Sealed

by Im The Person

Pandora IF: In a self-sacrificing move, he sealed himself with her. In a dark void existing in a separate space, devoid of anything and everything except each other. (Inspired Story)

9. Re:Union

Now, I believe that this has been one of the most 'hyped up' chapters of this story. I'll let you immediately get into it. Glad to have finally been able to get here and write it.

Of course, I wasn't able to fit everything into this behemoth of a 25k+ word chapter, so it'll be continued into the next. I seriously wouldn't blame you if you need a break in the middle of this...

Anyway, don't freeze while you wait! Hahaha!... bad joke...

I should warn you all, though. There's going to be some darker tones in this one (and the next), with hints to a lot of unsavory things (not sexual, I should clarify). If that's something you're not really into, then be careful going through certain parts of this chapter. Don't be afraid to skip sections if you find something uncomfortable.

Hope you all enjoy reading, and let me know what you all think!

---

Chapter 9: Re:Union

"Put these on, I suppose."

Now back at the mansion, Beatrice threw two sets of identical clothing toward both Subaru and Pandora respectively.

The pair each caught it with one hand— since their other hands were still intertwined. Upon further examination, the robe was very familiar to Subaru. It was identical to the one he'd worn during the subjection of Sloth to hide his identity from Emilia and the others.

They were both white robes with a hooded mantle; though, as Subaru noted, they didn't possess the purple horns, or ears — or whatever they were supposed to be — at the top. The pair looked at Beatrice, a tad confused.

The Great Spirit sighed at seeing their expressions, "These are copies of the half-elf's old enchanted robe; Betty made them herself. It will conceal your identities without trouble, in fact. It would be idiotic to march into the capital without proper protection for the both of you, I suppose."

Subaru tilted his head, "Wait, why is it such a big issue?"

The Great Spirit merely sighed again, "You'll see." She then looked at Pandora pointedly with narrowed eyes, "As for you, we will be going shopping. Betty can't stand you wearing her contractor's clothes any longer, I suppose."

Subaru and Pandora merely shared a glance, slightly shrugging to one another before complying with her request. They put the robes on without issue, not yet having flipped up the hood, looking at Beatrice expectantly.

"Are you ready?" Subaru asked Beatrice, unsure as to whether or not his contracted spirit was fully prepared to leave.

Beatrice just nodded, "Yes. Betty has made sure to make some additional remedy before our departure, in fact." To prove her statement, she reached into her dress and pulled out a few vials of freshly made remedy. "I don't expect us to stay long, but I got extra just to be safe, I suppose."

It was Subaru's turn to nod, looking over at Pandora next, "How about you?"

"I am ready when you two are," was her simple response.

Beatrice hummed, wasting no time in hastily transporting them to the Lugnica Royal Capital. The familiar, satisfying whizz of her new teleportation spell surrounded them as they found themselves somewhere completely different and new; a dark, rather disgusting, yet empty alleyway, to be precise. The whizz faded away whilst they readjusted themselves to the new environment.

"Woah… I don't think I'll get used to that anytime soon," Subaru commented, shaking his head to snap himself out of a daze. Pandora had done something similar, the two of them accidentally tightening their grip on the other's hands to compensate.

Beatrice was relatively fine, watching quietly as the two composed themselves. Once they did, she voiced the next step of their plan, "I recommend putting those hoods up now, I suppose. We simply cannot risk anyone unnecessary seeing you two, especially together, in fact."

They did as she suggested, flipping their hoods on using their free hands simultaneously. Just after doing so, they both let out a heavy breath as they prepared for what was to come.

Then, laughter echoed throughout the alley, "Look at what fate brought us today!"

"Easy targets, haha!"

"A little girl and… her mommy and daddy?" more laughter followed after that bizarre, completely inaccurate, assessment.

The trio turned to face the voices, which had come from deeper within the darkness of the alley. Out of it emerged another trio, dressed in what looked to be rags with overall scruffy-looking features.

Immediately, Subaru recognized them. He scoffed, mostly out of disbelief at the absurdity the situation presented than anything else, "How in the actual hell are you three still doing this? It's been ten years!"

One of the thugs, the big one, looked at him with a snarl, "Are you mockin' us?!"

The skinny one answered, "I dunno, Ton. Sure seemed like it."

"He seemed to recognize us, too! Have we met?" The tiny one asked, a curious and thoughtful expression finding its way onto his face.

Pandora looked at Subaru oddly, "Are these the thugs that you told me about? The ones that… hurt you."

Subaru could tell that she wanted to use different wording, yet stopped herself. Pandora's tone delivered an underlying message to him that he didn't like, yet Subaru still looked back and nodded, "That's them, alright. I'd recognize these three bozos anywhere."

Pandora's head snapped toward them in an instant. The hood of the robe may have blocked it, but the three thugs shivered under the effects of Pandora's deathly glare.

"Kan, pull out the knife!" The tiny yelled out in panic, feeling terrifyingly more exposed than he should.

"I got it, Chin!" The skinny one, Kan, pulled out his knife and, with a shaking hand, pointed it at the trio in an offensive manner. The big one, Ton, got himself ready to brawl, but his face showed everyone how scared he really was, and the tiny one, Chin, cowered behind them.

Pandora took a step forward, absolutely ready to unleash hell upon them. The only thing that stopped her was Subaru's hand, interwoven with her own, that tightened but lightly held her back, "Dora, don't."

"They hurt you," her response was quick and unhesitant. Her gaze never moved away from the crooks before her, even as Subaru held her back.

"You're trying to change, remember? This isn't the way that things should go," he reasoned, his voice calm and steady. "Yes, they hurt me, but it's okay. I'm here with you now and I'm not going anywhere. You don't need to go so far over something so little."

"It may be little to you, but not to me."

"Dora, please."

She heard his plea, desperately begging for her not to go through with what she felt was justified. Pandora kept her glare, drilling into the souls of the scum that poisoned her eyes. After a few moments of silent contemplation, she began taking slow, deep breaths. It gradually calmed her, clearing her head and helping her consider better choices.

In a silent move, Pandora used her Authority; after such, the trio of thugs disappeared. Subaru and Beatrice panicked out of habit, but Pandora turned to them, a small smile on her face, and voiced, "I made it so that they never walked down this alley."

Subaru silently looked at her for a moment before he smiled back, "Good job, Dora. I'm proud of you."

She smiled a little more, happy to hear his praise. Beatrice coughed, trying to gain their attention, "Ahem, if you two don't mind, we should get moving, I suppose."

"Oh, yeah!" Subaru exclaimed, suddenly remembering. "Where to first, Beako?"

---

Elsewhere, in the middle of an empty, dark alleyway, three crooks found themselves suddenly appearing out of thin air. All three, whilst still on their feet, were dazed and uncertain, looking around one another in blatant confusion.

"Wha- What the hell?! How did we end up here?!"

"I dunno, Ton." Chin said. "It must've been that crazy lady's power or somethin'."

Kan groaned, clearly annoyed. "Who cares? We just made a mistake with our target that time. Let's pick the right one this time."

Ton hummed in short, thoughtful agreement, looking around their new location for a new possible target. His eyes wandered for a little bit before lying on a cloaked figure, face hidden and walking right toward them. "How 'bout that one?"

The other two looked in the direction he referenced, silently agreeing to target the newcomer. They moderately spread out, pulling out whatever weapons they had whilst doing their best to look intimidating.

"Give us everything you've got!"

"Yeah, everything!"

The figure stopped in its tracks, completely unmoving. The only part of their body the crooks could see was the figure's mouth; it was slightly agape, taking in small breaths one after another. The figure's head remained still, as if it didn't even bother to look up at them.

"Get out… of my way," the figure's voice was cold, sharp and pierced through them like a knife in butter. Despite how much it shook them, they stood tall with an unwillingness to let a target get away again.

They pressed their attack. If this person wasn't going to take them seriously and comply with their demands, then they'd just take what they wanted by force. The three thugs stepped forward in unison… then suddenly stopped in unison, too.

In an instant, at the same time, all three of them experienced the exact same thing. Their bodies rose in the air, suspended and unmoving as each of their breaths staggered and struggled for any ounce of air.

A splitting pain ran through their bodies, starting from between their legs and straight up into their core. Everything felt cold, inside and out, before that frost turned into more of an unnatural warmth that grew eerily stronger.

They didn't know what happened, barely even able to move their heads to catch a glimpse of the scene. Their brains, hardly able to function anymore, were able to recognize the sight of their own blood dripping onto the ground, creating respective puddles for each of them.

Under the blood, a thin line of what seemed to be clear crystal was barely registered by their eyes. They slowly followed the trail, which led straight to the heel of the mysterious figure's foot. The figure's face remained unchanging, indifferent to their dying forms while it stepped forward. As their vision grew blurrier, the figure stepped past without sparing a single glance.

That day, three thugs died… and nobody batted an eye.

---

"Should this really be the priority, right now?"

"Yes, it is. As said before, Betty is tired of seeing you dressed like my contractor, in fact."

"Ah, c'mon, Dora, don't you think this one looks pretty good?"

"No, and I do not care. I would much rather wear this than do any needless shopping."

The trio found themselves walking around in a local shopping district, specifically one that sold clothing, to try and find Pandora a new outfit to wear. It didn't have to be said, but Pandora herself was rather grumpy about the whole thing. Her face said it all — despite them being unable to see most of it — with furrowed eyebrows and a sporting frown to top it all off.

Subaru, who was unusually energetic, smiled over at her, "Don't be so grumpy! There's a lot here to choose from!" He used his free hand to gesture at all of the possible options available to them. "As much as I love twinning with you, I think it'd be nice for you to have at least one outfit for yourself."

She stopped walking, standing rather defiantly in one spot. Subaru, activating Third Shift for a moment, stepped before her and turned to face her more directly. She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes under the hood of the robe. Subaru only kept his smile, tilting his head forward as if to say, "C'mon, it'll be fun."

After a stalemate that only lasted a few seconds, Pandora's mouth flattened as she made a sound of disapproving annoyance. She turned to the side, her eyes softening ever so slightly yet holding onto a special reluctance, "I unfortunately cannot bring myself to say no to you."

Subaru perked up, his smile seemingly widening as he positioned himself next to her again, "Great! Let's go!"

Pandora sighed, uncrossing her arms and letting their hands intertwine again. She began glancing over at some of the nearby products, "I still find this rather unnecessary…" she trailed off, lowering her voice to a whisper and leaning in closer to Subaru, "and I am also aware that you are doing this most prominently to delay your reunion."

Subaru's mood outwardly dropped for a split second, but quickly rebounded. He too lowered his voice, leaning close to Pandora so he could respond, "I'm nervous and… I'm scared. I'm still trying to prepare myself mentally a little… yeah."

Pandora nodded, "I understand. Take your time; just know that I am here for you whenever you may need me." She lightly squeezed his hand to put weight on her statement, which he appreciated.

They started slowly walking throughout the district again, looking at the displays as they passed. Beatrice, who had been the most active thus far by running around different places in search of specific things, pointed out something in particular, "How about that one, I wonder?"

Subaru and Pandora both turned toward it, Pandora in particular quickly denying it, "No. Too colorful."

"Yeah, I agree, it's a little too… flamboyant," Subaru voiced in agreement.

Beatrice looked at him oddly, "What does that word even mean, I suppose."

"Flamboyant means that the style of something attracts a lot of attention," Pandora answered, winking at her from behind her hood. Beatrice quickly glared at her, but Pandora only smiled at the Great Spirit before going back to browsing with her eyes.

Beatrice did the same thing, averting her gaze with audible annoyance. Soon, she found something else to suggest, "What about that one, I wonder? That one isn't as colorful as the other."

The other two looked at the next one, "That one is… too dark."

"It looks like it's got a weird little thing on the end of it, too. What even is that…"

As Pandora and Subaru criticized the second outfit she picked out, Beatrice's eyebrow twitched. Immediately, she began looking for another, "That one then, I wonder?!"

They then looked at the new one. This time, Subaru spoke up first, "Beako, that one's for men."

Beatrice only crossed her arms, puffing her cheeks and looking away, "Not like that matters…"

Subaru, hearing her comment, shook his head disapprovingly, "That's not very nice, Beako."

The Great Spirit turned on her heel, pivoting herself to face him and stomping her foot on the ground. She glared up at him, frustrated and annoyed, "Then stop nitpicking everything Betty suggests, I suppose!" She then uttered under her breath, "It's not like what I said wasn't true…"

Subaru sighed, "Maybe we should just let her decide for herself. It'll probably be smoother that way, right?"

She was about to retort, but stopped herself midway. The more Beatrice considered it, that route would probably be both the fastest and would give her less of a headache. She hummed, "Fine. Just have the outfit be reasonable, I suppose."

Pandora gave her a side glance, choosing to ignore Beatrice's earlier comment about her figure, "You say that, yet you chose some of the most unreasonable things here for me to wear."

Beatrice only mumbled to herself in response, unwilling to start any kind of argument just yet, while Pandora proceeded to start browsing a little more. Subaru and Beatrice followed her around as they went from place to place, looking at all kinds of different and unique outfits, yet none of them actually seemed to appease the former Witch.

Until one outfit in particular caught her eye, stopping her dead in her tracks. She went over to it, examining it from top to bottom before even coming to any type of conclusion, "This one."

Subaru, still by her side, looked at it thoughtfully, giving small nods of acknowledgement, "Well, it certainly represents you and seems to be your size. Do you want to try it on just to make sure?"

Pandora didn't answer, instead just picking it up with her free hand and looking at Subaru expectantly. He laughed a little, his gaze wandering in search of someone that could show them to a changing area. Soon enough, he found someone restocking some clothes not too far away.

Subaru motioned toward the attendant, which triggered them all to go toward the person. When they got close enough, the attendant's back faced them as Subaru cleared his throat and spoke up, "Excuse me, are there any private changing rooms around here that we can use?"

The attendant finished putting the last piece of clothing up, then quickly began turning around to face them. Subaru instantly froze, finally noticing her features as they came face-to-face. It was too soon… he wasn't ready.

"Of course there are!" She exclaimed, a large smile on her face as she pointed in a particular direction. "There's one right over the-…" she trailed off, her expression immediately falling as she looked at the only oddity in their group, "Beatrice…?"

Having been addressed, the Great Spirit looked up and, similar to Subaru, seemingly froze on the spot. Although, unlike Subaru, she was able to quickly recompose herself, "Hello… Petra, it has been a while."

