LOST CHAPTER

A Future Denied

"I accept."

Everyone turned to Ivory at once. Athena and Penny, who were mid-clash with their spears, stared with their mouths open.

"Part of me is suspicious," Lilith said, "but I also know you don't really play mind games like that, do you?"

Ivory shook her head, letting Elfenbein fall in the snow.

"Ivory?" Lilly said, taking a step forward.

"I've given it some thought. And I've decided...that it's not right for me to choose for everyone else."

"What are you saying?" Athena said as she and Penny backed away from each other.

Ivory looked between all of their friends. "Who am I?" she began. "Who am I to deny anyone paradise?"

"But, what about what you just said?" Ingrid said. "Didn't you say that this was all wrong? And that you had a duty to feel pain?"

"Yes, I do have a duty to never let go of this regret in my heart, but what about you, Ingrid?"

She winced.

"I have to admit," Yuan began, turning to Ingrid, "that I want to take your pain away."

Ingrid made eye contact with him. She wanted to take his pain away as well. She and her family had been ravaged by the hand of evil itself, but Yuan? He lost his entire village. That was over a thousand souls that would never be seen again. At least she and her family had the chance to heal.

Athena looked to her side, surprised as Echo grasped her arm tightly.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Athena said as gently as she could.

"Are you..." Echo began, "well, uh, are you pretty dead-set on standing your ground on this?"

Athena looked her partner in the eye. Her light green hazels were uncertain. She knew Echo to be less than stalwart, but the apprehension behind her gaze was almost heartbreaking.

"Why do you ask?" Athena said.

"Oh," Echo said. "Just...wondering."

"Senpai," Xanthus said as he walked over to Penny. "Are you happy with the fully human body?"

"No," Penny said, her voice quavering. "Not yet. Not until..."

"Right. Dr. Hillphire."

She nodded. She turned to Lilly, who stood beside her.

"You know we can fix him, too," she said.

"Yeah," Penny said, rubbing her eye. "I know. That's why I'm fighting for you and your dream."

"Our dream," Leon said.

Lilly turned to him.

"Isn't this what we've all been fighting for?" he continued. "We endure Labyrinth after Labyrinth, putting ourselves through those hellscapes, all to bring an end to each of those personal torture worlds. What Lilly and Lilith are doing—what we can do with them, this is so much more powerful than just one Labyrinth at a time. We can do away with all Labyrinths once and for all."

"Leon?" Ingrid said.

He turned to his childhood friend. "I think Yuan and I are in complete agreement. I want to take away your pain, too." He looked to Yuan. "And yours, combat buddy. And everybody else here. Not my sister, though."

"The fuck?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Dude. We all know nothing ever gets under your skin. Not for long anyway."

"Well," she said as she shifted her weight onto one foot. "You're damned right about that."

Some of the others chuckled.

"I'm in," Leon said, facing Lilly.

"Me, too," Ingrid said.

"Team LILY is unanimous," Yuan said.

"If it makes the world a better place," Xanthus began, "then you also have my support."

Athena glanced at Echo, who avoided eye contact with anyone. "I guess I can change my mind, too." She noticed Echo's demeanor shift rapidly, as though a great burden fell from her shoulders.

"Lilly, Lilith," Echo began, "I'm your ally."

Lilith smirked at her. "You better," she began, "since you're our first kiss."

"Stop that!" Lilly yelled as Echo reddened.

The rest of the group snickered quietly.

"Let's see what the Rune of Atonement has to say," Perseus said as he held his left hand skyward. The great scales projected itself in the air for them all to see. The eye was half open, slowly looking from one to the next, but never settling on anyone for long. "Hmm. I guess I was wrong about what it was thinking."

"It thinks?" Yuan said.

"More or less. I thought maybe playing god like this was gonna put us on its naughty list, but maybe not. In particular, it isn't focusing on Lilly or Lilith, the architects of this plan. Maybe it's okay with what's happening here. Who knows?"

"I don't have any magic to add," Penny said, "but you know I'm on your side."

Lilly gave her a bright smile.

"I just need to know one thing," Ivory began.

Anticipating her words, Lilly marched straight to her and embraced her tightly. "Nothing we do from here on out will change what's between us," she said. "You will always mean what you mean to me, and what's in your heart won't change either."

"Are you certain of this?"

