Taking Back the Crown

by JCMorrigan

Mozenrath. Archibald Snatcher. Roman Torchwick. Mad Madam Mim. Yzma. The Huntsman. Wuya. Ayam Aghoul. Their mission: take over the multiverse, or look fabulous trying. Rated M for swearing, steamy implications and VERY bloody battles. Contains slash and het shipping.

158. Flock Together

A/N: For this AU, I'm discounting Frozen II. The OUaT Frozen story that ties it into the Enchanted Forest mythos (30-year timeskip and all) is going to be my post-Frozen canon. However, some elements of II will make it into the story I'm about to write from here forward. Just…not at all as you know them. Also keep in mind that my OUaT lore is AU'd after 4A, so at some point, just…go with it.

...

It began with a mysterious voice singing a song that only Elsa could hear.

She fought it, at first, because it was calling her and she knew not from where. She told herself it was because she was afraid of what it might ask her to do, but deep down, she knew it was because she was hoping it could show her something preferable to the here and now.

Being ruler of Arendelle…it wasn't awful. There were many perks, and Elsa did feel a sense of gratification in serving her people. (Though was it true gratification, or a need to make up for all she'd done?) It was just…

Difficult to explain.

(Unfulfilling. A destiny she hadn't wanted. Yes, it was good that she was able to be queen in the end, but no one had ever asked if she'd wanted it. If she'd had a choice, back when Gerda and Agnarr first perished at sea, she would've simply passed the throne to Anna and never left her room again. But it didn't work that way.)

One night when the song was particularly tenacious, she responded with music of her own. "I can hear you," she hissed, "but I won't."

Yet she did. She paced the halls and she raced around the midnight courtyards, until at last she made her decision clear that she would be going "INTO THE UN-KNOOOOOWWWWN!" by casting a plethora of shining ice crystals into the Arendelle air.

Her younger sister, Anna, had many questions about the crystals. Elsa sat her down, explaining to the best of her ability the mysterious pilgrimage she was being called upon.

"So you're just going to follow some random voice into the middle of nowhere?" Anna realized. "Because you, uh, heard it in your head at midnight?"

"I know it sounds crazy," Elsa sighed.

"No, no, nononono!" Anna insisted. "It's not – I mean – well, it sounds a little crazy, but you know what? If I've learned one thing, it's to trust you when you get your mind on something."

"Will you be able to act as regent?" Elsa asked. "Just until I figure it out and am able to come back."

"REALLY?" Anna's eyes lit up. "You want me to be queen while you're gone? Oh, that is SO awesome!" She pumped a fist. "You can count on me! I'm gonna queen like no one's ever queened in this kingdom before! …Except you. And Mom, of course. Okay, and all due respect to Aunt Ingrid, and now that I'm thinking about it – "

"You realize this is a serious responsibility," Elsa reminded her sister.

"Huh?" Anna flicked her attention back to Elsa. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. So out of curiosity, do you need a special event to commission chocolate canapés from the kitchen, oooorrrrr…?"

Elsa smiled. "As much chocolate as you want, but remember the essentials of eating healthy."

"Yeah, yeah."

If nothing else, it would be a learning experience for Anna. Thrown into the fire. Elsa hadn't been ready for it, but Anna was made of different material than her. A heart that could more easily be tempered in the flame. Rather than a heart of delicate ice that would melt at the slightest increase in temperature.

(What if she went away and never wanted to come back? No, no, that was unthinkable. Her parents would want her to return to the throne. It was where she belonged whether she liked it or not.)

The ship was loaded, bound for Misthaven. Elsa could feel in her heart that was where the voice was calling from. She stood in the atrium of the palace, facing Anna.

"It should hopefully only be a few days," Elsa promised. "I'll write to you on every single one of them."

"I'm not worried," Anna replied.

Except they both were, because they remembered what had happened the last time a queen of Arendelle had gone out on the open sea on a voyage to Misthaven.

Elsa quickly enveloped Anna in a tight embrace, not wanting to let go, and judging by how tightly Anna held on in return, she didn't either. "Promise me you'll be okay," Anna whispered. "Even if you stay out there for a long time, just be safe. Okay?"

"I will," Elsa vowed. "But you have to do the same here."

Eventually, they both had to let go. Elsa boarded the ship for the voyage to Misthaven.

It was relatively without incident, and soon she walked the docks of a fishing settlement on the edge of the Enchanted Forest. From there, she began a quest into the heart of the wood, ignoring warnings and trekking through areas where it was warned that no traveler should go alone. It was only the sea she feared; here on dry land, she was more than confident in being one of the most frightening things in the forest. A band of brigands who tried to rob her at daggerpoint were found frosted to the trees the next morning, unable to move until the authorities cut them down.

Finally, Elsa came upon the source. A tall spire, perhaps the oldest building in the Enchanted Forest. Hidden by towering tall trees that seemed to have gained that height specifically to preserve it from prying eyes.

The voice had moved from her head to her heart, thrumming in her bones. She raised a hand to her chest. Curled it. Shut her eyes to take it in, to really and truly hear the song.

"Ah! There you are!"

Elsa's eyes snapped open. There was a man with a bushy white beard and bright red robes hurrying toward her.

"Don't – don't scare me like that!" she sputtered. "I could've – I have powers that – "

"I know." The man came to a halt before her with a broad grin upon his face. "But it's not to be worried about. I have powers of my own, you see, thanks to my mentor. He's been waiting for you to arrive, you know! Come in at once to speak to him. There'll be time for tea after."

"Mentor?" Elsa repeated. "I don't understand."

The man – the apprentice – smiled warmly at her. "You will."

He managed to convince her to follow him into the tower, and down into a cellar. Down a set of stone stairs into a dimly-lit room with ornate stone tile. A bronze cauldron of intricate metalwork sat dead center of the circular room; there was no other furniture. As Elsa and the apprentice approached, a plume of smoke, blue and red and every shade of violet in between, rose up from the cauldron.

"The Sorcerer is a very busy man," the apprentice explained. "He works tirelessly in a realm between realms to fight for the balance of good and evil in the multiverse. He has little time to spare to be here physically, so I communicate with him via the cauldron. This world is complex, ravaged, ever-changing…he refuses to ignore us entirely, and gives counsel often. Few worlds know that luxury. It is perhaps a bad sign to receive this honor, as it means we are in need of the most help he can afford to give."

"Realms?" Elsa repeated. "Multi-verse? What are you talking about?"

"I'll let him explain to you." The apprentice backed off, gesturing to the smoke plume.

Elsa recoiled. It was large, larger than a human, seemingly larger than life. Perhaps that was exactly the impression the Sorcerer wanted to give.

"Come closer." The voice that emitted from the smoke was deep, rich, comforting. "There is nothing to fear."

So Elsa did, taking steps of trepidation until she looked directly up into the billowing smoke.

"Elsa, queen of Arendelle," the Sorcerer greeted. "I am the Sorcerer, though you may call me by the name of 'Yen Sid.' I apologize for being unable to meet with you in person. The students I teach here currently require much attention to prepare them for an enormous and critical destiny."

Elsa, finding that it seemed right to bow, did so. "Apology accepted. From what I hear, it's an honor that you made time to speak with me in particular."

"You heard the call of the song," Yen Sid told her. The smoke pulsated, the reds and blues fluctuating with his words. "I am sure you have many questions."

"I do," Elsa affirmed, rising to look directly at the smoke once more. "But the one that's the strongest on my mind is…what is this voice calling me to do? Is it my own destiny?"

"Let me begin by assessing what you know," Yen Sid stated. "Are you aware of the four elements that are said to make up the natural balance? Of course, in truth, there are more than four, but distilled to their basic essences, the four are critical pillars of existence."

Elsa nodded. "Water, fire, earth, and wind. We have stories about them. Nokkar, salamanders, wind spirits, and giants."

"They are foundational building blocks of this world," Yen Sid told her. "But also of many others. Are you aware of the worlds outside your own?"

"There's…there's the Land Without Magic," Elsa recalled. "And while I was there, I heard hints of other realms. A colorless dead wood, a world where nothing makes sense…but I didn't know how much to believe them."

"You think of the realms connected to this forest," Yen Sid informed her. "The Realms of Storytelling. And yet for all that connect by portal, there are still thousands, perhaps millions more in existence."

"I'm – I'm sorry." Elsa pressed a hand to her head. "This is a lot to take in."

"Indeed it is," Yen Sid affirmed. "I am willing to wait, if you need a moment."

Elsa shook her head. "No. I'm – okay, millions of worlds. I've got it."

Yen Sid gave a soft chuckle. "The elements can differ from world to world, but the four are a near constant. There is a world out in the great beyond whose existence relies upon the four elements' balance as channeled by a race of people known as 'seraphs.' Each is bonded to a different element out of the four, and only when representatives of all four come together can the world be changed to any great capacity. Yet in this world, there is a fifth power. Many call it the power of suppression, but I believed it to be something more from the very start. Tell me, Elsa, have you heard of such a legend as a fifth power?"

"That sounds familiar!" Elsa realized. "I think my mother told me a story about it once. A spiritual bridge between the four elements, who keeps their balance in the world and nature."

"In this way, your world and the world of which I speak are connected," Yen Sid stated. "It did surprise me greatly. I cast my vision out toward the stars and saw a great Darkness approaching that world. The former fifth power, he who united the four elements, is now sealed away. The four seraphs who contain within them the power to rescue that world from the Dark are themselves corrupted by it, having been immersed in demonic energy. If they are left much longer to their fates, they will be lost forever. A new fifth power must step up and become a bridge to reunite them and fight the Darkness that approaches their world. I gazed over that world, seeking anyone who could serve as the bridge. One young woman stood out, but could not contain the power on her own. Imagine my surprise when one of the seraphs called out, not to her own world, but to here. It seems she sensed your presence. It also seems that the key to saving her world resides here on yours: with you."

"The voice," Elsa realized. "You know who it is. I was hoping I could meet her here, ask her questions."

"Her name is Lailah," Yen Sid replied. "She is worlds away, trapped in the form of a swiftly-metamorphosizing dragon. She has nearly forgotten her own heart and mind. She represents the element of fire, and with the help of the fifth power, could regain her own self."

"So you're telling me that I'm the only person who can save a world I've never even heard of?" Elsa reiterated. "That I'M the one who's supposed to fight the Darkness in a place I've never been?"

"I am as surprised as you are," Yen Sid replied, "yet not one to distrust Lailah's judgment. For that reason, I wish to grant you passage to the continent of Glenwood on this faraway world. It is my belief that you are meant to find the four chosen seraphs and lift their curses. Then, together, you may stand a chance against the Darkness that approaches."

"I – I don't know." Elsa backed away from the cauldron. "I promised my sister I'd be back shortly. I promised her I'd write."

"I can grant you forms of magical communication that will allow you to stay in touch with her," Yen Sid replied.

"I have a kingdom I'm supposed to be ruling!" Elsa began to pace. "This is all – this is too much! How am I supposed to say yes to something that sounds so – so absolutely ridiculous?"

There came a heavy sigh from the cauldron. "You may, of course, turn your back on the call. There is a much greater risk that Glenwood will fall to oblivion, and the four seraphs to an eternal curse. You may return to Arendelle and attend to matters there. Before you make your choice, however, I must ask: do you truly believe the throne of Arendelle to be your destiny?"

"What kind of question is that?" Elsa spat. "Are you saying I'm not good enough?"

"You are more than qualified to sit upon the throne," Yen Sid told her. "I make no judgment nor assumption. All I have noted is your own curiosity. That is why I ask you for an answer that only you can give. Perhaps the answer is simply 'yes.'"

Elsa swallowed hard. "I never asked to be queen. I suppose I should be glad, because if they hadn't forced me to take the throne, I would've never been able to leave my room and become myself. But if they'd asked me back then…if they'd given me the choice…then Anna should've had it. Not me. I would've stayed hidden away. And even now, I sometimes feel like…" She sighed. "Like it's not me."

"Do you have any idea what it is you wish to do instead?" Yen Sid asked.

"I don't know," Elsa admitted. "I guess I want to help people somehow. Or is that just my guilt talking from the bad things I've done?"

"It is of my opinion that you will not know the answers to these questions until you have sought them out," Yen Sid told her. "Perhaps this journey shall give you an idea of where it is you are meant to be. Perhaps that idea is the very place you began, and you simply need it affirmed. I do truly believe that in choosing to find the four seraphs, you may also find yourself."

After a long pause, Elsa nodded. "You're right. I don't know…anything about what I want. All I know is that I'm afraid. Afraid to rule, afraid to be a savior…afraid I'll freeze a town completely over if I'm away from Anna too long."

"Whose love was it that saved you initially?" Yen Sid asked. "This time, there is a correct answer."

And Elsa knew it. "…My own," she realized. "I learned to love myself, and then…"

"There is so much to you, Elsa," Yen Sid went on. "Your heart can conquer fear if you make the choice to do so."

Another, longer pause. "I'll go," Elsa stated softly. "They need me, and…it sounds like I need them, too."

"A word of advice first," Yen Sid stated. "Keep an open mind to how you go about this journey. The answers may not come in the way you expect. The lesson you learn may not be what you wanted to have confirmed. Your journey will open doors for others, and they may just open the door for you. In all things, let your heart be your guiding key. Listen to it, and know yourself."

Elsa wasn't really sure what all of that was supposed to imply. Still and all, she nodded. "I will."

"I will have a train set up for you to depart from this tower and transport you to the city of Ladylake in Glenwood," Yen Sid stated. "It will bring you there, then vanish until you truly need it to return. Take these moments before your departure to get everything in order. There are supplies throughout the tower you may take along with you. Most importantly, I believe you were issued an invitation to tea. It would be rather rude to decline."

