Author's Note: Final stretch! I wonder if I fan finish this fic this weekend?? Y'all deserve for this thing to finally wrap up. Time to flex my angst writing muscles : Also two people binge read this in a day?? In addition to me?? 3

Oceans

Melanie's eyes were open, but she was in an ocean of darkness. She took a tentative step forward. Her feet moved through liquid, but her shoes were dry. In the distance were little sparks of light. A thrumming in her chest told her that this was the void. The part of herself that had been sutured onto her heart to give her powers beyond her world was back where it belonged.

A whimper to her left drew her attention. There was a woman, not quite herself and not quite the person who she just fought, crouched with her arms wrapped around her knees. She was rocking ever-so-slightly. She just looked like a regular person.

"I didn't know you would end up here too," Melanie said, kneeling down in front of her older self. The cries grew more desperate.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this," she wailed.

"I think... I think our fates had become so tied, that whatever happened to one of us would happen to the other. I never wanted this," Melanie said.

"How could you choose them? We could've had everything," older Melanie said, looking up. She appeared to be a woman in her 30s. Dark brown curls framed her round face. Melanie smiled. Well, now she knew what her hair would look like if she wasn't always dyeing it.

Melanie shook her head. "If you had something worth living for, then why would you leave your own timeline? You came here looking for something to fill the empty in you. Whatever I would've had to give died with all of them. If we both had a hunger for power, it was for different reasons. I only wanted it to protect my family. You took that away from me. I just hope it isn't too late to fix this."

"Fix it?" she asked, brows furrowing.

Melanie extended her hand and stood with her other self. "Just follow me. Stick to the shadows and see for yourself." She nodded hesitantly. Their steps created splashes in the inky liquid on the ground, the sound of which echoed back for a long time. As she approached one of the points of light, she motioned for her other self to hang back. She obliged.

The light point was not actually emanating light at all, but just stood out from the lightless void that surrounded them, from limbo. A man was sitting in the dry lake, looking utterly confused as his fingers drew ripples in the water. He was tanned, but still with a shadowy appearance. His hair was a mousy brown with hints of dusty blonde. He looked up and met Melanie's gaze with piercing yellow eyes. It was The Puppeteer... sort of. Like her other self, he looked like he was teetering halfway between human and something else. Like he had one foot through each door.

"I didn't expect to see you here so soon," he said with a smirk and raised eyebrow. "Or myself with hands and feet again," he said, eyes roaming over his limbs with a sense of wonder.

Melanie sat down cross-legged in front of him, mirroring his position. "Don't count me out yet. I think we still have a way out of this."

The Puppeteer chuckled. It was strange seeing him without the golden threads running through his body. He looked so ordinary. "I would say if the great Melanie Day cheats death a second time, I would eat my shoes, but it wouldn't surprise me. Apparently you're remarkable in every timeline, in some way or another. Although your other self was mostly remarkably terrible."

Melanie frowned. "I'm so sorry... It was me and it wasn't me, but, she gave you a fate worse than death. She turned you into a shambling corpse and then used you to hunt us down. We all thought you were just away for a while. We should have seen the signs that something was wrong."

He shook his head. "Don't blame yourself. This was too convoluted of a turn for anyone to see coming. You were in the city, living a normal life- as it should have been. Protecting you all was my responsibility. The fact that I failed to protect everyone from the threat after the last guardian left me in charge is my own shortcoming. What matters is that I'm free now." He looked around. "And in here, the memory of the pain I felt as that crow puppet is so dim. I can hardly remember what it felt like."

She nodded, wiping her eyes. "I'm glad for that. I wonder why you're the first one I found?"

"I'd only been here a few seconds before you arrived. I think I must have died most recently. I remember I had found Ben... he was fighting, surrounded. He wasn't himself. It was like a shadow moving through space. The last thing I saw was more of that spider army overwhelming him."

"I should find him," Melanie said, rising to her feet. "Thank you. You did everything you could. I'm going to do my best to make this right."

The guardian smiled and closed his eyes, appearing to soak in the peace of being without any injuries.

Melanie walked further into the void, hearing the echo of tentative footsteps far behind her. She knew their words had been heard by her follower. As she approached the second form, she wouldn't have recognized the kid if The Puppeteer hadn't just given her a hint as to who might've gone down at the same time as him. His guise of a video game character was gone. He no longer looked like a pixelated, waterlogged elf. Kneeling down and leaning forward with his hands on his knees, was a kid. He still looked about ten or eleven. He was staring in awe at his reflection.

