Somewhere in Trolesund, Pigmallion had a house she rarely ever visited, only when she was able to take a break. She had finally reached it after taking a long walk from the cemetery.
She quietly opened the door and went in. She closed the door and took off both her boots and her cape. Then, she took off her mask and then went around the house, closing every window
She grabbed a tiny box off her vest. Inside of it, there was a small ring that Psyche had given to her some weeks back. She was just about to get married, but now she was alone once again, just like she was in the past. She carried the ring close to her chest as she walked towards a workshop she had set up at the back of the house.
Pigmallion's hobby had always been technology and reverse engineering, ever since she entered Niflheim, but even now, she could not even bring herself to turn on her pad to even begin doing anything. She only felt a soul-crushing guilt, one that prevented her from even getting up from the chair she was sitting in, blaming herself for being unable to protect Psyche from the hail of bullets from those Huntresses
She instead turned her head to the nearby frame. It held a 10 year old picture, back when team PMON had just been formed, when Psyche and her were much younger
She couldn't help it but to succumb to tears again. In all those years, all she wanted was for the War with Remnant to be over so that Psyche and her could finally live in that same house, away from the turmoil of Osterheim and the inherently inflexible culture within the Reaper Corps.
But now that dream, of remaining as Oracle and living with Psyche, had been taken away from her. That Huntress and her minigun had forced her to become Pigmallion. And there...Pigmallion, out of pure anger, grabbed a wrench and a sand bag and headed for the backyard, where she began beating it again and again and again, screaming with every strike she took at it. Until she then finally broke. And once she broke, all that was left inside of her was a desire to cause an equal pain to that Huntress.
That hate, was what pushed her to finally get into her pad and start searching throughout every possible database in Remnant for anything that could tell her about who she was
Until she found her...
"Coco. Adel. Huntress trained at Beacon...before the fall. Transfered to Shade for graduation...Member of team CFVY..."
She said, as she clenched her fist onto that tiny box, holding it like if it was going to get ripped away from her if she let go
But then, she returned to herself, closing the pad once again. Only...wanting to be Oracle once again
Cipher, on the other hand, was at what now was his sole home in Osterheim. He didn't live in Osterheim but rather in the slums of Yotunheim, which ironically, where smaller than the actual Osterheim itself. He lived in the 3rd floor of a 5 story building.
He had solved to buy a 6 pack of beer and then head home, since the beer sold in Osterheim was of lesser quality than that of the beer sold in Trolesund. Cipher limited himself to not drink until he had gotten home. Once he did, he hit the first can.
Cipher and Psyche were actual brothers. Right on the wall in front of where Cipher was drinking, in the living room, there were lots of pictures that Cipher had brought from their parents' home before they passed away. A little contradictory to keep pictures of parents that abused you and your brethren, one may think.
Cipher downed another sip of beer as he went through the pictures. He was the older brother, with Psyche and him having only a 5 year age difference. They had been born in one of the Yggdrassil Settlements.
Their parents were negligent with them to the very end, when the settlement where they lived in was overrun by Seraphim, when Cipher was only 8. Ever since, Cipher took care of Psyche, taught him how to walk and speak.
Eventually, Cipher had to begin stealing in order to be able to properly educate Psyche, as he couldn't afford the books by only asking for money on the street. However, when Cipher was 14, he was caught. Psyche was taken to an orphanage, while Cipher was first put into a correctional facility for young people, but due to misconduct, he was forced to train at Niflheim.
Once Cipher had turned 18 and graduated as a proper Reaper, he immediately tried to claim custody over Psyche, only to discover that Psyche, using what he had learned, had ended up enlisting voluntarily in Helheim, the most feared of the 3 Reaper Training Compounds due to its severity and crushing schedules and extremely elevated standards.
They communicated through letters, some of which Cipher had kept a copy of in a drawer, until Psyche graduated. Ever since, while both of them spent most of their time on-duty in separate assignments, they always spent their time off-duty at home
That was until, after one mission, Psyche came home with his new team
There was when Cipher met Oracle
Cipher was already on his 3rd can of beer, walking around the apartment, remembering how visits from team PMON not only became more frequent, but with each visit Oracle and Psyche grew closer
And then...
Cipher went to Psyche's old room. Everything was already packed up
For the past month, Psyche and Oracle had been in talks of moving to Trolesund to live together once they got married, and Psyche had already prepared everything to move. But said preparation would now be ever waiting to pay off
Cipher downed the rest of the can in one go as he sit in bed to sob. He grabbed a 4th can and went right into drinking from it
Ever since Cipher hit his 3rd year at Niflheim, he had a big problem with alcohol. He had been used to drinking ever since he was 15, but once he graduated, he became an avid drinker.
It was only until Psyche and Oracle had became a couple when it started to have a big toll on his military performance. Lots of pressure from his late teammates and both Oracle and his brother had finally convinced him to go into various years of therapy, but even with that, it wouldn't save him from his liver problem.
Cipher had already downed the 6th can of beer and had began to hallucinate. Trolesund's beer had a higher percentage of alcohol than that of Osterheim's. To be precise, Trolesund's beer was pretty much half alcohol, while Osterheim's beer was only 10%.
It didn't take long before Cipher passed out and started seeing things
Someone was knocking on the door. Cipher didn't answer
He didn't have the will to move
All he wanted to see was his brother coming in, next to Oracle, one more time
And then...he saw them coming in to greet him, which finally calmed him down. He muttered some uncomprehensible words of relief as he fell asleep
As Cipher fainted, his mouth filled to the brim with vomit and some bile, Gambit turned him around and saved him from drowning