The smoke began to fade out, flowing back into the cauldron from which it had come.

"WAIT!" Elsa cried, reaching out for it. Upon seeing Yen Sid's retreat, she had so many last-minute questions enter her mind. But the Sorcerer had cut off communication, likely because he had to get back to those students of his.

(If he was calling upon her to travel the cosmos to a strange world so she could save it, then what could he be asking his primary students to do? Did she want to know?)

Elsa turned back to the apprentice. "I'd be glad to join you for tea."

"What is your favorite?" he responded. "We have all kinds."

"Blueberry?" Elsa said tentatively.

"Of course," the apprentice replied. "We can also go over any more last-minute questions you might have."

"There's just one that seems important to me right now."

"Then perhaps I can answer it now." The apprentice gestured to her. "What is it?"

Elsa gave a weak, sheepish smile. "What's a train?"

...

"Okay, this story's startin' to get too long." Rose shoved Elsa aside to take her place. "I'll take it from here."

The two had gathered in the back-alley district to tell the tale. Harley, Yang, Velvet, Giovanni, Molly, and Laphicet were gathered closer to them. Behind them, Snatcher, Foulfellow, and Gideon crowded to hear the exposition. The next row was the Banzai Blasters and Sparrowfeathers. And then, finally, leaning against a wall as far away as he could get while still hearing the important context, there was Roman.

"So Elsa shows up in Ladylake, and wouldn't you know, that's where the Sparrowfeathers have been doing our most recent trading," Rose explained. "What're the odds that the one person who gets this Shepherd stuff would be in the place she got sent? Though maybe the wizard did that on purpose. But I told her what she was looking for was to become the Shepherd. You know, the savior who forms pacts with seraphs of the four elements and then uses that to go kick butt. That's when the news got to us that people had started seeing Kittybeard back in action with his huge dragon. I couldn't believe it! After all the trouble we went through to put him away the first time! How is he even back?"

"Happens slightly more often than you'd think these days," Snatcher chimed in.

"We followed the rumors here," Rose continued. "And surprise surprise, look who we found. You guys saw what we're dealing with and why this is such a big problem."

"Our goal is to find the four missing seraphs and form a pact with them," Elsa stated. "We don't have much to go on, but…I can still hear Lailah's voice calling out to me. And according to Rose, that's who we have to find first in order to make any pacts."

"She's a Prime Lord, which means she's in charge of seraph-human stuff," Rose clarified.

"And just so we're clear," Harley said, "if you don't stop this cat guy, then the whole world is probably…"

"Yep." Rose gave a nod. "If not gone, then sent to a fate worse than death. That's why they call him 'Lord of Calamity.'"

"Well, what are we WAITING for?" Giovanni clapped his hands together. "We gotta get going on our epic journey to prove that WE'RE the bigger, badder villains on this stomping ground by kicking his ass out of orbit!"

"So you want to save the world to prove you're more evil?" Molly piped up.

"Yes!" Giovanni replied. "I MEAN NO! I'm not SAVING anything! I'm winning a contest of villainy, and if a bunch of innocent people don't have their lives ruined because of it, then that's a bonus!"

"Is it okay that I kinda wanna save the world just so it can be saved?" Molly asked. "You know, like a good guy?"

Giovanni lightly patted her shoulder. "Bear Trap, you should follow your heart. If you want to do the good thing, you can ABSOLUTELY do the good thing. We'll balance it out with some super heists later."

"I just…" Molly kicked at the stone beneath her feet. "I wish there was a better way I could help. That guy showed up, and all I could do was get in trouble. You could all at least figure out a way to try and stop him, but I had to be protected…"

"Don't worry about it," Yang told her. "Big sibling code. No matter how competent in a fight you are, big sibs have to play guardian."

"She's right," Velvet said. "So what I'm hearing is that we're all signing up to accompany you on this quest. If that's not what I'm hearing, it should be. After all, I didn't build up the Lord of Calamity title just for someone to steal it and start giving it a bad name."

"It surprises me that the position of Shepherd has evolved to something less corrupt than Artorius' vision," Laphicet added. "I have a lot of ground to make up for, so I should back the right Shepherd this time."

Harley thrust her fists in the air; "ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP!"

"But shouldn't someone stay back here in case something bad happens to our friends in the Earthpulse?" Molly piped up.

"Hey, uh…this whole thing sounds really dangerous," Car Crash said. "Boss, is it okay if you go, but, uh, me and the other boys stay back here?"

"YOU COWARD!" Crusher yelled. "I WOULD FOLLOW OUR BOSS INTO HELL AND BACK IF HE ASKED!"

"Actually, you guys staying here is a good idea." Giovanni nodded. "Get the lay of the land while you're at it. And bag a few of those fancy weapons. Blasters, all of you except Bear Trap are officially off the hook."

"OH THANK GOODNESS!" Crusher dropped to his knees. "I WAS TERRIFIED OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU MADE US GO!"

Rose gave a nod to Rosh, Eguille, Talfryn, and Felice. "You guys stay with them too. Take the time to do some digging, and send a letter if you find out anything we should know."

"I was hoping we'd get a chance to spend some time together," Felice said with a smile toward Darkstar, who blushed furiously.

"Right, then!" Snatcher stated. "When do we depart?"

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Yang whirled to glare him down. "Why are YOU coming? You can't tell me you're invested in saving the world."

"Yeah, that doesn't seem like the WHAM ARMY M.O.," Harley mused. "Well, I mean, unless they're savin' it so they can take it over later."

"Not an incorrect principle," Snatcher replied, "but not the reason we're going along. That man, that Lord of Calamity, he has something that belongs to us. Something we will need returned."

"The little girl," Velvet realized. "He took her from you, and you need her back."

"Precisely!" Snatcher then flinched. "Why, Miss Crowe. Lovely as that ensemble looks on you, it seems to be missing something. Namely the hat I so painstakingly crafted to accompany it."

Velvet scowled.

"What little girl?" Yang snapped. "It was just the two of them and the two Faunus. No one else."

"Yeah, I didn't see anyone either," Giovanni added.

"I did…" Molly muttered.

"You didn't see her because she was a malak," Laphicet clarified. "Or what you now call a 'seraph.' Maotelus' influence keeps her from your vision."

"Then why was I able to see her?" Molly asked. "She was pale, and had purple pigtails, and was dressed all in black, and she looked kinda angry – "

"Wait, SYMONNE?" Rose blurted.

"That's the one!" Foulfellow cried. "The one and only, her heinousness!"

"Why the hell is SYMONNE back?" Rose snapped. "And why the hell were you guys helping her out?"

"Because they're scum," Yang said flatly. "Absolute scum."

"You're quite one to talk, missy," Foulfellow huffed. "Running around with the pack of thieves you do! I say you're judging us all based on the actions of the one!"

"Regardless," Snatcher broke in, "Miss Symonne had very clearly broken ties with this Lord of Calamity. We'd convinced her to take on a new outlook toward life. Then he showed up and reeled her in by force! We'd saved her from his influence, we did, only to have her snatched away from Snatcher himself! Which is to say myself. The fact of the matter is we require her returned." He scowled. "First time I've gone through all this trouble for a child and the ends aren't to dispose of it."

"Awww, so she's like your daughter!" Harley squealed.

"Most certainly not," Snatcher huffed.

"Does this make her Rachel's sister?" Giovanni asked.

"She's not my daughter either!" Snatcher spat.

"Well, then ya gotta come along!" Harley urged. "We gotta save the girl!"

Rose sighed, shaking her head. "Y'know…I don't like this, but I have a friend who isn't around anymore who once convinced me to give her mercy. He thought she had a reason to exist no matter how bad she was. Guess it would kinda be spitting on his memory to not go save her, then, right? Especially if we could recruit her to help us fight off Kittybeard."

"I hate to rain on your parade," Roman said suddenly, causing all eyes to be drawn to him, "but the WHAM ARMY isn't going anywhere with you. We are not affiliates, we are not associates, and we are not friends. We can save Symonne on our own, and we'll do exactly that."

"Good," Yang spat. "I was starting to really not like where this was going."

"What are you saying?" Rose snapped. "You'll never be able to beat Heldalf without the power of the Shepherd and the seraphs!"

"If we all share an objective," Elsa said, "and that objective is to stop Heldalf, no matter the reason, then we should travel together. It will give us a better advantage. You saw how easily he was able to overcome all of you."

Roman exhaled sharply. "I WISH you weren't right. You know that?"

"Well, I AM," Elsa argued, "so you can listen to me or you can get yourself into trouble you won't be able to get out of."

"C'mon, guys!" Harley whined. "I don't want my girlfriend and my hardcore-evil pal to hate each other!"

"Wel,l I don't want to have a SPLITTING HEADACHE from SOMEONE sucker punching me in the MOTHERFUCKING HEAD, but we can't all get what we want, now, can we?" Roman seethed. "Anyway, let's just get to the part where Goldilocks ditches the party so I can save Symonne."

"I'M not ditching," Yang argued. "YOU'RE ditching."

"Ah, no, you are," Roman stated. "But if you won't do it willingly – "

"NOW, NOW, IT DOESN'T HAVE TO COME TO THAT!" Snatcher said in a virtual panic. "Our objectives are at this point in time aligned, are they not? Would it not be more advantageous to put her on your side – especially given that you know the damage she can do?"

"Archie," Roman sighed, "I love you, but sometimes you are just an absolute fountain of bullsh – "

Snatcher zoomed over to him, hissing in his ear, "Have you forgotten the importance of the PRODUCTION? What they hear is in no way indicative of what needs to happen."

Roman's eyes widened. "Oh."

"After all, accidents on such a dangerous trek are regrettably common. Tragic indeed," Snatcher insisted.

"I know this is complicated to say the least," Harley urged, "but I think we gotta work together if we're gonna save your daughter and the world at the same time!"

"Not my daughter," Snatcher said briskly.

"Not saving the world," Giovanni added.

"I know we've had some bad blood," Harley went on. "And we're probably still gonna have bad blood later. But today, we gotta focus on what we got in COMMON. We all wanna kill Heldalf!"

"Not wrong," Yang said.

"I second that," Roman said.

"And you both got PTSD issues," Harley urged. "You can relate on that front."

"YOU KNOW?" Roman yelled. "WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU?"

"Y'know, the purple-hair lady," Harley replied.

"…I actually have no one else to blame but myself for not seeing that coming," Roman realized.

"Really, Harley?" Yang sighed. "You had to tell him that much?"

"Sucks to be you," Roman chuckled. "Lemme guess. Whatever took off your arm? Was it an Ursa? No, wait, a Boarbatusk. A teeny-tiny little Grimm that any old huntress-in-training should've had an easy time with."

"Just – just shut up," Yang groaned.

"So can you agree on this?" Harley danced over to Yang. "Pwetty pwease? For me?"

When she got close enough to Yang, she whispered, "And if he tries any funny business, I know you'll be able to take him out in one shot anyway, and he'll deserve it. He's got a necromancer over there anyway."

"DID YOU JUST TELL HER SHE'S ALLOWED TO KILL ME BECAUSE THERE'S A NECROMANCER ON MY TEAM?" Roman yelled.

"Nope," Yang said with a smirk. "But you know what? I think we can make this work out after all."

"Yeah," Roman replied with a slyer smirk. "So do I."

"Then let's shake on it!" Foulfellow declared. "Sign the contract! Solidify our amicable alliance!"

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "Let's shake on it."

She put out her right hand. Roman put out his. They grasped each other's hand, looking to one another and thinking of how they might use this trip to one-up each other.

"Just so you know," Yang said, "I do still have a sense of honor. I won't make the first move. So be very, VERY careful if you do."

Her grip tightened to the point where Roman could practically feel his fingers breaking. The pain showed on his face, and Yang beamed. Finally, she let his hand go, and he swiped it away, shaking it out hard.

"We don't have much more time to discuss this," Elsa said sharply. "If we've reached an arrangement everyone can work with, then we should gather up our supplies and move out."

"She's right," Rose said. "We really gotta get moving."

So they did. Supplies were rounded up. Giovanni bade the Blaster squad goodbye with a group hug. Roman gave a glance to Gideon, who snuck up behind Yang, hammer raised. Only for Yang to reach behind herself and grab it. "Cool," she said nonchalantly. "Free hammer."

Roman gave a sigh of resignation. "I have…SUCH a headache right now."

"Understandable." Snatcher had a little finger in a potion bottle, swirling it before putting that finger to his lips to draw the liquid on like lipstick. "Perhaps you need some tender attention."

"Yes please." Roman leaned into Snatcher in order to receive the kiss to where Yang had decked him.

Two covered wagons drawn by strong horses awaited. One was designated for Heathens, one for WHAM ARMY, with the Heathens in the lead so Elsa could chart the course.

But before they boarded, Snatcher cleared his throat. "Miss Crowe."

"WHAT?" Velvet barked. But she already knew.

He passed her a new red top hat. She sighed and put it on to avoid arguments.

...

Mister Masper wasn't really Mister Masper, but he did like to watch the ocean waves off Efreet these days. In this torn world, all this very nondescript-looking man had left was the Dead Man's House on the island at six a.m., and so he kept to it.

In the world of the Abarat, time didn't pass as it did in other worlds. Instead, there were twenty-five isles, and each one experienced a different hour of the day, permanently. From midnight to eleven p.m., and the Twenty-Fifth Hour of magic and mystery. Efreet, as the isle of six a.m., was supposed to look like the very end of the night, the last dark sky before the break of dawn, a hint of light threatening to break through.

Now, it just looked like every other island. Time was frozen at the absolute midnight, though the people of the archipelago continued on.