"Quite the makeover," Melanie called out to him as she approached. Ben looked up and grinned ear to ear. "It's amazing! It's me! I look like me again! But... where are we? Am I in a dream?"

His voice was so hopeful and chipper. She didn't know if she could break it to him. "We, ah... we're somewhere else. We're in a waiting place. I think once I find everyone, I'll be able to bring us back home. I saw The Puppeteer. He's okay. It sounds like you were really fierce. You all fought so hard." She couldn't help it. Her voice broke at the end and she had to stop.

"Oh. I don't remember much, actually. I think I must have transformed because the last thing I remember was being at your house and trying to figure out how the internet worked. Were we fighting? Did we win?"

Melanie felt a lump form in her throat the size of a meteor. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "Yeah, we won. We couldn't have done it without you. Listen, I'm sorry I was getting so impatient with you over the computer..."

He waved his hand. "We were both tired. It doesn't matter."

"It does matter," Melanie said emphatically. "You're my friend and I want you to be able to have more of a normal life. You had at least a little of a chance of that if I could set you up online, and I snapped at you. After this, when we go home, I think that might be more in our reach than I thought."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his head tilting. "Like... going to school or something?"

"No promises, but I think so. I have to find the others, but, I'm glad you're back to your old self. I'm going to make sure you stay that way."

She steeled herself for who she thought might be next. Damn him, making a confession and asking her that with his dying breath. She shouldn't be surprised. They both had a dramatic streak. No matter how much it embarrassed him, she'd be damned if she didn't make him redo it somewhere more romantic than in a pile of spider gut-encrusted rubble. When she saw her boyfriend... fiance?- she gasped. He looked so different.

Gone was the greyish-yellow color of undeath that had tainted him before. His goggles and mask were lying in the water next to him. Like Ben, he was staring, mouth agape at his reflection. The scar on his face had faded. His eyes only glowed a faint yellow now in a ring around brown irises. When he heard her approach, he sprinted to her. He enveloped her in such a crushing bear hug that she was sure if they were alive it would've taken the wind out of her.

"Melanie! It's so good to see you but... why are you here? I thought... you looked okay when I saw you. It's only been a few minutes! W-what happened? I, I was-"

She put a gentle finger over his lips. "It's not the end. I can feel it. I still have some power, even here. I'm going to fix this. I swear I will. It's not the end of this family, of us. And in case you didn't hear me, my answer was yes."

He smiled back at her. He seemed hesitant. Everything was different in this place. Feelings didn't sting as much. Maybe they could finally be honest with each other about the past. "Mel..." he began cautiously. "I asked your parents for permission- to marry you. I went to see them. I've been going to see them for a while now. LJ brought me there. At first I was confused, and then all the pieces fell in place. I felt so stupid for not seeing it earlier. I wondered why you hadn't told us, but then I realized- it was the same thing Jane did. It was how she coped. You only made it through the days because you told yourself they were still with you. I'm sorry, I... did I say too much?" His eyes were so full of concern and sadness. She could see he'd wanted to talk about this for a long time. He'd been so sad for her, he'd wanted to bring her some comfort, but didn't want to make things worse.

"It's okay. It was... it was hard for a long time to think about it. I think I'd made my peace with things a while ago, but the lie had become such an easy habit to fall into that I couldn't break it. It was easier to lie to myself than to feel the grief. But now that I've seen what grief could've turned me into... I think it's time I started facing things. You never let on that you knew, except when I saw your eyes that night you came through my window in a Santa hat and told me about our trip plans. Thank you for being gentle with me, but I'm going to try to do things differently the second time around."

"Second time?" he asked, tilting his head. "Melanie, you do realize..."

"I know, I know it sounds like more delusions. We're all dead right now... but... I think I can still do something. I need to see the others. The answer is something to do with all of us, the bonds we have with each other. I have to go, but we'll see each other again soon, I promise."

They exchanged a few more words and a teary goodbye. This time, Melanie walked away more slowly. It was hard to tear herself away from her other half, even if she was on a mission. She didn't even know if there was a time crunch to all of this. This time, her alternate self allowed herself to catch up. For a while, she didn't say anything. She just looked at her younger self with an intense, focused gaze, biting her lip. "They're different from the ones I knew," was all she said.

"We've leaned on each other for so long, I don't know if any of us would make it on our own. I lost my family before meeting them. I guess... I just wanted something- even if it wasn't perfect. I wish you could've had what I had. I just felt like they understood me, the dark parts too."

