Carmelina exhaled slowly. With that breath, the rest of the world seemed to fade away as well. In its place, a new one sprung forth. It was a vision still only in her head, but it was slowly unfolding into reality. She was weaving a new island into existence, calling forth life and light from the primordial chaos and darkness, using the song of creation. In times like this, she felt like a god. This new island was her canvas, and just like any generous and loving deity, she took into careful consideration everything that the new island's eventual inhabitants would want.

There were plenty of nooks and crannies for Crimson to hide in whenever the pressures of press and public became too much. There were vast swaths of wilderness for Akiko and her new marshals to turn into training grounds. There was a wide-open harbor for Doom Jazz and his future yacht. There were long and winding roads for Lydia, and a well-stocked bar for Sam. There was a majestic place of worship atop a mountain for Witness and Grace. There was a cave deep inside that mountain for KHX's workshop. There was a gilded courtroom near the heart of the island for Judge. Dead Nebula vending machines dotted the land, and the place of ritual sacrifice was cleverly kept away from the glory of the rest of Paradise.

Carmelina even took Yuri, Lady Love Dies, and the Council into account. For Yuri, a man who always enjoyed the finer things in life, the island was beautiful. In the past, she'd crafted a barren island that was boring and ugly, all just to spite him, but this time, she would be kind. For Lady, although she remained in exile, her cell was designed to be comfortable, if a little boring. And for the Council, they were located directly above the courtroom, their quarters built off the side of the mountain and facing up towards the Heavens. It was a symbolic gesture.

Carmelina may not have been fond of any of them, but when she got lost in her art, her heart softened. Ah yes, to be an artist was truly to be divine! And she wanted to share this beauty, her talent, with everyone! And it seemed to her that the best way to do that was to tailor the island to each of their unique, specific tastes. Not only would it showcase her attention to detail, but also her ability to successfully implement that detail into one, united island. This was a test of creativity and ingenuity both. Even when the work was hard, she loved it.

As for what was in it for Carmelina, well, the island itself was made entirely of her essence. One could not remove the influence of the creator from the creation. Her very spirit filled the land and was evident in every design choice she made. The sheer bliss of birthing the island, of making her dreams a reality, of watching the fruits of her labor grow before her very eyes, was reward enough. The island was hers, and it was her. Every part of her being—physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual—went into the creation of the island.

Carmelina breathed life into Paradise and saw that it was good.

"Perfection!" As the Architect let out another breath, a satisfied sigh, her vision abruptly came to an end and two emerald eyes opened wide, shining.

ooo

Now Carmelina's breath hitched, caught in her throat, a tiny sob of disbelief and fury rising in her chest. Despite all her hard work, all her best effort, it was all for naught… again. Somehow, the idiots of the island managed to ruin everything… again. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. This would mark the 23rd time one of their precious Paradises perished, but that never made it any easier to bear, especially since this one had lasted for so long! So close to perfection! And yet…

She watched 23 crash and burn from the safety of the ship Lydia was using to ferry them to the next island. While the rest of the Syndicate looked ahead in excitement, Carmelina could only look back in regret. Where had she gone wrong? That island was supposed to be perfect! Even though she'd known for a while that a new island was necessary, even though she'd spent years crafting 24, that didn't make watching 23 breathe its last any easier. It felt like watching a baby die, her baby. She had little love for much else, disillusioned by the madness that always seemed to overtake the Syndic-idiots eventually, but her islands… Her sweet, beloved creations… They were holy ground! And they didn't just grow on trees!

She angrily swiped at the tears she was trying and failing to hold back. Someday, she vowed, she would create a perfect one, an island that didn't need to be torn down or destroyed. Someday, she'd create a Paradise that evil could not touch, and that corruption could not infect. On that day, she would be hailed as the greatest Architect the multiverse had ever, and would ever, know! It was just a matter of when, and how.

Even though she was excited to see her new island made flesh, and to see how everyone would react to it, moving away was hard. Not only did it mean saying goodbye to a beloved creation of hers, but it meant constantly being asked to build a new one. While the rest of the Syndicate had already forgotten about 23, impatient to see the treasure troves on 24, Carmelina could only shake her head in disgust.