It was more or less the end of the world, leaving a shell ravaged by the Darkness, Nightmares, and things far more Eldritch. It was all thanks to the horrible villains known as Christopher Carrion and Mater Motley – a wicked man and his wickeder grandmother, scheming to spread Darkness and fear over the isles as their domination. Everyone knew this.

What they didn't know, of course, was that while Carrion had put the wheels into motion, Motley had betrayed him, taken over the plan, carried it out for herself and shoved him out of the picture. That had already been enough to break him, until he learned that the reason he was an orphan, the reason his siblings had all been killed, was her from the very start, to grow him into her perfect pawn – and the souls of his family had been kept in her collection. Prevented from moving on.

They also didn't know that Motley's son and Carrion's father had survived, too, and he'd had a particularly moving talk with his son, just before the two of them battled for their fates. Not that it would matter to anyone.

What did matter was that Motley had brought upon the Abarat an apocalypse of the Dark. Thinking back, Masper knew that he had chosen the Dead Man's House to be erected in Efreet because the isle was guarded by some of the fiercest beasts known to existence. The Waztrill, the Vexile, the Sanguinus. Fitting, to reflect what sort of horrors snarled within his soul. But ever since the absolute midnight, those beasts had been killed and eaten by things that were larger and even more horrifying.

At least the nearby City of Koy couldn't get any more destroyed than it already was. Masper did hope that nothing crushed or devoured the Dead Man's House, though, because he needed that. His last shelter.

(Reduced to this…?)

There were many reasons he refused to rejoin society at large. First and foremost because it was ceasing to exist. But other reasons, too. Reasons he thought he would be keeping to himself, the same way he kept Efreet to himself.

It wasn't wonderful here, but it was tranquil. Contentment. He would stand on the shores, looking out to sea, searching out the line that separated sky from water in the starless dark and watching as the waters pulsated.

But sometimes he didn't want contentment. Sometimes he wished again for the dark and twisted desires he used to let rule him. The control he had clawed for. He would then turn inward, to look at the island, and instead of watching the waves, he would watch the new beasts of Efreet fight. Watch them puncture each other's throats with long fangs and serrated claws. Watch them lap up each other's blood.

He'd gotten to know them all by sight. Which was why he immediately knew something was wrong when the purple one showed up. There hadn't been a purple one before.

It was massive, rotund, a little blubbery, with too many limbs. It grappled with a stalk-like beast with several mouths and almost too many eyes. Then the purple one eventually got the upper claw and snapped the other's neck.

It then turned to stare Masper down. The beasts normally left him alone. (After all, they knew who he really was.) So he was startled indeed (but not afraid) when the purple one bellowed out "WELL? I KNOW YOU WERE WATCHING THAT. DON'T JUST STAND THERE AND PRETEND LIKE YOU'RE NOT CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON!"

Well, now he had to march on over there to tell it (her) off.

Which he did. "This is my island," he snarled as he neared the beast.

She shrank down. She wasn't a beast at all. A sorceress. With purple hair and an impish grin. She had also brought friends.

"This is the guy?" Sho Minamimoto scoffed. "Seems a few integers short of a sum total if you ask me."

"Laaaaame," Coco Atarashi added, giving a thumbs-down.

"Now, now," Aghoul coaxed. "Let's give him a chance. After all, I'm fairly certain he's in disguise."

Mim put her hands on her hips. "Aren't you? You better not tell me we came all the way here for the wrong person."

Oh. This was a complication. Masper reached up, behind his head, to scratch at his neck. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to," he said meekly. "I'm a simple man who's taken refuge here on this lonesome isle in hopes of escaping the ravaging dark."

His fingers curled. A yellow worm wriggled out from the flesh of his neck, coiling around his digits. Ready to be thrown as a weapon, to immobilize any one of these would-be heroes come to destroy him.

"Oh," Mim realized, watching that hand. "I probably should've led with it that we're fellow ne'er-do-wells here to team up with you in spreading Nightmares. So you can crush that one in your hand right out."

Masper paused. He slowly brought his hand out forward, dangling the little yellow wriggling worm – a Nightmare in its most larval form – before crushing it to paste in a fist. "Yes," he said flatly. "You should have led with that. A question: who do you think I am?"

"Well, right now, you're pretending to be an ordinary mortal named Mister Masper," Aghoul stated. "But your REAL name is Christopher Carrion, Lord of Nightmares."

The man he addressed smirked. "Hm. Then I suppose there's no more point in hiding it."

With a glimmer, the glamour that disguised him peeled away. In its place was a pallid man, his face thin-skinned and puckered to give the appearance of a skull. His lips were heavily scarred. His skin had a mild greenish cast to it. He wore long, flowing black robes on his tall frame, though they had a few tatters, and he obviously hadn't been to see a tailor of any sort since the absolute midnight had fallen. Most strikingly, however, around his neck there coiled several rings of wriggling yellow worms. Larval Nightmares. Once kept in a tank of fluid where he could funnel them from his head, but now they'd grown so strong that they could subsist on their own.

Coco gasped. "Those Nightmares are soooooo scene! Like a glow-stick necklace!"

Christopher Carrion, the villain who'd lost everything, recoiled at that statement. "These are no fashion statement." He reached up, weaving his fingers into the glistening worms. "They are visions of terror, enough to drive a mortal mad. They are woven from my own subconscious, given life by my most twisted of thoughts."

"Oh, we're going to get along JUST fine!" Aghoul cackled. "Now, then, Mr. Carrion. What a lovely last name, by the way. You're going to make some woman very happy by giving her the right to be called 'Mrs. Carrion.' Almost as good as 'Mrs. Aghoul,' am I right? But back to business – "

"I have no more wish to dally with any more women," Carrion seethed. "I have declared myself the enemy of love."

"When you say with no more women – " Aghoul ventured.

"Or men, or ANYTHING," Carrion clarified.

"Well, what about friends?" Aghoul asked. "You wouldn't have to love your friends. Just get along with them long enough to accomplish mutual goals."

"Can confirm," Coco said with a nod. "That's how it works on MySpace."

"Who would want to be friends with the Lord of Nightmares?" Carrion asked. "I was fearsome and horrible. But now I am soft and pathetic, cast into the shadows by my own grandmother. If you were not disgusted by the former, you are undoubtedly unimpressed by the latter."

"So you're in the gutter right now," Aghoul waved off. "We've all been there. It's sort of a running theme."

"But these greatest common factors…" Sho gestured to Aghoul and Mim. "Brought me back into the equation. And the same f(x) will apply to you too."

"How do you think you can restore me?" Carrion asked. "Are you here to topple Motley? To challenge the creatures that roam this world?"

"Well, we'll get there eventually," Mim scoffed. "That one just now was a bit of a workout, so I say we focus on other things first. More fun things!"

"Right now," Aghoul told Carrion, "as a villain, you're down and out. And you've just about exhausted what you can do on THIS world. But have you ever thought of taking your expertise to OTHER worlds?"

"Once," Carrion admitted. "The Hereafter was far more prepared than it ever should have been for my fleet."

"It's a new day," Aghoul told him. "What do you say to rounding up a NEW army and making our move on a NEW world? It would give you back a bit of clout. Not to mention we could always swing back when we have more firepower and put Grandmommy Dearest six feet under…or sixty."

"Why me?" Carrion asked. "Is this a mockery?"

"It's admiration!" Aghoul urged. "You look like death, you've caused plagues and genocides galore, and you can manifest nightmares out of your own brain at will! That's not something you see every day, and it sure isn't something our top scientist can replicate in his little clones! Ever since I heard of your résumé, I knew I had to pay you a call!"

"You may have heard of me," Carrion said, "yet I have no knowledge of you."

Aghoul bowed. "Ayam Aghoul, A-lister of the WHAM ARMY. We are but a humble team of sadists, opportunists, and conquerors out to rule the worlds and take all we can get. But don't take our word for it! Why don't you come with us on a little stroll? We can demonstrate exactly how much death and destruction we're capable of."

"And don't forget!" Mim chirped. "You have literally no other options since Motley kicked you into the gutter!"

Carrion inhaled slowly. "I have missed it," he admitted. "Death and destruction. There is not much left to kill or destroy here in the absolute midnight."

"We'll find something," Mim scoffed. "We always do."

"So you're in?" Aghoul asked. "No takesies-backsies, of course."

"I need to rebuild my resources," Carrion stated. "All of my allies have been lost to death or to betrayal. You will be a good place to start. Let me evaluate how well we work together, and how compatible our goals. Consider me a…friend."

"Oh, goody!" Mim clapped her hands together. "But you remember that thing about no take-backs."

"You're not going to do something that will make me regret this," Carrion scowled.

"Well, you DID just say you need to rebuild your allies," Aghoul reminded him. "You're not the only one we came here for."

Without waiting for a reaction, he ripped a Death Bomb from his robes, then pitched it all the way out to sea.

"LAST ONE THERE'S A ROTTEN EGG!" Coco took off for the beach.

With a cry of "ZETTA SLOW!", Sho blasted away at hyperspeed and was there in an instant. "Hurry up, yoctograms!"

Carrion had to pick up the pace to keep up with Mim and Aghoul gallivanting down to the shore. By the time they all got there, a body was arising from the deep. While it was humanoid in general structure, the limbs were much longer, looking unnaturally stretched to give extra height. The skin was the same pallor as Carrion's, with a soft green sheen. Most striking, however, was the man's back. Protruding from it were four bony extensions shaped like crosses.

Carrion recognized him immediately, and reeled. "What have you DONE?"

The resurrected man also took a step back, almost plunging into the water. "No! Please! You've punished me enough!"

"There's no such thing as too much punishment!" Mim cackled.

"I believe you already know Mendelson Shape," Aghoul re-introduced. "A good last name, but not nearly as good as 'Carrion.'"

"Of course I know him!" Carrion seethed. "I had him KILLED FOR INCOMPETENCE!"

Aghoul elbowed Mim. "I told you this was going to be a good show."

"Please!" Shape begged. "You can't!"

"Oh, I can," Mim argued. She clapped her hands, and the water Shape stood in solidified into a thick gel. He tugged at a leg, trying to raise it, only to find that the gel was so thick that he wouldn't be able to move without spending a lot of time and effort. Still, because that was a possibility, he set about trying to dislodge one foot – only to plunge it right down into the gel again the moment he'd gotten it out.

"See how easy that was?" Mim laughed, finding this perfectly comical.

Shape absolutely trembled. "Who…who are you? What is this?"

"Your third death, apparently," Carrion hissed.

"Now, now," Aghoul corrected. "Why do that when he hasn't even proven himself useful OR un-useful yet? Where would the fun be? And you!" He turned to Shape. "You want another crack at living, don't you? Well, these are the terms and conditions."

"I do," Shape admitted, ceasing the struggle for a moment. "As pleasant as paradise was…I wanted to return to a place where I could do evil again!"

"Paradise?" Mim cringed. "How?"

"Don't you remember, dear?" Aghoul told her. "Creatures from this world are piped straight to Heaven. Not a very fun system, if you ask me. Listen to how miserable he was having to put up with it!"

"I REFUSE to endure this," Carrion seethed.

"You practically signed a contract," Sho reminded him. "Also, it's this or going back to insignificance. Absolute zero, plotting the slope of the horizon."

Carrion winced. "Well. If you have proven one thing, it is that you are vile indeed. I should admire that spirit."

"You're VERY vile!" Shape spat. "And if I weren't at the losing end of it, I would be impressed as well!"

"Why not just be impressed?" Aghoul posed. "After all, we're really not here to hurt you. Watch you argue with the man who murdered you and possibly evade new attempts from him? Yes. Keep you close so you can't get away? Also yes. But for both of you, what we REALLY want is your help causing mayhem."

"I…have missed mayhem," Shape admitted.

"What mayhem would you have us commit?" Carrion asked.

"We can talk about that on the way to Yebba Dim Day," Mim told him.

"Eight in the evening?" Carrion clarified. "The cusp of twilight? Why?"

"Why, because the other person we're picking up is there," Aghoul told him.

Carrion glowered. "This third party had better not be anyone else I would rather see dead."

Mim couldn't hide her laughter. "Oh, this is just going to be wonderful!"

"After all," Aghoul reminded the group, "what's a little treachery and murder between friends?"

...

Miratrix and the Huntsman had needed to entertain themselves in the holding cell while waiting for Mozenrath to finish touching up their cross-dimensional lounge. This consisted of five or so questions of small-talk from each, and then silence that would've felt awkward to literally everyone else but was a comfort to them.

Finally, Mozenrath reappeared. "I leave you alone for five minutes and you throw a party that ruins the whole house," he teased. "Good thing I, ever the resourceful one, have a backup place prepared."

"It is finished?" the Huntsman replied.

"I wouldn't have come here to show you an inferior product," Mozenrath told him.

"Then let's see it," Miratrix demanded.

The door was set just out of view of anyone who might enter the normal way. It was a double-door set, carved in blue and black with shining gold accents that made swirling patterns. A large door knocker was set on the left while a smaller one was set on the right.

"Left kubeh is for men," Mozenrath was explaining, "and women use the right. That activates the door to – "

Miratrix stormed forward and knocked using the left ring right before passing through the door.

"Some people simply are not respectful of cultural custom," the Huntsman sighed as he used the same ring to open it for himself.

Down a short stone hallway, the lounge was a spacious room of soft-pink marble, arches characterizing its vaulted shape. Golden suns were inlaid on many of the tiles on both wall and floor. However, most of that had been covered up by voluminous blue or black curtains, recasting the color scheme. In one corner, a small rock fountain gently tinkled. Sofas and chairs carved of black wood shaped like a myriad of mythological creatures were placed in a circular format around the lounge; their fluffy cushions and pillows were deep royal blue. The staff that Mozenrath had won off Annihilus was planted dead center of the room, standing straight up from the floor.

