Note: This goes out to arthurtristankingsmen on T(um) blr, who puts in so much work coordinating MSA Holiday Spirits gift exchange each year and making sure everyone who participates gets a good match. I get excited every year when I see the exchange pop up on my dash. This is almost exactly two months late and I apologize. The writing muse often leaves me high and dry on a whim, but I never forgot and kept wrestling with this idea until it was something I could be proud to show you. Cover photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Un (sp) lash
Cramped. Uncomfortable. Vivi squirmed, feeling very much like a chick in the shell with her legs rammed up against her chest and pressure on every side. She couldn't even draw breath. Where was she? Her bed wasn't like this, and that's certainly where she had fallen asleep.
Familiar voices traded incomprehensible words nearby. She had this horrible, crawly feeling of being watched. Wiggling a finger free, she tapped on the substance confining her.
A horrendous clash like two swords colliding filled the space. This definitely wasn't her bed and everything was terribly cold and she wanted out. She wriggled, jamming her knees against the metallic shell, and pressed hard.
CLASH.
The voices outside exclaimed, growing louder but no clearer.
Out. She needed out. There was no air! She rammed her knees forward again as hard as she could.
CLASH. CLASH. CLASH.
She burst out, shooting past two startled faces and landing on the floor against the wall.
The wall. The wall of her bedroom. The wall of her bedroom in Rest Creek hospice care. That's where she was, of course. That's where she'd been for a while.
She blinked, focusing on the jumbled pile of slacks and sweats in front of her face. Just past it, she could see a wood panel with two little screws in it. It looked like someone had put a rectangular box around her head and lit it with a dim blue… glow? There didn't seem to be a source for the light she saw by.
A harsh, static buzz crackled outside. She recognized that! Arthur… Arthur was… laughing at her?
"Wow, Vee. And I thought my first emergence was awkward. Your legs are sticking out of the dresser. You alright, there?"
She was… in... a dresser? She flailed toward the voice. Large, warm hands grabbed her wrists, hauling her out. She flinched as she passed through the front of the dresser, but a moment later she stared up into Lewis' face.
She'd seen his face every day since he'd reconciled with Arthur and rejoined the group, but this was different. Pausing, she tried to put a finger on why.
For the most part, he looked the same; a broad-shouldered funeral suit topped with a flaming skull. At times he could manage a more human visage, but he'd relied increasingly on the fearful appearance as the years passed. He always dodged questions about that decision, but to look at him now was to know that answer and so much more.
A two-pronged determination threaded through his entire being, like a support structure. She recognized, now, that she had always seen it, but never understood the language of it. It was as if someone had flipped a switch in her head and she could trace the paths of every choice he'd made and read the marks they left on his soul. If mistaken, I will change. I will be eternally alert for my mistakes. This core vow smoldered like bright embers in his form, overlying a dulled oath of vengeance that no longer supported the weight of his existence.
To look at him was to understand. He kept up the fearful appearance to remind himself of the sort of mistake he had to guard against. Reversing his will post-mortem had cost him dearly. Now she knew why he no longer had the strength to summon his mansion. His form had frayed—how had she not been aware of this before? It bled softly into the surrounding air with no defined edges.
Fascinated, she lifted her hands to his chest, tracing her fingers along the good, strong path he had forged in his early life. A trail of blue merged into that path toward the end, and around it his form was at its most solid. She touched it and shivered, as if running fingers over her own skin. That was a living piece of herself, there in his soul. Lewis, in turn, traced large, bone-plated fingers over her arms, a subdued expression on his face. What did he see?
"Ah-hah! She sees you, Lew! She really sees you now. Look at her face." Arthur crackled into view, floating cross-legged above Lewis' head. He poked Lewis' hair, prompting a shower of pink and yellow sparks. Arthur's own hair stuck out in all directions like a deranged scientist, topping off a form that looked like someone had drawn an outline of him in bright yellow and filled all the spaces between with void. A constant stream of sparks shot between those lines. Lewis swatted at him and he vanished, reappearing across the room with a smirk.
She goggled at Arthur. She hadn't been able to see him after the shop accident twelve years back. Not like this. He hadn't had the impetus to master manifestation of form as fast as Lewis, so she only saw a soft yellow glow. Even that was only after he practiced hard. He had an affinity with all things electronic, so she'd kept three dedicated iPods on rotation, charging them religiously so she could hear him clearly anytime he wanted to talk to her.