Lilly held her younger cousin at arm's length. "Absolutely certain. C'mon, don't you trust your big cousin?"

Ivory took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Yes. I do."

Lilly's smile was warm, so warm that it almost hurt to behold.

"You might not have those regrets anymore," Lilith said, "but it won't change what we mean to you. And you won't ever forget your friends either."

Ivory's heart skipped a beat.

"They'll always be a part of you," Lilly said. "Viktor, Renata, Demetri, and yes, even Yorath."

"You really did see into my Labyrinth," Ivory mumbled.

She nodded. "It really hurt just being there. And...that's what I wanna take away. Not the love you had for them, just the ache of losing them."

"Hell," Lilith began. "We're gonna bring back all of Kuroyuri. We can bring back Team IVRY and Demetri, too. And completely change all of Atlas back to how it's supposed to be. Eventually, anyway. It's gonna take all of us some time to do all of this."

"Ten years, you said, right?" Athena said.

"Ten years for us. For the rest of the world, it'll happen overnight. Tomorrow, they just wake up and there's no more pain in the world. Rather, there will never have been." She tilted her head. "Man, the grammar for that can get really screwy."

"Eventually, we're gonna spread it beyond Remnant," Lilly said. "But baby steps first."

"A whole planet is baby steps," Ingrid chuckled.

"Ambition is good in a Beacon Academy student," Penny said, holding up a finger.

The group shared a chuckle. They all turned to the door as Weiss stepped outside.

"I was wondering what all the commotion was," she said. "What's the occasion?"

"Hi, mom," Lilly and Lilith said together, though the former was much more energetic than the latter.

"Ugh, do you have to be so loud all the time?" Lilith groaned.

Lilly responded by flapping her arms while running circles around her and blabbering. Lilith's temper boiled over in very short order and she stuck out her foot, tripping her other self and sending her face first into the snow, eliciting subdued laughter from the rest of the group.

"Goodness," Weiss said, shaking her head. "You know, for twins, you two are very not alike. Not one bit."

"At least the eye and hair color are right," Penny chuckled.

"Also, mom," Lilith said.

"No!" Lilly whispered, standing up and shaking the snow out of her hair. "We agreed not to bring her in on the plan, remember? Yeah, she has a lot of power she can add to the collective, but—"

"I know. She's gone through enough. It's just gonna be us."

"What are you two whispering about?" Weiss said, sticking her face between them.

"Muffin!" Lilly said, turning around quickly.

"We just wanted to say that we're grateful," Lilith said. "For everything."

"Yeah," Lilly said. "We're the girls we are today cuz of you, mom."

Weiss smiled. "What's gotten into the both of you?"

"Just a little ambition. We're gonna remake the world into a better place!"

"You definitely are young with that kind of thinking."

"But we really are gonna do it!"

"I know you will, my dear," she said as she embraced both of her daughters. "No, you already are changing the world. Just being in it, you're changing it little by little."

Leon strolled around Beacon Academy's quad, quietly observing the students and faculty roaming about. It had been a long time since he trod these walkways, but everything was exactly the way he remembered it. Well, maybe not exactly. After all, they had succeeded in removing the concept of emotional and spiritual suffering from the world.

He stopped at the front of the artificial pond, facing the knight statue. He straightened up before giving the statue a salute.

"Sir Bedivere," he said. "I know you'd be proud of her. I hope I've lived up to your expectations, too."

"Hey, you," his sister said from some distance behind him.

He turned to face her. She was with Echo and Nerida, the latter of whom was planning on attending Beacon Academy starting spring semester. In another time and another place, this collection of individuals might have been quite awkward, but under this new paradigm, those old torments no longer existed.

"Lilly's dad," Echo muttered, standing at the edge of the pond and admiring the gleaming statue. "I still can't believe you fought him and didn't die."

"Me, too," Leon chuckled.

"So, that's who this statue represents, huh?" Nerida said.

"Yup," Athena said. "The visor is down because he stands for all of the nameless who died in the last war, but he takes the shape of a knight because of one particular individual."

"One of the heroes who gave his life. That's what the information pamphlet said."

"Yup." She turned to Echo and Nerida. "Hey. What do you guys think of all three of us dating each other?"

"Huh?" Echo said, turning to them abruptly.

"Yeah, huh?" Nerida said.