"Welcome to paradise," Mozenrath told the others. "Have a seat."

The Huntsman awkwardly settled himself down on an upright chair. Miratrix abandoned all pretense and flopped sideways onto a sofa.

"You wouldn't recognize it," Mozenrath went on, "but we're located in the Lost City of the Sun, once ruled by the prosperous sorcerer Shamash. This is one of the entertainment rooms in what WAS his palace and is now more or less mine. After all, no one else has laid claim to the Lost City, and if it weren't so devoid of amenities, it would already be WHAM ARMY territory." He paused. "Maybe it should be anyway. Regardless, this lounge connects not only to our holding cell but will connect to any others that get assigned to fellow recruits. And the best part?"

He gestured to the staff of Annihilus, lighting it up with a blue aura. "This beautiful little piece of magitech has enough energy to pull the duty for several of the spells I needed to make this place as homey as it is. Most importantly, serving as our entertainment center. With some minor modifications, it allowed me to scry wherever I wanted on Sakaar at any time. We can watch other brackets – "

With a snap of his fingers, he conjured a circular magical screen bordered in swirling blue flames. On it, in plain view, was the battle arena, where an immense Martian battleship was having the legs cut out from under it by a blue-skinned Akiridion warrior.

"Or what's going on behind the scenes."

Another snap, and they were able to see into a holding cell where four human teenagers were attempting to talk out their situation. "I don't like this, Tony," one boy said. "Fighting our way through would be one thing, but killing?"

"Now's not the time to be weak," said another. "It's us or them."

A third sighed. "Gene, that's not – "

"Oh, because YOU'RE one to talk," the girl of the group spat. "Mr. I-Kidnap-People-in-Order-to-Not-Kill-Them! Which, I mean, I'm glad that's how it worked out, but – "

Mozenrath, having seen enough, dismissed the image. "Which means we can get a good idea of what we're fighting next," he stated. "And choose our next move accordingly. Oh, and there's one more luxury I've installed in the lounge. Whenever someone approaches the holding cell back in Sakaar, we'll hear the sound of – "

A soft yet sharp bell-ring was heard throughout the lounge.

"That," Mozenrath said, deflating a little. "We'll hear that."

The Huntsman rose. "Then we had best return immediately."

Following him, Miratrix told Mozenrath rather gruffly, "It's…nice. A suitable lair at any rate."

"No need to underplay your astonishment on my account," Mozenrath replied coyly.

They hustled back to the holding cell, shutting the door to the Lost City of the Sun behind them. "Act natural," the Huntsman hissed. "As though we haven't just been away."

Topaz came down the stairs to see the Huntsman sparring with nothing, Miratrix also sparring with nothing on the other side of the cell, and Mozenrath setting off blue explosions for no reason. Not seeing anything odd about this picture, she banged the end of the Melt Stick on the floor.

"Grandmaster Lapdog!" Mozenrath greeted. "We had no idea you were coming along."

Topaz entered the cell. "Next match," she said. "This one's for the ugly one."

With a sigh, the Huntsman started forward.

He immediately saw the end of the Melt Stick pointed to him. "I said the UGLY one," Topaz reiterated.

Mozenrath and the Huntsman gave looks of shock and awe toward Miratrix, who immediately flared up with anger. "I ought to gut you where you stand for that remark," she seethed. "But I'll take that anger to the battlefield."

"Good," Topaz told her. "Also channel some of that ugliness on the outside into your fighting style."

"I AM NOT UGLY!" Miratrix spat. "BUT IF I WERE, IT WOULD MAKE NO DIFFERENCE!"

Topaz stared at her for a solid five seconds. Then: "No. I was right. Definitely ugly."

"RRRRGH!" Miratrix stamped out after Topaz, leaving the cell.

"Not that I'm one to ask," Mozenrath commented once they'd left, "but there's no accounting for taste, or lack thereof. I'd say she's tied for the second most beautiful one on this planet. And don't ask who's the first."

"There's no need to," the Huntsman replied.

They then scurried off to the Lost City lounge so they could keep an eye on the fight to be fought.

...

Rapunzel, Stork, Ven, and Papyrus were having a hard time not colliding into each other because of the blindfolds they were wearing.

"Remind me again why we had to wear these all the way here?" Rapunzel asked as the quartet stumbled into Cid's Gummi Garage.

From slightly in front of her, Jim Hawkins responded in a dramatically somber tone, "Because the eyes don't lie." Then chortled. "Okay, I'm sorry, DON'T tell Riku I made fun of him but that's too much."

"It's just tradition, okay!" Kazuichi Soda insisted. "This wouldn't be a real surprise without it! Which means STOP FUCKING PEEKING!"

"I AM NOT PEEKING!" Papyrus yelled back. "ALSO, WATCH OUT, STORK. YOU NEARLY CLIPPED ME WITH THAT ELBOW."

"How would you know that if you're not peeking?" Stork sighed.

"Okay, ready?" Weiss Schnee called out. "Blindfolds off in three…two…NOW!"

The four reached up to pull away the cloth. Papyrus gasped; "NEW SOLO SKIMMERS! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SURPRISE THAT I DID NOT SEE AROUND THE BLINDFOLD!"

In fact, there were four skimmer-bikes parked on the garage floor, based on Atmosian style. "We heard you four could use some cheering up," said Weiss. "So we made you some presents."

"We?" Jim repeated. "Kazuichi and I did all the work. You stood around, gave orders, and occasionally handed us tools."

"Hey, she also worked on the paint job!" Kazuichi snapped while Weiss looked proud of herself.

"These are OURS?" Rapunzel gasped. "Oh my gosh! You shouldn't have! BUT I'M SO GLAD YOU DID! THANK YOU!" She surged forward, catching Jim in a tight hug and bouncing around with him. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"

"PARDON ME," Papyrus pointed out, "IT'S NOT THAT I'M NOT GRATEFUL. AFTER ALL, I PREVIOUSLY DID NOT HAVE A SKIMMER TO SPEAK OF. BUT VEN DID ALREADY HAVE A VERY NICE ONE."

"Yeah, and it was his weapon, too," Kazuichi reminded everyone. "THIS one he can sit on and also use his big-ass key."

"Hey, yeah!" Ven realized. "That oughta be more convenient if we're attacked by air!"

"Is no one going to notice the paint job?" Weiss barked. "Seriously! That's half the point!"

"Oh! Which one's mine?" Rapunzel dropped Jim to fawn over the skimmers. "Please, PLEASE tell me it's this purple one."

She looked up to see Stork already sitting on the black skimmer. "I think we all knew," he stated.

"I like that gray one," Ven said.

"AND I WILL TAKE THE WHITE ONE!" Papyrus declared. "A CLASSIC HERO COLOR! HMM…WAIT A MINUTE. WHY DOES THAT REMIND ME OF SOMETHING?"

Rapunzel gasped. "Those colors! It's our flag!"

"Heh." Kazuichi put both hands behind his head. "Took me a while to wrap my mind around that whole 'ace' thing – "

"To the surprise of no one," Stork broke in, and everyone got a good chuckle.

"But it's all about pride, okay?" Kazuichi insisted. "If you're different, you gotta show it off in loud color! Throw it in everyone's faces that you are who you are!"

"Thanks, guys," Ven said sincerely. "This means a lot."

"You really didn't have to," Rapunzel added. "I mean, it's not like figuring out a label was anything earth-shattering." But her voice cracked, betraying the façade.

Jim sighed. "Trust me. The sooner you start being honest about what it all means, the better you'll feel in your own skin."

"I really wasn't bothered, though," Stork insisted.

"Yeah, well, you're just depressed ALL the time," Kazuichi told him, "so you needed a cheer-up no matter what."

Stork shrugged. "Not entirely inaccurate."

"Well, we need a final verdict!" Jim laughed. "We know how they handle for us, but not for you guys! Take 'em for a spin!"

"Let's race!" Ven suggested. "Figure out whose is fastest!"

"Or who's the best pilot," Stork said slyly.

"FIRST ONE TO NINE WOOD HILL DISTRICT?" Papyrus suggested.

"Oooh, it's an ACE RACE!" Rapunzel squealed.

Outside the Gummi garage, Weiss stood in front of the four revving skimmers, holding up two white flags. "On your mark!" she yelled. "Get set!" The flags went down. "GO!"

Her braid was nearly jostled out of place by the momentum of the four skimmers taking off and blowing past her.

Up in the air over Radiant Garden, Rapunzel gasped, oohed, aahed. She could see the way the city was laid out in different polygons, district after district. The wind teased her long hair lovingly. Yet again she was reminded why Stork admired the sky so much – it seemed up here, there was so much less to fear than down below. Even though the fall was always a risk.

And speaking of Stork, he was right beside her then. "THIS IS AWESOME!" Rapunzel shrieked to him over the whipping wind.

"Heh…" Stork gave her a mischievous smile. "Kinda thought you'd like it. But I really just came here to say 'on your left.'" And with that, he pulled far ahead.

"HEY!" Rapunzel gunned the skimmer to try and catch up.

They landed in the Nine Wood Hills park, making sure to stow the skimmers off to the edge so that no one would be disturbed by their presence. Ven had ended up the winner, and received some friendly riffing about it. From there, they went down the Promenade to get some victory drinks.

Nine Bean Hill was quite busy that day, but by the time the quartet arrived, things had finally slowed down enough that they could get their drinks almost immediately. "We had a rush and a half for a minute there," Reynn explained. "I'm just glad we had enough time for Lann to go back and get the rest of the milk foam out of his clothes."

"What?" Ven replied.

"Don't ever order carbonated milk" was Reynn's only explanation.

"So." Ven smirked at his friends. "Since I won…is someone picking up my tab?"

"No," Stork told him. "Don't even."

"I WILL!" Papyrus volunteered. "BUT IT HAS MORE TO DO WITH HOW MUCH I LIKE YOU THAN YOU ACTUALLY WINNING. FOR ALL YOU KNOW, I LET YOU WIN."

"You wish!" Ven laughed. "Hmm…what's the 'unicorn' drink?"

"It's sweet and sour at the same time," Reynn explained. "We make it with mango, coconut, and sour blue raspberry. Then it all gets turned pink and blue! Just like a storybook unicorn!"

"Oh, PLEASE!" a blond boy standing a few feet over scoffed. "You mean the sanitization of unicorns made for little girls? We need a return to heraldic unicorns!"

"WELL, YOU JUST HATE FUN, DON'T YOU?" Papyrus told him.

"The unicorn was supposed to be a terrifying beast that could kill you on sight!" the boy kept ranting. "There weren't any of these pastel colors or friendly magic spells!"

"Yeah, well, I can count four unicorns we know personally who actually are pastel and cast friendship-related spells," Stork told him flatly, "and a fifth and sixth by reputation."

The boy's chaperone, a birdlike man in glittering red robes, reached out to tug on the medieval army jacket he had hanging off his shoulders. "Apex Captain should take a look at this," he hissed, passing over a digital device.

With a flinch, the blond boy read the message upon it. "Dang it – okay, we gotta tell the others it's on!" Then he fled out the door.

The birdlike man bowed. "Apologies for Chamberlain's ward. He is having very, VERY trying day full of drama and unexpected musical numbers." Then he shuffled out to try and catch up with his friend.

Rapunzel, Ven, Stork, and Papyrus exchanged a four-way shrug. "I dunno about you," Rapunzel said, "but I just want one of those unicorns even more now."

Walking out with three unicorn drinks and a black coffee, the four friends next wandered toward the bookstore. Which Stork tried to prevent: "NOPE. No. We're not going in there. A bookstore is an inherently dangerous place. You walk in to buy one thing and you walk out with half the inventory!"

"Well, we've been all about facing our fears lately, right?" Rapunzel danced toward the shop. "Also, I KNOW you've been looking for some new reading material about creepy-crawlies. Don't pretend you haven't!"

"I – " Stork couldn't argue. "I guess I'm falling into the sweet grasp of intellectual temptation today."

They took their time picking out some reading material, and brought maybe a few more books than they should have to the checkout. At which point, the cashier asked, "Do you guys know anything about those dancers that were in here earlier singing about conspiracies?"

"Um…no?" Ven replied.

"I hear they're part of some professional troupe," the cashier said, "and I wanna know when I can catch their show at Prima Vista. They're pretty good showmen."

With books and drinks in hand, Rapunzel, Stork, Ven, and Papyrus returned to the park, leaning on their skimmers to chat a while.

"So, um…I don't want to be rude," Ven said softly, "but, Rapunzel…I was, um…I was wondering."

She fiddled with the straw in her drink. "Things with Eugene are…we're still working it all out. It's pretty obvious we're not gonna be…what we thought we'd be. I hope we can be friends, but sometimes I worry I wouldn't be able to do that without…wishing things had been different." She gave a sigh. "It's not easy. I would love to just…drop everything and embrace knowing something new about myself with no problems, but it's not just about me."

"If I may," Stork suggested, "maybe that's your problem. All this stuff, the race and the books and that unicorn drink, those are things you did WITHOUT Eugene. No offense, but did you really do that much that wasn't tied to him somehow? You know, things that were just Rapunzel?"