Ungrateful, selfish wretches! My islands are NOT just mere trifles or toys for them to play with, break, and demand more of at their leisure!

Just once in her immortal life, Carmelina wanted to build something that would last and be appreciated for eternity, not just thrown into the scrapheap as soon as the Syndicate screwed it up. Didn't they know how tiring, both for the body and soul, it was to go through this endless cycle? They always demanded more, never seemed to be happy with what she provided already. Craft was its own reward, yes, but only to an extent.

When done for the self and the soul, craft was its own reward. That was why designing and creating the islands filled Carmelina with so much joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment. But when it became a demand or a chore, when her gifts were used and abused for someone else's gain rather than her own, the spirit withered and twisted. Craft became a toll rather than a reward. Didn't they know the islands didn't just appear out of thin air?! Well, they did, but it wasn't as easy or simple as it sounded. How many more until they were satisfied? Until they stopped ruining them?

She wouldn't have minded building new islands forever if each new job didn't only come whenever they corrupted the last one. They never asked her to design more things because they were breaking new ground. They only asked because they'd broken old ground. It made her feel like she and her craft were not respected. It felt like the Syndic-idiots had forgotten how to properly protect and cherish their sacred island homes.

Maybe if they listened to her for once, they'd actually get somewhere! After all, didn't it stand to reason that the creator and mother of the islands would know better than anyone else how to maintain them? If the others had no interest in listening to the island and making sure all of its needs were properly met, why not let Carmelina do it? Of course, she knew the answer: her father, Romeo Silence.

It didn't matter that her mother, Natasha, had given her life to protect Island 9. All that mattered was what Romeo did on Island 5. The Syndicate refused to forgive or forget, punishing the child for the sins of the father. Natasha's blood sacrifice did not wash away their sins nor clean their hands of Romeo's blood guilt. The Syndicate remembered the bad, it seemed, but not the good. How convenient. For them.

For 14 (going on 15) islands, Carmelina kept her bitterness to herself, but now she was reaching a breaking point. 23 could've been their perfect paradise! Everything was just right! But no, they tore it all up! Why Carmelina continued to serve them, she'd never know. Yes, the allure of getting to build more islands was tempting, but how much longer could she bear it if they kept crumbling and failing? It wasn't her dear, sweet, beautiful islands that were corrupt. It was the people who inhabited them! But guess who always paid the price?

The Syndicate was full of cowardly fools whose only skills were in the obstruction of justice and the overindulgence of nepotism. Well, two could play at that game! If the Syndicate felt within its right to rewrite history on a whim, then Carmelina could do the same. She could take control of her own destiny! Perhaps… if this island was fated to fail just like all the others… she could control the inevitable and use it to her own benefit…

They hadn't even reached 24 and Carmelina's mind was already full of plots, plans, and ideas for Perfect 25. She would ensure that what happened on the first 23, and what she would cause on 24, would never happen again after that. She was willing to stake her life on it. And if all went according to plan, it would be a perfect monument, an anniversary gift, to her father. 20 islands after his fall, Carmelina would truly rise with Perfect 25! Ah yes, craft really was its own reward, and lucky for her, Carmelina had craft in spades. Already, she noticed that there actually was one other Syndicate member on the stern of the ship rather than the bow: Akiko.

The Grand Marshal's expression was unreadable, but the fact that she was looking back instead of ahead already told Carmelina everything she needed to know. And Carmelina remembered on Island 9, Akiko was one of the only ones to show any appreciation for Natasha's sacrifice. Natasha may not have been a marshal, but Akiko still recognized her as something of a sister in arms. She was tired of losing good soldiers on every island they inhabited. Now, all Carmelina needed to do was figure out how to use that world-weariness to her advantage…

ooo

"Perhaps it is a curse that befalls us. What lesson is it that the gods are trying to teach? Are we truly doomed to suffer this vicious cycle for eternity?" Carmelina sighed. Once again, all of her perfect, best-laid plans fell through in the final hour. She was blindsided by things beyond her control, beyond her knowledge, and her beautiful island was once again ruined at the hands of the Syndic-idiots. "Is this justice?" she mused, a dry smile on her face as her eyes moved languidly around the courtroom. "Or is it an obstruction thereof?"