Gods, his history was written there clear as day. The outlines of his left arm were far more faded than the rest of his body and only a few weak sparks crossed those lines, a mournful tribute to his unpreparedness. Elsewhere in his form, each jolt across the lines carried some piece of information he'd collected about the supernatural in his life and oh, had he made a point of collecting it. The information hoarding ran deeper than even she'd known. He was a little floating encyclopedia of knowledge, grinning at her, thrumming with a sworn resolve to be prepared for anything.
"Hi, Vee." He offered a soft smile. "I bet you see me too, don't you?"
Her head wobbled in answer.
"Isn't it a trip and a half?" He reappeared beside her, throwing his arms around her. A staticky tingle ran through her. "Welcome over. Wish you could see yourself, fearless leader. You're quite a sight."
Lewis enveloped them both in his massive arms, radiating the warmth of a campfire on a cold night. "Welcome over," Lewis echoed, pressing his skull to the top of Vivi's head.
Welcome over. That's what Lewis had said the day of Arthur's accident, ignoring his broken body to embrace what seemed to her only empty air.
Vivi's head automatically swiveled toward the mirror over her bedside table, but her eyes stopped on the two figures in her bed. One wore the face she'd seen in the mirror for the last several years, the one with fatigue lines carved into her skin and eyelids that sagged half-shut nearly all the time now. She frowned, pulling herself free of the group hug, and drifted closer. Come to think of it, her head had been in a heavy fog for a while now. How long? She wasn't even sure. Operating under a cloud that encroached on more and more of her thoughts had become normal. That's why she'd come to this place. There wasn't anyone else to look after her but her spectral boys and Mystery.
Mystery. His forepaws draped over the body's chest, ears limp against the sides of his head and his eyes fixed on her. She brought her hands together just under his jowls, scratching gently. "Hey, buddy. I'm still here."
Mystery bolted to his feet, butting his face into—no, straight through her chest. He toppled off the bed with a hefty thud.
"Ah, it might take you a while to figure out interaction with the living, Vee. Even with him. Artie's mostly got it, but it takes practice," Lewis knelt down, scooping Mystery up into his arms, "Here. I'll hold him, you pet. I think he's seriously missing your scritchies."
"Sounds great," Arthur cut in, "except I think Vee's leave-of-absence from the body is about to be front and center for Rest Creek. Someone's coming. We should take this elsewhere."
Lewis nodded firmly. "More privacy, more time to process. Here, Mystery." He cradled the dog in one arm and slid the window open.
"Vee, grab your anchor. It was something you were holding in your hands, you burst out of there like a rocket," Arthur called, turning to dive through the window, "Ten point landing! The crowd goes wild!" he crowed as Lewis helped Mystery out the window.
Lewis glanced over his shoulder. "Vee?"
Vivi turned back to her body. Frail, veined hands were folded at the chest, the nails well trimmed. The hair was neatly brushed and still blue. Had the boys been dying her hair? Probably, she decided. It was a luxury the facility was unlikely to maintain. And for the first time since waking up in a metal shell, she smiled. Leaning over the body that had housed and shielded her all her life, she gently tapped it on the nose. "Thank you," she whispered.
A soft glow pulsed under the folded hands. Frowning, Vivi plucked the glow free, coming away with a misshapen metal orb attached to a frayed leather strap. Her bat had busted ages ago, but she'd salvaged the knob and grip-wrap as a keepsake. It emitted the same soft blue light that now surrounded her.
"Oh, I see," she muttered. "Metal shell, huh?"
"Vee! We really gotta go!" Lewis urged.
"Not without my anchor, ya big lunk." Vivi grabbed the pendant and darted through the wall as the doorknob jiggled.
Phasing outside, she found herself on the front lawn of the facility. The sun peeked over distant treetops, spilling over great fields of snow that sparkled like some robber had dropped a bag of diamonds on the run. Vivi was enthralled. She didn't remember seeing the landscape on the way in. Had she even looked? Left the room? What was the point of picking a lovely countryside rest home if she hadn't gone out enough to remember this was even here?
Someone was shrieking. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see two attendants in the room; one bent over her body, and one staring straight at her through the window, white-faced and pointing.
"Elk-feathers! I refuse to go down as this place's scary ghost lady." She flashed the attendant her warmest smile and raised a V-for-Victory sign. Or was it V-for-Vivi? Then she turned and scampered off as fast as she could. Her boys were already halfway across the field. "Hey! Wait for me!"