"Huh." Rapunzel watched the wind tousle the grass. "I know in the beginning, I did. But as time went on…I got so wrapped up in us being a fairy tale. You know, when we first settled in at Corona, he proposed to me and I said no. I didn't know if I WANTED to be a princess. I wanted adventure outside the kingdom walls. He was so understanding of it that I started…kind of regretting saying any of that. Didn't help that my dad put a ban on me leaving. I stopped thinking about that kind of adventure and those other things. The last time I tried to sneak out and do something for myself…I almost got Cass in major trouble. And then I wasn't able to tell Eugene for so long what had happened because of that…and then after that, it seemed like any decision I didn't make based on him, it was on my new friendship with her. But I didn't mind that! Because I loved him and she was my best friend, and aren't you supposed to put them first?"

"From what I saw," Stork reminded her, "Eugene liked you because you were unashamedly yourself. I don't think he'd really like hearing how much you wrangled with your own identity to make him happier."

"Eugene…" Rapunzel sighed. "To be honest, I'm not sure if he gets it. Once, he said that I was so positive, I even refused to call cherry pits 'the pits.'"

"BUT THAT'S HOW YOU ARE," Papyrus reminded her.

"Or is that just on the outside?" Stork guessed.

"Got it in one," she told him. "Look, I LIKE being happy, and I try to put on that face for everyone, but there are still so many things that are scary and so many things that are sad and – " She blinked at tears. "And I should be able to handle it by now, shouldn't I?"

"That's why we're a team," Ven told her. "We help each other get through things."

"And in my personal experience," Stork added, "what's seemed to work for me is just being upfront about all of my inner turmoil and need to complain about everything. For instance, the fact that not only are the unicorn drinks too garish, but the people who point that out are apparently egotistical know-it-alls." He took another sip of his black coffee. "And, by some miracle, I found a team that liked me anyway, so I didn't have to change anything. And then after I lost them, it happened again with the rest of you."

"So you're saying I should be more honest about when things upset me?" Rapunzel asked.

"Won't do you any good otherwise," Stork told her. "And I'm pretty sure everyone here likes you even if you embrace the dark side."

"Okay," Rapunzel resolved. "Then I can say things like…even if I'm able to move on from things with Eugene, I don't know if I can ever find anyone who WILL be good for me because of…of all this. And skimmers are lovely, and I KNOW I should focus on rebuilding my own identity and wearing the colors for myself, but I don't want to be alone in this, and as much as I try to pass myself off as being independent…" Her eyes watered thick. "I want love in my life. Without having to compromise. And I don't know if that's something I can even have!"

Of course Stork was tempted to confess. But logic immediately took back over. For one, it would be extremely rude to make her catharsis about his own feelings. For another, if she thought he was an option at this point, she would've said so already. "I'm not the best person to look to for hope and optimism," he said in the end. "Usually this is where I just accept that my fate is to be doomed and call it a day. I, uhm…I don't think that's the right answer for you, though."

"THEN COUNT ON ME TO PROVIDE THE OPTIMISM!" Papyrus declared. "I THINK WE'VE ALREADY FOUND THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THESE WORLDS THAT OF COURSE THERE WILL BE SOMEONE OUT THERE FOR YOU, RAPUNZEL! SOMEONE WHO LOVES YOU THE WAY YOU LOVE THEM AND DOESN'T ASK FOR ANYTHING ICKY! AND SOMEONE WHO LOVES YOU EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT PERFECTLY HAPPY ALL THE TIME! THAT SOMEONE MIGHT EVEN BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!"

Rapunzel gave a soft laugh. "Thanks, Papyrus." A pause. "I wonder what Cass would say if she were here. Maybe the same thing you just said."

"DO WE NEED TO GO ON A QUEST TO RETRIEVE HER?" Papyrus asked.

"I…I don't know," Rapunzel admitted. "I would've said yes, but you all convinced me to be more honest, and sometimes I think about how she struggled so much back at the castle with being a handmaiden and a guard. She was always trying to prove herself, like at contests, and it was obvious that she thought I just got in the way and stole her thunder. I wish I could've done more, but what? I wasn't able to put in a word for her promotion. That was my dad's territory. She also wasn't big on handouts. Which is why I kinda thought that maybe…letting her go on the quest that was meant for me would let her learn how to be proud of herself too."

"It sounds like she needs to heal," Ven observed. "It's great that you let her have something to herself and time to figure it out. I know I did. But I also needed my friends at the end of the day."

"You're right," Rapunzel realized. "I can't put it off forever. I just…I want to sort myself out before I have the energy to fix her."

"Don't tell him I said this," Stork piped in, "but you could always just give her to Sora to deal with. You know exactly how that would turn out."

Rapunzel laughed at that. "And Riku. And probably Kairi. I couldn't be that selfish, though. 'Oh, here's my angsty best friend, fix her for me while I go be angsty over there!'"

"Couldn't you?" Stork teased. "The dark side is calling, Rapunzel. Heed its words."

She was laughing even harder.

"What happened to the woman who flagrantly disobeyed her mother and ran away from home?" Stork continued. "I think THAT Rapunzel needs to come out and play. And the fact that Gothel turned out to be a manipulative harpy didn't change that you used to be able to break the rules."

"I do use that as an excuse to justify what I did, don't I?" Rapunzel realized. "And running away wasn't even that BAD. I just feel like I needed her to be bad to explain why I did it."

"By the way," Ven said, "you have all my sympathy for that."

"You have mine," Rapunzel told him. "I hear you just found out you went through something similar."

"Do you ever still think of her like you love her?" Ven asked. "Do you catch yourself knowing logically that she did everything wrong, but it's still so hard to sink in?"

"Every day," Rapunzel replied. "I promise it gets easier, but it takes a while."

"Then that's good to know," Ven said.

"OH, LOOK!" Papyrus noted something in the grass near his foot. "SOMEONE HAS DROPPED SOMETHING!" He bent to pick it up. "IT'S AN EYEBALL. I'M SURE SOMEONE WILL WANT THIS BACK."

The silence was palpable. Then Stork said "That's not normal. You know that's not normal, right? You know we're probably being watched by a serial maimer who wants OUR eyeballs, right?"

"That's NOT what's going on right now," Rapunzel insisted. "It probably got DROPPED by a serial maimer who is way out of the district now." She shuddered.

A tap on Papyrus' shoulder managed to startle them all into a four-part harmonic scream. "Excuse me," a calm voice said. "I seem to have dropped that by accident. May I have it back?"

"CERTAINLY!" Papyrus turned to place the eyeball in the outstretched hand of the dark-haired man in the pink vest. He took a moment to observe that the man had both of his eyeballs. "WAIT. HOW IS THIS YOURS IF YOU HAVE BOTH?"

"THE SERIAL MAIMER!" Stork yelled, pointing in fear.

"I'm not a serial maimer," the man said immediately. "This eyeball is rubber."

"It is?" Ven replied.

The man looked at him sheepishly for two seconds. Then turned and bolted.

"I mean, it was PROBABLY rubber," Rapunzel figured. "That's the most likely explanation. Right?"

"We should still bring it up to Leon and Kairi when we get back," Ven stated.

"SPEAKING OF WHICH," Papyrus said, "WE OWE JIM, KAZUICHI, AND WEISS A FIELD REPORT."

Rapunzel moved back to mount her skimmer. "Let's get going!"

They lifted off, only to be greeted with a very strange sight. A Corridor opened up in the sky before them – well, centered before Rapunzel, to be specific. Instead of Darkness, it was made of pure Light.

"WHAT IS THAT?" Papyrus asked.

"I've seen this before," Ven realized. "When Terra came to rescue me from…him. He used one of these to save me."

"I don't know why," Rapunzel said, "but I feel like this is…meant for me." She stared into the gleam raptly. "Like it's calling me."

"That's never good," Stork said. "First sign of a trap."

"What's on the other side?" Ven asked. "Any ideas?"

"Probably something scary," Rapunzel replied. She inhaled, puffing out her chest; "I just gotta call on my dark side like you guys said."

"And your friends," Ven said.

"Yeah, not letting you go in there without at least one chaperone," Stork told her. "Since I'm absolutely certain it's a trap but we're totally going in there anyway. Strength in numbers and all."

"Okay," Rapunzel resolved. "You guys ready for a random adventure that could keep us away from home for a while?"

"I'M READY!" Papyrus said.

"I'm ready," Ven added.

"I'm ready," Stork concluded. Then, with a clearing of his throat: "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Then let's go!" Rapunzel sped into the portal of Light.

One by one, Stork, Ven, and Papyrus followed. Then the portal closed behind them.

...

With only Elsa's guidance to go on, the two wagons had no idea where they would end up, or when the journey would be over. After crossing Zaphgott's sands, they set out over what must have been that world's longest bridge, spanning miles and miles and giving the WHAM ARMY wagon plenty of time to complain. From there, it was through an expanse of farmland pasture until at last Elsa suddenly pointed off-course, narrowing down a specific.

"I wonder if we're going where I think we are," Rose remarked as the wagons passed through a road shrouded in a cavern.

"Don't look at me," Velvet replied. "Nothing about this is the same as the world I once knew. It's like a whole other planet."

"But that…kind of makes it better to explore, doesn't it?" Laphicet ventured. "We've traveled our land many times over in reality and even more in our shared dream. And now it's changed entirely so that we can explore it all over again."

"I like the way you think," Velvet told him.

Behind them, as Foulfellow drove on the horse, Roman lay splayed out and facedown on the wagon bed. "WHEN IS IT OVERRRRRR?" he groaned.

"Never get anywhere at this rate," Snatcher grumbled. "Might as well've gone off on our own."

"Don't you even put ideas like that in anyone's head," Foulfellow snapped. "I'm certainly not taking on that beast without a veritable army! And we're riding behind the most expendable of frontlines! If we abandon them, what's to stop us from being annihilated? Obliterated?"

"Nothing stops us from being resurrected either," Roman pointed out.

"Yes, but then we lose her heinousness," Foulfellow reminded him.

Roman rolled over onto his back. "That kid better be grateful of all we're going through to get her back."

Gideon stared forlornly at the Heathens wagon. Yang still had his hammer.

The wagons exited the cavern onto a rocky mountainside path, thumping over uneven ground until they arrived at a wall that cordoned off a sizeable ledge.

"Here!" Elsa leapt down from the wagon, rushing up to place both palms on the gate. "She's here!"

"Here?" Rose repeated. "But this is Gododdin. Not that there's anything wrong with Gododdin, but Lailah sure couldn't've picked a more out-of-the-way place. She of all people remembers that this is where you come when you don't want to be found."

"Maybe she doesn't," Molly brought up. "I mean, she wants to be found by Elsa, but maybe she's trying to hide from everyone else. The Sorcerer said she was corrupt and turning into a monster, right?"

"Good point," Rose realized. "Lailah always was too noble for her own good. She probably picked out a hiding place where she'd be hard to find so she wouldn't hurt anybody."

A yell from the WHAM ARMY wagon: "CAN WE JUST GET A MOVE ON ALREADY?"

Harley sighed dramatically. "Let's just go, okay?"

Beyond the wall, Gododdin was a modest village, with farms here and there and a large yet austere schoolhouse.

"This is the most pathetic town I've ever seen," Roman sighed. "Negative two out of ten."

"Probably more tolerable than Cheesebridge on principle," Snatcher noted. "One out of ten."

"Well, I think it's quite a charming little hamlet!" Foulfellow said. "And I'm not just saying that because of the listening ears we're passing by who won't want their town insulted!"

Gideon started scanning the shops to see if there was anywhere that might sell replacement hammers.

Elsa was running ahead of the wagon now, more and more excitedly with every step. "She's here!" she called out. "This way!"

"Wait," Rose realized as the wagon drew near to the back of the village, where it pressed up to the mountain's sheer face. "Actually…I think I get it. Why Lailah is here."

"What's the deal?" Yang asked.

"I'm gonna wait until we're all settled in one place," Rose told her. "Wouldn't wanna explain it twice."

Elsa led the two wagons into a cavern hollowed in the mountainside. A set of doors was carved at the far end of the cave.

"Yep," Rose said with a nod. "I knew it."

She drew her horse to a halt, then signaled for the WHAM ARMY wagon to slow down as well. Once everyone was circled up, Rose explained.

"When I was squire to the last Shepherd," she stated, "we had to go through four trials to awaken the elemental powers of the bond with each seraph we were traveling with. Fire, water, wind, and earth. The fire shrine is there, behind those doors. Lailah is a fire seraph, and she's the one who was the most active in the trial here. She had to stick her face on a burning sword and everything. Don't worry; she's fine. I think maybe she gravitated back here because of all that."

"The voice is definitely coming from behind those doors," Elsa said excitedly. "She's here! I know it!"

"And to be clear," Roman reiterated. "No Lailah, no Symonne."

"That's about the size of it," Rose affirmed.

Roman leaned on a hip. "Well, a shrine to pyromania oughta be entertainment at any rate."

"Full of flames, I would assume," Snatcher said. "And other such hazards."

Roman caught the hint. "And here my lighter was running low on fluid," he said to cover his smugness. "Won't have to worry about that in here."

"Then let us begin the trial at once!" Foulfellow declared. "There's no test we can't pass! So long as we're allowed to cheat, that is."

Elsa shoved the doors open, revealing the hall to the fire shrine. Wagons were left parked in the cave as everyone headed inside.

It seemed too impressive to be part of the sleepy village outside. The shrine was massive, its entry leading to a balcony that ringed a pit of magma far below. Everything glowed a bright and inviting red.

"Now THIS is prime villain aesthetic!" Giovanni crowed.

"Let's get a move on!" Rose led the way she remembered from her own journey through this shrine.

Everyone followed. Roman kept a close eye on Yang, however, seizing up his opportunity. Was it really going to come so easily as this? In such a way that he could obviously make it look like an accident?

She was walking by the balcony's railing. Too easy. Roman briskly walked up beside her –

Bumped hard into Yang's side. Sent her over the edge with a yelp. Plunging toward the magma pit.