Right… right, Petra was standing right in front of him. The little Petra he used to know… the one that had a crush on him and worked her butt off trying to be a maid. She was in front of him, yet she was so different. She had longer hair, still sporting her red ribbon accessory, but now it was longer, reaching just past her shoulders. Her clothes were common, but were of high quality.

Petra nodded at Beatrice's statement, her face sorting through a plethora of different expressions portioning to her feelings before settling on one of indifference, "It has. Last time I saw you, it was ten years ago."

Beatrice subconsciously tried to avert her gaze, but her mind wouldn't let her and subsequently refocused them back on the girl in front of her, "Betty has been busy, I suppose." The Great Spirit then looked at Petra down, then up again, before commenting, "You've grown, in fact."

"I had to," Petra answered simply, her tone a tad edgy and broken. Suddenly she took one step toward, slightly tilting her head to the side and keeling down in front of the Great Spirit. She raised her hands, slowly and gently putting them against Beatrice's features. The Great Spirit didn't seem to mind as Petra continued to examine her, fingers lightly running over her eyepatch, "What happened to you?"

Petra's words were as gentle as her touch, causing Beatrice to react strangely. The Great Spirit's face mixed between emotions, but settled on neutrality, "Betty has been very busy, I suppose."

Petra's eyes continued to wander over Beatrice's features, silently noting each and every one of the differences she found. Despite that, the girl nodded, her face contorting in different ways, showing that she was trying very hard to hold back some of her deeper emotions, "You've been through a lot."

They were silent for a little while, but Petra soon sniffled which broke her out of whatever daze she found herself in. She averted her eyes downward, using an arm to wipe them once or twice before looking back up. Her head motioned toward Pandora and Subaru, who was still frozen in place.

"Are these people with you?" Petra asked quietly, similarly examining them with curious eyes.

Beatrice momentarily stammered to respond, but seeing as how Subaru was in such a desperate state she thought of something quick, "No… No, they're not with Betty, I suppose." Her gaze went over to Pandora, using her eyes to motion to the changing area, "But I do believe they wished to try something on, in fact."

"Oh, right!" Petra exclaimed, her mood rising with false enthusiasm as she picked herself up from the floor and smiled at the two, "I'm very sorry for the interruption! The changing rooms are over there! When you're done please bring this outfit back to me; if you like it, I can help you pay but, if not, I'll have to wash it."

Pandora nodded, "Thank you very much, we will be going now."

With that, Pandora did her best to drag Subaru out of the area and into the changing room. It was a bit of a hassle, since Subaru was barely able to register things at the moment, but she got there fairly quickly and promptly secluded themselves.

She removed her hood, then removed his. She stood in front of him, seeing how his eyes stared blankly ahead at absolutely nothing in particular. "Baru, snap out of it… you're okay. Take deep breaths," she pleaded with him, taking his other hand within her own to convey as much comfort and reassurance to him as possible.

She noticed the exact moment he fell out of his daze. Upon having been directly addressed, he heard her words and did his best to comply with the actions suggested to him. His grip on her hands tightened somewhat, from what Pandora assumed to be due to his stress or anxiousness.

After a minute or so of breathing, he looked at her with eyes that practically begged for help, "I can't… I can't talk to her, it's too soon. I'm not ready."

Pandora's eyes were soft, caring and careful, "You can. If you do not try now, you may never get another chance again."

Subaru's train of thought ended upon that realization, pausing as new thoughts, mostly of self-doubt, came to mind, "What if I mess it up?"

Pandora shook her head in denial, "You will not. But, if you do, I will be here for you; Beatrice will, too."

Subaru remained quiet for a moment, processing everything before coming to a decision. He nodded slowly at first, but as he built up motivation those nods became more rapid, "Yeah- alright, you're right. I'll try."

Pandora smiled, tightening her grip on his hands for a second before releasing one and motioning to the changing area, "While we are here…"

"Go for it. I'd love to see how it looks on you," Subaru smiled a bit flirtatiously, further encouraging Pandora to try on the outfit she picked out.

Pandora picked up on his flirtatious smile. She quickly realized that, while it was genuine, it was more of a way for him to better focus on something else before he had to talk to the girl outside. She only kept her own smile as she let go of his hand, Cor Leonis: Third Shift in effect, to go put on her new clothes.

From the moment she went in, he knew it probably wouldn't take long for her to come out. Right he was; Pandora emerged only a couple of minutes later and, the exact moment he saw her, his mouth went agape.

Subaru marveled at the sight. Pandora wore something akin to a skirt, colored in nothing but a pure white that matched her natural glow. It was a one-piece, strapping over her shoulders with comfortable ease. It barely went down to her knees, just hanging above them. The length was rather small, but the hem sat not far from her skin and flowed nicely in the wind. The ends of the hem were patterned with slightly curved seams that added to the stunning, unique look.

The outfit had also come with a pair of shoes, which matched the pure white color and fit Pandora's feet rather well. They were simple in design, being slip-on shoes that possessed two straps that went over the wearer's foot to keep it in place. They were more or less comfortable, as well. In addition, Pandora had also picked up some private necessities in which she wore underneath her one-piece clothing.

Subaru nodded approvingly, "Simple and plain, but it suits you. It really does."

Pandora kept her smile, "Thank you. I am very glad that you like it." She took the robe in her hands, slipping it back on as she made her way back over to Subaru. The tracksuit she had on remained under her shoulder, carrying it as she walked, "Let us try not to ruin it so soon."

He laughed a little, "Yeah, let's."

As she made her final steps toward him, she picked up her feet and weirdly examined her new shoes, "These feel a bit odd, though."

Subaru chuckled, "Well, that happens when you don't wear shoes for four-hundred years or so. You'll just have to get used to them."

"I regret it already," she mumbled, playfully shaking her head. They went hand in hand again, facing the exit. Subaru took a deep breath, preparing himself for what was about to happen. Pandora glanced at him, "Are you ready?"

He took in another breath, "Yeah, I'm ready."

Pandora flipped up her hood, Subaru didn't. They both walked out into the main area, aiming right to where both Petra and Beatrice were talking. The girls had moved off to the side a little more, secluding themselves from most of the general populace around.

Petra was nodding, likely in reference to previous dialogue that neither Pandora nor Subaru heard, "So, you haven't heard from them either…" she trailed off, scratching her arm as she thought to herself, "so, Beatrice, what're you even doing here?" She raised a hand, as if to stop the Great Spirit from doing something, "And don't say that it was just to visit, we both know that's not why."

Beatrice stayed silent, using her eyes to survey the area behind Petra. When she saw her contractor coming toward them without his hood up, she realized what was about to happen, "You'll understand in a moment, I suppose."

Petra furrowed a brow, "What do you me-"

Subaru cleared his throat, interrupting her mid-question, "Excuse me, miss, but I'm looking for someone and could use some help."

Petra momentarily put on a smile filtered with false enthusiasm, turning around to face and help whichever customer needed her help. But, as soon as she did so, her smile immediately dropped. An audible gasp sounded from her mouth, a hand moving to cover it. She reeled and took a step back in surprise, her eyes widening as if she'd just seen a ghost.

Subaru waited patiently for her to recover, a small smile gracing his face, "Hey, Petra. It's so good to see you."

Petra shook her head in small motions, as if denying the sight in front of her. She moved her head down and up, examining him in full to better convince herself of what was happening. She moved a step forward, hands raised and motioning like she wanted to grab hold of him.

Her eyes graced his face, "Is this… are you really you- here?"

Subaru kept his smile, giving her a small couple of nods in confirmation as she stuttered her words, "Yeah, I'm really here."

Her mouth quivered upon hearing the sound of his voice again. Her eyes trembled, beginning to water despite how hard she fought against it. Then, in an instant without any warning, she pressed herself against him in a tight hug.

Subaru had to take a step back at the sudden pushing force, but didn't reject it. His gaze softened while his expression actively showed his remorse; Subaru's free hand slowly and gently went around her back, returning the hug.

It continued like that for a while, with Subaru gently returning her embrace as she cried into his chest. Her cries were more like desperate wails, her grip holding him so tight from the fear that he'd just disappear again. The ordeal even drew quite a few eyes from people passing by, but that didn't bother the four of them.

Eventually, to help Petra relax, his hand began rubbing her back in small, gentle circles. He activated Third Shift for a moment, separating his hand from Pandora's so that he could put it on Petra's head.

Petra's breath staggered once he started giving her headpats. Instinctively, her body seemed to relax under the combination of familiar, comfortable feelings. She took time to both mentally and physically recover, her sniffles easing and her breathing becoming steadier bit by bit. Subaru didn't stop his actions the entire time.

He knew that Pandora was pouting, but that was fine; he'd be sure to give her some headpats later to make up for it, if that's what she wanted. Right now though, Petra was his priority.

As she calmed down, he was constantly reminded of the girl he used to know. The one that stayed strong, helped encourage him and was all around a kind hearted person. Seeing her so upset, so broken, tore his heart apart.

At some point, her grip around him loosened and she began to pull away. He obliged, removing his own hand from around her back and re-establishing his connection with Pandora using the other. Petra looked at him, now red-eyes with tears still visible on her cheeks.

"Why- How-…" she stuttered, shaking her head and trailing off multiple times before she was able to formulate a proper sentence. "I have so many questions."

Subaru nodded once, laughing a little to try and lighten the mood, "I don't blame you. I have a lot of questions, too."

She looked at him with a sense of longing, like she'd been waiting for this day over the course of many, many years, "Subaru… you don't know how much we've all missed you."

"I've missed you all too… so, so much," Subaru voiced in a genuine, almost broken, tone.

Petra shook her head again, looking at him up and down as if to conceive some sort of consensus with herself, "I don't understand… How are you even here right now? I thought you… I thought that you were gone."

She threatened to tear up again. Subaru frowned at seeing her in such a state, using his free hand to pat her head in an attempt to comfort her. She looked at him pleadingly, wanting to understand but also desperately hoping that he was real and wouldn't just suddenly disappear.

"Please… Please tell me," she begged, tears threatening to fall from her eyes once again. "I don't want this to be fake- I don't want it to be another hallucination- I…"

Subaru's heart shattered upon hearing those words. He looked down, shaking his head but glancing up at her, "It's complicated."

"I'm not a little girl anymore. I'll understand everything you tell me, so just… please…" Petra looked at him with desperate big sad eyes as she pleaded with him again.

Subaru didn't do anything for a small, few seconds before nodding, "Alright. We'll tell you everything. Let's just… Let's just find somewhere private first, okay?"

Petra seemed to stiffen, looking around the area to see a few people silently watching her outburst. A minor form of embarrassment welled up within her, her face becoming a little red as she ashamedly looked down, nodding once after the fact.

They proceeded to find someplace quiet to continue their conversation. Petra took a moment to close up the shop before heading out with them, which nobody really minded. The entire walk was silent, nobody speaking a word the entire time. Petra only kept glancing at him every now and again, still seemingly in some form of disbelief. He couldn't blame her; in a sense, he couldn't believe what was happening either.

When they finally found somewhere — that somewhere being an abandoned building not too far away from Petra's workplace — Subaru wasted no time in explaining the current circumstances to her. Beatrice even pitched in on certain parts to provide more clarity with her point of view. Pandora stayed silent the entire time, not wanting to interject and insert herself into a compromising situation that didn't involve her.

By the end, Petra was floored; she was feeling shocked, surprised, angry, happy and upset all in one neatly wrapped package. She looked at both Subaru and Beatrice incredulously, "I can't believe it…"

Subaru chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood, "Neither can I, honestly."

Petra kept looking between both contractor and Great Spirit, "You two… You guys have been through so much, I-…" she brought an arm up to her eyes to wipe them, ensuring that more years wouldn't fall, "I'm sorry for acting like a little kid, I'm just… I'm just so…"

Subaru leaned forward, putting a hand lightly on her shoulder to convey a sense of reassurance, "You don't need to be sorry. Please don't apologize when you have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing, and I mean nothing, wrong."

Petra nodded to his words, understanding what he was saying and silently appreciating the sentiment. Subaru retracted his hand and put it back to his side, waiting for anything else Petra had to say. He didn't have to wait too long, "Spending an eternity in a void… I couldn't imagine how hard that must've been."

"It got better," he said in response, not missing much of a beat.

"Did it…?" she trailed off, her eyes blankly staring ahead of her as she mentally considered something. After a few seconds, they changed as she looked up at Subaru with sharp eyes, "Can I ask you something?"

Subaru perked up a little, shifting himself in his seat, not noticing the change in her behavior, "Of course you can."

Her head and eyes darted over to Pandora, blankly staring at her with unknown intent, "Why should I let her be here?"

Subaru froze, as did Beatrice, both of them sharing a glance due to sudden nervousness and unease, "Uhm… What are you talking about, Petra?"

"You know what I'm talking about," her eyes never moved away from the hooded former Witch. Pandora just silently sat there, watching as Petra slowly rose from her seat. "Why should I let her be here, living and breathing the same air as you and I after everything she's done?"

Subaru stammered, "I-I don't know what you mean, that's not-"

This time, Petra directed her sharp gaze to him, "Don't try and trick me. You might be able to trick other people, but I'm not a little girl anymore." Her eyes went back to Pandora, watching the former Witch closely as she continued, "Who else would this be? As much as it's like you to help random people, the chances of this being the very same Witch that trapped you in that damn seal for an eternity is too high. Why else would this person be wearing Emilia's enchanted robe?"

Subaru didn't know what to do; he hadn't planned for this, or even considered it happening. Petra was smart and had figured it out too quickly for neither him nor Beatrice to realize. He looked at Beatrice for guidance, not knowing what to say or do, but she just gave him the same look.

Without warning, Petra quickly put a hand behind her back and lunged forward. Subaru and Beatrice immediately stood, ready to act in defense if need be, but they were too late. Petra had, within a second, reached into a holster located on her back thigh and pulled out a small dagger, holding it in a backwards grip to Pandora's throat.

Still Pandora sat there silently, only moving her head slightly back to avoid the blade. She didn't even make as much as a single noise. Petra glared at the former Witch, further pressing the dagger's blade a little closer to her throat.

Subaru put his hands up, "Petra, it's okay. We're- We're not under any type of spell or anything and-"

"I know," she interrupted, not taking her eyes off of Pandora for even a second. "You're probably going to say something like 'she's changed, she's better now,' but I don't want to hear it from you," she paused, using her eyes to motion toward the hood of the robe. "Pull down the hood."

Pandora silently obliged, doing so without an issue. When the hood came down, Petra was blessed with seeing Pandora's entire face. The former Witch's expression was blank, neutral and unchanging, all while Petra pressed the blade to her neck in a continuously threatening manner.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" she asked, her voice laced with a thin line of venom which made itself incredibly blatant. Petra intently studied Pandora's eyes, looking for any and all bits of emotions that may be flowing through them.