"I'm serious," Athena said. "Look, I'm not old-school enough to think that you only have one soulmate in life. Echo's mine, she's yours, and we're both hers." She paused. "Okay, I do admit I kinda have a crush on you, too, so there's that."

Leon chuckled. "Are you for real?"

"Well," Nerida sighed, "I'm okay with it."

"Why are you okay with it?" Echo shrieked.

"C'mon," Athena said with a smirk. "Tell me this has never crossed your mind."

"W-Well. I mean, I've...thought about it a few times." She pulled Nerida by the hand. "We have to talk about this first."

"Go for it," Athena said. "It was you two before me, so yeah. Go talk."

Echo dragged her childhood sweetheart all the way to the other side of the pond.

"So the new world's begun to affect your head, too, huh?" Leon said with a chuckle.

"Yup," she said.

"Funny. You stood beside Ivory against Lilith and Penny to oppose the new order. And yet here you are jumping in with both feet."

"I guess we really are twins, then, huh?"

He smirked. It was true. No one embraced this new reality more than him. In an infinite sea of parallel worlds, there wasn't a single one in which he would stand against Lilly's dream.

"So, are you gonna go three-way, too?" Athena said.

"Maybe," he said. "It's gonna be weird, though."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Demetri is alive."

She chuckled. "I totally forgot about that detail. Well, ask your girl if she's willing to take both of you. We already know Lilith is down for anything."

"I dunno about Lilly, though."

"Huh?"

"It's different with her. I feel like...like I can't have her only to myself. She doesn't belong to any one person. Not anymore. Not after what we did."

"Hmm. Maybe. I don't know if she'd agree with that, though."

"I think she would. After all, she didn't create this new world just for us. The concept of pain doesn't exist anymore. Not even for animals. Well, physical pain is still there since it's a useful tool, but no more suffering."

"Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? Things still die, but the suffering that comes along with death isn't there anymore."

"Both for the dying and for those left behind. Like I said, Lilly doesn't belong to any one being anymore. She belongs to the world."

"Well, if you go by that logic, the same goes for the rest of us. After all, we were each integral to the whole thing."

"You two discussing your plans for the future?"

The twins turned to their parents, who were heading to them with Yang in tow.

"Aunt Yang!" they yelled together before hanging off both of her arms.

"Never change, you weirdos," Yang chuckled, shaking them off.

"They were probably talking about secret Knights of Remnant stuff," Jaune said.

"I bet," Ruby giggled. "Oh! Did you guys hear? The Knights of Remnant are officially disbanding."

Leon and Athena stared with eyes wide.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "Apparently, Salem and Ozma reconciled and have agreed to take equal seats at the Coalition."

"Who the hell is Ozma?" Athena said.

"Duh!" Ruby said. "Professor Ospine! His true identity is Ozma!"

"That was never covered in any of our lectures," Leon said.

"You guys've been sorta overseas for the last year, though," Yang said. "Better get back to those textbooks or you're gonna fail out of history."

"Imagine?" Jaune said. "Knights of Remnant who failed out of Beacon Academy? That would be a first."

"Oh, hell no," Athena said, whipping out her scroll. "I'm shopping for history e-books right now."

"There's also talk about the Coalition being reorganized altogether, since there's nothing for them to stand against anymore."

"A new country?" Leon said.

"Dunno yet," Ruby said. "But world peace seems to be achievable for the first time in, well, maybe forever."

Leon thought about the implications of what they had done. The new paradigm didn't affect mere humans and animals. From what he understood, Salem and Ozpin were ancient magical beings. Even they were subject to the new world.

"Still," he mumbled, quietly enough for only his sister to hear. "We're not finished yet."

"Oh," Athena said as Echo and Nerida rejoined them. "Mom, dad, I'd like to introduce you to my girlfriends."

"Was there an 'S' at the end of that sentence?" Jaune said, confused.

"We haven't even told you yet!" Echo said.

"And I can tell that you're both down," Athena said.

"We are, actually," Nerida chuckled.

"Wait, huh?" Ruby said.

"Yeah, huh?" Yang said.

Ingrid smiled a genuine smile for the first time in ten years. At least, for her it had been ten years. As far as her mother and father knew, it was only yesterday. Her family gathered around a dining table with Ren and Nora at the Ren household. For everyone else, Kuroyuri had never experienced that tragedy at the hands of the Greater Daemons. Out of everyone here, only she and Yuan had any idea of the old reality.