"YANG!" Harley gasped.

"Oh my gods," Roman sputtered, trying to feign regret. "I didn't – that wasn't supposed to happen. Oh, no. Ohhhhh, no no no."

"Poor Miss Xiao Long," Snatcher said with a sniffle. "We'd barely set out, and already she was taken from us so young – "

When she'd gone over the edge, Yang had made use of her quick reflexes to catch the balcony railing with one hand. She used that grip as leverage to fling herself back up onto the balcony.

"Oh, PHEW!" Harley wiped her brow. "I got worried for ya for a second there!"

"YOU!" Yang pointed at Roman. "You did that on purpose!"

"No, I didn't!" Roman argued.

"I told you I wouldn't make the first move." Yang raised both arms, then brought them down with a rush of bright flame. She was burning. "BUT I'M NOT ABOVE REVENGE!"

One room ahead, Rose, Laphicet, Giovanni, and Foulfellow were examining a firmly locked door bordered by a pair of stone torches. "This could be a problem," Rose sighed. "We need the Flames of Purification to get through here. That's a special blessing from Maotelus. The only people I knew who could do it were the last Shepherd and Lailah."

"Like locking the keys in the car," Giovanni sighed.

"Maotelus is a part of me, remember?" Laphicet stated. "If I concentrate…I should be able to access his powers." He shut his eyes, beginning to meditate.

"I say we arrange for a backup plan in the case that the child isn't able to manifest the, er, the magic flames," Foulfellow suggested. "I don't know of many doors that can't be opened with the right amount of force!"

On cue, Roman came barreling into the room, Yang literally hot on his heels. "YOU ARE SO DEAD!" she yelled, drawing back a fist.

Everyone else had to scatter and let the two of them duel it out for a moment. Roman attempted to use one of the torches for cover, but Yang didn't hesitate to swing a flaming fist at him around it. He led her around the next one; her burning hair swept over the torch.

Both remained lit from where Yang had brushed them with her burning Semblance. Then, to Rose's utter surprise, the door opened.

"WHAT THE – " Rose reeled. "No way! You have the Flames of Purification?"

"DON'T KNOW, DON'T CARE!" Yang was pursuing Roman through the newly-opened door.

Velvet approached; "Artes and abilities from different worlds have translated strangely. She may not have the Flames of Purification as we know them, but that's no ordinary fire."

Harley and Snatcher came rushing through then –

"YANG! YANG, SUNSHINE, SWEETIE PIE, HANG ON JUST A MINUTE!"

"MISS XIAO LONG! YOU WOULDN'T DARE LAY A HAND ON A PERFECTLY CIVIL TRAVELING COMPANION WHO YOU KNOW FULL WELL I WOULD HAVE TO AVENGE!"

Back at the main balcony, Molly asked Elsa, "Couldn't you just make us a road downstairs with your ice?"

"That's not a bad thought." Elsa put out her hands, willing into being a crystalline stairway that led from the balcony down to the depths.

It melted as soon as it had taken shape. Unusable.

"Either the temperature's too high or the fire magic here counters my own powers," Elsa noted. "We'll have to go through the long way."

It took some convincing, but Yang was finally calmed down just enough to have it pointed out to her that her Semblance was the key to opening all the doors throughout the rest of the temple. Which required her to fire back up and be angry again, and she had no trouble doing that so long as Roman was visible.

Harley leaned against a temple wall, sighing loudly.

"Dare I ask, Miss Quinn?" Snatcher probed.

"I didn't think it'd be like this, Archie," Harley sighed. "You guys are my pals, even if we can't work together full-time, and Yang's my best girl! I thought this'd be a magical adventure where all my friends would learn to get along. Y'know, the kind where Romy would get in some sorta trouble, Yang'd save him, he'd owe her a debt, they'd shake on it…"

"I'm not certain what children's literature you've been reading," Snatcher told her, "but you see the very obvious reason that cannot happen, do you not? Or is it not clear?"

"Spell it out for me? Just in case."

"She stands against quite literally everything we stand FOR," Snatcher told her. "And vice versa. She's an obstacle to us. We're an obstacle to her. At the end of it all, only one side can remain standing."

"NO!" Harley stamped a foot. "Don't say it like that! There's gotta be a way we can all get along! Those two can forgive each other if they just put their heart into it!"

"Miss Quinn," Snatcher sighed. "Just because you can forgive every man who beats you black and blue doesn't mean that's how the rest of your party is to operate. Nor ours. Your kindness, while much appreciated, does NOT mitigate a single thing that stood beforehand."

Harley didn't have anything to say to that. She just stayed against that wall, eyes trained on the ground, while Snatcher continued ahead.

"Soooo," Giovanni said as he kept pace with Rose. "We've all traded our stories, but we still don't really know yours except that you saved the world the one time and you run a guild of assassins-slash-traveling-salesmen."

"Oh yeah," Rose realized. "That would be good context, wouldn't it? Well, like you said, I lead the Scattered Bones, which are also the Sparrowfeathers. Kinda weird that I ended up being the hero of all things. My job was all about killing. Then again, our motto was 'If it's evil, we kill it,' so I guess that makes sense."

"Y'know, good and evil aren't a REAL strict binary," Giovanni told her. "I myself like to engage in a little violent crime every now and again."

"Oh yeah?" Rose nudged him. "Street fights? Mercenary work?"

"Something even better and more violent," Giovanni bragged. "Breaking storefront windows to raid the inventory. And before you ask, yes, that includes…CANDY STORES."

Rose gave a snort. "Not to rain on your parade, but I don't think you're quite the horrible person you think you are."

"Keep it down, will you?" Giovanni hissed. "People can't know I'm nice! It'll ruin my rep!"

"WE ALL KNOW ALREADY!" Velvet called from several feet behind.

"SHUT UP!" Giovanni shook his fist at her. "Anyway. Please continue."

"Well, I'm an orphan," Rose went on, "and I was supposed to marry the prince of Rolance, except he kinda went crazy and then died. The Scattered Bones were my only family up until the last Shepherd showed up. His name was Sorey, by the way."

"Oh, that guy!" Giovanni realized.

"You've heard of him?" Rose asked.

Giovanni weighed his options. The truth would be much less believable than a carefully-crafted lie. "Yeah, I read about him in a book at the laundromat."

"At the what?"

That lie may not have been so carefully crafted. "Don't worry about it."

"Well, Sorey and – and our friends and I decided to become the good guys and save the world." Rose shrugged. "Not without a few underhanded decisions, of course."

Yang had opened the next door, and Rose and Giovanni stepped out into a room filled with armadillo-shaped creatures whose skin had the appearance of craggy rock with magma lines glowing through. Upon seeing the intruders, the Rollers let out a chorus of wasplike buzzes.

"LOOK SHARP!" Rose charged into the fray, withdrawing twin daggers from crossed sheaths at the small of her back.

Giovanni utterly forgot to fight. Rose was beautiful. She was whirling and dancing, cutting expertly with each knife to hit the kill spot on each Roller with minimal effort. When the monsters were dispatched, she fired Giovanni a smile, twirling both daggers and re-sheathing them.

"I. Um." Giovanni pointed at her. "That was…that was pretty cayenne of you."

"That was WHAT?"

"DAMMIT!" Giovanni yelled. "I was trying to think of an adjective that described something really good like soup and that's what came out!"

Rose chuckled. "Do you have a thing for me?"

"NO!" Giovanni was turning bright pink. "I mean – unless – "

Rose shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks. Sorry to shoot down your dreams, but…I'm kinda in love with somebody else. Somebody I can't have, but that's not gonna stop my silly old heart. I've decided I just gotta ride it out until he stops meaning so much to me. And if he never does, well, I can make it on my own."

"Giving up already?" Giovanni posed. "Seriously? First of all, if this guy can't see how amazing you are, that's his problem. Second – "

"It's not like that," Rose said suddenly. "I can't have him because he's…gone."

The realization sank in. "Oh," Giovanni said somberly.

"The worst part is that I didn't even realize how much I loved him until after he died," Rose sighed. "I thought we were just that good of friends. He was always there for me, since before I could remember. I never got to repay him for any of it. Well, except he probably thought that in the end, he'd just messed things up for me, but that's not true. He made me smile way too much." She was smiling even then. "Like I said. I can just kinda…be with his memory, if all else fails."

"I may not know the guy," Giovanni said, "but I'll bet a good amount of money that if he knew about this, he'd be so flattered that he'd have no choice but to return your feelings."

Rose shrugged. "It is what it is."

"Can I…um…is it totally wrong if I ask what his name is? Was?"

There was a new sparkle in Rose's eye. It might've been mist. "Dezel," she replied. "His name was Dezel."

The objective became clear as the group moved further into the temple: activate four fountains of lava to fill the pit below, then use the stone islets set into the magma pool as a bridge to the heart of the shrine. It probably would've been a quick and efficient task if not for Roman and Yang chasing each other around all the while. Now bullets were actually flying. And Harley felt all the more unsure about the whole endeavor.

"Giddy," Foulfellow brought up, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Gideon was thinking about what they should have for lunch, but that probably wasn't what Foulfellow had in mind, so he shook his head.

The fox craned his head to look around the walls of the temple. "If I understand, this place is quite sacred," he said. "And a secret at that. See how empty it is? I'll bet no one but the would-be heroes have been here in a long, long while!"

Gideon was starting to understand. He grinned slyly.

"Don't you think it's a shame to keep this all from the public?" Foulfellow asked. "I think it should be open for everyone to come and see the spectacle! For a reasonable fee, of course." He winked. "Reasonable for us, I mean. When all's said and done, what say you we come back here and open up a business giving tours of this wonder of the world?"

Gideon applauded that decision.

"We could even get in one or two before we go if we play our cards right," Foulfellow realized. "After all, we'll have to stay the night. If we remain awake and charge double for the midnight tour, we can fill our pockets while the rest sleep! Then, in the morning, we'll just let our fine friends take over handling the wagon while we get our own beauty rest!"

Gideon stared blankly at him.

"Don't look at me like that," Foulfellow scoffed. "They can't be that horrible at handling a vehicle. It's only a wagon! How much trouble could they get a wagon into?"

Gideon shrugged.

Yang swiped a burning fist across the torch needed to activate the next fountain. Harley walked up to her nervously. "Heyyyyy," she said. "So, uh, I kinda wanted to talk about the whole…Romy thing."

Yang gave a sigh. "I'm not happy about it. And honestly? I'm a little mad at you. But at the same time, I know exactly why you did this. You're a peacemaker, and you forgive easy. I know you just want all your friends to be able to get along."

"Yeah!" Harley chirped. "That's exactly it!"

Yang shook her head. "It just doesn't WORK that way sometimes. Roman just tried to murder me."

"It was an accident!" Harley protested.

"I think that's what you want to believe," Yang told her.

"Well," Harley pointed out, "ya survived it. Like I said."

Yang gave a sigh. "There's one more thing that's keeping me from just calling the whole thing off, and it's not just that I feel a responsibility about this Heldalf thing."

"Oh yeah?" Harley leaned in.

Yang leaned in as well, and whispered something to her.

Roman and Snatcher had found a sight of interest: a multi-branching crystal of glittering red, protruding from a stone wall. "And what have we here?" Roman sidled up to it. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a whole motherload of Burn."

"Perhaps it is," Snatcher mused. "After all, there are several commonalities between the places we've traveled."

"I don't know what you think it is," Velvet said as she strode by, "but you're wrong. That's pure Vermillion Ore. A volatile metal that can be used in chemical compounds to replicate a cheap version of elixir. Con men will mine it, then sell it off as a health potion when in reality, it's an addictive substance that will keep people paying higher and higher prices. Though I've never seen quite so much of it in one place before."

Roman and Snatcher looked to each other, wide-eyed.

"It's like a blessing from the gods," Roman said.

"If they'll pay top dollar for even a fragment of this…" Snatcher was grinning.

"We need to get it off the wall," Roman urged. "Fuck whatsherface. THIS is what we're here for."

"After all," Snatcher told him, "SOMEONE'S got to finance the expedition. And it's not like I see anyone else putting in any work at it."

Foulfellow, who was passing by, turned up his nose. "Well, I was GOING to cut you in on it, but hearing that, I think I'll keep it all to myself!" And he marched onward.

"…I didn't even know he had a scheme," Roman commented.

"Too late to know it now," Snatcher said. "But not too late to outdo it with one of our own. It can be passed as a health benefit, they say? Perhaps a miracle cure. I could in fact recycle some advertising script from our shop in Twilight Town."

"And if the high's good," Roman said, "we could nip a little bit off the top. Or I could, anyway."

"Someone's got to ensure you don't walk headfirst into that magma while intoxicated, you know," Snatcher told him.

"You're exaggerating," Roman scoffed. "I wouldn't do something THAT stupid while high."

Snatcher just stared him down. Gave him a three-second window.

Roman saw it coming. "No. You do NOT throw that in my face – "

"YOU WERE RUNNING THAT CAUCUS RACE FOR A GOOD THIRTY MINUTES WITHOUT REALIZING IT WAS A CIRCLE!"

"SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE, OKAY?"

"SO IF EVERYONE ELSE JUMPED INTO THE MAGMA POOL – "

"THAT IS NOWHERE NEAR THE ORIGINAL POINT YOU WERE MAKING, ARCHIE!"

"HEY!" Velvet stamped a foot to get their attention. "I wouldn't take any of that ore on purpose if I were you. Miners of it have been known to get sick just handling it."

There was a pause. Then Roman reiterated, "So how are we gonna get it off the wall?"

"With gloves, apparently," Snatcher replied.

Velvet just scoffed and moved on. "If you two want to be idiots, don't stop on my account."

