Helltakers vision was fading in and out, his words becoming more and more slurred, the effort he had to put into being coherent was great at this age. He knew there was no point in getting any final words out, or speaking of regrets and decisions he'd made. He'd made it a point to act near carelessly and recklessly in his life for the sake of enjoyment. He lived without any true fear ,as was evident from the demons and angel women that were at his bedside. They didn't look too down at his current condition as he lay ready to pass.

'Good' the old man thought internally. 'I didn't want to hurt them by letting them know…' He said knowing this would be the last time he saw them, at least as he was right now

"Takin' your sweet time huh old man? C'mon do yah gotta drag this out?" Zdrada asked, trying to hide the fact that she was probably going to miss the life she had here on earth in particular.

A gruff laugh escaped the takers lips for a second. She could be a bitch but he loved her for it. Judgment and Lucy were quick to chastise her for the comment, they were supposed to be nasties of the group by reputation but ended up being the sweetest.

The sound of a few whines brought his attention to his left, Cerberus had to be the saddest looking one out of everyone in the room, he felt his slowing heart pang for a second and smiled. Such puppies they are.

"See you on the other side, big guy," Justice said with her usual confident smile. She was so cool.

"Indeed, I look forward to your arrival Mr. Taker sir." Azazel said, smiling a genuine smile, with a wave as if he were just going to be leaving for a weekend. Not that he ever got the chance to leave them alone for that long.

"I'll make an appointment for you." A tired voice said from just behind Lucy. She obviously didn't get her coffee this morning.

"Ugh, back to the basic bitch internet in hell. Guess its board games and offline shit for us," Malina said sulking. He could faintly smell the vodka on her breath.

It was then he sensed some movement under the bed sheets.

"Modeus! Get out of there! You're not gonna bring him back that way." Lucy said, reaching into the sheets and pulling out the heart eyed gal.

Taker sighed in relief. He got to lay eyes on them one last time. Finally his eyes closed and he smiled one last proud smile.

The alarm in the room began blaring and was shut off shortly after. He was a light sleeper after all. Rubbing his eyes and getting out of bed he was greeted by the silence and the sunlight of morning. It was time to head for your new house, everything had already been taken there but a few items. He got dressed in a red T-shirt white leather jacket and white jeans. He loaded up the last few items in your car and got ready to leave.

"Whoa, I almost forgot." He said. As he went back in the house and brought out a gift he received from his little sister. A pair of tea shades that she said suited him.

A short drive later he made it to the house,a two story building that had previously been abandoned for about 25 years. He wasn't sure why, it was a homely looking place, but still even the realtor said they never could sell the house because of the feeling it gave people. Like they were trespassing. It gave him the opposite feeling, he felt as though he were at home, and even felt a vague sense of familiarity. That was impossible of course, he'd never stepped foot near this building before a few months ago. Still…he felt the pang of nostalgia as he looked around.

"Welp, good to be home" He walked towards the couch and saw a note there."huh?"

A pick up and read made you smile for a moment.

"Congrats on the new house, Chief! Love lil sis,'' Chief was what just about everyone called you. Family, friends, co-workers. That name was synonymous with you. All because of a time when Chiefs little sister called him that back in school. Then everyone started calling him that.

"Well, time to get some grub." Chief said, making his way to the kitchen. You worked hard to move everything to the house so he deserved something good. His favorite! Pancakes!

After a few minutes the Chief was well into cooking his breakfast. He made sure to get them perfectly thin and after setting them on his plate, slathered them with a reasonable amount of nutella. The smell was getting his stomach rumbling, so much that it felt like…the house was shaking?

"What the?!" A quick look around confirmed to Chief that the house was vibrating! The drawers were opening and closing, windows and doors were bangging and wind had picked up in the placed the pancakes on the table then turned to run when suddenly the shaking stopped. He stood motionless for a few seconds to let what happened finish processing. Chief took cautions a few steps backward and looked around. Everything was back in place, like it never happened….except for…

"My pancakes?" Chief said in bewilderment. His breakfast was gone from the plate he served it on. Like they weren't there to begin with. "Da hell…? Did my breakfast get banned to the shadow realm or something?" He asked no one in particular as he looked around on the floor.

"That's weird, guess I'll just make a new plate. Hope ants don't start popping up"

Chief managed to get through his breakfast without any more incidents and checked the news for any signs of an earthquake in his area.

"Weird, no news about it," He said to himself, scrolling through his feed.A knock at the door caught his attention. He put his phone down and approached the door.

"Coming," He called. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of an older woman with dark skin, brown eyes wearing a brown police uniform, her hair was greying in some areas. "Good Morning, Officer, is there something I can do for you?" Chief asked

For a few moments the woman was silent, her eyes widened briefly for a split second.

''Good morning sir. I didn't mean to disturb but I heard some ruckus coming from your home while on patrol with a partner. Is everything alright?" She asked the man while giving him a look up and down.

"Actually I was just looking into house just shook like mad and there's no news of an earthquake. Nothing I did caused it, unless making pancakes is somehow linked to seismic activity;" Chief said with a slight chuckle.

"Oh…you made pancakes?" The police lady asked. Her expression was one of surprise followed by a blank stare. She was silent again for a few moments.

"Something wrong, miss?"

"Oh! Not at all. As long as everything is okay now I'll get out of your way. Have a pleasant day," The lady said, turning and heading back to her police car.

"Huh…that was a bit odd," Chief said as he closed the door behind him. He decided he'd go finish tidy up.

A few days Later

"Finally done with the upstairs," Chief said, sighing. He had spent the past couple days getting his house in order and was now only left with the basement. Figuring he'd earned a break the young man sat down in front of his gaming computer and booted up the fighting game heavy hitters.

"Alright Wolf spider, let's take you out for a spin online." He said entering the game's online mode with his character of choice and searching for an opponent. A few seconds of waiting turned into 2 minutes, then 4 then 5 minutes of waiting.

"Oh come one, this game came out a year ago it can't be dead alrea-" Before he could finish complaining his screen began flashing as the words 'Match found' suddenly in red, then white. 'What is…" The game ceased malfunctioning and the pre-fight screen opened.

'Incoming challenger: Водка Демон ' Character of choice: Oni arataki'

"Interesting choice, not the most popular character to fight with," Chief said, attributing the sudden malfunction to a network error or maybe his opponent's internet connection being shitty.

The fight started and Chief immediately noticed two things: His opponent definitely knew how to use Oni Aratki based on the combos they were trying to pull, and they certainly had terrible internet as the lagging on them was painfully obvious.

"I almost feel bad for doing this," Chief said smiling as he used Wolf Spider's combos with an expertise he'd gained in all his years of gaming. His opponent put up a decent fight but they couldn't keep up and lost both rounds consecutively. "Good game, though you might wanna consider getting better internet before coming back, you may have beaten me if you weren't lagging so much," Chief said as he sent a 'GG' in game. A second after that his screen froze.

"Oh come on!" The previous flashing returned, this time there were no words on screen for several seconds, only high pitched static and then abruptly the words ' Водка Демон has sent a friend request. ' "Oh, uh…" He hesitated. "Sure I guess" Chief said as he accepted the request. His opponent went offline shortly after.

"Think I'll go play something else."