Pandora remained silent for a while, even as Petra referenced the threat to her. Subaru was incredibly tempted to interject, but he feared that it may only make things worse. He reluctantly stayed silent, deciding to let the situation play out on its own whilst remaining vigilant.

Pandora steadily opened her mouth, catching everyone's attention. She didn't speak right away, causing everyone's anxiousness to rise, but she quickly found her words, "There is not much to say." At first, it seemed as though Petra was dissatisfied with that answer, but Pandora suddenly spoke again. "I can only offer my apologies," that seemed to shock Petra, her eyes widening for a split second before readapting to their previous sharp glare, "I recognize my wrongdoings. I know that I cannot deny my past, but I wish to do better. I am truly sorry."

Pandora's words were simple, unpracticed and sloppy, yet they seemed to reach the inner depths of Petra's being. Her hand shook with the knife in her hand, her mouth trembling while her teeth clenched in a show of frustration. She tried to build a resolve to go through with what she wanted to do, but, in the end, she reluctantly pulled away.

A large puff of air left her body as she backed away, placing her dagger back into its holster. Subaru found himself glued in place, unable to decide where he should go and what to do with himself. Pandora's hand momentarily tightened around his, indicating that she was doing okay.

Subaru looked toward Petra, obvious concern occupying his face, "Are you okay? Why- What exactly just happened?"

Petra looked at him, her eyes no longer as sharp as they once were. "I'll be fine," she then shifted her gaze to Pandora again with a glare, "I only stopped because I can tell that she's guilty. No truly evil person has so much remorse." She paused, taking a breath, her glare easing while her head shifted downward, "Just know… even though you have that guilt and choose to apologize, there are going to be some people that just won't accept it."

Subaru turned his head over toward Pandora, seeing that, while her baseline expression remained blank, her eyes were downcast and held her remorse. He could tell that she understood Petra's words, having taken them to heart.

Petra recovered her composure and went back to sit next to Beatrice, who'd ended up calming down herself and proceeded to watch the events play out by sitting quietly. Now, though, Beatrice decided to speak up, "Now that your aggression has subsided, could you inform us of what's been happening here within the last decade, I suppose."

Subaru realized that incredibly obvious missing detail as Beatrice mentioned it, perking up and addressing Petra directly as well, "Yeah, I have a lot of questions. How are you? How have things been? What's been going on all this time? Who got elected as the next ruler?" While he still had more, he thought it best to stop there for now.

Petra looked at them with a tilted, confused gaze, "What…" she mumbled, "What are you talking about? How do you not know the answer to some of those questions if you've been walking around the Capital?" She paused, considering something to herself, "How long have you guys even been here?"

"Not too long before we saw you," Subaru answered quickly.

"Yeah, okay… but how have you not seen… how exactly did you guys get here, again?" Petra was still, clearly, confused.

"Through teleportation, in fact," Beatrice answered.

Petra blinked at Beatrice once, then twice, before letting out a big, tired sigh. She contemplated to herself for a moment, uttering aloud, "That actually explains a lot…" as she trailed off, her head moved to look at all three of them, "There's something you all need to see, then."

---

"What…" Subaru mumbled, taking slow steps forward. His mouth was agape in both amazement and disbelief, unable to properly fathom what he was looking up at.

Beatrice stood next to him on his left, Pandora standing next to him on his right. They too felt similar to him, looking up at such a gargantuan figure in the middle of the Lugnica Royal Capital with him. As they approached, the three saw a stand which held a rather large, smoothly cut stone at its center. Walking over to it, Subaru saw that it had words on it.

He gazed down at them, opening his mouth and preparing to read out loud, "Under the guidance of Queen Felt, this statue stands to commemorate the heroic actions, deeds and sacrifices of the young Natsuki Subaru."

He had to pause, taking in the words he'd just read. It was all so surreal. His mind was unable to properly understand how or why this even existed, thinking himself unworthy or even incapable of receiving something like this.

He continued on, "He heroically gave his life to seal away yet another inconceivably dangerous threat. Before that, he always put himself in the line of danger for both his friends and allies. He was taken from this world far too soon. Despite being normal and weak, he was able to conquer and overcome what many of us had deemed impossible."

Underneath lay a list of his achievements. It was longer than he thought it would be, listing everything from saving Irlam Village to conquering the Watchtower. In all honesty, he was absolutely stunned and amazed. He didn't know what to think, much less say.

"There's actually a few more of these around the Capital, just not as… well, big," Petra got their attention, coming close to the statue and leaning on one of the guardrails as she gestured up to it.

She stayed silently for a little while, taking her time to admire the sight in front of her. She took easy breaths, her eyes momentarily unwavering until she seemed to remember what was going on.

She snapped herself out of her face, looking at the stone Subaru had read off of, "If that second part seemed a bit unnatural for an engraving, it's because it's actually a part of the speech Queen Felt used when she got crowned." Petra looked up at the statue again, "You know, her first decree as Queen was to have this built…" she trailed off, eyes softening as they continued to admire the gargantuan figure, "a lot of us pitched in to provide your achievements and what you've done for everyone, too."

Subaru stayed silent, directing his gaze back upward to look at the statue before him. It was very, very big, sporting his signature tracksuit, expression and pose. He almost couldn't believe that they'd gotten everything so accurate. When he looked around, he saw that there were actually quite a few people there admiring and reading about it. Luckily, he and Pandora had their robes on with their hoods up, so they wouldn't be noticed.

Nevertheless, that wasn't the point of all this.

His head tracked downward, his hand anxiously squeezing against Pandora's. She squeezed back, his heart taking in the support and holding it close as he readied himself for the question he was about to ask, "Petra… what happened to everyone?"

She didn't answer right away, her posture still leaning against the guardrail. Then, suddenly, in a fit of frustration she slammed her hands against the railing, emitting an echoed bang and effectively shocking Subaru, "There aren't many of us left."

Subaru's heart skipped a beat as his mind desperately held onto the hope that his worst fears weren't realized. He hesitantly asked, "What do you mean?" Petra shook her head, backing away from the railing and standing more in the open. Everyone turned to face her, uneasily awaiting her response.

At last, she uttered, "After you… After you disappeared, things went downhill pretty quick. The entire camp fell apart. Emilia and Beatrice secluded themselves off, the twins became more guarded and secretive…" she sighed, "everyone changed a lot. Everyone became sadder and didn't know what to do with themselves. And I… I couldn't do anything to cheer them up, despite how much I tried."

They all listened to her speech intently, even Pandora. She eagerly wanted to know what had happened to the state of the world after she took Subaru away… it was a part of learning how to atone for what she's done. Beatrice, on the other hand, developed a rather guilty look, very well remembering her behavior during that time and openly showing her regret for it.

"I was the one that had to talk to the Sword Saint when he came… nobody else would, because he specifically asked for you," she shook her head, sadly remembering the conversation she'd had with him. "I still remember his face when I told him what happened… or, at least, what Beatrice decided to share. I swear, he must have thought so low of himself at the time…"

Guilt overwhelmed Subaru at that moment. He knew that Reinhard had things rough overall, but knowing that his disappearance made things even worse was hard to bear. Pandora was feeling the same way if not worse, remembering how much she'd destroyed the Astrea family over the course of the last hundred years… including the death of the former Sword Saint, Theresia van Astrea, which she actively assisted in.

"It wasn't long after that day when Frederica nee-sama quit, followed soon by Otto-san and Garfiel," she sighed. "They'd realized that the atmosphere there had gotten worse and decided to leave. Instead of going back to Irlam, Louise, Meili and I decided to go with them… and we ended up here, in the Capital."

She paused, taking a moment to survey the area around them, hugging herself as if to keep herself safe. Subaru could only look on with immense guilt, unwilling to say anything until she finished her story.

"We were all on our own with practically nothing…" she mumbled, chuckling to herself in false amusement. "Frederica nee-sama tried to take care of us but we were really poor, scrounging to make ends meet so we had to resort to… to…"

When she trailed off, the hug she placed around herself grew tighter as she shivered in place. Recalling the event shook her, terrified her even, and it made Subaru fear the worst. He didn't know what she was referring to, nor did he think he really wanted to find out. Either way, it didn't change the fact that he so desperately wanted to run over to her, hug her and reassure her that he was here to protect her… to help her.

Yet, he knew that he was already too late for that.

Beatrice grabbed his other hand, giving it a light squeeze to show her support. He mentally thanked her, recomposing himself just as Petra did. He eyed her closely, watched as her expression fell and her arms reluctantly relaxed.

She continued on, "Otto-san went back to being a merchant… I don't see him often, but he comes by every once in a while. He drinks a lot more than he used to, though..." She paused, taking a moment to carefully consider her next words, "The Sword Saint saw Garfiel's potential and took him in to train as a knight. Meili, Louise and I lived as roommates for a while before we each chose our own profession. I studied to become a tailor and Louise became a chef, while Meili followed in Garfiel's footsteps and joined the knights."

Subaru's gaze softened, opening and closing his mouth in an attempt to form words and ultimately failing to do so. Alternately, his mind went into overdrive thinking about what everyone must've gone through because of him.

Then, he realized something. Everything from his facial expressions and thoughts paused in an instant, his head looking up and giving Petra a both worried and confused stare, "Petra… What about Frederica?

Immediately, she flinched. He heard a sniffle, her head turning away so that she didn't have to look at him. She hugged herself again, attempting to calm herself down, "Frederica nee-sama is… she's…" she kept trailing off, unable to finish her statement as she became more emotional. She took in another staggering breath, picking her head up and finally finishing the hard-to-say statement, "Frederica nee-sama is dead."

Subaru froze, feeling it wash over him like a tidal wave hitting his body. Beatrice was shaken up too, but it wasn't as bad as Subaru. No, not nearly so. Those were the last words he'd wanted to hear. His eyes went blank, his mind going into a daze. Pandora's comforting and reassuring squeezes were the only things that kept his mind from going completely into the dark.

He managed to garner up some courage, some form of sense, to slightly open his mouth and utter a simple, "How?"

Petra looked downcast, painfully recalling the memory as tears once again welled up in her eyes, "It wasn't long after we all moved here… she- she still tried to take care of all of us. But- But she got sick…" she stutteringly trailed off, a hand covering her mouth at the memory. "We didn't have enough money to help her. She got worse and worse… I still remember when we brought her food and water… she would just be lying on the bed almost paralyzed and when she spoke her voice was always so raspy and tired, barely even able to say any words at all…"

As Subaru fell to his knees, broken at the fact of knowing such a terrible fate befell someone like Frederica. When he fell, Beatrice broke her hand away from his and ran over to Petra on her own. The little Great Spirit took her old friend's hands in hers, looking up at the taller girl with big worried eyes.

Petra knelt down and quickly wrapped Beatrice in a tight embrace. Beatrice returned it, her own eyes downcast as she let Petra cry on her shoulder. The Great Spirit even did her best to rub small circles on her old friend's back, like her contractor had done before, to try and soothe her.

Pandora knelt beside Subaru and, similarly, gave him a hug. He didn't return it, but that was okay. He was dazed, grieving over and comprehending the loss of a loved one within his mind. She couldn't understand what that felt like, but if he needed his own time then she would accept that. The former Witch just kept hugging him, making sure that he knew she would always be there for him.

People around them started to stare at the scene they were making. Beatrice and Pandora's respective glares, though the latter's was under a hood, had been more than enough to drive most onlookers away, the rest choosing to ignore them and go about their business.

It ended up being a little while before Petra was able to get ahold of herself. She took deep breaths, doing her best to calm down whilst Beatrice kept doing her best to help. When Petra finally pulled away from their embrace, Beatrice raised her hands and helped wipe away some of the girl's tears. At that, Petra smiled and hugged Beatrice again; this time, it was out of sincere gratitude, appreciating all that Beatrice was trying to do for her.

Subaru, however, was a little different. When he fully came out of his daze, his head tilted upward. Pandora pulled away, coming face-to-face with him. Despite both of their hoods being on, they felt as though they could see one other perfectly fine.

Their foreheads gently pressed together, Subaru's breath hitching while his thoughts went haywire. His grip on her hand periodically squeezed as certain thoughts plagued his mind, her thumb lightly gracing the back of his hand to help relax him.

His mouth opened, his head slightly shaking against hers, "Dora, I… I did this."

She pulled her head away from his, choosing to look at him more directly, as her free hand came to his cheek with an affectionate, gently touch, "That is not true."

His head shook again, denying it, "It is- It is," he repeated. "If I hadn't made my decision, she wouldn't have- they wouldn't have…"

Her thumb graced his cheek, rubbing it back and forth, "Stop blaming yourself for things that are not, and were never, your fault." She paused, her head tilting down as it shook, "It is mine. I am the one that must atone, not you."

He wanted to deny it, to say anything that would put the blame back on himself; yet, his subconscious knew that he shouldn't. Despite how much he wanted to shoulder the blame, to keep Pandora from holding everything on herself, he couldn't. He knew that wasn't what she wanted him to do.

They all stood again, slightly more composed and stable. Subaru held Pandora's hand tightly, as if she'd suddenly, very possibly, disappear from his gasp. Petra held Beatrice's hand, her tears mostly all gone despite how much she continued to sniffle.

The older girl looked at them all, "I'm sorry, it's just… that topic is still a little rough for us," she chuckled a little to herself, to try and ease her inner tension. "We tried to raise enough money to help her by doing small jobs… whatever we could do that would earn us money, really," she shook her head, "but it wasn't enough. She died before we could get enough, but she always kept smiling at us and telling us about how proud she was."

Tears threatened to fall again as she remembered those moments. Every time she went into the former maid's room, met with a tired but proud smile. The former beast maid would always tell her and the others that she was proud, happy with all of them. The guilt from not being able to save her always ate Petra from within. It made her feel like a failure, inadequate and undeserving of her sister figure's praise.

Subaru looked at Petra, immediately recognizing the look she had on her face, his breaths heavy and eyes soft. "Petra," he called out, his voice rough yet clear. She turned to him, giving him full view of how sad she truly was, "It wasn't your fault." He knew how ironic it was to say that; how hypocritical it was for him to even think of suggesting it, but he couldn't help it. It just felt right to say.

By the looks of things, it seemed as though it was something Petra needed to hear. Her saddened expression faltered, shifting into different ones in the span of seconds.