"Hey hey!" Rose pulled up next to Harley and Yang, with Giovanni in tow. "So I hear you guys have a little crime syndicate going on. Somewhere between the good and the bad."

Harley lit up; "You want in?"

"Let's just say it sounds like a perfect fit for me and the Sparrowfeathers," Rose replied. "If the rest of them agree, of course. If not, then it's no-go."

"Hey, the more, the merrier," Yang told her. "Also, you're pretty cool."

"But we do have to take care of things here first," Rose reiterated.

"Hey, you know who else we should ask to join us?" Giovanni said. "Or should I say…who ELSA we should ask?" He paused. Flinched. "Okay, that one didn't sound as good as it did in my head. Forget I ever made a pun."

"Yeah!" Harley chirped. "She belongs with us, too!"

So they ran over to her and told her just that.

"No." Elsa shook her head. "No, I don't. And I have a kingdom to get back home to. Don't you remember?"

"You didn't seem too jazzed about doing that, though," Yang told her.

"You're all lovely," Elsa said. "Well, all of you on…your side of things."

She cast a disapproving glance to Roman and Snatcher hauling the immense Vermillion Ore crystal down the hall while Foulfellow practiced a speech for tourists.

"Not so much theirs." Elsa shook her head. "But at the end of the day, you're still – you're criminals. You break rules for fun! And that's something I just can't afford to do."

"But is it what you WANNA do?" Harley asked.

"No!" Elsa insisted. "Of course not!"

"There's just one thing I wanted to bring up from when you told us more about yourself on the way over," Yang noted. "Specifically the part where after you ditched the coronation, you wanted to leave the past in the past. Be alone and free. And it sounded like you wouldn't have actually gone back if you didn't have a mess to clean up there."

Elsa gasped. Her eyes widened. Then: "This conversation is over." She turned on a heel and stormed down the hall.

"Sheesh," Harley sighed. "You'd think a gal would just take the excuse to be a rebel already."

"Some people are just too entrenched in the idea of morality." Giovanni shook his head. "Real shame. Even Rachel suffers it sometimes."

"Does your girlfriend know you think I'm cute?" Rose teased, giving him a light punch.

"She knows that I know she thinks two other guys are cute," Giovanni replied.

"Oh, so it's like THAT," Rose realized. "Hey, you do you. I don't judge. I'm married to a memory, remember?"

At last, they activated all the necessary fountains and opened the pathway to the stone isle in the center of the lava lake. There was another set of torches here, to be lit in a certain order.

Yang shrugged. "Sorry, guys. Kinda tapped out on the angry."

"But why should you apologize?" Foulfellow replied. "After all, it was Roman's trickery that angered you in the first place. You haven't done much at all but provide the fire. He's been the brilliant mind to guide us this far!"

"YOU KNOW WHAT – " Yang lit up again.

As Yang divided her time between the torches, the fox, and Roman, the others watched on. Giovanni sidled up between two people in particular. "Soooooo," he said, "while that's happening, I say we do a team bonding question. Let's face it: everyone wants to commit at least one murder, even if they'd never actually do it. If you could bump off just one person with no legal, moral, or otherwise repercussions, who would you kill? I'll go first. Arnold Markdown, Banzai Blaster Vice Principal. He made his goons beat me up right when I was trying to prove how awesome of a heist I'd pulled off by getting the Arsene Amulet, and I ended up crying, which was really embarrassing! It would've been a tough call between him and his pal Bugsy, except I'm pretty sure Bugsy was actually his boyfriend and Arnold just kinda made fun of his weight a lot and that's just not what you do when you've got a partner in crime. Anyway. Dream murders go!"

"Mr. Potage!" Snatcher feigned repulsion, worrying about what the rest of Giovanni's faction might think if he actually told the truth. "I can't believe you would insinuate that I at this very moment had anyone I would wish death upon! Why, I may have committed what some would call atrocities in the past, but it was all a matter of simple perspective! The dichotomy of good and evil is but a societal construct, and once its constraints are removed, I can assure you with the greatest sincerity that I would never – "

Elsa said, quite flatly, "Prince Hans Westergaard of the Southern Isles."

Snatcher froze. Then immediately soured. "What. Was. THAT?"

"He said no moral repercussions," Elsa replied. "The only thing keeping me from having him publicly executed after what he did to me and my sister was the guilt. Which is probably a good thing. But in a fantasy world where I'm a worse person, I wouldn't let him get away with taking one more step. Maybe that's not very queenly of me, but – "

"NO," Snatcher growled. "I MEANT HOW YOU CAME TO KNOW THAT PARTICULAR NAME."

"That man infiltrated my kingdom!" Elsa yelled. "He seduced my little sister so he could marry onto the throne and dispose of us! He tried to kill BOTH of us! How can you blame me for – "

"I know him very, VERY well," Snatcher snarled. "He seduced one of my bosom companions and used his advantage to place him behind enemy lines and cripple our organization! And, worse than that, caused a great deal of ridicule to my character!"

"You KNOW him?" Elsa sputtered. "I feel like I should give you my condolences! He served as regent of Arendelle for about twelve hours and in that time, he managed to insult half the populace and not even tip his hand about it!"

"He insinuated that Roman's affection for me had to be falsified based on my appearance!" Snatcher yelled.

And Elsa yelled back, "He stole out of the royal coffers AND moved any and all new mothers to last priority in the blizzard relief because he didn't want to hear babies crying!"

"That's where I've heard that name before," Snatcher realized. "Queen Elsa of Arendelle…he told a story to garner sympathy for himself in which you'd ousted him from the kingdom for being attracted to men. I'd begun to think it was all a fabrication in order to play to my sensibilities, and it seems I was right indeed! As I usually am!"

"He told you I threw him out for being GAY?" Elsa recoiled. "That's – I would NEVER do that! I'm a LESBIAN!"

"Why does THAT little plot twist hardly surprise me given the way he carried on?" Snatcher rolled his eyes. "It's nothing but lies and deceit with that one!"
"Tell me about it!" Elsa urged. "No, really. I want to know HOW he ended up with you and your friends so I know where to watch out for him showing up next!"

"Have I got a very sordid tale for you! In exchange for your own, of course…"

"Of course!"

"Glad to see YOU'RE making friends!" Roman called over as he slapped the hem of his jacket to put out the flame that had resulted when Yang had "missed" one of the torches.

With all lit in succession, the group proceeded to the lowest level of the temple, through a red hallway that led to a spacious chamber. Here, the main floor space was slightly smaller than the room itself, ringed by canals of lava. At four equidistant points in the room were stone monoliths, smaller versions of the obelisk at Lohgrin. And in the center of the room was one rather large boulder, craggy and red-brown.

"Here we are!" Rose said proudly. "Been a while since I was here. Mostly looks just like I remember, except the boulder's new."

Laphicet floated over to read the inscription on a fifth monolith beside the door. "The obelisks mark the cardinal directions," he noted. "They have to be touched in order to dispel a domain of suppression. Elsa, I wonder if the reason your ice powers didn't work is because of the suppression placed on this temple."

The queen didn't answer.

"Elsa?" Laphicet turned to face her.

Elsa strode carefully toward the large boulder. "Lailah," she said softly, putting out a hand. "I can hear you. I can hear your song. You're in there, aren't you?"

She approached the boulder. Lay a hand on its side.

And then it unfurled, all at once, with such force that Elsa was thrown back. It wasn't a boulder after all, nor had it ever been. The creature that slammed four clawed feet onto the ground and gave a shrill buzz of a war cry was a larger version of the armadillos Rose and Giovanni had fought earlier. Much, much larger.

Elsa recoiled; "LAILAH?"

The Roller balled up, beginning to spin in place.

"LOOK OUT!" Rose yelled, rushing onto the battlefield with Yang and Velvet in hot pursuit.

Elsa was frozen in place; Rose, Yang, and Velvet hit her at the same time to throw her out of the way of the Roller before it charged forth. Everyone else scattered so as not to be crushed; the Roller hit the far wall and actually used its momentum to travel slightly up it before flinging itself back onto the battlefield.

"She's corrupting into a dragon!" Velvet realized. "Much longer and she'd be beyond saving!"

"Dammit, I should've known she'd be a Roller!" Rose growled. "She always did love things that could curl into balls."

"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?" Harley yelled as she rushed to the other women.

"I can get through to her if she would just hold still!" Elsa urged.

"The monoliths," Yang realized. "If we can get those activated, we can probably break her down."

"LISTEN UP!" Velvet yelled across the room. "I NEED EVERYONE TO GET TO ONE OF THE MONOLITHS! WE'RE BREAKING THIS DOMAIN!"

And with that, she, Elsa, Yang, Rose, and Harley had to scatter again to avoid being crushed by the Roller.

"She – she needs the Flames of Purification!" Laphicet sputtered. "I have to figure out how to tap into Maotelus' power NOW!" He lifted high into the air to fly over the incoming Roller, set into a panic. Those powers should belong to him. Why couldn't he access them now, when he needed them most?

Snatcher, Roman, Foulfellow, and Gideon reunited. "You know what I JUST realized?" Roman said. "This doesn't have to be our problem! We can let THEM handle the dangerous part while we go back and work on our drugs!"

"A most observant suggestion!" Snatcher crowed.

"Let's be off, then!" Foulfellow urged. "Hai-diddle-dee-dee, it's SURVIVING for me!"

They bolted toward the door through which they'd come. Only to see a rock wall descend, sealing it off – and sealing them inside the chamber with the angry Roller.

"Well," Roman remarked casually. "That's not great."

"GUYS!" Molly yelled back at them while rushing toward the nearest of the monoliths. "YOU GOTTA HELP WITH THESE THINGS! YOU'RE IN IT NOW TOO!" She managed to barely slide around the Roller's next trajectory, skidding in to slap a hand to the first monolith.

Foulfellow sighed. "Ah, we might as well at this point. Giddy, let's make ourselves useful."

Gideon shook his head fervently.

"I said make ourselves USEFUL!" Foulfellow shoved him semi-roughly toward the arena.

Gideon stumbled, then made a beeline for the next monolith. On the way, he tripped on the hem of a pant leg. He looked back in fear, seeing the massive Roller bearing down toward him.

"GOTCHA!" Yang landed between him and the oncoming monster, dealing a sharp punch. The impact sent a shockwave through the Roller, redirecting the armadillo monster entirely. Yang then fired a glare over her shoulder at Gideon; "And don't say I never did anything for you."

Gideon scrambled on all fours to the monolith, then climbed completely atop it.

The other two monoliths were further away, and the Roller was getting more and more aggressive, picking up speed around the field. Velvet put a temporary stop to it with her massive claw, allowing Rose to spring across the field and slap the third monolith. However, as the Roller continued to roll against Velvet's talons, Velvet faltered. The Roller's skin was building up sparks against her.

"When she gets out," Velvet grunted, "it won't be pretty!"

"Just cover me long enough to get there!" Harley began to execute a series of long handsprings toward the last monolith, hand over foot.

The Roller abruptly changed direction, striking against Velvet's talons as if they were flint. It became completely ablaze as it buzzed toward Harley.

"HARLEEEEEEY!" Yang screamed, trying to gear up to get there in time. But she knew she never could.

Giovanni and Roman, however, already had. They came blazing in from either side, bat and Cudgel drawn. Meeting in the middle, they both swung, making an X with their weapons that collided hard with the Roller. The monster was sent flying – perhaps a little too hard. Because now it was pinballing off the walls, forcing even Laphicet to evade it in midair.

"The fuck did you do?" Roman yelled at Giovanni.

"Rose let me bop her twelve times so I could do a critical," Giovanni said somewhat sheepishly. "But it was pretty cool, right? You're totally impressed with me, right?"

"NO!" Roman yelled as he ducked away from the Roller's next bounce.

Giovanni waved it off. "Typical platonic tsundere. He'll come around."

Harley kept on her trajectory toward the monolith. "Almost – " Another flip. "There – "

The Roller bounced off a nearby wall. Would've banged into her if she hadn't evaded at the last minute, throwing herself off course. Harley fell to the floor, sprawled on a side, and the Roller was now coming at her from a different direction.

Then there was Yang, a golden avenging angel, planted in front of Harley and throwing not one but both fists into the Roller to send it flying back the opposite way of which it had come. There was a shower of sparks where they both impacted.

"Phew!" Harley dabbed at her forehead as she rose to her feet. "My hero!" She threw her arms around Yang.

"Later," Yang told her. "The fight's still on."

"Hey, wait a tick." Harley let go of Yang to look her dead-on. "I just remembered something interestin'."

"What?"

"Those sparks. Didn't we just figure out your Semblance worked like Purification Fire or whatever?"

Yang gaped. "Ho…ly…shit."

That was when Foulfellow smacked the last monolith, doing a jig in place. "You'll have to do better than that to catch old Honest John, vermin!" he cackled victoriously.

A shockwave of magic thrummed throughout the room. Though there was no visible change, it was clear something had been lifted.

"ELSA!" Molly yelled. "TRY YOUR POWERS!"

Elsa stretched out her hands, bidding them to work for her. Walls of ice rose up around the monster, fencing it in – and they did not melt. "IT'S WORKING!" Elsa cried.

The red-hot Roller crashed right through those walls in a burst of droplets and shards, glittering rainbow in the firelight. It gave another warning buzz.

"HEY, ELSA!" Yang called to her. "MY SEMBLANCE IS PURITY FIRE, REMEMBER?"

"FLAMES OF PURIFICATION!" Laphicet called down from above. "Which I…still don't have…"

"All I gotta do is punch it hard enough!" Yang made a fist.

"Yang, sweetie?" Harley reminded her. "You've been doin' that. Hasn't worked."