The ground passed beneath her feet far faster than she ever remembered being able to move. Faster, even, than her running motion warranted. She wondered if the movement she made correlated to her speed at all, and made a note to ask Arthur later. She caught up with the others at the far end of the field, right where the tree-line denoted the sharply cleared edge of a forest. Lewis finally released Mystery, who bounded the few steps to Vivi and stopped at her feet, whining.
Vivi immediately knelt and buried her hands in his fur. She felt nothing. The fur barely shifted as she ran her hands over his back and scratched under his jaw. "Hey. Hey. I'm okay. I'm right here. You were with me the whole time, too, weren't you?"
He whined in response, thrusting his muzzle closer.
She curled her arms around him to approximate a hug. "Good boy."
"Someone saw you on the way out?" Lewis asked.
Vivi glanced up. "Yeah, kinda. I thought people couldn't see me, though! I haven't practiced enough, I'm a brand new ghost, and all that jazz."
Arthur tilted his head, folding his legs up so that he hovered cross-legged. "The living have different levels of sensitivity. I'll bet it was the attendant Lewis and I always had to duck. Pretty sure she's the one spreading rumors that your room is haunted. Don't even get me started on her fear of Mystery. She always got some helper to hold his collar when she had to run checkups."
"Are you telling me my rest home attendant had a better chance of seeing you than I did?!" Vivi huffed. "Of all the coupon-headed imbalances in the universe."
"Ey!" Arthur crowed, thrusting a finger at her. "You light up when you do that thing. Hey, Lew! She glows brighter when she does Vivi-isms!"
Lewis laughed. "Figures!"
Vivi groaned. "Wait a clog-eared stopwatch, you still call 'em 'Vivi-isms'?"
"Totally." Arthur puffed his chest out and pulled an angry face. " 'Where do you think you're going, you unraveled scarf string?! I oughtta pumpkin-smash the plasma outta you!' "
Lewis shook his head. "It sounds really lame when you do it."
Arthur laughed. "Well of course it doesn't work when anyone else tries it, what do you expect? It's her thing, right, Vee?" He paused. "Vee?"
Vivi wasn't paying attention. Her fingers had snagged on something solid in Mystery's fur. He yelped as she tugged, pulling a short stretch of thin, silvery-blue chain out from under a layer of fur.
She could read its intent plain as day. A binding grudge. Retribution. A penance exacted upon him. She'd never seen it, but somehow it gave off a familiar feeling. A cold aura she recognized but couldn't place. "Lewis, Arthur, why didn't you guys say anything about this?"
"Not ten minutes into the afterlife and she's already picking up some trail we missed. Figures." Arthur rolled his eyes.
Lewis drew closer, peering at Mystery. "What 'this' do you mean, Vee?"
"This!" she insisted, plucking at one of the chains. Mystery flinched, yelping. "You're seeing this, right? The chain?"
Lewis stared at her hands, but shook his head. "I don't see anything there, Vee."
Frowning, Vivi crawled her fingers along the length of the chain, probing for a source. Mystery's eyes fixed on her, but he said nothing. A super-intelligent dog with her nearly every second since birth, but he'd never said a word. Even after the Skulls figured out that he wasn't really a dog, he would only nod or shake his head to answer questions. And that was conditional. Did this chain keep him from—yes. She found it half-sunk into his muzzle, winding between his teeth and—as she pulled his jaws open—over his tongue.
She held her anchor next to the chain, comparing. Same color. Same pale blue glow. "Did I do this somehow?" she demanded.
The chains tightened. Mystery's sides heaved, but the rest of him went deadly still, his eyes still on her face.
She glanced up. "Guys, I need help. There's some kind of chain all over Mystery. I never saw it in my life, but seems now I'm the only one of us who can see it. It's a binding of sorts, a really angry one. All over his body and really thick around the mouth. I can barely interact with Mystery yet, but somehow I can touch these chains just like I can hold my anchor. What gives?"
Arthur hummed, floating over. Sparks shot through him, fast as thought. "If it's a binding only you can see, chances are it has to do with you or your family. He's been with you guys for ages, right?"
"Yeah. Grandma always locked him out of the house when I visited, though. Wouldn't let him in. Just said he was trouble. Never gave me a straight answer why."
He gestured at her anchor. "She gave you the bat, too, right?"
Vivi shifted. "Um. Sort of."
Arthur lifted an eyebrow.