Subaru wasn't done, though, "By the sound of things, I have no doubt that, even in her last moments, she was truly happy and proud of you. I know that she wouldn't want you to blame yourself; she wouldn't want you to hurt yourself over this." He took a breath, "You're amazing, Petra. She knew that… and I think it's time that you knew that, too."

It was definitely something she needed to hear. She tilted her head down, vigorously wiping her eyes with her sleeve before she looked back up at him. She nodded slowly, "Thanks, Subaru," she momentarily let a small smile come to her face. "I needed that."

When she smiled, he found something within himself that made him smile too. He nodded back, "You're welcome."

Petra's smile faded as she took another staggering breath, "I've felt so alone for a while now," she sadly admitted. "It's just been me and Louise for a few years, still struggling to make ends meet so we can try and live our lives somewhat normally." She shook her head, looking up to Subaru with tearful eyes once more. She raised her arm in a dramatic gesture, "Now both Garfiel and Meili are off fighting in some stupid war, I don't know if I'll ever see them again- I just…"

Beatrice tightly hugged Petra's leg, something which helped the older girl calm down again. She appreciated the Great Spirit's action, headpatting her to show it. Subaru was about to say something, but immediately cut himself off as another thought occupied his mind. Stuttering, he asked, "W-Wait, did you just say they're fighting in a war?"

Petra momentarily froze, looking back up at Subaru, "You don't…" she paused, taking a moment to think to herself. She slumped down a bit, "Right, I forgot that you haven't been here that long," she whispered to herself quietly, all while Subaru uneasily waited for her response. Shakily, she told him, "Lugnica has been at war with Vollachia for the last decade."

That made Subaru's mind short circuit, his body shivering. Unconsciously, he muttered, "…What?"

Luckily, Pandora tightened her hold on him and brought him back to his senses. She leant close to him, whispering so nobody could overhear, "It is okay, it is not your fault." She repeated it a few more times until he was able to ease himself back into the moment.

Subaru gathered his bearings, choosing not to focus on that detail but rather focus on another. He cleared his mind, deciding not to dwell on his own problems. Instead, he'd help with Petra's. He voiced, "Petra… you won't be alone anymore, I promise."

Her eyes shifted from sadness into something more hopeful. She tilted her head, as if questioning the legitimacy of such a statement. "R-Really?" she stuttered.

"Really," a voice spoke from below, prompting her to tilt her head down. Beatrice looked up at her with regretful eyes, "Betty has made mistakes over the last ten years. Betty wishes to start amending them, just as the former Witch does, I suppose."

Petra blinked once, then twice, before more tears welled up in her eyes again. She crouched down and wrapped Beatrice in another hug. This wasn't because she was sad, but because she was incredibly happy, overjoyed even.

She held Beatrice a little tighter, uttering a simple yet very emotional, "Thank you."

Beatrice lightly hugged back, but Petra pulled away before too long. She had a small smile on her face, in contrast the frown she previously had. Beatrice returned it, butterflies fluttering within her stomach for reasons she didn't understand. Though, she knew that a large part of her really enjoyed seeing Petra, her old friend, smile so genuinely once again.

She stood up, finally fully composed and much more self-confident. She'd seen the light; a new hope rose through her dark life and she was going to make sure that it didn't fade. She looked over at Subaru, putting a hand behind her head and scratching it awkwardly, "I'm sorry again for being so… emotional," she lightly chuckled again.

Subaru smiled at seeing her smile. Right now, she seemed so carefree. It was like a remnant of her past self returned in this instance, and he was glad to have it back.

"You don't need to apologize, you brat!" Beatrice had been the one to say that, grumpily staring up at Petra. "I believe my contractor already told you this already, Betty shouldn't have to repeat it, in fact." Subaru wholeheartedly agreed with his contracted spirit, truly not minding Petra's emotional instability. He understood why she was like that at its core, and it wasn't like he was much better himself.

Petra actually laughed at Beatrice's antics, looking down at the Great Spirit apologetically, "I'm so-" she stopped herself, her eyes and facial expression softening as she put different words together, "I'll try to do better, I promise."

"Hmph! Betty expects nothing less, I suppose."

Subaru smiled at the display, genuinely glad that both Beatrice and Petra were able to bond during such a… depressing time. He looked to his side, noticing that Pandora was currently looking at him. Her mouth curved into a smile, meant only for him. They both simultaneously squeezed their hands against the other's in a show of love, care and appreciation.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Subaru. He turned his head toward Petra again, "If I can ask, where were Roswaal and some of the others during all of this?"

Petra directed her gaze to him, her expression turning into more of a thoughtful one, "I'm not too sure, honestly. I think they left just after we did, because when I tried to return to the mansion for help it was completely abandoned." She looked down at Beatrice, "I know why you weren't there now," her gaze picked back up to Subaru, "but I don't know where Roswaal, Rem, Ram and Emilia went."

Subaru hummed to himself, thinking. It was weird that they've been considered 'under the radar' for so long. It didn't even seem as though any of them went to the Capital for anything, either.

He could understand why, though. If any of them were too emotional, they probably didn't want to go somewhere that was actively memorializing him. Though, in that instance, what's the case for Roswaal? No way, as the acting Court Mage, would he just disappear, even if he was 'grieving' over his loss or something.

He stopped thinking about it, snapping out of his thoughts and refocusing his eyes on Petra. "Do you know about anyone else? Anyone we could maybe meet today?" he asked.

Petra shook her head, "Only Louise, since we're still roommates. Garfiel and Meili are away, and Otto-san is still out on a trip… though, when he gets back, you should really see him."

Subaru smiled, closing his eyes to imagine meeting them all again. It felt nice. He couldn't help but ask, "How's the old merchant doing, anyway? You said before that he drinks more now?"

"He's… well, he could be doing better," Petra answered honestly, putting a finger to her chin. "Yeah, he drinks a lot more than he used to. It's mostly because he's sad all the time. Though, despite how sad he is, he's usually happy when he's with all of us. But, the last time that happened was a long time ago. But, when he's here, I still take time to make fun of his new hair!"

As Petra spoke, Subaru started to feel bad for his old merchant friend. But, when Petra started to talk about some sort of new hair, his curiosity piqued, "New hair? What kind of new hair?"

Petra laughed just by remembering it, "He has a weird, uh… thing with his hair, where it's receded back? Like, the hairline here," she pointed at her own head for reference, "is a~ll the way back here. It looks really funny."

Subaru tried to imagine it in his head, coming up with various different versions of what it could possibly look like. The possibilities made him laugh, but he shook his head to help refocus himself. "I can't wait to see that for myself," he commented.

Petra laughed, "Neither can I." She took a breath, "If you want, I can take you to Louise after her shift ends. She works at a pretty busy restaurant not too far away and, even though she'd probably have no problem with it, I don't think it would be right to take her away from work."

Subaru nodded in understanding. From there, it was mutually decided between the four of them to just simply wait out the time. There wasn't much else to do, anyway, and just exploring the Capital and enjoying the company of one another genuinely sounded nice.

The four of them proceeded to walk through the streets of the Capital, talking about anything that came to mind. As it turned out, ten years really changes a lot of things. Petra was more than happy to talk about how things generally were, sharing knowledge of certain districts and plazas she typically enjoyed going to.

Subaru even had one funny encounter with someone he never thought to see again, "How are you still selling appas…"

"Heh? Got a problem with it?" his face contorted into an expression of annoyance, his arms crossed to show his displeasure. "Say, you talk like we've met before or somethin'. Have we?"

As Subaru stammered, Petra popped in from beside him, "Hiya, Risch-san! How goes business?"

At the sight of Petra, the man actually smiled, "Ah, little Petra. Business is goin' fine, actually. I just signed my fifth business deal with another restaurant a couple days ago."

"Ah, that's good to hear!" Petra exclaimed. "I'm showing my friends around today, so we should get going. It was nice to see you again!"

As she waved goodbye, starting to lead the group away, the Appa Salesman waved back with a smile, "No problem there, little Petra. Come back and buy an appa sometime soon!"

As the four of them made more distance away, Subaru turned and asked, "You know him?"

Petra's hands coupled behind her back as she leaned forward with a smile, "Yup! We usually bought food from him, since he was so cheap back then. Now he's got a bunch of business deals with restaurants, so he provides some supply for them."

Huh, who knew. Subaru found it a bit bizarre that, after all this time, he'd run into that man again. Subaru was honestly glad that the Appa Salesman was doing well for himself.

He turned his head to the side, looking at Pandora… who was looking at him. That smug smile on her face gave away what the rest of her expression was like. She was teasing him. She smugly asked, "How did you like meeting with your old friend~?"

He half-heartedly narrowed his eyes at her, "Shush. Just because I had to look at his face after so many… setbacks, doesn't make him my friend."

"You still looked at his face a lot. It must have gotten tiring for you, then?"

"I'd rather look at his face than have to look at a wall," he commented. If he was being honest, looking at the Appa Salesman after dying was probably better than a few other circumstances.

"Now you have my face to look at!"

"Is that really better, though?"

She pouted, "Are you comparing me to a wall?"

"Worse."

She feigned a shocked gasp, "Why would that be?"

She glanced at her, a smug smile on his face, "At least a wall doesn't coerce and tease me for compliments."

She faltered for a moment, pouting again, "Rude. Is it so bad to just want you, my beloved, to dote on me?"

Subaru did his best to stifle a laugh, "No, no, of course not. You know that I'd dote on you… anytime…"

He trailed off, his eyes falling off track and gluing themselves onto something else. He slowly stopped walking, neither his head or his eyes moving themselves from their fixed position.

Pandora's eyes faltered, looking at him in both a confused and concerned manner. She followed his gaze to a building, then inside the building until she saw something, or rather someone, in particular. She blinked in realization as Petra and Beatrice, who were slightly ahead of them, realized that the duo had stopped and started to come back.

Beatrice was the first to speak when she got close enough, looking up at her contractor concerningly — despite her facial expression looking more annoyed than not, "What are you doing, I wonder?"

Petra stopped herself from asking anything verbally, instead looking at both him and Pandora with a hint of wonderment. She ended up following his gaze, too, before also realizing what he was looking at. Beatrice, ever so small, was the last to figure it out.

Pandora was the first to give Subaru encouragement, "You should go in and talk to him." He finally broke off his gaze, looking at her strangely. "It may help you find some more closure," she continued.

Subaru considered it, his eyes breaking away from her as he thought. He turned his head to Petra, then Beatrice, with them both nodding in separate agreement and support. That allowed him to make his decision.

"Maybe you guys should stay out here for this," he suggested, separating his hand from Pandora's and activating Third Shift.

Pandora understood, "Good luck. We will be right out here if you need us."

Subaru only nodded, turning his back to them, taking a deep breath and, as calmly as possible, walking into the building before him. That left the three girls outside alone, awkwardly standing there with nothing to say or do.

Petra coughed into her hand, "So, uh…" she tried to start a topic, looking over at Pandora in particular as she began, "how did you and Subaru start liking each other, exactly?"

Beatrice perked up, looking at Petra with wide eyes, "N-No, don't get her started on that, I suppose!"

"Why not?" Petra looked down confusedly at Beatrice. "You guys told me the 'bare minimum' of what went down, so I wanna know the details!" she looked back up at Pandora, more giddy and excited. It was like the childish part of her came back out. "So~ tell me! How'd it happen! How'd Subaru turn you into such a lovey-dovey girlfriend!"

Pandora looked at Petra, blinking in surprise as she registered the girl's question. As she came to a conclusion, a teasing smirk graced her face while her eyes tracked to Beatrice. When that happened, Beatrice knew what was coming next.

In absolute despair, the Great Spirit fell to her knees, "NOOOOOO!"

Thus, Pandora opened her mouth and began…

---

When Subaru entered the building, he didn't expect it to be as worn down as it was. That wasn't to say it was in bad management, the place just seemed to be more of an older building. The fact that there were so many patrons meant that the place was in good business, which may have been why renovations weren't being done.

Subaru wasn't too worried about that, however. Instead, he made his way toward the bar, calmly and slowly walking toward one specific man; one that sat alone, a drink in hand.

Before Subaru could continue pressing forward, a hand suddenly grasped his shoulder. When he looked to see who it was, he was met with the sight of a normal, scruffy looking, drunken man. The man looked at him with a strange and drunken expression.

"I'd be careful if I was you," the man spoke, his voice hoarse and cracked. The man didn't speak again for another few seconds, taking the time to get as many burps out as possible. When he finally did talk to Subaru again, he warned, "That feller is real aggressive."

Subaru blinked, realizing that this man must've noticed how focused he was on this particular individual. Subaru made an effort to shift his head back over to the lone man, making it just in time to watch him take another chug of his drink.

Subaru brushed the man's hand off, "I'll take my chances."

As he started to move forward, he heard the man burp a few more times and comment, "It's your funeral." It hardly bothered Subaru, though, as he finally made it to the man in question. He took a seat on one of the stools, his legs positioning themselves under the bar whilst he made himself more comfortable.

Subaru noted that the man took notice of him, his yellow eyes momentarily shifting to glance at him before they landed back on the drink in his hand. He took another chug, emptying his glass before setting it back on the table.

"Do you want anything?" the man asked, his voice low and deep. To Subaru, it was further indication of what the man truly was feeling.

"Just water, if you don't mind," Subaru answered simply.

The answer did cause a reaction, making the man both confused and a little more upset. Despite that, he obliged the request. He called the bartender over and promptly ordered both a water and a new drink for himself.

They were both silent, even as the bartender gave them their drinks. Subaru took a sip of his water, whilst the man beside him wasted no time in gulping down his. Subaru only kept his eyes on his water, fiddling with the glass using his fingers, "So, why is the 'Finest of Knights' here, in a bar, drowning out his sorrows?"

The man laughed, but it was more of a mocking laugh than anything. He set the glass back onto the bar rather roughly, the sound of it slamming onto its surface being rather loud, as he kept his eyes down, "Nobody has called me that for a long, long time."

Subaru's eyes softened, hearing the depressive tone in the man's voice. This was very unlike his old friend, Julius Juukulius. There were bags under his eyes, indicating that he hadn't been sleeping well. His usual neat, gleaming violet hair was an absolute mess as it spiraled in various different directions. It was dirty, as were his clothes, the stubble on his chin and even his skin. He could only wonder what led his old friend into such a state.

"I'm sure it still applies, though," Subaru commented, somewhat pushing Julius' old title back onto him.

He shook his head, "Not anymore."

"Why's that?" Subaru took another sip of his water, eyes shifting to the side while his head remained forward.

Julius stayed silent for a little while, as if contemplating the question and how to answer it. "I failed as a knight. I failed as a sponsor to my lady. And…" he paused, taking in a sad breath, "before all of that, I failed as a friend."

