a look. "What?"

"Where exactly is Lily right now?"

"Oh." Now all the strain left Janelle's face, to be replaced with a smile of satisfaction. She looked to Demeter, who still hadn't looked up but now wore a grim smile of her own. "Well, about that…"

She motioned for the Tomoes to come over to the other end of the desk. Demeter pressed a button, and a new screen appeared in the air. On it was a camera feed, showing a cramped room that looked like a prison. There were rows of cells in the walls and cages set into the floor. All were empty except for one of the cages in the floor. Inside was a limp body wearing nothing but undergarments. On its back were tattered stubs of wings, and its head was gone. A steel cap had been set over its neck.

"This is where we kept the wild girls we had rounded up," Janelle said smugly. "It seemed only fitting."

Charlotte grinned, but Mami just stared. "Her head's still gone?" she said.

Janelle snickered. "Yeah, our friend Arzt fed her quite the cocktail. Something about…" She glanced down to Demeter, who, despite the interruption to her work, seemed to be enjoying the sight as much as the rest of them. "Demmi, how'd she put it again?"

Demeter cleared her throat and said in a passable imitation of the syringe-handed Void Walker's nasally voice, "'A little grey because it was funny, some red to bring her down, some green to keep her down, and a lot of orange because the pompous bitch deserves it.'"

Mami had no idea how she felt about that. On the one hand, she had witnessed firsthand what Arzt's poisons could do. On the other hand, this was Lily they were talking about. She didn't want to take satisfaction in anyone's pain, but…

At any rate, from what she had pieced together, the grey was probably that serum the wayhouse had concocted to protect themselves from Lily's voice, and they had the red to thank for her decapitated state. And she had seen firsthand what the green one did. But that still left… "Orange?"

Janelle folded her arms. "Yeah. Apparently it sends some real bogeywomen after her. Makes her hallucinate and all that. Constant nightmare."

Charlotte's eyes widened. "But she's dead. Not conscious."

"Exactly," Janelle said viciously. "Remind me never to piss Arzt off."

Mami and Charlotte both stared at Lily's still form, and Mami again felt a troubling mixture of horror and approval. She hadn't even known that it was possible for anyone who was temporarily "dead" to experience anything other than oblivion. "Wow," Charlotte said, swallowing. Then she winced and said, "Um, hey, yeah. Speaking of Arzt…"

Oh, this couldn't end well. Mami glanced to her and whispered, "Charlotte, I don't think-"

As always, Charlotte acknowledged her warning but pressed on anyway. "It's just…you know she and her friends…"

Janelle silently reached over to deactivate the camera feed. "Yes," she said, her smile gone. "They're the Void Walkers you told us about. Annabelle Lee and the rest of her merry bunch."

Visibly aware that she was now treading on a very thin patch of ice, Charlotte defensively held up her hands and said, "Well, yeah. So-"

"Stop," Demeter said harshly.

"Huh?"

"Stop." Demeter turned her chair around to glower up at Charlotte. "I don't want to hear it."

"But-"

Demeter's sharp face was now drawn tight. "Let me put this as gently as I can," she said. "I know you have a…history with them. And I know your friends are probably the ones they were hired to bring in. And it's not hard to see that their masters had less than honorable reasons for doing so." She pursed her lips. "I also know that we've spent the last several months getting squeezed dry by Lily and wondering if the death blow would come tomorrow, and that if it wasn't for those four, we all would either be naked in a cage or wearing a whole lot more metal."

Charlotte said nothing.

Demeter nodded. "I'm not going to tell them where your friends are, don't worry. But. But so long as you're in this forest, it's probably best that…" She glanced up to Janelle. "…ah…"

"She's saying that everyone here is like to be a little biased in their favor, so don't throw the glove down or you're like to get dogpiled by everyone here," Janelle finished for her. "Including ourselves."

"We…we understand," Mami said hastily. "We won't start anything."

"Good." Janelle looked away, silently dismissing them. Demeter went back to her work as well. Exchanging a look, Mami and Charlotte slowly moved back toward the door.

…

The exterior of the Persephone Protectorate's base looked so strange. Over the last week, Mami and Charlotte had grown rather familiar with the place, and with the mistaken impression that it was a place of altruism and goodwill and that it would be their home from now on, they had come to view it in a peaceful, homey light, despite its militaristic starkness.

Now it looked like a graveyard, and that wasn't just due to the fact that it was practically deserted, with only a skeleton staff hanging about to clear it out. The low, grey buildings reminded Mami of crypts, built to house the dead. It was deathly quiet, with the ambient sounds of the forest around them and the muffled shuffling of the few ex-soldiers working somewhere in the background doing nothing to dispel the feeling of emptiness.