"It… might have… possibly… been a sword at some point… and somebody who was no good with swords might have… um… used it as a base to… recast... a blunter weapon."
Arthur and Lewis facepalmed simultaneously. Then Lewis started laughing and sat down next to Mystery. "Typical Vivi, eh, boy? Bet you had all kinds of things you wanted to say about that. C'mere." He gestured to his lap, and Mystery climbed into it, bending his head to accept Lewis' gentle stroking. "Go on, continue."
Arthur sighed. "So your grandma gave you what was probably an epic sword, which you turned into a common baseball bat, which became your anchor in the long run. Can we get any more detail?"
Vivi glanced at Mystery. "You know how sometimes he'll answer us by nodding or shaking his head, and other times he just ignores us? Just now, when I asked if the binding was somehow something I did, the chains tightened up. Now I'm thinking he wasn't ever ignoring us and there are probably questions he's not allowed to answer."
"I doubt it was something you did, Vee, but it is probably a family thing." Arthur tilted his head. "Do you wanna break it off him?"
"Absolutely!" Confident, Vivi reached for Mystery. The metal knob was like ice in her hand.
"Are you sure?" Arthur's voice was somber enough to give her pause. "Don't just leap in, Vee. Understand, we don't know a lot of things. We don't know why he was bound. We don't know his history, beyond that he's a powerful nine-tails that has always been in your family. You're probably the only one who can do anything about his binding, but you need to think about what that might mean." He glanced over to Mystery, his expression softer. "And I'm not pushing back because of my arm, buddy. You did the right thing. But we're missing a lot of pieces and you know how that's gone for us."
Vivi pulled back, a chill rippling through her.
Mystery gave a short whine and rested his chin on Lewis' arm. Lewis rubbed the back of the dog's neck, speaking thoughtfully. "You're right, but we know other things that hold a lot of weight. Mystery has always protected Vivi. Maybe that was part of the binding, but it's unlikely he was required to take care of you and me, too. Still, he looked out for us as long as it didn't conflict with looking after Vivi. Arthur, removing your arm was a precision strike. He could have just killed you. For that matter, he had no good reason to allow me to hang around you guys after the stunts I pulled. We've seen he has harsh ways of dealing with wayward spirits." Lewis scratched under Mystery's left ear, fondly. "I'd say that argues pretty strongly for who he is now, whoever he may have been when he was bound."
Arthur nodded. "Point conceded. No further objection."
But now that Vivi had paused, she found it difficult to unstick herself. Once raised, the concerns multiplied and swarmed her. It was true, she did tend to leap into things, like investigating a cave everyone knew was bad news. Like running to check out the haunted mansion they'd broken down in front of. Like seeking out the weirdest cases with her boys, even though she could have shelved it all and still have been happy with Arthur and Lewis reconciled and back in her life. She kept Leeroy-Jenkinsing into the hard situations her whole life, determined to… to do what, exactly?
She wrapped her fingers around the metal knob, remembering the day she found out that hunk of metal had actual power in it. The day death had come calling for Mystery, and Vivi had fended it off with a baseball bat. She'd nearly lost a hand herself that day. Not strong enough, she'd decided. She could be so much stronger, and she would do anything to make that happen.
Ah. There. That's my vow.
The leather strap curled around her wrist as fear spread like ice across a lake. Arthur's eyes widened and he was pointing at her again, saying something, but she couldn't focus on him. The structure of this concept became tangible within her. It was like a spine. Like a skeleton. It held her together, expressing itself in crystalized threads of frustration throughout her form. Continue to train. Continue to grow. Continue no matter how stupid you look or how bad the odds are. Level up until you can wield this power properly. Until you can protect this family. How long had that been there?
But in the process of training herself, she constantly endangered the very people she sought to protect. Only luck and a good deal of effort from everyone else kept things from getting much, much darker and she knew it. Arthur threw himself into research, arming the group with knowledge. Lewis adapted, shifting from defense to offense to logistics as needed on a moment's notice. Mystery...
The leather strap pulsed, tightening its icy grip. Mystery was both comforter and end-all trump card. Any truly horrendous situation ended with the emergence of the massive nine-tail, tearing through the opposition with nothing left behind. And yet, Arthur and Lewis had each been spared when they had been on the wrong end of things.
But if she was mistaken, this time? If she released him, truly, and he had been bamboozling them this whole time, they didn't stand a chance. What if it was all a long game? A ploy so that eventually, someday, she'd find out about the binding and rush straight into freeing him?