Subaru gave small nods to convey his understanding, despite the two not directly facing one another. He truly did understand what Julius was feeling, since… well, a good portion of those feelings were still running through him right now.

Subaru let himself take one full breath, in and out, before he spoke again, "And how did you do that?"

Julius actually, very slightly, turned his head toward Subaru after that inquiry, "Have you been living under some sort of rock, all these years?"

Subaru tilted his head to the side once before leveling again, nodding a little. It wasn't like the question wasn't directly on-point, but, "More like I was living in a rock, so I've missed a lot."

Despite his blatant confusion, Julius just stared at his hooded form for a while. Then he scoffed, turning his head away with a few shakes. He grabbed his drink, taking the glass to his mouth and taking in a large gulp. When he slammed it back down onto the bar, he said, "How could I have not failed?"

He scoffed again, shaking his head and clenching his hands. Subaru was afraid that he might even break the glass he was holding, but, luckily, he didn't. Julius seemed to calm himself down after a few moments, continuing to stare down at his drink with a narrowed glare.

"My lady… Anastasia-sama, she… she died due to her poor health and I couldn't do anything to help her!" the more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Subaru was willing to bet that he was on the edge of lashing out more physically at any moment.

Though, Subaru understood why. Despite the neutral expression he adopted from under his hood, his posture clearly slumped as the news of Anastasia's fate settled in his mind. Suddenly, a lot of things regarding Julius's current state and condition made a lot more sense.

He and Anastasia were never close, so Subaru couldn't necessarily put his heart out to her as much as Julius could, but he did feel genuinely bad for her. He was sure that she didn't deserve to perish that way, and he knew just how much she meant to Julius. Subaru understood that, without Anastasia around, his old friend probably felt aimless and lost without a purpose.

Subaru could connect with that mindset and line of thinking. He knew that, in the past, if Emilia had ever been permanently killed, he wouldn't have known what to do with himself. He even felt that way when Rem first fell into her 'sleeping beauty' sleep. But, he got up and kept going. He kept telling himself that wallowing in his own failure would be the opposite of what Rem would have wanted from him. It helped motivate him.

Subaru took another sip of water, not going unnoticed by Julius. The former knight glanced at him again, "Are you going to say anything? Aren't you going to say 'sorry for your loss'?"

It was then he realized that he hadn't said anything in a while. But, even so, Subaru took his time to consider what words to use. By the comment Julius made, saying that line was out of the question. He had no doubt that many, many people have said that to him in the past.

Well, he wasn't here to pity the former knight too much, anyway. Subaru set his glass back down onto the table, keeping his eyes settled on it without a single falter, "Is this what she'd want you to do?"

That question seemed to make Julius falter, though. It caught him off guard, which was what Subaru wanted. By the way things seemed, Julius hadn't had that line said to him before. The former knight eyed him in a way Subaru couldn't identify, "Excuse me, but what are you talking about?"

"You heard me," Subaru said. He remained assertive, feeling as though it was the wisest choice in order to get his point across. "Would she, Anastasia-sama, want you to come here and drink every day instead of actually doing something with your life?"

In an instant, with a very sudden show of aggression, Julius pivoted himself in his seat and grabbed Subaru by his collar. He reeled his other arm back, enclosed into a fist preparing to deliver a blow directly to Subaru's face. The action drew a few eyes, but neither of them paid the sudden onlookers any mind.

The two were now face-to-face, with Subaru now able to see Julius' full expression. Subaru remained unflinching, simply looking at Julius with a neutral, yet pitiful, gaze from under his hood. He genuinely felt bad for Julius and seeing how broken, sad and genuinely destroyed he seemed in this moment actually hurt Subaru.

"Don't-" he stuttered, his voice agitated and shaky, mimicking his fist. "Don't act like you knew her."

"But you did."

The unhesitating statement surprised Julius, making him falter again. His eyes traced the hooded Subaru uncertainly, his voice still shaking as he tried to form words, "W-What did you just say?"

"I said: you did," Subaru repeated, unwavering in his stance. He kept going, "You were her knight, her sponsor, her closest confidant. If anyone knew her, still knows her, it's you."

Julius's head tilted away, his eyes moving off of him and toward the ground while his hand slowly let go of Subaru's collar. When his grip released, Subaru only bothered to quickly readjust his robe before turning back to his glass of water.

Julius took a few moments to himself, fully taking in Subaru's words as he slowly turned himself back toward his own glass. They were both silent, with Subaru taking another sip of his water as he simply waited.

Julius looked down, his fingers meshed together as he contemplated everything in his life up until this very point. Subaru took another sip of his water, watching from the corner of his eye while Julius used one hand to slowly push his glass away.

"Have you come to a consensus?" Subaru inquired, his tone a bit high as he watched Julius' hand retract.

Julius didn't do anything for a few seconds, but shook his head in uncertainty. "No, I haven't," he confessed, his head still hung down low. "Even if… Even if she wouldn't want me doing this, how does this change anything?"

Subaru turned his head a little to the side, getting a better look at Julius' form. His expression was more downcast than not and, while he previously pushed his drink away, his eyes still looked at the glass before him with a sense of longing.

Julius continued after a moment of pause, "I still failed as a friend and a knight…" he trailed off, his voice lined with immense guilt as he recalled memories of the past. "I was supposed to protect them, my lady and my friend… yet I allowed them both to die."

Oh, no. Everyone thought that he was dead. Subaru felt a plethora of different things, his face failing to remain indifferent. He suddenly felt even guiltier, realizing that people didn't just mourn his loss but his supposed death, as well.

He looked at Julius with a new form of contemplation. He initially hadn't wanted to reveal himself to his old friend, selfishly not wanting to hear the same questions he'd gotten from Petra all over again. But, now, after realizing just how bad things were, he had a sudden change of mind.

Subaru's gaze softened, his hand reaching behind his head and grabbing hold of the hood. He didn't pull it down right away, mainly out of hesitation, but he took a deep breath, remembering everyone and what they've all been going through, and finally unveiled his face.

Julius saw the action out of the corner of his eye, turning his head to get a better look. What he saw made him instinctively reel back, feeling as though a ghost had just appeared in front of him. The former Finest Knight's breath hitched, becoming more rapid, as he looked at Subaru's face in bewilderment and confusion.

"Hey, Julius. It's been a-"

In a reaction he didn't expect, Julius lunged forward and essentially tackled him to the bar. Subaru's head hit the surface of it, the hood, which lay loose behind his head, cushioning most of the impact. Julius' eyes looked at him in a way that promised certain death, prompting Subaru to gulp in sudden fear.

"How dare you use his face, imposter!" he yelled, clearly hostile and ready to kill him without an ounce of hesitation. The outburst drew people's eyes again, but luckily Julius was blocking his face so that others couldn't clearly see it.

Subaru tried his best to think and respond fast, "It's… It's really me, Julius!"

His eyes narrowed, unwilling to believe him. But, as luck would have it, Julius said, "I will humor you, imposter. If you tell me one thing that only the real Subaru knows, I will 'believe' you."

One thing? That was almost too easy.

Subaru opened his mouth quickly, "I… I embarrassed myself at the… Royal Selection, calling myself Emilia's knight in front of everyone!"

Julius' eyes widened, his grip on Subaru loosening ever so slightly. Though, he kept going:

"After that we took on the White Whale and Sloth. We defeated him together, he tried to possess me. I hated you at the time because I was jealous of-"

"E-Enough, enough…" he stumbled back, completely letting go of Subaru in an instant.

Subaru quickly flipped his hood back on, covering his face so that none of the other patrons could see. Julius could only stand there, totally shell shocked; Subaru even had to help him sit down.

When Julius' butt finally hit his seat, he gave Subaru an incredulous look, "I- I don't understand… How are you here? I thought that you-"

"Died? Yeah, I've realized that everyone seems to think that these days," Subaru interrupted with a sigh. He could see Julius starting to open his mouth to ask another question, but, before he could, Subaru interjected again, "Before you even ask, I was never dead in the first place. I was stuck in that seal we found, all that time ago."

Julius seemed to process that information, faltering with an agape mouth, "That was not what Reinhard said when he came back."

"There must've been a miscommunication somewhere…" Subaru pondered to himself, remembering what Petra had said earlier. If she was the one that spoke with Reinhard, then chances are she said something similar to, "He's gone," and Reinhard took that as, "He's dead."

Julius could only nod, still in absolute disbelief at what was happening. Despite that, the man still found his words, "I'm so, so sorry."

Subaru looked at him questioningly, wondering why the former Finest Knight would make such an absurd statement, "For what?"

"For failing. I… I let you get taken by that… that… Witch," he seethed, clearly angry at both himself and Pandora.

He wisely decided not to address the last part of Julius' statement, instead putting his focus on making sure that Julius knew one fact, "Dude, it wasn't your fault. Not even close."

As Subaru shook his head, denying such an accusation, Julius' eyes looked at him in a pleading manner, "How?! How is it not my fault, that we- I couldn't prevent you from befalling the fate bestowed upon you!"

Subaru only smiled, knowing the answer to that in an instant, "Think about it for a moment, man," he started, confident in his words. "You were up against a literal reality warping Witch, someone that took the Sword Saint and effortlessly put him somewhere else. In a direct confrontation, it would've been a lot worse. I can't, or never would, expect you to lay down your life for mine, especially when up against something like that."

It was true. If Julius and the others tried to fight the old Pandora directly, they likely would've died. They were all immensely lucky to have been discarded the way they were, since Pandora, at the time, was only focused on him and didn't want to unnecessarily fight anyone. Otherwise he had no doubt that Pandora would've killed them all, besides Reinhard.

Julius looked at him with a narrowed, half-hearted glare, "That's hypocritical of you." Subaru was shocked to hear that. It was the first time someone actually verbally called him out on this so directly. "You say that we shouldn't lay down our lives for you, yet you sacrifice yourself for us. As a friend, I don't think that is fair."

Subaru understood Julius' words, thinking to himself before saying, "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if one of my friends died, especially when I could've done something about it."

"That is exactly how we felt," Julius told him in a low, saddened voice. Subaru didn't know what to say. The contexts of their statements were entirely different, yet the feelings they carried remained the same.

He shook his head, choosing to insist his point, "There was nothing you could've done."

Julius stayed quiet for a bit, thinking to himself. Then, reluctantly, he gave a single nod, "Maybe you're right. But I could've at least tried…"

It was then that Subaru realized the topic had shifted. No longer was this about his situation, but more of a personal one to Julius himself. Subaru's eyes stayed on him, putting a hand on his shoulder to help encourage him, "Remember what I told you before."

Julius looked back into Subaru's eyes, or at least where he thought they generally were. He silently thought about it, his gaze peering away once he remembered. He muttered, "It's not what she would want." He took in a deep breath through his nose, preparing to continue, "She wouldn't want me to be depressed, but to continue doing the best I can."

Subaru nodded, "That's right." He leant his head forward in an attempt to emphasize his next point a little more, "You didn't fail anyone, you got that man? Not me, not her, not your knighthood… nobody, nothing. You did the best you could and that's what counts, alright?"

Subaru's hand left Julius' shoulder, his posture leaning back as he gave his old friend some extra space. It seemed as though his words really did affect him, as the former Finest Knight's expression continuously shifted based on his constantly changing emotions.

He was silent for a while, his eyes looking anywhere but at Subaru as he thought about something privately. Then, suddenly, he lunged forward again… but this time, his arms enveloped around Subaru in a genuine hug.

"I am truly glad that you are back, my friend," he uttered, almost in a whisper. Subaru was mentally taken aback at the statement, but, as one would have it, a small smile made its way onto his face while a single arm reciprocated the embrace.

"It's good to be back," he muttered back, sincerely happy at the development.

They stayed like that for only a few more seconds, separating not too long after to face one another more directly. Julius looked at him, his eyes telling Subaru everything that was on his mind, "I… I still can't believe that you're really in front of me, right now. I have so many questions," he muttered, his voice shaky and still massively uncertain.

Subaru nodded, "I know."

"I assume you wear the hood for a reason?" Julius inquired.

"I'd rather not expose my identity to everyone, especially since there seems to be literal statues of me around everywhere."

Julius only nodded, averting his gaze. He must've thought, or realized, that it was a stupid question to ask. Subaru mentally sighed, thinking to himself on what to do next. He didn't want to leave Julius here to fend for himself, especially after what just happened, but there were also things that he still needed to do.

Subaru continued to think, wondering what he could do next. They were all supposed to go see Louise later when her shift ends, but that would likely take a while. He was sure that Pandora probably wouldn't mind staying a few days in the Capital, but Beatrice… yeah, she would probably want to leave as soon as possible.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He looked at Julius thoughtfully, "Hey, Julius. Is it possible for you to do something for me?"

Julius immediately perked up, "Y-Yes, of course. What is it you need?"

Subaru fiddled with the sleeve of his robe nervously, "I know that this might be an impossible thing to ask, but is it possible for you to get us an audience with Queen Felt?"

Julius could really only blink.

---

"…we shared our connection with the stars. This is actually one of the most important subjects for us, due to our mutual connection and interest. In fact, we both decided that we would name our kids with this in mind."

Beatrice groaned as Pandora droned on and on about her relationship with Subaru. Quite frankly, it was something she had no interest in learning about. Petra, however, seemed completely enthralled in the stories being told, sitting, quite literally, on the edge of her seat as Pandora spoke of their mutual interests.

"Woah, really? What names did you guys decide on?"

Pandora smiled, genuinely quite happy that someone supported them so much, and so openly too, "We decided on a plethora of names, though we have not actually decided on which order to apply them. Would you like to hear some?"

"Yes, please!"

"Very well. Luna, Sol, Star, Sun, Moon, Aurora and Kainat."

"Woah. Those are pretty good," Petra complimented. "Don't some of those mean the same thing, though?"

"I do not see that as a problem," Pandora closed her eyes, stating it as a fact. "Perhaps their similar meanings would help them connect, in the future."

Petra nodded vigorously, "I get it, I get it!" She put a finger to her chin, "Do you have any more?"

Pandora gave one nod, "I do. We have Naoko and Kenichi, to honor Baru's parents. Apart from those, I believe it would be best to keep them to myself for now."

Petra seemed a little downcast at the statement, beginning to audibly whine, "Aww…"

It was then that the door opened, out coming Subaru with Julius following close behind him. Beatrice looked up from her spot, having been in the fetal position hugging her knees, her face seemingly starting to brighten into a glow as she saw Subaru.

"Thank you, I suppose!" she exclaimed happily, jumping up and running over to give Subaru, her savior, a hug out of pure thankfulness.