"Thank you," Yuan said as he stood beside her.

She looked up at him and smiled. "No, it's you I should be thanking," she said.

He shook his head. "Perhaps it goes both ways. I think I made the correct decision because of you."

"You're right, it does go both ways. I definitely don't regret siding with Lilly. You have your entire village back."

"And your family is back to the way it was before the incident in Menagerie."

"Funny. Even that memory is starting to get hazy. I mean, I remember it pretty clearly, but only as facts. The bitterness is gone."

"And the pain."

She nodded. "Although, you probably benefit the least out of all of us here, huh? You've always had a pretty good handle on your shit. Unlike me and Leon."

He chuckled. "And Lilly."

She laughed with him. "God, she really wears her heart on her sleeve."

"You know, there's one thing I don't understand. With our combined power, we were able to resurrect the dead and render global events as though they had never happened. The rise of the Schwarze Sonne in Atlas isn't even a memory. Every single person in Kuroyuri is alive. Dr. Hillphire's body has been fully restored. Penny is completely human."

"But Lilly's dad..."

"I can't stop thinking about why it is that we cannot bring him back from the dead."

"We're not gods, Yuan."

He turned to her, half expecting that to be a joke since they essentially have been playing gods for the past ten years in their perception outside of the physical reality.

"We might have fudged around with the mechanics of Remnant, but Lilly's dad isn't even from our world to begin with."

"Hmm. Then, perhaps that is why."

Ingrid turned to him.

"Our ultimate goal is to extend this paradigm to the entire universe. If Lilly's Domain encompasses all known existence, then she may be able to reach out and bring him back as well."

"Talk about ambition."

"Penny-senpai did say ambition is good in us Beacon students."

They chuckled together.

"She's still not out here enjoying the new world with us, huh?" Yuan muttered.

"Nope," Ingrid said. "She's still doing some minor adjustments to the World Nexus with Ivory and Lilith. I think Penny and Ariadne and Xanthus are with them, too."

"Leave it to the brains to fine-tune an entire world order."

"Ingrid!" Nora yelled. "Yuan! Why are you two so far away from the table?"

"Because it's very loud there, mom," Yuan said.

Ingrid snorted and threw a hand to her mouth to stop the laughter.

"Your son does have a point," Ren said to Nora as he served everyone.

Nora began to growl as Blake patted her head to try and calm her down, but the efforts of the Queen of Menagerie were in vain.

"It's like all that never happened to our families," Ingrid mumbled.

"That's because it didn't," Yuan said. "Not in this new reality."

"Why do we still remember, then? I mean, it doesn't hurt as much, but we do still remember it."

"My guess is that it's because we technically participated in engineering this new world from outside of it. Therefore, the effects are not complete. Not for us, anyway. But still, we are not immune to the new order asserting itself upon us. We are in a world where the concept of pain does not exist."

"I wonder what the others are up to."

"That's it," Lilly said.

"Both the Nexus of Ecumene and the Nexus of Remnant have been fully woven together," Ivory said. She turned to Ariadne. "It's a good thing we involved you in this whole process."

"Yes," she said. "Though, I don't exactly stand to gain all that much from the new paradigm since I feel very few emotions to begin with. The only ones that stand out to me are terror due to Lilith's presence and anxiety in her absence."

"Cuz you never know if I'm actually gone or not," Lilith whispered into her ear from behind.

Ariadne shivered. "Precisely. Anyway, despite that aforementioned fact, I certainly am happy to have played a part in this scheme of yours."

"You're literally only satisfying your curiosity," Perseus sighed.

"Well. I won't deny that."

"Big brother knows you all too well," Lilith chuckled.

"How's the Rune of Atonement?" Penny said as she and Ariadne continued to type away at their computer consoles along with Xanthus.

"It's reacting very little," he said. "It opens its eye every now and again, but only to watch us for a bit before going back to sleep."

"Perhaps we are not in the wrong, then," Xanthus said. "Senpai, I'm still impressed with how quickly you're able to process all of this information, even without your old neural network."

"That's cuz we left all your old talents in!" Lilly chirped as she, Lilith, and Ivory continued to survey the new Nexus they had just created.