A thin, spectral spike sprang out from the knob. It was joined by another and another, many little spikes sliding out, weaving together to form a blade as sharp as fear and hard as anger.
Lewis shot to his feet, backing away with Mystery. "Vee! What the hell? He's not an enemy!"
Arthur flashed over to Lewis' side, gripping something in one hand. "Vivi, come off it! We're just talking things out!" His own anchor, a small star pin he'd worn everywhere, flashed in his hand, spitting sparks. "He's one of us!"
An ancient anger took hold. Her voice came out harsh. "One of us? He was never one of us." The snow at her feet was overlaid by a carpet of white grass that sprang up in a circle around her. "He has only ever used us. Gained our trust to lure us to the blood-starved forests."
The grass spread as she advanced, the sword tip pointed at Mystery. Arthur's pin flashed twice before sending out a ripple of glowing particles. The pin exuded an aura of pale orange light, an upright star-shaped field that sprang up between Vivi and the others. With the lower tips planted in the ground, the topmost tip was just taller than Lewis' head. Arthur gripped the pin, the focal point of the field, firmly. He looked grim. "Vee, he never lured us to a forest like that and he's only ever protected us. I don't think you're really talking about us, and I don't think you're totally you right now."
No, she certainly didn't feel like herself. She tried to tell him so.
"You can't know. He was bound for good reason. Even if he should survive my line, I damned him to wander the world bound, unable to ever repeat his crimes. You weak-hearted children would release him because he acts the part of pet protector? I will end him first."
That was definitely not what she had tried to say. Around them, the trees bent and twisted. Winter-stripped elms and oaks gnarled themselves into thick, blue-barked monstrosities with canopies of white leaves to match the field of white grass. The handgrip on the sword spiked out, like the arms of a snowflake.
Lewis looked at her, oddly. "Obaasan?" he said, softly.
Arthur's eyes widened. "Gramma Yukino?"
The sword tip swung to level with Lewis' anchor, pressing against the star-field. The barrier sparked, but held strong. "I had high hopes for you, young men. You fell far from them, but once you recovered, you protected her. Yet after all this time, you would see her very soul fall to this monster? You encourage his release? I am disappointed."
Vivi was not holding the anchor, it had gripped her. An iron-like embrace on her soul, a protective rage that was not her own engulfed her will. She could not release the knob with the leather strap holding tight. Patched gauntlets, faded from purple to lavender, appeared on her arms. Similarly colored cloth now wrapped her feet. The shock on her boys' faces told her more than any mirror. A lot had changed in a few moments.
Arthur's eyes flashed and he swung the star-field forward, knocking the sword aside. "That's not your decision to make! You did all you could already, and now it's up to us… no, to her! It's up to her to weigh this out! How…" he sparked like mad for a moment, sputtering. "How could you? How dare you. Even for a moment, how dare you! To your own! Your—"
Lewis' pupils blazed in the hollows of his skull. His voice came in duo-tone, a dark rumble straight from the first days of his reappearance. "You're her grandmother, and what guidance you gave her in life will influence her decision, but it is her decision, now. Obaasan, this is wrong."
"No!" Helpless, she brought the sword up and then down in a gleaming arc, slashing at the shield. It held firm against her, sizzling with Arthur's outrage. "You're wrong! You weren't there. You're brainwashed, all of you! You see more than you ever could in life, and still you don't recognize the monster."
All around, branches of the trees reached toward them, the leaves whispering their thirst as the white canopy sprouted scarlet blooms. Vivi circled them. "Release him and he'll drink you all dry and think nothing more of you, or pass you off to his allies. Then there's nothing left but bones and rusted armor! He only ever served us because he had no choice. I made sure he would never have that choice again, never have the power to hurt anyone." She charged, shouting, "I will not allow him to consume my granddaughter because of your ill-reasoned folly!"
"You don't have the right!" Arthur screamed, angling the shield to turn away the next stroke. "Let go of her! Let go!" He advanced, electric charges flying off his form in every direction. "You're just as bad as them, let go of her!"
Lewis reached one arm forward to grab Arthur's shoulder. "Artie! You gotta calm down, this isn't some random demon. We can talk to her! You gotta settle down and gimme options, the environment is getting hostile."
Arthur's edges spiked as he finally took in their surroundings. "Damnit! She's strong enough to call up a memory plane?" His head swiveled back and forth. "What's she even anchored to? How'd we pick her up?"