Despite his confusion, he used one arm to pat her head. He looked down at her, an eyebrow raised, "You're welcome? What was going on, here?"

Beatrice looked up at him, her only visible eye being wide and pleading, "So many stories… I suppose."

That didn't really help satiate Subaru's curiosity, so he looked at the other two girls for answers. Surprisingly, they were sitting across from one another with rather happy smiles on their faces. Subaru concluded that they must've been having a nice conversation.

"I'm glad you two have been getting along," he commented, truly happy to know that they were actually connecting with one another. A part of him feared that they'd be hostile with each other the whole time, but it seemed as though Petra was completely willing to trust him and Pandora; she even went as far as to start opening up to the former Witch, it seemed.

Petra smiled, "It's been a pleasure!" She stood up in a flash, ready to keep moving, until her eyes landed on the rather scruffy looking Julius. He still stood next to Subaru, rather awkwardly at that, not quite sure of what to do with himself, "So, what's he doing here?"

Subaru followed her gaze, his eyes also landing on Julius, "Ah, right. I don't think you guys have actually met before." He moved himself between them, gesturing to Julius first, "Petra, this is Julius. He's a friend of mine." He then gestures to Petra, "Julius, this is Petra. She's one of the best people I know."

Julius put a hand over his heart and gave a small bow, doing his best to give a professional greeting, "It is very nice to meet you, Petra-san."

She nodded, very upbeat and informal compared to Julius, "Same for you, Julius-san!"

Julius uprighted himself, looking around at everyone else in the group. "Great Spirit Beatrice," he recognized her, doing another short bow in yet another polite greeting. Then, his eyes shifted to the last member of their little ground, "My apologies, but I don't seem to recognize you. What might be your name?"

Luckily, Subaru thought of an alibi, "This is… Panda! Yeah, uh… she's a demi-human and a bit shy, so we gave her an extra robe to help her a little bit in public."

While his delivery could've used some work, it seemed as though Julius bought it. The former Finest Knight smiled, doing yet another short bow, "I understand. I do hope that we can get along, even if you do not wish to directly speak to me."

Pandora only gave one, slow nod in response. Her outer demeanor changed, doing a complete flip, as she became a little more fidgety and reluctant. To Subaru, it seemed as though she began doing her best to fill the role that had been forced upon her.

When he looked at Beatrice, she had a palm to her face. Then when he looked at Petra, she seemed both baffled and amused. It confused Subaru, unsure as to why they'd both have such a-

…Oh, now he realized it. It was the name, wasn't it? After thinking about it, 'Panda' was probably one of the worst names he could've used. It sounded too similar to 'Pandora' on its own. How Julius didn't realize was the baffling part. Maybe it was because he'd had a little too much to drink. Well, it didn't really matter; as long as he didn't figure it out, then everything was fine.

Petra buried her amusement, looking at Subaru expectantly, "You still didn't answer my question."

Question? What quest- oh, "Ah, right," he cleared his throat, "Julius here agreed to help us talk to Felt."

Petra's eyes almost exploded out of their sockets, "T-T-The Q-Queen?!"

Subaru couldn't help but smile at the overreaction; as expected of Petra. "I almost forgot that you don't actually know too much about her," he chuckled to himself, somewhat amused at his own forgetfulness. "Felt's an old friend. I'm sure she'll be pretty happy to see me and know that I'm actually okay."

Beatrice shook her head, "If by happy you mean that she will erupt into a fit of tears, hug your waist and ask if you're real, then you'd be correct, I suppose."

Subaru blinked funnily at his contracted spirit. She probably wasn't wrong, but it was a little funny to think about how easily she said that. Petra finally stopped shaking in her own shock, refocusing on the conversation just as Julius decided to speak up.

"I do believe that they will let us in if I request an audience," he simply clarified.

Petra looked at Subaru, a little confused, tilting her head as she questioned him, "Weren't we going to see Louise today?"

Subaru looked at her, a small essence of guilt rising within his chest. He really, really wanted to see Louise, but he had an opportunity to do what they needed to do, as well. As much as he wanted to see his surrogate daughter again, he also needed to focus on the overarching goal.

"I was thinking that we could actually do that tomorrow," he started nervously, beginning to explain his revised plan. "We can meet up in the morning sometime, before you both go to work, and I can see her then. If that's okay with you, of course."

His nerves steadily dissipated right when he saw the girl visibly light up, smiling excitedly at him, "That's perfect! I know she's probably really tired from work today, so that'll give her plenty of time to rest! I'll make sure she's ready tomorrow morning, and I'll keep you being here a surprise!"

Beatrice looked at Petra weirdly, "You speak as if you are leaving right now, in fact. Are you not coming with us to the palace, I wonder?"

Petra calmed down, smiling down at Beatrice, "Nah, I don't think I'm really suited for that." She gazed up into the sky, almost dreamily, "Though, it would be so cool to be in the Royal Palace and meet the Queen."

Beatrice looked a little dejected at the statement, which did not go unnoticed by Subaru. He silently began pondering the possible reasons for his contracted spirit to act this way. It didn't take him too long to figure it out, though.

It was obvious that Beatrice missed Petra. Whether the Great Spirit wanted to admit it or not, her emotions were true and absolute. Subaru had no doubt that she just wanted to spend more time with her old friend, having not seen her for over a decade.

Oh, how Subaru could remember when Beatrice and Petra got along back then… It was nice seeing them like that. He'd be happy for them to reconnect with one another.

"You know, Beako, you can go with her if you want," he suddenly suggested, prompting her to immediately pick her head up and look at him as if he'd gone mad.

"W-What, I suppose?" she stuttered, surprised to have heard him say such a thing. Her eyes quickly shifted to Pandora, then back to him, "Are you sure that you will be okay without Betty, I wonder?"

He smiled down at her, giving her head a nice pat to help encourage her, "We'll be fine, I promise. Go spend some time with Petra."

Beatrice's only visible eye lit up, very happy at the notion and encouragement. Petra looked at Beatrice, a smile still on her face. "Are you sure you want to come with me, Beatrice? You don't have to," Petra asked, her tone a bit low at the possibility of Beatrice not wanting to join her.

Beatrice quickly snapped her head back toward her, "Betty will come, I suppose!" She then ran to Petra's side, very happy to have the opportunity to spend time with her old friend again. Although she was worried about Subaru, she trusted him… and, reluctantly, Pandora too. She would see them in the morning, anyway, and she was confident that they'd be able to handle anything that might attempt to harm them.

Petra chuckled, both happy with the outcome and amused by the Great Spirit's antics. "Alright then," she started, looking at Subaru as she began to make her way over to him. She opened her arms out, gesturing him in for a hug, "I'll see you in the morning?"

Subaru gladly embraced her, the two hugging one another for an extendedly long moment. He smiled, responding, "See you tomorrow." They separated, the two giving one last look at one another. Subaru commented, "You know, I don't think I can get used to you being older than me… and the same height as me."

Petra blinked, then laughed. She looked at him funnily, "Technically, you're centuries older than I am! But, still," she leaned in a little closer, lowering her voice to a quiet whisper as she smugly retorted, "it's funny that you say that, considering your girlfriend is about four-hundred years older than you."

Subaru stared ahead of him as she backed away, his face subtly reddening at the sudden realization, which subsequently made her laugh. After that, Petra had actually given Pandora a quick, one-sided hug that caught the former Witch off-guard. Even though she hadn't hugged back, Pandora felt sincerely flattered by the action.

Petra and Beatrice waved goodbye, joining hands and making their own way back to where Petra lived. She'd given them a meeting place and time before she left, ensuring that everyone knew where to go and when to go there. Even if Subaru or Pandora somehow forgot, he was sure that he'd be able to find them through First Shift anyway.

Julius coughed into his fist, having awkwardly stood there for the entirety of their interactions, and promptly asked the duo if they were ready to go. Without anything delaying them, Subaru agreed and Julius began showing them the way.

The walk there was as quiet as it could've been. Nobody talked or made any sudden, odd noises. Subaru had flipped up his hood and kept Third Shift active the entire time, not wanting to tip Julius off to their relationship.

In a way, he and Pandora's lack of contact upset him and, through Third Shift, he knew it upset her too. Despite their usual issue not being a problem, they both seemed to feel a sense of longing for the other.

It wasn't too terribly long before they reached the palace, the guards immediately stopping them outside before they could proceed inside. Even though it was annoying, it was just their job. One of the guards looked at them, his eyes narrowed critically while he professionally inquired, "State your business."

Julius did his usual polite, formal bow in greeting, "My name is Julius Juukulius; these are my associates," he gave a simple gesture back to the duo behind him. "I am here to speak with the Queen about an urgent matter, one regarding a proposal I was once offered."

The guard's eyes widened, surprised, "You're Julius Juukulius? I heard that you didn't want to return to this job because of-"

"With all due respect, I really need to meet with the Queen immediately. It is a matter of utmost importance," Julius interjected, uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading. Subaru's expression fell, feeling bad for his friend.

The guard seemed to falter, but regained his professional expression fairly quickly, "I'm sorry, sir, I cannot let you in without a signed pass from allied nobility."

Julius rolled his eyes, grunting and groaning quietly to himself in frustration as he began digging into his left pocket. Subaru could only wonder what he was looking for until the old knight pulled out a very torn, crumpled piece of paper. He held it with both hands, taking his time to unfold and straighten it as best as possible.

Once it was eligible, he showed it to the guard in a way that blatantly displayed his annoyance, "This is my pass. As you can see, it is signed by the Queen herself. Now, could you kindly let us pass?"

The guard stiffened as soon as he saw the signature on the paper, stepping aside with vigorous haste and gesturing to the entrance, "Welcome, sir. Of course, you may come in." Julius sighed as he stuffed the paper back into his pocket, taking a step forward immediately after doing so with Subaru and Pandora trailing closely behind.

They silently strode into the palace, asking a few guards here and there for directions on where to go, which eventually led them to one of the Queen's private meeting rooms. Inside, the three sat together quietly and alone.

Pandora sat next to Subaru, sneakily taking advantage of the privacy to hold his hand without anyone noticing. They both enjoyed that. Julius sat across from them on his own seat, minding his own business with crossed arms as he rather impatiently awaited the Queen's arrival.

Just as it felt like they were waiting uncomfortably too long, a yell broke through the silent atmosphere, "I said leave me alone, you asshole! I said it's fine, so just leave it!"

"I-I'm sorry, Felt-sama, but you must look your best for your meeting-"

The door to the room opened, everyone's heads turning toward it. The figure that stood halfway in the doorway wore a surprisingly casual outfit: a black top, dark blue pants and rather fancy shoes that paired oddly with the choice of clothing. Her hair was nicely put together as well, short and neatly brushed sporting a black decorative bow at its top right.

"I don't care what it looks like, just leave it alone! I'm perfectly comfortable in what I'm wearing, thank you!" After that, she backed fully into the room and slammed the door. Once the echo of the door slamming settled, her figure slumped against the door, her forehead pressing against it as she groaned in annoyance.

The onlookers could only stare at the girl in pity, patiently waiting for her to compose herself before even trying to say anything. The girl turned around, still slumped against the doorframe, sighing. Subaru could clearly see her red eyes from where he sat; from a single glance he noticed the bags underneath them, indicating just how tired she really was.

"Geez… why can't they ever learn to just leave me be," she muttered under her breath, leaning her head forward and roughly rubbing her eyes with both of her hands. Everyone in the room couldn't help but pity her. Soon enough, she stood up straight with another sigh and began making her way over to them.

The closer she got, the more Subaru noticed that she was a lot taller. Well he supposed that came with getting older, but she seemed to be about his height or even slightly taller than him — it was very close to Petra's current height.

She looked at Julius in particular with almost feigned keen interest, wasting no time in forming a rather witty remark, "So, Julius, it seems as though you finally came back. I didn't think you'd actually keep my little note with you at all times; maybe you really wanted to come back, all along? Hmm~?"

Julius just gazed down a little, obviously very tired and just wanting to get the event over with. He sighed, "Felt-sama, I-"

She interrupted him with a loud groan, slumping her posture back in a show of displeasure. She used a hand to visually wave off his statement, "Drop the 'sama', it's annoying."

Julius deadpanned at her, "But that is incredibly unladylike and unprofessional."

Felt rolled her eyes, "I don't care. Reinhard's not here to boss me around with that kinda stuff right now, so just drop it." Subaru also swore he heard her mutter, "It's not like he could anyway, I'm his Queen now."

Julius sighed again, "Felt, I am here on urgent business. To confess, this is not just about my return to knighthood."

"Oh~?" she sang, flopping herself onto one of the chairs and leaning herself against the table in front of her with a half-feigned expression of interest. "Color me intrigued. So, what're you here for then?"

Subaru supposed that it was his time to shine. He shifted himself a little to the side, reaching his free hand behind his head and grabbing hold of the hood. Felt noticed the sudden action from the corner of her eye, her head turning his way with new, seemingly genuine, interest.

He took in a small breath in through his nose, his body slightly stiffening as he readied himself for Felt's reaction. The hand grasping his hood flew back in an instant, taking the clothing down with it, revealing his face for the room to bear witness.

Felt's reaction was unusually delayed. It was as though everything about her just froze; her expression, her inner thoughts and emotions… everything just seemed to come to a halt. When she finally blinked, her expression still hadn't changed. It was a bit unsettling, to say the least.

Her head slowly tilted to its side, similarly turning toward Julius. Her lips finally parted, "Julius… you should know that it's not nice to bring illusionists in here."

Julius flinched at the coldness of her tone, "Felt-sa… Felt, please, this is not a-"

"Julius," she interrupted, her voice sharp yet eerily calm, making him reel back. He unknowingly began to sweat as she raised an arm, gesturing to Subaru's form, "Are you telling me that this is a hallucination, then?"

Nervously, he shook his head to deny that statement, "No- No! That is not what I was implying at all. This is-"

He was interrupted by a rather unsettling laugh, "Oh, good…" Another unsettling laugh echoed through the room. "I thought I was seeing things again."

It was then that Julius officially came to a loss for words. Subaru, who'd been uneasily watching the entire interaction, began to feel immensely bad for Felt. It was similar to what Petra had said, regarding seeing things and having hallucinations… which made everything hit just a little harder.

Subaru shared a glance with Pandora for a moment, conveying a silent message to one another. They realized that the situation was becoming intense, for varying reasons, and knew that something needed to be done.

Subaru wanted to say something, but would that really be the wisest thing to do? If he said something, what would it be? He couldn't say just anything, due to Felt's currently unusual, perhaps mangled, mindset, so he'd have to choose his words very meticulously.