In fact, as Mami looked around, she saw signs that betrayed the complex's true purpose. The few weeds that had managed to eke out an existence were black, twisted things, corrupted down to their roots. And the noxious smell that she had stopped noticing? Now that she was paying attention, really paying attention, she realized that it had nothing do to with motor oil and horse droppings. It was the stench of the systematic torture of mentally unstable children, deep enough that no number of cleanser beacons could clear it away. The base had four of them going to keep the forest under control and the skies clear, but some things just couldn't be suppressed. The afterlife had a mind of its own, after all.

It had been there the whole time, Mami had never noticed. Or maybe she had, and had just been prevented from realizing it. And the worst part was that this wasn't the first time she had been brainwashed into believing a lie. The last time hadn't been quite so thorough, true, but it had been no less deadly.

"So," Charlotte said, looking around at the desolate place. "I guess…we just sit tight?"

Mami swallowed and nodded. "I suppose so," she said, giving Charlotte's hand a squeeze.

Charlotte's mouth thinned out. "You know, this is going to sound a little awful, but this is actually kind of worse."

Mami tilted her head to one side and frowned.

"I mean, at least when we thought they were gone for good, it was final, you know? But now, it's like I don't want to start hoping because I know it'll probably turn out bad, but I just…" Charlotte took a deep breath. "I can't help it. I can't help but hope, but I can't do anything."

"Then do something," said a new voice.

Charlotte let out a cry of surprise and spun around, her fists raised. Mami instinctively pulled a musket out and dropped into a crouch, pointing the muzzle at the voice's owner.

Annabelle Lee was leaning against the wall behind them, an ugly smirk on her face.. Her right-hand fingers drummed against her left arm, and the sun reflected against the sheathes of her wrist-blades.

"Hey, hey, hey," she said, slowly holding her hands up. She nodded at Mami's musket. "Come on, do you gotta do that every time you do that? This is my only jacket, and I'm getting sick of patching it."

"Get out," Charlotte said.

"Sure, okay," Annabelle Lee said. "Fine. Seriously though, would it be too much to ask that you try to show just a little gratitude? You know, considering."

"Thank you very much," Mami said, her aim not wavering in the slightest. "Now please leave."

To both her and Charlotte's displeasure, Annabelle Lee made no move to go. "Look, seriously, I just want to talk," she said. "Come on. Situation's a little different now, you gotta admit."

"Not in a million years," Charlotte retorted. "Just because you stumbled your way into one good deed doesn't mean we're going to forget-" Then her eyes went wide, and she immediately started turning in a circle, eyes suspiciously scanning her surroundings. "Wait, I know this trick. Where's your sneaky friends."

"Not a trick. Just didn't want to make you feel intimidated is all." Annabelle Lee clapped her hands twice. "Come on, guys! Come out."

Mami's hackles rose as they slinked out from the shadows. Ticky Nikki crawled off the roof and landed in a crouch next to her sister. Nie Blühen Herze emerged from the shadows between two buildings, her pistols holstered at her waist. Arzt Kochen followed, the steel-and-glass syringes of her fingers twitching. Despite Annabelle Lee's words, their golden eyes did not look friendly.

"Come on, come over here," Annabelle Lee said, beckoning to them. "Don't make them feel surrounded."

Mami pulled out another musket and tossed it to Charlotte. They warily kept the barrels trained as the twin girls slowly walked around them to join Annabelle Lee and Ticky Nikki.

"There, you see?" Annabelle Lee said once all four were together. "Not here to fight."

"That's nice," Charlotte said, taking aim at her forehead.. "But I don't want to talk either."

Arzt and Nie responded in unison, letting out identical huffs while rolling their eyes to Annabelle Lee in an "I told you so" manner. "You might wanna reconsider," Annabelle Lee said. "If you want to get your friends back."

Mami's face hardened. "You were listening, I take it?"

"Yeah, you know what the funny thing about being celebrities to a bunch of desperate people is?" Annabelle Lee said. "They let you go anywhere. And seeing how everyone here is kinda messed up and real distracted, so…"

She reached up and removed an earpiece with a tiny microphone. "Their security kinda sucks," she drawled.

Charlotte grimaced. "So, what are you doing here then? You know where they are. Why waste time talking to us? Just so you can taunt us?"

"Hmmm. I'm thinking you've got the wrong idea," Annabelle Lee said. Her violet eyes flickered from Mami to Charlotte's face and back again. "See, this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out: we want to help."

…

Well, that just about wraps it up for Help. So, what'd you think? Like it? Dislike it? What worked, what didn't work, let me know. I'm going to be posting my own thoughts on the episode as a whole on tumblr sometime around Saturday, so if you're interested, that's where it'll be.

And speaking of which, I want to go ahead and plug Walpurgis Nights again. RD slice-of-life spinoff, where everyone is a witch. And it has both Madoka and Homura in it. Three chapters are up, link's in my profile. You'll also notice a link to a fanart compilation. Resonance Days forms the bulk of it, but there's pieces from the other stories as well. Just know that a couple of them are NSFW. Yup, RD is now an official member of the Rule 34 club!

Until next time, everyone!