Mystery wriggled out of Lewis' arms. He hit the ground and darted around the shield, his legs lengthening with each leap. Extra tails sprouted behind him, flaring out like a fan. A mane grew thick and long from the top of his head halfway down his back, and his muzzle lengthened, tapering to frame a razor-toothed snarl. By the time Vivi whirled to face him, he had gone full kitsune.
He crouched, parting his jaws in a growl. The chains still wound around him but did not immobilize him. Shock jolted through Vivi, quickly followed by scorn. "So. The creature has thought of some loophole. Enough to challenge." She crouched and held the katana, edge skyward, alongside her head. "Come, then."
And he did, with a lunge to her left and a foreleg extended to strike in passing. She spun aside with an upward slash that shaved some fur. "Old. Slow. Soft. I never stopped training for this day. I never stopped watching you." She whirled, tracing a loop with the tip of the sword as she brought it down where his back should be. Instead, there was only the tip of a tail as he leaped over the anticipated swing.
She lunged forward, the sword tracing a horizontal arc as she turned with the swing to set up a second one as soon as she passed. He, however, had vaulted into a low-hanging branch and crouched in the boughs of a hissing tree.
White crowded the edges of Vivi's vision. "Same as it ever was," she whispered. "Nothing has changed. A life sentence was too good for you, I should have ended it that day."
Mystery watched her, ears laid back, but made no move.
"What are you now, coward?" Vivi shifted back into her first stance, and as she did the tree swayed under Mystery. "This is not your forest this time, now fight!"
Mystery leaped clear just as the tree's branches smacked together. He landed ready to run, and Vivi was there, trailing him by mere feet. The white crowded more of her vision, now, and it was so very cold. Numbness crept up her arms.
"OBAASAN!" Lewis roared just behind her. Vivi faltered, stumbling a step as she turned with a lightning shoulder-to-hip slash. It nicked Lewis' locket and his whole form guttered like a candle in a draft.
"LEWIS!" Arthur screeched like sheets of metal tearing. He flashed in between them with the shield, but now it sputtered as he kept glancing back at Lewis.
Lewis slumped onto Arthur's back, but spoke over him to Vivi. "Obaasan," he gasped, "This… Artie just told me... you can't… two in one anchor! Look!" He thrust a flickering finger toward her, pointing.
A glance down revealed the gauntlets fading, along with everything from elbows to fingertips. She could see through her forearms to the ground below, and the transparency crawled up her arms. Everything up to her shoulders was numb.
For a moment, the anger in her faltered. This… this wasn't what she wanted. She just wanted to protect.
"Moron!" Arthur shouted at Lewis. "I didn't mean for you to take off like a shot after the angry old sword lady! I thought we were going to work out a plan!"
"No time!" Lewis countered. "Look at her. She—nngh!" Lewis slid down, still guttering, doubled over his anchor. Arthur abandoned the shield, kneeling to cup his hands around Lewis' anchor.
Vivi's gaze flicked back to Mystery. He'd doubled back and now paced a katana's length away, ears laid back and whining. His tails lashed and his eyes drilled her, accusingly.
What was this? He dared… he dared lay blame for this situation on her? When he… when he…
She looked down at her arms again, now transparent up to the shoulder.
"Young Arthur," she said quietly. "What was that about two souls and one anchor?"
Arthur looked up. "Just that you can't. I don't know how long you were attached to that knob, Gramma Yukino, but if you've been with us any length of time you must have seen some of the cases we had when two ghosts fought over an anchor."
"One vanishes, sometimes both. But, we're not fighting each other," Vivi's voice came out confused, lost.
"You think not? You think Vivi's okay with you just taking over for the greater good? Did you bother to ask if she had an opinion about the situation?" Arthur accused. "Normally you'd just be burning twice the energy needed to sustain a spirit and that would be bad enough that you'd lose yourselves in a month, but you're burning way more than that by throwing a memory plane into the mix. You have to let go, or you're both sunk!"
Vivi flinched. But if she let go, who would slay the monster?
A wall of white slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. Blinking, she stared up into the muzzle of the beast she'd bound. Her reluctant protector all her life. The immortal nine-tail who settled his bulk on top of her, pinned the katana-arm with one foreleg, and began licking her face.
She squirmed, squawking, "Get off! Get—you monster! Yokai! Murderer! Don't you dare pretend—!"