He gulped, slightly nervous, his lips parting in preparation to speak, "Uhm- Now I know that-"

He has no time to even begin, his eyes suddenly seeing a mess of blurs before everything began to settle. Gusts of winds shot past everyone, shaking some of the objects within the room with intense force. Julius leant forward, late to react, but shocked at the sight.

Subaru remained frozen in place, his eyes refocusing and beginning to adjust to his surroundings again. They ended up crossing, looking down toward his nose and directly at the point of a sharp, shaking dagger. It's appearance, though sudden, was blatantly apparent. It was a bit bigger than Petra's own dagger in size, much fancier and made better overall. Shockingly, the hand that held it belonged to the current Queen of Lugnica.

That wasn't all. A part of him wasn't even surprised when he saw Pandora, sitting up from her seat, leaning forward and holding Felt's wrist with a firm, hard grasp. Felt's arm shook in her hold, desperately attempting to move forward yet to no avail. She was locked in Pandora's tight, unwavering hold.

Pandora moved her arm, turning it away from her, toward the side, and subsequently bringing Felt's wrist back with it. Felt repeatedly tried to break free from Pandora's hold, but it just wouldn't budge. Her wrist was bent back into an uncomfortable, then soon enough painful, position. Instinctively, her grip on the dagger loosened on its own, a relatively loud clang echoing throughout the room once it finally hit the ground.

Pandora's grip on Felt's wrist loosened only then, suddenly moving itself to her chest and pushing the Queen back. Her butt hit the chair, a bit stunned and baffled as to what had just happened.

It wasn't long before her mind cleared again though, reacting almost immediately and trying to lunge forward in an attempt to attack once again. However, Julius was fortunately able to react in time; he wrapped his arms around her, retraining her in a form, yet gentle, hold.

"Felt-sama, I implore you to listen," Julius tried to reason, doing his best to keep his hold on Felt within his arms.

She struggled like her life depended on it, actively wiggling and thrashing very violently as she tried to escape. Her intentions were more than clear, with hostility radiating off of her in every form and manner possible, "Let me kill him! I'll execute you all! I'll execute all of you, I fucking swear it!"

Subaru shook himself out of his trace after hearing those words. This was bad; really bad. He needed to do something, but his mind was buzzing with all of the commotion and trying to figure it out. He only stared and watched as Julius and Felt struggled with one another for a while, unable to properly decide on what to say or do.

As his eyes moved to Julius, staring at him for a long moment, he finally realized what he could do. He'd convinced Julius by sharing private knowledge, why couldn't he do the same here?!

He had the perfect event to use. Quickly, he opened his mouth, "Felt! Remember the loot house? Uh… you stole that insignia and I tried to trade my phone for it, but we all had to fight Elsa because she tried to kill us! Then-"

He was interrupted by Felt's incoherent grumbles. Upon getting another look at her, his words didn't seem to help. Instead, it seemed as though they made her even angrier, "Don't you dare try using that against me! I was the one that revealed that incident to the public, I'm not stupid!"

What…? Subaru reeled back, a little shocked at the reveal. Upon thinking about it, he recalled that the incident was listed on the statue. How could be so stupid…

Would he have to get more personal? What was even more personal that he could even try saying?

After a bit more intense thinking, he finally had it. It was embarrassing, and Pandora probably wouldn't like it, but it seemed as though it was the only thing he had left to say. He glanced at Pandora, seeing as she stood by his side; the former Witch was ready to act if the situation presented it.

He took a deep breath, preparing himself, "Okay, how about this… You always teased me for being obvious with Emilia. Look, I admit, I was crushing back then, okay? I basically had hearts in my eyes when I saw her and you knew it! You also called us 'Big Bro' and 'Big Sis', because of what happened at the Loot House, and secretly wanted us to get together!"

With every word he spoke after the first sentence, her tantrum finally began to steadily settle. She began to relax, her yells lessening whilst her body slumped in her seat. Julius slowly let go of her, seeing her sudden change in behavior, but still stayed close in case of an emergency.

As Felt essentially collapsed against her chair, she blankly stared ahead with an indifferent seeming expression. It stayed that way for many, many minutes while everyone else in the room anxiously awaited her next move. "Is it really you…?" her mouth hardly moved, her voice coming across as more of soft whisper than not. "I don't… I can't-" her words stopped, her head giving one small shake, "I can't believe that you're real."

Subaru could see how visibly broken she really was. He wasn't sure about how his absence could've affected Felt as severely as it did, but he knew that she needed his help; he needed to help her.

He activated Third Shift, slowly lifting a leg and taking a single step closer to her. It was followed by another, then another after that, until he finally reached her. He knelt down in front of her, his face doing its best to form a friendly, encouraging smile.

Her eyes followed him, one of his arms reaching out to her, gently gracing her own with a careful touch. She felt it right away, reveling in that feeling. Her lips parted as she questioned in a low, quiet voice, "Big Bro…?"

He kept his smile; it even widened a little. His head nodded twice in confirmation, after a moment, "Hey, little sis. It's me; I'm here."

Her expression hadn't changed, but, the next time she blinked, her eyes softened as tears formed in their corners. She sniffled, Subaru clearly seeing how much she was trying to hold back her emotions.

Subaru was the one to actually make a move, since Felt was being characteristically stubborn. He leant forward, both of his arms extended out as they gently wrapped around her in an embrace. She was stiff at the interaction, internally debating on what to do.

He could feel when her arms started to shakily lift themselves up, the internal struggle preventing them from fully acting on their own. Subaru just kept his arms around her, unwavering in his mindset, "It's okay, I'm here. I'm really here and I'm not gonna be leaving again, I promise."

That's when the dam broke, at last. Felt heard his voice; Those kind, touching words that she'd missed hearing all that time ago. Her arms flew around him in a tight embrace, her face digging itself into his chest as she cried. Subaru just kept hugging her, rubbing her back just as he had done for Petra.

Felt and Petra's reactions were definitely very similar, but he didn't know if that made things easier or harder to handle. As Felt cried into his chest, she desperately spoke in a low voice, saying things like: "Why did you leave us," "Where were you all this time?" and, "I missed you."

He didn't answer any of them, instead choosing to keep comforting her as best he could. Julius watched intently, but smiled to himself at the sight. To him, it was simply extraordinary. His friend always did have a way with people.

Pandora also watched from behind, her expression under the hood being that of wondering and contemplation. Her head tilted at the sight, studying each of their actions and behaviors with analytical precision. At some point, her lips curved up into a small smile and a lone hand slowly made its way over to her stomach, gently resting overtop it.

Felt, being an overall more stubborn and less emotional individual, was able to compose herself rather quickly, at least compared to how long Subaru expected it to take. Only minutes had passed, but it surely felt a lot longer to everyone in the room.

The two broke their embrace soon after, Felt raising an arm to her eyes and quickly wiping the tears away. She still sniffled, but she was able to look at Subaru clearly now. She saw his smile… his stupidly ridiculous, overly friendly smile that had no place being there.

SMACK!

Subaru reeled his head to the side, having been slapped clean on the cheek by Felt. Pandora and Julius had immediately inched forward as a result of an instinctive reaction, but, seeing as though there were no true hostile intentions, they stayed back.

Subaru snapped his head back to Felt, his expression gaping in surprise, "What was that for?!"

"I'm mad at you!" she retorted, her arms crossing as she turned her head away in a pout. "You deserved it."

He only sighed, "I'm really sorry."

"You better be," was her reply.

"I'm not going to disappear again," he insisted.

"You better not," he sighed again at her answer, knowing full well how stubborn she was.

She was being a pain in the butt, like usual, but he knew that it was all for understandable reasons this time. He stayed silent, letting her cool off a bit. Eventually, his waiting resulted in the Queen uncrossing her arms and looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Do you have any idea what we've all been through, you idiot?"

"If those statues around the Capital were any indication, then yes, I do," he wittily responded, doing his best to act as though the comment she made hadn't actually hurt him.

She averted her gaze, cheeks slightly reddening. She embarrassingly scratched a cheek with one of her hands, "Oh… you saw those?"

At her reaction, he let a small smile reappear on his face, "How could I not? They're all over the place. I didn't know I meant so much to everyone…"

She narrowed her eyes, refocusing on him due to his little comment, "Of course you do, dumbass."

"Inciting that we don't care about you is foolish, my friend," Julius said, even looking a bit dejected.

Subaru was, at first, surprised to hear their words. He didn't have time to think about it for long, though, as he saw Felt lower her head. She looked at her legs, bent up underneath her as she uttered out, "I'm glad you're back, Big Bro."

He gaped at her a little, eyes blinking in slight shock, but soon smiling in return, "It's good to be back."

Her head turned to the side, her eyes falling on the outlier of the group. Despite her current state of mind, her curiosity compelled her to ask, "Who's the chick, bro?"

The Queen's question didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone in the room. After Pandora supernaturally caught Felt's wrist mid-attack, they all knew the question would come soon after.

Julius spoke up to answer, "This dame goes by the name 'Panda'. She is a demi-human that wears the robe to help with her shyness in public."

Subaru expected Felt to be a little suspicious, or, at the very least, ask questions, but, instead, she just looked more sad than anything. Whether it was from a bad memory or not he wasn't sure, but, either way, his heart went out to her.

She just looked at Pandora, her lips slowly and awkwardly moving to speak, "Oh… well, nice to meet you, I guess."

Pandora didn't verbally respond, instead opting to give a simple, single nod. Subaru understood it as, "Likewise."

Felt looked back up to him, shaking her head to take herself out of whatever thoughts she'd stumbled into. He could see that, despite how she tried to make it look, she was nervous about what she wanted to say.

In spite of that, she gathered the will to talk anyway, "It's late so… do you… want to stay and have dinner?"

Subaru looked at her strangely, silently realizing that it was, indeed, likely very late. He already had one of Beatrice's remedies that morning, which essentially eliminated the need to eat until the next morning, but he supposed that he could oblige Felt's request. He didn't want to let her down, or upset her, and he was, quite frankly, more than happy to spend more time with her.

He smiled, "I'd be happy to."

---

Everyone soon gathered downstairs in one of Felt's small, more private, dining areas. It wasn't as big, or as fancy, as the usual table, but it certainly provided them with much more privacy.

Subaru and Pandora sat next to one another, but kept Third Shift continuously active. They didn't want to reveal anything to either Felt or Julius, or lead them to suspect anything in general. The duo had realized that, if they figured things out, the result would not be very good for anyone involved. It would be an awkward eating session because of Third Shift, but they'd been through worse with it… so that didn't bother them.

Julius sat across from them on the other side of the table, with Felt beside them all at the head. They'd waited for a good while for the food to be ready, sitting in awkward silence for the duration.

The staff came in and quickly served them their food before leaving the group to their business. The food wasn't anything extravagant, not even being too much in terms of quantity, but it definitely looked appetizing.

Silently, they each took their servings and ate on their own. Pandora in particular ate with both grace — by using proper etiquette — and minor sloppiness. Her way of eating was reserved, but at the same time she liked to wolf down her food in a hurry.

It actually surprised Subaru for a moment. The more he thought about it, he realized that he'd never actually seen her eat anything before. Ever since their release, they'd only ever drank Beatrice's special remedy; the more he thought about that, the more he realized that her way of eating and drinking were actually similar. Neat, reserved, yet hurriedly sloppy.

Well, he was always happy to learn more about her.

He slowly ate his own food, quickly coming to terms with how divine the taste was. It must've been because he hadn't eaten for so long. He made sure to savor every bite.

As he did this, he looked up to the others at the table. They seemed to only be keeping to themselves, awkwardly eating as if each every one of them existed in their own private little bubble; thus, everyone was afraid of popping said bubbles.

Felt took a bite of her food, dejectedly looking down at her plate as she did her best to gather whatever courage she could muster. Her hands rested on the table, her eyes softening, as she voiced, "A lot of things changed, since you left."

Subaru looked over at her, a similar expression present on his face, "I know. I want to… I want to know what I've missed, so I can make up for it."

Felt silently processed his words for a moment, taking her time in answering. She shook her head, raising it up to meet his eyes, "I'll be honest with you. Things have been bad. Really bad. Off the fucking ground dragons, bad."

He could only nod, his gaze quietly averting from hers. He was at a loss for words, truly not knowing what to really say. Pandora looked over at him, swallowing some of the food that she'd been eating and promptly tried to reach over to him. She did it, her hand laying over top of his, luckily with decent cover.

Subaru, feeling Pandora's comforting touch, started to feel just a little better. Having been reminded about how awful things were for everyone, he'd begun sinking into the tombs of his own depression. Thankfully, Pandora pulled him out in time.

Subaru's lips parted, a breath coming in before being let out, words finally reaching his tongue, "What happened?"

Felt processed his words, thinking to herself silently for a few seconds before saying, "A lot." She sighed, internally searching for the best method on how to continue, "Not too long after you disappeared, Big Sis dropped out of the Selection and Karsten ended up dying because of… fuck, I don't even remember. It's been so long."

Subaru froze at that, the news coming at him with a lot of weight behind it. It mentally made him collapse. He hadn't expected to hear that kind of news, but… unfortunately, it's ended up happening. Pandora's hand squeezed his own to help comfort him, which it did, but he remained stiff.

"After that, the bastard Ferris killed himself because his 'precious lady' died," Felt hit the table angrily. "Dammit!" she cursed, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She shook her head, trying to get out of her own anger episode, yet still frustratingly parting her lips to continue, "That left us without 'the greatest healer around', which definitely didn't help with…" she trailed off, loudly groaning in frustration once more.

Again, the information hit Subaru like a ton of bricks. The fact that one of his close friends was gone, having taken his own life as an indirect result of his disappearance, was devastating to hear. He knew how much Crusch meant to him, so, knowing that she'd died, Subaru assumed that Felix simply must've lost the will to live.

He missed how Pandora, next to him, reacted. She was a tad — definitely just a tad, totally not massively — angry at what Felix had done. She'd heard about him from Subaru during their time together, so she couldn't help but be quite furious over the sheer irony of his demise. For someone that hated suicide — disliking people that took their own life for whatever reason it may have been — he certainly didn't mind joining that group himself.

"After that, well…" she gestured an arm to Julius, who was already flinching and cringing at the painful memories of having lost a good friend. The next mention would shake him even more, as Felt started, "Anastasia had to drop out because of her health. Then that stuck-up bitch went back to Vollachia because of the stupid fucking war, so that left this country with only one candidate left! Guess who that was!"