"What do you mean?" Perseus said.

"It's obvious, brother," Ariadne said. "Lilly and Lilith were able to control the weather in their Domain, to the point of permitting snow in otherwise impossible ambient temperatures. You've also collectively resurrected the dead. It would be less than trivial to allow Penny to remain as powerful as she was with her old body, despite being in a fully organic one."

"All I'm missing now is the literal machinery," Penny said. "I kinda miss being able to throw drones into the sky and see everywhere. Also, I don't get how you humans can put up with typing away on scrolls. It's way easier to send text messages just thinking about it."

Lilly giggled. "Ariadne, you wanna tell them?"

"That is Xan-chan's brainchild," she said. "I wouldn't dare steal that from him."

"Oh, thank you," Xanthus said, fixing his glasses. "VR scrolls may become the new norm, if Dr. Hillphire and I are able to make that breakthrough."

"Huh?" the room said together.

"Ariadne's helping us, of course. But we're expanding Thaumatech to include household items and stuff."

"Can't Lilly just snap that kind of stuff into existence?" Perseus said.

Lilith sighed. "Dude, what the hell do you think we've been doing here for ten years? Reality warping isn't exactly instantaneous."

"Concept rewriting isn't instantaneous. New technology would be as trivial as climate manipulation."

"But where's the fun in that?" Lilly said, beaming.

Everyone but Lilith turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Xanthus said.

Lilly stood up as the three finished surveying the new World Nexus. She turned to Ivory and Lilith before facing the rest of the crew, who had since stopped what they were doing.

"I think we should bring the gang back together for this," Lilith said.

Ivory sat at the round table, which was situated on a floor directly above the Nexus of Remnant, housed in Castle Vytal, the impenetrable fortress guarded day and night by powerful knights from another world, led by none other than Lilly and Lilith's own knight. He was no longer transparent the way he once was. This knight was substantial, as real as any of them.

At the table were all twelve individuals who had played a part in weaving the new Nexus of Remnant, having spent the last ten years of their lives adjusting and reengineering their new reality. To Ivory's left was Lilly, next to whom sat Lilith, followed by Penny, Xanthus, Ariadne, Perseus, Echo, Athena, Ingrid, Yuan, and Leon, who sat to Ivory's right.

"How was it out there?" Ivory asked Leon.

He turned to her before giving her a quick smirk. "I think you'll love it."

She fought the redness from forming, but there was nothing she could do to stop her cheeks from flushing. "Please don't tease me."

"I'm not teasing. I really think you're gonna enjoy the new world. You know your old friends are alive, right?"

"Yes, I do. I intend on contacting them as soon as we return to the real world."

"Why don't we do that now?" Lilly said.

The others looked to her.

"The Nexus of Remnant is complete," Lilith said. "We don't have to stay on this side of the veil anymore."

The group watched as the two girls raised their arms, activating the Nexus below them at the very bottom of the castle. They could all feel the energies swirling around them as they shifted into the real world. The moment they crossed over, they could already feel the effects of existing in a world without pain.

"I'll never forget that feeling," Echo said. "Hopping over like that."

"It's not quite bliss," Ingrid said. "But it's pretty damned close."

"So anyway," Athena said. "Why are we back here at the castle?"

"To discuss some stuff," Lilly said.

"We got rid of pain," Lilith began, exchanging glances with her other self.

"You're thinking we haven't gone far enough," Ariadne said.

"Seriously, though, are you magic or something? Cuz you've gotta be if you're also thinking what we're thinking."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps your way of thinking is just too predictable."

Chuckles went around the table. Lilly and Lilith, on the other hand, weren't having any of it.

"I thought we were friends," Lilly pouted.

"Anyway," Athena chuckled, "we finished surveying the outside world, like we agreed. The whole world really is different from how it was ten years ago. Or, well, I guess it was only yesterday for everybody else. The moment we stepped out, it was like a huge burden floated off of our shoulders. Even our way of thinking changed."

"Yeah," Leon said. "It's hard to even describe without comparing to the old world where pain still existed."

"We all still have lingering memories of the old paradigm," Yuan began, "which I believe is because we rebuilt this world from the ground up, but from outside of it, which technically means that we reside in both realities at once, the old world and this new one."