But Mystery turned and began licking the metal knob in her hand, as if she wasn't beating his neck and muzzle with her free arm. As if she wasn't cursing him with every arcane and obscene phrase she knew. As if she didn't hate him, or at least, as if her hate didn't matter a bit. She could not feel the weight or his warmth, but neither could she could she free herself. As he licked her anchor, slowly, her arms became less transparent, regaining solidity with every stroke of his tongue. The white encroaching on her vision had withdrawn as well.
This stopped her. "Y-young Arthur. What is the meaning of this?"
"Busy!" he snapped, his hands still over Lewis' anchor. Lewis' form had steadied, but the ghost still slumped in place, even less defined than before.
But she didn't have to have the categorical answer to see what was happening. Within minutes, her arms solidified and the numbness receded, leaving her cold as ice, but feeling again.
Mystery finally stopped, laying his chin on her chest with a quiet whuff.
She clenched her jaw. "This doesn't change anything at all. I know you. I know your act. You hear me?"
Mystery raised an eyebrow and stuck his tongue out between his teeth.
"I hope she finishes the job," Vivi growled.
Mystery sighed.
"Accursed beast." Vivi's fingers convulsed around the anchor. "Be strong, child. This is all I can do, now."
And Grandma Yukino released the anchor, passing over. It was like exhaling a breath of air Vivi hadn't known she was holding, but without the air. Or the lungs.
Around them, the grass gave way to gleaming snow, and the trees untwisted themselves to point proudly skyward, their branches naked and brown. The violet gauntlets vanished. The katana was, once again, just the knob of an old baseball bat.
Mystery shoved his muzzle up under her chin, keening as he rubbed his face against hers.
"H-hey boy," she mumbled. "Bit of a trip, there." She stared up through the branches, trying to reassemble her thoughts.
Lewis.
She flailed, and Mystery rolled off her. Springing to her feet, she darted over to where Arthur pressed Lewis' anchor against his own. Arthur's form now flickered lightly.
"Artie! What's going on?"
"Nicked him good," Arthur grated. "Can't stop the bleed… giving him all I got… running out myself…"
Vivi didn't hesitate, dropping her anchor into Arthur's hands and knocking her forehead against Lewis' nearly transparent skull. "Don't you dare disappear on me, you expired tin of spam emails! Either of you!" What little strength she'd regained now flowed out of her into some deep hole. She could feel the transaction in a way she could not feel fur, or snow, or wood under her hands. Even all together, they didn't quite have enough. At the same time, she knew neither she nor Arthur would let go of Lewis.
She slung one arm around Arthur's neck and the other across Lewis' shoulders, shutting her eyes tight, and braced herself to fade away with them.
Mystery crept up next to them and lay down. His tails wrapped around to touch his nose, forming a full circle around the small group. And as he joined them, Arthur stopped flickering. Lewis' form steadied. Vivi straightened, fresh strength flowing into her. Opening her eyes, she gawped.
Where Lewis' form had bled softly in the surrounding air before, now blue, orange, and red threads of color offered him newly defined edges and put a stop to the constant energy loss. Arthur's left arm was wrapped in what looked like purple, red, and blue strips, better bracing the arm to hold his shield. Vivi turned inward, probing her sense of self. And there. Around the vows holding her up wrapped the temperance of her boys. All three of them.
And as she probed the parts of Mystery's soul now woven into hers, she knew all she needed to. No specific memory crowded her, no flood of flashbacks answering all her questions. There was just a deep-seated yearning for a pack, and long-held regret.
She took her anchor back from Arthur, summoning the katana once again. Mystery rolled away from the group and drew himself up to a sitting position, his eyes on Vivi.
"You've waited long enough," she said softly. "Gramma was wrong." With that, she approached, pressing the edge of the blade against the first length of chain she could reach.
It snapped, crackling like an arctic thaw as the whole length of it loosened. Mystery reared up on his hind legs, thrashing from muzzle to tail. He snapped his jaws together, jerking his muzzle around until all his bonds had fallen off.
Dropping to four paws, he advanced on Vivi and pressed his forehead against her. His head was fully half her size and she could touch him. She could feel his fur and the warmth and weight of him as he nuzzled her, whispering, "Clever, Vivi. My clever, clever girl. Thank you."
Dismissing the katana, she wrapped her arms around his face, burying her face in his fur. "I'm sorry I doubted you."
His voice was soft. "No. You were right to. All of you."