She gestured to herself, her voice strained and expression pained. Subaru could tell that the entire situation bothered her to no end; he could only imagine what she must've gone through because of the position forced upon her.

Although, he was unsure of one thing; one thing that confused him, that didn't make sense. He opened his mouth to ask, "Why did Vollachia even declare war? I thought that Vincent agreed to a peace treaty, after he regained the throne?"

Felt lowered her arms, putting them back onto the table and leaning forward as she thought about how to answer his question. "I don't know," she admitted, looking up at him. "They just… declared war, a few months after you disappeared. I don't fucking know why and it pisses me off!"

She became increasingly frustrated by the end of her dialogue, having once again hit the table in a show of aggression. Subaru may not have wanted to believe it but, even if everyone else was naive as to the reason behind the war, he felt as if he knew.

It was his fault, wasn't it?

He felt a squeeze around his hand, which helped him refocus… but not much. He was still drowning in the sea of which his guilt resided. He felt sadness and overall frustration at himself for letting such events even occur.

The only thing he didn't understand was why. Why would Vincent declare war on Lugnica because of him? Was he really that important to some people?

He lightly shook his head. That didn't matter right now. He would gain nothing pondering those questions. As of now, he knew that there was a meaningless war at play. A war that shed unnecessary blood. Nobility, soldiers and innocent people were dying.

He shook his head. Everything was just so wrong. Nothing was right. He needed to fix this.

Subaru looked up at the Queen of Lugnica with downcast eyes, though it was evident that they reached out with some remnant of hope. He hesitantly inquired, "Is it okay if I ask something…?"

Felt looked back at him, her eyes widening at his low and sad tone. "Of course it's okay to ask me things! You can ask me anything!" she insisted, palms flattening against the table as she lifted herself up to further exude her point.

"How are they?" was his simple, yet hard to ask, question.

Felt paused for a moment. She glanced over at Julius once before she was able to fully figure out who exactly he was talking about. She looked back at Subaru, a soft and exhausted expression on her face, "You were really worried about asking me that?" She sighed, flopping back down into her chair, unsurely fiddling with her fingers.

Subaru remained still and silent as he waited for Felt to answer. A large part of him was worried, scared that more of his friends had perished during his time in solitude. It was such a nightmarish feeling to have. He didn't know everyone personally, but they all left their own significant impacts on him.

Frederica, Anastasia, Crusch and Felix all left their respective marks. He cared for them all, despite not having been around them as much as others have. They didn't deserve to meet the fate that had been unfairly cursed upon them.

"I'll start with Rein," the Queen suddenly voiced, taking Subaru's mind out of his thoughts in a flash. "He's…" she trailed off, attempting to find the right way to describe it, "He tries to look fine, but… if you've been around him for long enough, you know that he's not. Other than that, he's doing alright. But, he really does miss you."

Subaru nodded, acknowledging Felt's answer. He was internally glad that Reinhard was alive and relatively okay. A part of him was sad at the fact that his friend — someone who wanted to be known as Reinhard the person, rather than the Sword Saint the hero — was stuck fighting in a pointless war using the very title he didn't wish to have.

"For your other friends, Meili and Garfiel," Subaru perked up at the mention of his friend and daughter figure. Felt thought for a moment, a hand on her chin as she did so, before continuing, "From the last update I got, which was two weeks ago, they were doing fine." She looked back at him, "They've been a really big help during this dumb war. They're one of the best teams we have."

Subaru let himself smile a little at that. Felt's statement matched perfectly with his image of them. Willing to fight and stick things through to the end. They weren't quitters, unwilling to relent or give up, and thus they complimented one another very well. Subaru was sure that Meili and Garfiel got along great. He was glad that they were okay.

"Subaru, my friend, did you know that your friend has gotten married?" Julius asked from across the table, immediately getting Subaru's attention. Seeing his friend's interested expression, Julius smiled. He closed his eyes to recall the tale, "Yes, your friend married my former colleague, Mimi Pealbaton, a few years back. However, the two dated for some time before completely tying the knot."

Subaru could only look at Julius, completely and utterly surprised. He hadn't expected that. At all.

He knew that Garfiel and Mimi had some kind of 'connection', starting from when they'd first met in Priestella, but he had no clue that it'd grow that much. Don't get him wrong, he was happy for them! He really was! It was just so surreal, almost hard to believe.

Though, he supposed that he'd have to go see Mimi sometime. Subaru smiled, thinking of getting all kinds of juicy stories from Mimi so that he could tease his friend. Just like old times.

At the thought, his smile fell. Like old times, huh? That seemed almost impossible to imagine, now. He wanted to go back to how things were, but would it even be possible anymore? Did he really deserve to have that kind of relationship with them after leaving everyone for so long, pushing them into an irreversible fate such as this?

Pandora squeezed his hand again, reading his emotions through their connection. He internally sighed, cursing himself for making her worry about him so much. Why couldn't he just stop?

Before things could get too out of hand, Felt spoke up, "Would you like me to… request them all here?" He slowly looked up, eyeing her incredulously. She clarified, "As Queen, I can order them all back. With Rein picking them up, they'd all be here within a day or two! I'm sure they'd be happy to come back, knowing that you're here!"

Subaru continued to look at her with the same expression, "I- I can't ask you to do that-"

"No!" she insistently exclaimed, sitting up to further push her point. "Don't argue about it, dumbass! I know you want to see them, so I'm calling them back!"

"But… But the war!" Subaru yelled back, trying to reason with her.

However, it was no avail, "To hell with the damn fucking war, this is more important." She grumbled, momentarily shifting her eyes away before bringing them back, "It's too late now, but I swear to you that tomorrow morning I'm calling them right away!"

Subaru blinked at her, his eyes drifting away as her words registered in his mind. He mumbled a simple, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," was her similarly simple, Felt-like reply. After that, she simply returned to eating her food.

Julius reluctantly did this same, feeling slightly out of place during the whole conversation. However, the former Finest Knight was, indeed, very much looking forward to seeing his friends once again. It would be great to have everyone reunited once more.

Subaru couldn't help but feel bad about taking them all away from something so important. Felt had implied herself that they were incredibly important on the battlefield, having been such a valuable and helpful team.

But another part of him was so happy that they were coming back. He was happy that they'd be away from the fighting, away from something that could end their lives. He would know that they were safe, if they were here with them.

Subaru just proceeded to eat the rest of his meal, the exquisite taste having faded a long while ago.

---

"I don't know what to do, Dora."

"You need to rest."

"Everything here is just… so messed up."

"Baru, you should lie down and try to sleep. It may help you."

"How can I sleep when everything is my fault?!"

He snapped, his voice cracked and having been raised, directed at his Eternal Partner. She didn't flinch, nor did she even really react; she just stayed silent, standing in front of his sitting form as he wallowed in his depressive thoughts.

They were in a guest bedroom at the Royal Palace. After everyone finished their meal, Felt had practically begged him to spend the night using some rather unexpectedly cute puppy-dog eyes. It definitely got to him, but it wasn't like it was necessary… since they didn't have a place to stay, anyway.

It hadn't taken long to prepare at all, leaving them to get into a room rather quickly. Subaru and Pandora were actually given the same room, upon their personal request. The room had two separate beds in it to accommodate them, but they weren't going to be using one of them. That led to the current situation.

Remaining apart using Third Shift, Subaru sat on the bed, back slouching and his face forward, while Pandora stood in front of him. She still only looked at him, waiting patiently for him to vent his troubles to her.

He shook his head, "That's the gambit, isn't it?" He paused, narrowing his eyes at nothing in particular. Pandora tilted her head, unsure as to what he meant by that inquiry.

His hands, pressing against his knees, clenched into fists as his breath steadily became shakier. She continued to watch, reaching a hand out to him and grabbing his arm. She gently caressed it, attempting to soothe him.

He soon spoke his next words, "I save you, I get you to become a good person… I give you an actual life. But because of that, I take away everyone else's."

She stayed quiet, kneeling down in front of him to meet his eyes. He reluctantly obliged, the two locking their gazes together with an invisible strand. Her other hand took his, both of them silently enjoying the feeling of one another's contact. She lightly shook her head, "That is not true."

"How is it not?" he quickly retorted, his free hand dramatically gesturing to the side as if to bring attention to something. "Everything that's happened is because of me."

Pandora shot back, "You do not know that. Some things may have been set in stone from the beginning. Time is relative," she reasoned. "We ourselves are living proof of that. We do not know if it could have been prevented, if… it was their time."

"I could've," he responded, sighing dejectedly. "I could've found a way… I could've… I…"

Pandora shook her head again, lightly tightening both of her respective holds on him, "Nobody would have wanted you to make yourself suffer." Just as he was about to retort, she spoke up again, "I may not know your friends personally, but you have told me a lot about them. From that, I know that this is not what they would have wanted from you."

Subaru shut his mouth, choosing not to respond. He didn't want to believe those words, but they were most certainly true. His friends — everyone that he'd developed a close bond with since suddenly appearing in this world — would not want him to act like this. They wouldn't want him saying these things, putting himself down in favor of bringing them up. It just wasn't how they were.

Pandora sighed. His attention fell back onto her, the expression she wore deeply drilling into him. She concluded with a simple, yet incredibly impactful, "Baru, the way I see it, the only person blaming you, is you."

He registered it clearly, the words echoing in his mind over and over again like it was on loop. He really was the only one blaming himself, wasn't he? How pathetic of him.

In one last ditch effort to deny it all, he argued, "Everything around us is different. Things have changed for the worse…"

"Then fix it," she interrupted, momentarily surprising him. "Is that not what we are here to do? Is that not why we sought out your friends to begin with? You wish to make things right, not wallow in your self-blame. Instead of the latter, I suggest we act on completing the former." She gently smiled at him, conveying her support to him through it, "I am here with you. You know that. I will help you in whatever way I can, always."

He blinked, fully taking in her speech. A small smile similarly spread across his face to match hers. She was right, absolutely so. He was the only one blaming himself… having lost track of what he had come to the Capital to do. There was still an opportunity to help those that were left, to make things right with them instead of just leaving everything alone to negatively fester.

Within himself, a sense of positivity arose. It was unexpected, but not unwelcome. He resolved himself to do better when he fought Regulus. He made it a point to give his love and care to those that needed it; to those that deserved it.

So, that was what he was going to do. He was going to be there for everyone. He was going help them all, end the pointless war and get everything back on the right track. It was incredibly ambitious, but he'd make sure that it all came to fruition.

He went to stand up, having had a rush of motivation, but Pandora immediately shut him down, gently pushing him back down onto the bed. Now suddenly confused, he tilted his head at her. Funnily enough, she was also confused; her mouth opened to ask, "Where do you plan on going?"

"We need to get the Witch Factors from the Archbishops, don't we?"

She shook her head, "No. Not tonight. You have had a long day. Resting is more important for you than anything else, right now."

Subaru wanted to argue, "But-"

She put a finger to his lips, effectively shushing him. "I do not want to hear any retorts from you," she demanded. "We will attempt to get them in the morning, before our meeting with Petra."

Subaru sighed, willing to accept Pandora's, quite frankly, outrageous demand. The two then dedicated themselves to getting ready for bed, choosing to wear some nighttime clothes that came with the room they were given.

Offhandedly, Subaru commented toward Pandora, "So, you're getting along with Petra well, huh?"

He did his best to smile mischievously at her. As a result, her eyes drifted to the side with an embarrassed pout. He hummed teasingly, enticing her to respond, "…She is a very tolerable girl."

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to say that you enjoy being around her."

Pandora half-heartedly glared at him, causing him to chuckle a little. "It is not that," she tried to argue, very poorly.

"Sure, sure. I 'believe' you," he teased, very proud of himself for finally getting one over on her. Either way, after a moment, he settled and chose to comment on something else, "I'm proud of you, Dora." She perked up at the praise, having not expected it. "I'm glad that you're opening up to people."

Overall, he was incredibly proud of and happy for her. The fact that she was getting along with someone apart from himself and Beatrice was a really big deal for him. Though, he supposed that Petra herself just had that type of effect on people.

When he looked at her, he saw nothing but an embarrassed girl, a blush occupying her cheeks while she fiddled with strands of her hair using two fingers. In a way, he was surprised, not having expected his praise to have such a great effect on her. Though, the sight before him was incredibly cute, so he wasn't complaining one bit.

"Thank you," she muttered, the gratefulness blatant in her angelic tone.

He smiled, "Anytime."

The two soon after crawled into bed, clinging to one another just like any other night. At the same time, everyone else was in bed too.

Petra, the girl that experienced an undeserving great depression due to unprecedented loss and loneliness. She struggled to keep going, living life by a thread each day in hopes of a better tomorrow. The only thing that kept her together with the hope of her hero's return. That hope came to fruition, growing and spreading all throughout her into a strengthening motivation to rise up.

Julius, the former Finest Knight, who experienced great tragedy. He became lost, unsure of where to place himself within such a different and cruel world; a tunnel surrounded him, the darkness within it slowly eating away at him as he begrudgingly lived on. But then, a small glimmer of light sparked at the end of it. He ran toward it, letting it get bigger and bigger until he was finally free. He could place himself somewhere new in the world, at last.

Felt, the Queen of Lugnica, burdened with overbearing responsibilities that ate away at her soul. Her mind corrupted, collapsing and falling apart under the weight of responsibilities she wasn't prepared to handle. But a pillar erected out of the darkness to keep it standing, promising to keep her stable and stay by her side through the troubles of life. She was grateful, the weight lessening and allowing her to stand upright once more.

Beatrice, the Great Spirit of Yin, who suffered for many, many years in the effort of reaching one goal. It was ironic. No matter what happened to her mind and body, she pushed forward. She kept going even when she wanted to curl up, cry and quit. To her, it was all worth it in the end. Her goal was finally achieved and she got back more than she could have ever lost. Through the pain she always felt, he still helped her feel comfort and happiness.

Subaru and Pandora, Eternal Partners, who stuck together for an eternity, wasting away in nothing but an empty void with nothing but their own company. Their hate grew into friendship, then to love. They stuck together, glued in an inseparable embrace, even as their minds descended into madness. They hold one another by the hip to keep standing, continuously pushing through their own obstacles with the help of the other. They help raise one other up to become better people overall. You could not have one without the other, anymore. They were not alone.

All of them drifted to sleep at the same time that night. The outside was peaceful, quiet and calm. Almost nobody remained outdoors, the sound of hiding bugs being the only prominent noise in the night. The wind did not blow in a breeze, instead remaining still and calm. It was nice, relaxing even.

So… why did everyone simultaneously feel the same cold, eerie chill?