Her older self swallowed a lump in her throat but said nothing.

They passed the house's resident ceiling crawler, but only briefly. "You have things to do. Get the hell out of here, you don't need to talk to me," it had said with a dismissive wave of its clawed hand. Melanie chuckled, and then paled as she saw EJ in the distance. He looked so different. Out of all of them, he'd been one of the ones furthest from being human. They had some hard things to talk about. Her older self stepped back again to give them some privacy.

He raised his head, and upon seeing her, quickly averted his gaze. Like the others, he was sitting in the shallow pool. His skin was still unnaturally shadowed, but his mask was off and his eyes were no longer hollow. She knelt in front of him, unsure of what to say. There was so much of their last conversation that she wasn't even sure if it was real. The silence stretched out, until all of a sudden EJ looked at her, words tumbling out like water from a faucet.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, none of this would have happened if I hadn't let her get to me. I could've resisted but she got to me. She got to me and it was easy. She found my weaknesses in a second and it was over. I fucked up... I fucked up so bad... and now we're all dead because of me. Because I got captured and everyone had to come after me." His breaths were deep and shaky. His hands were digging into his knees, clutching his pants in tight, white-knuckled fists.

"You don't have to-" Melanie started.

"Yes I do!" he replied, raising his voice. "This started before she ever arrived in this timeline. You brought a lot of good things to that house, our house, but we were never close. It wasn't an accident. I was jealous of what you and Toby had for a long time. Jealous of him. He wasn't the only one in that house who caught feelings for you. You were the first good thing to come into any of our lives in so long, and the thought that only one of us would get more of that light than the others, it made my blood boil. It took a long time for me to get over that jealousy and accept that I would probably never find someone. I was too far gone anyway. But... by then it was too late. The gap between us was too wide. You were already so close with everyone else, and I felt like I hardly knew you. So yes, I do... I do have to apologize. She had a lot to work with in my brain. I'm sorry."

Melanie took a deep breath. It was a lot to take in. She hadn't seen any of it, but in retrospect, she could see how that could've been the case. He had always been cold towards her. Had that much of it been from envy? She wished she'd have paid as much attention to him as she had to her other family members. There was no other excuse for it than that she just hadn't tried as hard. Jeff had started off trying to kill her, and now they met up on the regular to play air hockey and have a pizza party with some of the others who lived nearby. If they could become close, then at least half of the blame for their strained relationship fell on her.

"I could have done better too. And I will. When this all ends, I'm going to make more time in my life for everyone. I let my family fall to the sidelines in my life. I won't do it a second time. I have to ask though... how much of what you said in the cafe was true?"

He wrung his hands and readjusted how he was sitting several times. He looked intensely uncomfortable. "I..." No words came out.

"We've all done things. My alternate self from another timeline caused all this, EJ. Whatever you have to say can't be worse."

"It's... it wasn't true, what she said about me sending those creatures to attack the house last year. But... there were times... there were times I almost wished it would happen."

"Why?"

"Things were good. And... I didn't know what to do with that. It was unfamiliar. It made me feel things and it made me sick. I just... there were days where I wanted things to go back to how they were before- when no one talked, and I could go back to how I was before. It was harder to feel things. But I didn't do what she said I did! I swear, she was just saying that to drive us apart. She was telling the truth about me having a link to the void too. I never was able to get it to work quite right, though." EJ looked at her with wide eyes. When she didn't say anything, he grew more uncomfortable.

"It was a terrible thing for me to think, I know, I'm so sorry... but my heart's just always been more rotten than the others. I wasn't ready to get better. I don't know if I am now either." He was shaking. Although his words shocked her, she knew she would have to get through this trial too before she could move on. Their connection mattered just as much as any other. If one link was weak, if their relationship was festering and distant, then it would ripple to everyone else.

She scooted closer and pulled her friend close. "It took me years to accept myself. I'm still working on it. It's okay if your life's path doesn't match everyone else's. Even if our friendship isn't easy, I still want you in my life. Take your time."

He breathed out a quiet thank you. She stayed there until his breathing slowed before telling him as she had told the others that she had to keep going and see this through to the end. When her older self caught up again, her eyes were wide and incredulous. "After what I made him say, what I made him do... you forgave him?"

"It was my fault too. I never got to know him enough. The things that he was going through... I never even knew. What kind of friend am I? The least I could do is be there for him if he wants to do things differently from here on out."