"No, it's just your petty, stupid attempt at buying more time that you don't have," Yuri interrupted coldly, rolling his eyes. They were done for; they all knew it. So what was the point in dragging it out? Now that the jig was up, Yuri didn't want to have to listen to Carmelina's self-aggrandizing tangents a single second longer.

"Silence, Yuri!" Carmelina snapped. In a flash, her melancholic expression was replaced by rage. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't—!"

"Silence!" Carmelina was echoed by Judge. Whether they were issuing a command or calling her name, it shut Carmelina up just the same. Yuri scoffed and smirked. It felt good watching her get knocked down a few pegs. Judge turned their faces back to Lady Love Dies. "Continue."

"Was it worth it?" the detective asked, turning her face to the guilty Carmelina.

"It would've been! I crafted the perfect lie!" Carmelina growled. "You should never have been called back. You should never have even been spared to begin with! While my father was murdered for his mistake, treated like a monster, you were let off with a slap on the wrist! I gave you your 8000 years of comfort when you should've been dead! Either you deserved worse, or he deserved better! There is no in-between!"

If Yuri wasn't about to be executed anyway, Carmelina would've brought up the fact that he might've been deceived by a god too, but just like Lady, he wasn't executed for it. That was twice justice had failed Carmelina, and Judge had the audacity to call her the villain.

"Silence," Judge warned. "Do not stray off-topic!"

"No, the difference is that your father was deceived by the gods and allowed demons onto the island in order to pursue his own selfish gain," Lady interrupted. It was unlike her to defy Judge's orders, but this, she felt, needed to be addressed. "I was deceived because I thought this would be a way to find truth, and root out the demons. I thought the gods would help purify the island, your father thought the gods would make him one of them."

"He should've been. And it still reeks of nepotism either way!" Carmelina said in disgust. "Your ambition was praised by Judge, enough that they allowed you back into the Syndicate despite your exile. My father and my ambitions were punished. I will receive no such respite as exile. And while you are willing to go to any length to solve a mystery, be it betraying and executing your friends or lying and deceiving truth and justice to protect them, you are still rewarded. I do the same and am punished, written off as a common criminal."

"Your crimes were far worse than mine," Lady's lip curled in disgust. Although she understood Carmelina's frustrations, and where they came from, she still had no sympathy for the mass-murderer who ruined the lives of so many, including her own son's, and all for the sake of what?

"Islands that should've always been mine!" Carmelina cried. "I am the one who made them!" It was clear she cared more for her islands than she did her own flesh and blood. "It is not my fault that that boy couldn't do his job properly!" she sneered. "He was a disgrace to the Silence name!"

"Judge gave you a chance anyway," Lady shook her head, cutting Carmelina off. "I am not the only one they showed undue favor."

"Ah, the irony," Carmelina shook her own head, although in dry amusement rather than disagreement. "I hadn't known they would. If I had, and if I had known about Witness' little scheme, I would've done nothing and only come in to clean up the aftermath, just like I always have. Alas…"

For a moment, she paused and looked at Witness. She hadn't spoken to him in decades. After losing 23, the Architect had lost some of herself. Even if Witness hadn't realized the full extent of it, the old Carmelina was gone long before their marriage ended. Did she have any regrets? None that she could think of, at the moment. Perhaps a tiny piece of her missed him, but in her defense, his own zeal for religion had rivaled her zeal for reform. Hmmm, perhaps, in that way, we are still well-matched. A match made in Heaven ended on an island of Hell, how ironic.