"But that doesn't stop this new reality from asserting itself on us," Ingrid said. "Honestly, what happened to my family feels like a distant memory. Well, more like, I guess it's as though it didn't happen to me. Not me me anyway."

"You're dissociating from the trauma," Ariadne said, turning to Xanthus. "This is just as we expected, Xan-chan."

"Yes," he said, wiping his eyeglasses. "Our minds are being forced to adjust to a physical reality where the very concept of pain never existed."

"Does that mean that," Perseus began as he shifted in his seat, "in time, we won't even remember what it felt like to be hurt?"

"It's possible," Penny said. "I doubt anyone's ever done anything like this before. I think it's just as likely that we'll fully integrate into the new reality as it is we never will, but that the old way will just be a faint memory in our minds." She turned to Lilly and Lilith. "What do you two think?"

Lilith shrugged. "You said it yourself. Probably no one's ever done anything like this before. Honestly, I'm surprised we were even able to do it. There were a few moments back there where it was touch and go, to be completely frank."

"Yeah," Lilly said. "I...don't think we could have pulled it off without you guys."

"Not just because of the crazy amount of magic we needed, too."

"But right here."

The group watched as Lilly clasped both her hands over her heart. Echo stood up.

"Like I said all those years ago," she said. "I'm your ally."

Lilly went over to her and embraced her tightly.

"We're all on your side," Leon said, also standing. It was Lilith who marched over to him and hugged him tightly, much to his shock.

"I lay claim over you," she said into his ear. "My cousin already has her old boyfriend back, so you're all mine."

"Lilith!" Lilly screamed.

"What? I'm just saying what you truly feel."

The rest of the group fidgeted awkwardly while Lilly stamped her foot on the ground, her face glowing red.

"I won't ever forget," Ivory said. She was the only one still seated.

"I know," Lilly said, hugging her from behind. "I wish you would, but I know what it means to you."

"It seems you actually have the highest resistance out of all of us to this new world," Ariadne said, adjusting her glasses. "I'm curious as to the reason."

"It's sheer willpower," Perseus said, looking at his left hand.

"Is the rune telling you that?" Athena asked.

He shook his head. "We all existed outside of time and space while we adjusted the new world, so we all have a natural resistance to the way things are now, but Ivory is the only one here actively resisting and clinging to her guilt and regret. Eventually, it may fade into a dull background ache, but it won't ever go away, not unless she allows it to."

"I really wish you would," Lilly said.

"I know you do," Ivory said, placing a hand on her cousin's arm. "But I'm going to continue holding onto it for some time. Maybe I will let it go, once I've found it in me to forgive myself."

"On that note," Lilith began, "how 'bout we go check out the whole world?"

"To this brave new world," Athena said, raising her glass.

"When did you break the champagne out?" Ingrid said, picking up her own glass.

"Don't underestimate our stash," Leon said, holding the bottle.

"Is that Qrow's?" Penny said. "Or, wait, lemme guess. Aunt Yang."

The twins nodded.

"Figures."

"Cheers, then?" Ivory said.

"Cheers!" the group said in unison.

Lilly stepped out of her home for some fresh air. All of her friends and their families were in that tiny house and their backyard for a long-awaited get-together. It had been a month since they had finished remaking the world in its current state. Her mother was so happy, happier than she had ever seen her in her whole life.

And yet, something felt missing.

"You were right," Lilith said, walking out onto the front yard with her.

Lilly turned to face her other self.

"All of those other things related to emotional suffering? They're all gone, too. Envy, resentment, greed, all of it. Who knew so much of what made people so cruel to each other was tied to pain?"

"I sorta just put it together after seeing all of the Corrupted," Lilly said. "You remember how most of them were, right?"

"How could I forget?"

"Right, you lived there your whole life."

They turned to Ivory, who joined them from the side garden.

"Crying uncontrollably, flying in a rage, screaming in terror, and laughing hysterically," the youngest one said. "Aren't those classic coping mechanisms in response to trauma?"

"There's also the one no one ever sees," Lilith said. "The ones that just completely freeze up in a fight or flight situation."

"Why don't we ever see them?"

"Because they don't live for very long."

"You're such a downer!" Lilly yelled.

"What?" Lilith chuckled. "It's true."

"Still!"