The next two they saw were in the same area. The hooded and masked housemates must have died within seconds of each other. There wasn't much to say. Besides, they already looked like they had been in the middle of talking about something important. Before Melanie could say anything, the two boys both agreed that if they ever saw the sun again, they needed to make more time to hang out like they did in the old days. She smiled. She hadn't thought their conversation would be difficult, but it still went quicker than she thought it would've. There was one more person she wasn't sure if she would see, because she hadn't been aware of him on the battleground.

Melanie and her other self walked for a long time without encountering anyone else. "Was that the last one?" her older self asked.

"I don't think so," Melanie replied, shaking her head. "If it was, I think something would've happened."

"We've been walking so long... if the time between everyone else was minutes, this must have been hours ago."

"It's strange. I don't understand it either."

With no features, there was no way to measure how far they had gone. Eventually she saw a spot of light and color in the void. She picked up speed, running once she realized her lungs didn't tire here. There was no indication that they were running out of time, but the possibility still worried her. She didn't want to fail everyone again today.

As she approached, she saw Jeff leaning on a large, rust-colored dog. It wasn't quite so large and demonic as it once looked. It could still square up against Clifford if it wanted to, but this was just a really big dog. The change in Jeff was the most noticeable out of any of the housemates. His paper white skin was now the regular pale of any garden-variety goth. The scars up the sides of his mouth were almost completely faded, and he had eyelids for the first time. He still needed a haircut, in Melanie's opinion, but he looked human enough.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey." She closed the distance and sat in front of him, legs out to one side. With him, it was always a delicate balance of carrying the weight of the conversation, and not saying enough to drive him away. Melanie was surprised when her housemate decided to share without any prodding.

"I went to visit someone," he said while petting the changed form of Smile Dog. "My brother, or uh... his grave, I guess. I didn't know if I would make it out, so I wanted to say goodbye. Turns out I had shit timing, because I wasn't the only one hanging around the graveyard that day. Yeah he's uh... not dead. Or, he was, at one point, now he's like me. Undead, I guess is the right word. Little fucker stabbed me. I didn't even get to do any ass-kicking today. I feel robbed," he said petulantly.

Melanie couldn't help but laugh.

"I got stabbed and you're laughing? This household is a fucking nightmare," he grumbled.

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I wasn't laughing at that. If you're really missing the opportunity to pummel someone, we could play Mario Kart when we get home."

"Home? I'm dead, Melanie, and by the looks of it you are too."

"Hey, if I can beat Ben at video games, I can beat death too- maybe for all of us."

"Did you get hit on the head during that fight?" He reached over and bonked her skull like a melon to test it. It felt good to get back to their playful banter. He'd looked so hopeless the last time she saw him. It had been hard to see him like that.

"It's a crazy idea. I know. I still don't know if it'll work. But... I feel like I'm getting close. I think you're the last one, if you died before the fight. It feels like there's something different up ahead..." she was trailing off. Her mind was starting to drift. She refocused. This was important. She needed to be here.

"Hey, uh... I'm, damn it, I'm not good at this shit, uh..."

Seeing the most angsty and rude of the housemates trying to choke out an earnest apology rather than a sarcastic one was as funny as it was endearing.

"Hah, fine, uh- I'm... that bitch got the better of me. She started fucking with my head and it made the things that were already rattling around in there worse. Sorry I tried to choke you out in my sleep and sorry about being a wet blanket when we were trying to figure out how to get our friends back." He looked like he had just eaten something foul.

Melanie chuckled. "I accept it. Things have been hard. I feel like I haven't been myself either, being apart from everyone. We should make more time to do fun stuff- with everyone. I didn't realize until recently how much I haven't seen certain people. I know you hate it, but if you ever need to talk, or just... can't sleep, and want to hang out with someone, you can always come wake me up. We don't have to talk, we can just go play video games, blow stuff up, doesn't matter. I just wanted to put that out there. You don't have to be alone all the time."

He nodded. "I might take you up on that." As he spoke, she felt something in the air change. Something felt... settled. He looked around, seemingly feeling it too.

"I'm not sure about this next part. Wish me luck." Jeff gave her a thumbs up as she walked into the void once more. Her other self was at her side. The hint of a smile crept onto her face. "I think I'm starting to get it now. I just... I wish I hadn't been too far gone to see everyone like this when we were alive." Before she could say more, the landscape started to change. It was still nearly featureless, but it seemed like the void was... swirling, undulating. It was ever so gently pulling her towards a destination.