His own eyes conveyed slightly more remorse. Although it was clear that he was just as dead-set in his convictions as Carmelina was in hers, they both still worried for each other. At least, as worried as two people so selfish and cruel could be for a person that wasn't themselves. But his mind ran a similar track. Although he still condemned Carmelina for losing sight of their original mission and becoming too focused on the islands over the gods, he supposed that he could not disagree with her underlying opinion, which was that the Syndicate was rotting from within. Even if they disagreed on what they ought to focus on to fix things, at least they both agreed that things needed to be fixed at all.

Looking around the courtroom now, it seemed as if they were alone in their opinions, only further proof that they were right all along. Even though Judge had indeed shown mercy to both Carmelina and Lady, anyone with eyes could see that Lady was still the favorite. She'd always been. But, Carmelina supposed, that was just the perk of being a detective. No matter how neutral Judge claimed they were, they were just as imperfect and corruptible as everything else on the island. Of course they would favor a truth-seeker over the Architect. Their passions were just too similar.

If only I had been a detective, Carmelina mused darkly. Or, if only I'd thought to kill her back on Island 13, or sooner…

Carmelina had held a deep-seeded grudge against the detective ever since her father's execution. She would never forget the sound of those four bullets, or the sight of Lady's cold expression as she shot him down. Even if Lady would insist it was just business, not pleasure, Carmelina would never fully forgive her. She still showed enough grace to make Lady's cell cozy, but she maintained that Lady should've been executed. Same crime, same punishment. That was justice, wasn't it? Apparently not.

Instead, Judge denied all requests for Lady's execution. They forced Carmelina to always make provisions for the detective. Even if she was in exile, her prison would follow the Syndicate forever. As such, Carmelina always had to expend some of her energy designing an elaborate cell to keep Lady contained. Carmelina managed to control her sadism and keep the cells fairly droll, but it was still a waste time in her opinion. Even if it wasn't personal, why not just execute Lady and free up the extra space and time it took to constantly care for her as a prisoner?

Lady, meanwhile, looked upon Carmelina with just a hint more empathy. She may not have felt any compassion or care for the Architect, but she still could understand Carmelina's pain and where it came from. Although Lady had no regrets executing justice, she certainly hadn't enjoyed taking Carmelina's father away from her. The detective was struck with a brief bout of nostalgia.

She'd known Carmelina since birth, since she was just a little baby in her parents' arms. And she'd watched Carmelina grow up from a precocious child to a teenager with a dream to a woman with the power and passion to achieve everything she ever wanted. They even used to be friends, until the end of Island 5.

She remembered watching Carmelina run around the island, such a curious, excited little thing, always eager to learn. She seemed to know, even as a child, what a big role she'd play in the Syndicate someday. She was determined to follow in her father's footsteps. If only she'd known just how literal and dark that desire would become… She was such a chatty girl, too, always wanting to know everything about everything. Little did any of them know what tragic events would happen that would lead to her ascension as the Architect.

Lady had watched when Carmelina finally came into her full power after losing her mother. Even though the grief, fear, and uncertainty had weighed heavily on her at the time, she still managed to pull Island 10 up from the depths of her despair, and it became a shining beacon of hope to the rest of the Syndicate. Even though Island 9 was lost, Carmelina was the savior that would lead them all to Island 10.

And Lady remembered Island 13, her own brush with a god. The votes were private, of course, but even back then, she'd been sure that Carmelina was one of the few to vote for her execution. Revenge for her father, a simple obedience to justice, or a move to grab more power for herself? Lady didn't know. All she knew was that it was only thanks to the others that she wasn't executed that day.

"And here you are now, doing the same damn thing," Carmelina growled. "Don't think I can't see what you're doing, Love Dies." She gestured to the rest of the court. How convenient it was that all the people Lady liked were innocent while all the people she didn't were guilty. 8000 years of punishment had done nothing to quell the favoritism in Lady's heart.

"You're all just but a bunch of witless sheep with blind obedience to an unfair, unjust Council. You never appreciate what others do for you! The sacrifices they make, or the hard, careful work the put in! You're all like immature children who break every toy you're given and yet you still think you deserve more! No thanks, no gratitude! Just endless expectation! You greedy, selfish, overly-demanding pigs!" To say that Carmelina was having a breakdown would've been an understatement.