She pulled back. "I have so many questions, starting with what was that all about? Why were you bound, and why did Gramma hate you so much? Can you tell me about her early days? She never talked to me about it, how did she get a magic sword? What the flipping sardines was with that forest?"
He stared down at her for a long time, his ruby eyes probing for something, as if unsure he'd find it. Presently, he answered, "I hope you will forgive me. But some things I wish to leave so thoroughly behind as to forget they ever happened."
Arthur sputtered a moment, and Mystery tilted his head toward the once mechanic. "Of this I can assure you; if there were any further ends left loose, I would bring myself to tell you, but there are none left. Together you have tied off each of them and I am free. Who I was then will never again harm who we are now. Please. Allow me to walk away from the past."
Vivi glanced over at Lewis, now on his feet and staring at his hands and flexing his fingers. She looked to Arthur, who stood with crossed arms and resigned irritation on his face. She smiled. "I think we can manage without all the answers. This time."
"But you owe us!" Arthur muttered, reaching over and ruffling fur on Mystery's flank. Mystery yelped as his entire coat poofed outward. His tails looked like giant, prickly caterpillars as he shook himself, indignant.
Lewis finally looked up from his hands. "But… what now?"
Mystery froze for a moment. A stony expression slid into place, then he turned and trotted a short distance away. He sat, his fur settling back in place, and licked the crook of his paw. He rubbed it across his face, grooming in affected indifference, but his ears swivelled toward them.
What now. That was the big question, wasn't it? Was it time to pass over? The boys had been hanging on because of her, right? They should get a rest… shouldn't they?
But, Mystery.
Nope, there wasn't even a counter argument to be found in Vivi. The scarlet longing for a pack keened in grief within her own soul, now. Stay, it begged her. She'd never be able to rest like this.
Arthur sidled up next to her, whispering, "Between you and me, even if you and Lew had decided to head off early, I was gonna stick around. Mystery was pretty miserable in your last few years. It's blatant how badly he needs at least one of us. But I can see your decision plain as day already."
Lewis pulled in close, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Where you are is home," he said, softly. "And now I can give us a place to rest whenever we need a break."
Vivi lit up, bouncing. "Oh, Lew! You can do it again?"
"Thanks to all of you." Lewis spread his arms and swiveled his wrists like a conductor.
Vivi spun around to Mystery, crowing, "Wipe that stupid sad off your face, you salty stovepipe oven. The Mystery Skulls 2.0 is officially launched, and better than ever. Guardian of us? Hah! Now we'll guard you! Welcome to the pack you preposterous pup, you have my sword!" She spun around, slashing through the air with a glimmering blue katana.
"And my shield!" Arthur chuckled, flipping the pin into the air and catching it as it fell.
"And a warm, loving home!" Lewis boomed as the mansion materialized behind him. "After all, is not home where the heart is?" He winked, flashing his locket.
Arthur and Vivi groaned together.
"Kill me again," Arthur moaned.
Mystery gaped at the mansion. His eyes were wide as he looked down to Vivi. "You… but… you could…"
"Can it, you cod-faced flour duster. You're stuck with us. We're staying, and that's that. Now shrink down, would ya? I haven't given you proper cuddles in a few years and you're overdue."
The kitsune seemed to fold in on himself. Seconds later, a dog took a flying leap into the arms of the girl who'd freed him. She caught him, sprawling on her rear and laughing as he licked her face.
"Funny how you can interact now." Arthur floated nearby, observing. "Does it have to do with you being freed? What kind of power level do you have now? Can you do any new tricks?"
Mystery gave a toothy grin. "Happy to answer, but inside? One of us still has physical form and it's freezing out here."
Arthur snorted. "Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm sure you'll heat up real nice being chased by suits of armor and Deadbeats up and down the hall."
"Come on, that was just one time!" Lewis groaned. "Let it die already."
As Mystery laughed, the scarlet thread in Vivi thrummed with joy, and each member of the ghostly team glowed brighter. What came next? They would figure it out together. For now, this was all they needed.
Note: In conclusion, I cannot fluff. I can only hurt/comfort and pad it with as much fluff as possible. Merry (very very very very very late) Christmas! My thanks to R5h and Pipefoxesonthemoon for beta-reading and helping me brainstorm and especially for asking the right questions to prompt my brainflailing in the right direction. Do you like Invader Zim or My Hero Academia? Check out Pipefoxesonthemoon! Do you like MSA, MLP, or Little Witch Academia? R5h has great fics in these fandoms. Check 'em out!