She drew closer. Though her feet were still moving, it also felt like ocean waves were lapping at her feet as she stood at the shore. The pull was definitely getting stronger though. But where was the riptide? She looked out, trying her best to scan the inky darkness. Faintly, she could make out a sort of whirlpool. It wasn't far, it just blended in with everything else. It was the same color, just moving. Around the whirlpool were three figures. They were nothing more than shadows, but they all had distinct shapes. They were watching her approach. Well, there wasn't much else to watch- or was there?

As she reached an outcropping looking over the edge of the whirlpool, she saw that in the void above it were so many tiny threads. They were glowing blue. She assumed there must have been billions of them, but when she looked up she saw a whole galaxy of threads crisscrossing each other. This wasn't just her world, this was every world, and every version of those worlds.

One of the shadows was peering at two threads that were wrapped around and around each other like someone's pet had knocked their thread spools around on the floor.

"You continue to surprise us," the short, stooped one said. "We didn't expect to see you back here so soon," said the medium height one. "And yet... we get the feeling you don't intend to stay," said the tall one. They spoke one after another without pause, knowing exactly when the first would be finished talking.

The tall one stepped forward. "If we were going 'by the book,' so to speak, we should be appalled at your actions. But the truth is, this place is boring as shit. We like it when you humans shake things up a bit. So... what did you have in mind? I see you still have the piece of yourself that was bargained for the first time. It's settled in nicely. Will it do you much good now?"

She was a bit taken aback at how... informal the three shades in front of her were. She had been assuming she would be judged, her soul weighed, that sort of thing. But she got the feeling this was just the reception room of whatever place came next. Just how much could she get away with asking for?

"Anything, really, as long as it's interesting enough to us," the stooped one answered in response to her unvoiced question.

"Then... I want things to go back to how they were..." She began, cautiously. The small one cackled.

"You mean when you were all fighting? Waddaya want that for?"

"I mean, I want us all to be able to go back, with what we remember now."

"Ohoo!" They all responded. "That's a tall order! Everyone's already been brought back once already. Basically immortal. Unaging, nearly unkillable. You fucked up your chances once. Why should we let you all go back?" said the medium one.

"Because we'll give it all up," she responded. The three shadows looked at each other. "Explain," the medium one said.

"Bring us back, to the last places we were, but... take away everything else you gave us. I think I speak for everyone when I say... we don't want it anymore. We'd rather have our humanity than our powers. Send us back- mortal."

The tall one waved a hand dismissively. "As interesting as that night be, I don't see how we get anything out of it. Besides... your case is... tricky. What we gave to you can't just be dissolved."

"Then take it!" She exclaimed. "Take it yourselves. Give it to someone else, I don't care."

This piqued their interest. "Normally... those have to go back to their source. They're tracked quite carefully, those little power wells..." The tall one said. The stooped one chuckled. "What they don't know on the other side won't hurt. Here, let's make this even more interesting for us. Since you both got one, we'll take two."

Her other self was taken aback. "Then I would truly have nothing. I refuse." Her face was stony and resolute.

"Then no deal."

The trio started to blend in with the background again.

"Wait!" Melanie cried out. "Wait... send her back to her own timeline. And... and... rewind it more."

"What do you think we are, your servants?" The small one snapped.

"I think you're bored. And I think you like screwing with people's lives a bit, based on how ours turned out. Rewind hers back to before she lost her parents."

"Hmm. Doesn't quite do it for me."

This time, it was her other self who spoke up. Her voice wavered, but she spoke with tenacity. "Then send me back to the day I arrived at the mansion."

The three shades looked at each other and murmured. "Back to the worst week of your life? Do you have that much faith that things can go differently?"

"Yes, because I've seen it. I lost almost two decades of my life to revenge. Please... even if it's hard for me... I want to make up as many of those lost years as you'll allow..."

The trio chuckled. "Agreed, if only to see you trying to pretend to be your 18-year-old self when you go home. But let us be clear... after all is said and done, you'll be powerless and useless to us or any Operator. Your meddling is done. You will serve no one. We're doing this because we're bored out of our skulls and it really doesn't cost us anything. But you won't be so entertaining the third time we see you. That'll be the end. No bargaining, no whining. You'll die a human death. You know... you still have enough power to go back now and keep it-"

"No!" Both women responded in unison. "No... we'll take the first option."

"Very well. Make this worth our while." With that, the two Melanies were sucked into the whirlpool.