"I'm amazed at how much the world has changed," Ivory said. "Even though I had a part to play in it. Just by removing the concept of pain, we've caused a cascade of effects that fundamentally alters human behavior."

"Yeah, but there's one thing we haven't gotten rid of," Lilith said. "Not all people do bad shit because of some emptiness inside. Some people are just evil for the sake of being evil."

"True malevolence. We've gotten rid of pain as a concept. I have no doubt that with another decade of tinkering, we should be able to erase malevolence as well."

"Maybe we should slow down, though," Lilly said. "Give it some thought."

The other two looked at her.

"I'm...somewhat confused by that statement," Ivory said. "I assume you know what she's talking about, though, Lilith."

"Nope," she said. "I'm just as lost as you are."

"But, how can that be?"

"I know what she's getting at," Athena said from the rooftop.

"You pullin' a Echo on us?" Lilith said.

"How long have you all been up there?" Ivory said to Team APEX and the rest of Team LILY. Penny and Ariadne were also joining the group through the front door.

"Long enough to figure out what you guys are talking about," Athena said. "And I think I get why Lilly doesn't wanna go balls to the wall just yet."

"Because something's missing," Leon said.

"Yeah," Lilly said. "The Knights of Remnant are about to be disbanded because they no longer have anything to fight for. Well, at least that's what they think with Salem and Ozma reconciled."

"But it won't be long before something else rears its ugly head," Penny said.

"Like the Greater Daemons," Xanthus said.

"Something to fight for," Ivory said. "We may have made the world a little too perfect."

"No, not yet," Ariadne said. "We never bothered to erase the concept of evil. We'd have to define it as comprehensively as we defined 'pain' when we went around erasing it from existence. That's the only reason we succeeded to the extent we did."

"Something to fight for, huh?" Ingrid said.

"Yes," Yuan said. "Because without adventure, society stagnates."

"People need goals to work toward," Perseus said.

"I'm happy staying on a computer all day, tbh," Echo said.

"No, you wouldn't," Athena said.

"Okay, fine," she sighed. "I'd be happy watching videos with you and Nerida all day long forever."

Athena chuckled. "You know you're gonna get fat with that lifestyle."

Echo gasped.

"So, are we at a consensus?" Leon said. "We've gotten rid of pain, but we're gonna let evil continue existing, right?"

Lilly nodded. "That's if we all agree," she said.

"Ariadne said it," Xanthus began. "If we cannot easily define the concept, it's difficult to rewrite the world anyway. But it definitely gives people a common goal and it satisfies the innate adventurousness."

"People will still die," Ivory said.

"Yeah," Lilly said. "But without all the suffering from the old world. Everything has to end at some point, but not like it used to."

"I'm proud of what you've become," Lilith said, throwing an arm around her other self's shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Ten years ago, you would've gone in guns blazing trying to delete evil and death, too."

"We're all technically ten years older," Athena chuckled. "Wisdom better come with that extra age. Otherwise you're just stupid."

"I'm with you, Lilly," Leon said.

"Same," Ingrid said.

"And me," Yuan said.

"Team APEX is unanimous," Athena said, to which her team nodded.

"You have my vote," Penny said.

"Mine as well," Ariadne said.

"Yes," Ivory said. "I agree with this. And besides, we've accomplished more than we could have ever hoped for in only ten years. I believe it would be best for us not to be in too much of a hurry."

Lilith turned to her other self. "You did good," she said.

Lilly faced her. "We did good," she said before turning to the rest of the group. "We all did."

Smiles went around, genuine smiles born from a triumph they could never have imagined. They had changed the world for the better, and yet they tempered their methods enough to permit adventure to continue. There would always be something to strive for, so that the human spirit would not ossify and become deadened. Humans might not live forever, but it was never meant for us to. All things born must someday die.

But changing that fact wasn't the goal. Lilly only wanted to make the world into a place where needless suffering didn't occur. With the help of her closest friends, her dearest allies, she had succeeded in accomplishing the impossible. They hadn't created a perfect world, but it was okay. Because the important part was finished: no one would ever again be dragged into the abyss of their own Labyrinth.

"Our fight's not over," Ivory said.

"Nope, it isn't," Athena said. "Kinda my style, not gonna lie."

"Let's go find our next adventure?" Lilith said.

Lilly nodded. "As long as we all have each other," she began, "we can do anything."