"Silence!" Once again, Judge tried to bring order to the court, but this time, Carmelina would not comply.

"What does it matter? You'll have me executed soon anyway. Just like my father, I will be struck down by a coward! What do I care for your useless, petty, little rules? They exist only to benefit you, so what incentive have I to obey them any longer?! I hope you all burn in Hell and rot in the graves you dug for yourselves! Now that you've killed the last Silence, the last Architect, you will have nowhere to run if the next island fails!"

Although this was indeed a concern that at least a few of the Syndicate members had, they were too bound by their own rules to wish to make any amendments. If Carmelina's punishment was execution, then they would simply have to make do without an Architect, no matter the cost.

"But maybe this is your just reward, your punishment," she muttered softly, darkly. "Now you'll have to go through whatever Hell comes next without me to shield you from the consequences of your actions." She turned to Lady. "You may not feel it now, caught up in the heat of the trial, but soon enough you'll know what it feels like to live on in regret because of those you gunned down in cold blood. You'll be forced to live with the choices you've made here and now forever. Will you be able to bear it? Or will they haunt you on every island after this one?"

"You call it Perfect 25, yet you still think it will fail?" Lady asked coldly, trying not to be swayed by Carmelina's thinly-veiled threats.

"It will without me there to guide it!" Carmelina insisted, and Lady was taken back to a conversation where someone mentioned that "Perfect" 25 may indeed already be highly unstable. Carmelina had put so much effort into the anti-demon aspects of the island that it was only going to make it a hotbed for demon possession. Had… Carmelina done this on purpose? And even if she hadn't…

No! They had no time to doubt now! That was just what Carmelina wanted them to do. She was trying to craft one last lie, cast them into doubt one more time. Lady called her bluff and turned to Judge confidently.

"I am no stranger to regrets, Carmelina. I made it 8000 years already, I can make it 8000 more." In one sentence, Lady's calm truth undid all of Carmelina's last-ditch-effort lies. Judge nodded approvingly.

"This is why I trust Lady's judgement above all others," they said.

"You're making a huge mistake," Carmelina growled, but she wasn't attempting to sway anyone anymore. She knew that, just like her father, she did not have enough suck-ups on the island the way Lady did in order to grant her any sort of clemency.

There were five gunshots, unlike the traditional four. The fifth was for Carmelina's faithful canine companion, Platinum. Immediately before the execution, while Lady was preparing her gun, Carmelina made one, last, snide remark.

"It is unfortunate that you've proven so dishonest and deceitful, detective. Otherwise, I would've asked you to take care of Platinum for me…" She acquired him not long after her divorce with Witness. He was just about the only reliable thing in her life anymore. She would miss him, if nothing and no one else. She would miss the joy of creation, too, but c'est la vie, she supposed.

After the fourth bullet tore its way through Carmelina's body, Platinum snarled and lunged at Lady, foaming at the mouth. The detective had no other choice but to shoot. Perhaps, though, this was the more merciful option. Platinum clearly did not want to live in a world without his beloved owner, so instead, Lady would allow him to rest alongside her for eternity. Well and truly, the entire Silence family was dead.

Lady lowered her smoking gun with a frown. There were no tears in her eyes nor regret in her heart, but she did feel a deep-seeded sadness to think that this was what the Syndicate had become in her absence. This was not the Syndicate she remembered. But, there was no going back now. The best any of them could do was move forward and hope.

I am sorry it had to end like this, Carmelina. For what it's worth, I hope 25 is just as perfect as you said it was, and not just because we need a new place to stay. And for what it's worth, I promise that even if the rest of the Syndicate forgets you, I won't. As Shinji once noted about her, she had a habit of hoarding "trash", mementos. Maybe she didn't have anything of Carmelina's, but the way she saw it, 25 would be the memento, and if turned out to be everything that Carmelina said it would, then it would be a worthy memento. That is why, Carmelina, I truly hope and wish for all the best on Perfect 25.

AN: Thx to Penguinfangirl611 for helping me write this fic by being my personal PK wiki, LOL!