"We need to find a way to make the flames spread!" Elsa responded. "One punch won't do anything!" She wrung her hands. "If I could just…control your fire the way I can my ice…"

"If I may!" Snatcher skidded in behind her. "Seems to me what you're looking for is some sort of midpoint between fire and ice. Something what could carry the, er, magic flames in a way you could control. With that said, there remains but one possibility – to freeze the magma in this very room!"

"I can't freeze lava!" Elsa snapped back, trying to keep the Roller at bay with more ice barriers. "If it doesn't melt immediately, it'll just turn to stone!"

"Nonsense," Snatcher told her. "It, like all liquids, shall simply freeze. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about – "

"You've never SEEN an actual volcano, have you?" Elsa argued. "Do you know how they work?"

"He's onto somethin', though!" Harley called out. "Maybe if we heat up water hot enough with Yang's fire, then Elsa can freeze it…? Yeah, sounded better in my head – "

Giovanni gave a sharp gasp. "THAT'S IT! There's only ONE thing that can solve this problem! Something liquid enough to be frozen, but able to be served up piping hot! As with most dilemmas in life, the solution is…SOUP!"

Yang gasped. "Gimme some to heat up!"

Giovanni extended a hand; a bright red orb formed in the air. Yang threw a fist into it, and it began to boil. Giovanni kept his concentration trained upon it, and the orb grew in size as it bubbled and rolled.

"Little more…" Yang told him. "Little more…and…THERE!"

"All you, Snow Queen!" Giovanni called to Elsa, pushing the orb of soup toward her.

Elsa poked it with a finger, and where her finger had depressed, the orb began to leak its soup. A red-orange glow uncharacteristic of the usual tomato soup indicated the imbuing of Yang's flames. "Okay," Elsa said softly. "It's now or never."

She flicked a hand at the stream of soup; where it hit the floor, it froze. The orb collapsed, coating the floor; Elsa transformed it all into a bright red icy crust.

"Now to get it to Lailah." With another hand-wave, Elsa outfitted herself with a pair of ice skates in the most literal sense. "Here goes."

"What is your plan, precisely?" Snatcher asked.

"Since I didn't create the soup that froze into ice," Elsa told him, "I'll have to be in closer contact with it to spread it. I need it to cage Lailah, meaning I'll need to vault over her at least once. Not easy to do on my own, but my whole life has been learning to do things by myself, so I can manage."

Snatcher outstretched a hand to her. "In the name of Mr. Westergaard dying a fiery death such as the one we are about to evade, might I cut in?"

"You?" Elsa looked at him in surprise. "But you're – we're not on the same – " She then nodded. "Okay. To Hans suffering."

Snatcher's own feet became encased in bright, sparkling skates. His hand joined with Elsa's, and then they set off to skate over the field of frozen soup, almost in complete synchrony.

"They look like real pros!" Harley gasped.

"Wh…where did he learn to do that?" Roman gaped. "That is so sexy, you don't even – "

Snatcher and Elsa skated rings around the Roller, making tight turns and quick sidesteps to avoid being crushed. The Roller seemed to know what was against it now, and focused in on the fast-moving pair. Snatcher pressed his hands to Elsa's waist, lifted her as he would a dance partner –

Elsa was thrown into the air, spinning like a corkscrew, and a trail of the frozen soup followed her in an arc. As she came down on the Roller's other side, Snatcher met her to catch her and begin the ice dance anew.

There was now a band of frozen soup over the Roller, and rather than simply burst through it as it had done to the ice, the Roller let out a buzz of panic. It couldn't break this band; wherever it touched, sparks flew.

"This is so awesome," Giovanni squealed to Yang. "We don't just have one joint attack; we have TWO! I call it…'Ambrosia Purification Soup of Angels'!"

"Hell yeah!" Yang put out a fist; he bumped it with his own.

Again and again was Elsa hoisted, spinning in midair and bringing another arc of soup with her. The Roller was caged, its buzzes becoming more and more frantic. The sparks grew thicker until they weren't just sparks; there was a massive light emitting from the beast. Then its cries ceased; its very form seemed to be shrinking.

Snatcher gave a bow; Elsa did the same. Roman tottered to the two of them, trying to be careful not to fall on the ice.

"I had NO IDEA you could do that!" he laughed.

Snatcher gave him a sly grin. "Taught Trubshaw how to do most of the same. In a quite intimate manner, as well, and yet he chose that WOMAN instead."

"You taught him THAT and he passed you up?" Roman replied. "Guy's a bigger idiot than I thought. Anyway, I – "

He did slip, then. Snatcher was immediately there to catch him – and dramatically dip him, their faces inches apart.

"As I was saying," Roman told him. "I suddenly have a very strong desire to learn ice skating. Any idea where I could find a…quite intimate instructor?"

"I may have a few ideas…" Snatcher replied.

They closed into a kiss, and therefore were oblivious to most of what happened on the battlefield afterward.

The Roller condensed, losing its form. In a shimmer, it curled in on itself, its outline looking more and more humanoid by the moment.

Then, in a final burst of sparks, the Roller was gone. In its place, a woman. Her long hair, teal at the roots and pinkish-red at the tips, was bound into a ponytail that trailed down her back. She was clothed in a gown of red and white, the front of the skirt short while a voluminous train billowed behind. The woman looked to her saviors and smiled.

At least, that was what Elsa, Velvet, Laphicet, and Molly saw. To Harley, Yang, Giovanni, and Rose, the picture looked a little different. In that burst of sparks, nothing was left.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Giovanni screamed. "WE KILLED HER?"

"FUCK!" Yang cried.

"No…" Harley shook her head. "No, no, no! This can't be how it ends!"

"Calm down, will you?" Rose sighed. "You just can't see her because she's a seraph. She's right there, you know. I can't see her either since there's no Shepherd to be Squire to, but even I know she's there." She then gave a happy wave. "Hi, Lailah!"

With a gasp, the woman surged forth to grasp Elsa's hands in her own. "You made it!" she cried happily. "You are here!" She was now shaking both Elsa's hands, so hard that Elsa's body was thrown back and forth a little. "I knew you would hear my call! I just knew it! I am sorry I attacked you just then. I was not exactly myself."

Velvet nodded. "We know what happens when a malak is corrupted by malevolence. I'm just glad we got to you before you could evolve into anything worse."

"I'm – I'm glad you're – glad you're okay!" Elsa gently worked her hands away from Lailah's. She then gave a nervous smile; "Your song kept me up at night, you know."

"Was I bothersome?" Lailah asked. "I am sorry if I was, but you can see how this is an emergency."

"No, you needed to call me," Elsa told her. "I'm the one who should be sorry I took so long."

Roman, Snatcher, Foulfellow, and Gideon had gathered by the door. With the restoration of Lailah, the rock wall had reopened.

"Yeah, I think we're done here," Roman stated, adjusting his hat while leading the other three away from the chamber. "Let's get to work on those drugs."

"And travel brochures!" Foulfellow chirped.

"So." Elsa shrugged. "I guess I'm supposed to be the Shepherd."

"That would be wonderful!" Lailah cried. "Once we have made the pact, then you will be able to wield the Flames of Purification for yourself. Not that I did not appreciate the Soup of Purification!" She giggled lightly; a bell's chime. "To my understanding, the others are also scattered, but there should still be enough time that we can save them if we work quickly."

"What do I have to do?" Elsa asked.

"Well, usually I would have the Shepherd draw a sword from a stone to symbolize becoming my sword," Lailah explained. "I think we can shorthand the process, though."

In a shimmer of flames, Lailah held a golden-hilted broadsword. "All you have to do is take it from my hands," she explained, "and the Shepherd you will be. That will give you the power to save the others and this world."

Elsa nodded. "Okay." She reached out.

But Lailah took a step back, guilt crossing her face. "As eager as you are…I cannot just let you take the vow without some understanding." She averted her gaze. "The path of the Shepherd is a lonely one. I always thought it was only to be frought with despair and rejection. Many Shepherds have faced trials the likes of which no mortal could imagine, and some of them…have not come out with their hearts in one piece. For the last Shepherd I knew, though, it was different. He was able to find those whose hearts connected to his own, and thus avoided much of the tragedy usually suffered by Shepherds past. I cannot promise you the same fate, however. There is a very good chance that if you become the Shepherd, you will be faced with hardship beyond what you can conceive of. The responsibility toward our world – toward all worlds, in fact – will be enormous. This is not something to be taken lightly, and I wish for you to know to what you are swearing before you do so."

Elsa withdrew her hand. "What if…I don't want to? Is that even an option?"

"It is always an option," Lailah told her.

"No, it isn't!" Velvet barked. "You came all this way to be the damn Shepherd, and now you're backing out? Without you taking that oath, the new Lord of Calamity will destroy this world, and Rose's friends will become dragons that usher in its downfall! Is that what you want?"

"Of COURSE not!" Elsa sputtered.

"I am sure we could find another way, if there had to be one," Lailah asserted. "I would never wish to force anyone to take the oath. …Never again."

"It's just – I – " Elsa stammered.

"Didn't you tell us all that you were used to hardship?" Velvet spat. "That you were used to doing things on your own? After what you've lived through, is it really so bad to sign up for more? You've already proved you can do it!"

"That doesn't mean I want to ever feel that way again!" Elsa cried, and a ring of icy spikes erupted from around her, causing her friends to recoil in horror. Eyes wide and breath short, Elsa whispered, "I…I haven't done that since…"

She shook her head. "I'm not saying no. But I need time to think about this!"

Lailah nodded. "It is a decision that takes time to think about."

Elsa then turned and bolted from the room.

"Hey, WAIT!" Giovanni called after her. Then: "So I missed half that conversation completely since I still don't see or hear anyone, but I still wanna go make sure she's okay. Maybe talk to her about it."

He ran from the room after her.

"We should go, too," Harley encouraged Yang. "I'm still a psychologist, after all."

"I bet we can get through to her," Yang agreed. "This isn't my first time dealing with an ice queen."

The two blondes left as well.

"I was worried about this," Lailah admitted. "Elsa's heart is perfectly poised to become a fifth spirit that bridges the four elements. However, it is not exactly pure as a Shepherd's normally would be. This does not have to be a bad thing, but what clouds it is not so much malevolence as it is fear. That fear may one day breed into malevolence if she is not careful."

"Do you really believe what you said to her?" Velvet asked. "That there's another way to do this if she doesn't step up?"

"I…am not sure," Lailah admitted. "I want to believe that. Yet…"

A small voice from behind her: "Um. Excuse me? Ms. Lailah?"

"OH!" Lailah turned with a start to see Molly behind her. "I did not realize you could see me!"

"That's kinda weird to me too," Molly admitted. "I'm not really sure why."

"I am," Laphicet stated. "You are pure of heart, even with all the 'villainy' you say you do. That opens you up to resonance that pushes past Maotelus' shields. Your Epithet also probably contributes. Malakhim are made 'quiet' by Maotelus, but you can do the same."

"So…um…anyway…" Molly dragged a shoe on the tile. "I have this idea. But it's kind of dumb? Not like quiet-dumb. Like…stupid-dumb."

Lailah knelt before her to get more on the level of her height. "Sometimes those ideas end up being the ones that work. I would like to hear it, if you please."

"Well…" Molly seemed to shrink into herself. "Elsa's not sure if she even wants to be Shepherd. And I get why. She's scared. Even if it helps other people, it's still really scary to her. I don't think that makes her a bad person. I think a lot of people are like that. But maybe she's just not ready to be Shepherd, and maybe she isn't gonna be."

Lailah nodded. "That is what I fear. Do you have a solution?"

"Well…I was just thinking…" Molly tried her best to hold Lailah's gaze in her own. "Maybe…I could be Shepherd?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?" Velvet roared. "You can't take that on!"

"I believe that your friend means to say you are very young," Lailah told Molly. "It is a very serious decision. You would not exactly have a normal childhood."

"But I've never had a normal childhood!" Molly burst out. "My mom died, and then Dad and Lorelai just treated me like a lesser part of the family! I've worked overnights at the toy store even though I'm twelve and not legally supposed to be able to do that! But I did it because they needed me! Now there is no more toy store, and whether I stand up for myself or not, there's nothing to help out with! I keep wanting to help people, but it's like the people I want to help either want to take advantage of me or have problems I can't deal with! When the kitty man showed up, everyone else had to sacrifice their time to protect me instead of me being able to do anything useful! So if there's a power that will let me help save the world and help my friends, then I want it, okay? I want it! At least you all treat me like a human being, so that means I'm not even giving up that much to want to help you! Giovanni told me to stand up for myself, but that's against people who are trying to use me! You guys love me, and I love you, and I love having worlds to explore and live on, so I don't care if it makes me sad! I'm sad a LOT! What's a little more, huh? Just…" She was calming down. "Just let me have a way to help."

Lailah pondered her words. "You seem to be resolute in this idea. And it is unusual that you can see seraphs at this stage."

"Don't do it," Velvet warned. "You have more years of youth that you can live out not having to be broken! Why would you give that up? I was sixteen when Artorius imprisoned me, and those three years I spent locked up, I can NEVER get back!"

"MAYBE IF I DO THIS NOW, PEOPLE LIKE YOU WON'T HAVE TO SUFFER LIKE THAT LATER, OKAY?" Molly yelled back. "I DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE BEEN LOCKED UP! AND I DON'T WANT ANYONE ELSE TO BE LOCKED UP! I WANT TO BE ABLE TO STOP IT! AND IT'S NOT LIKE I'M GOING TO JAIL, RIGHT? THE LAST GUY WAS ABLE TO MAKE FRIENDS, AND I ALREADY HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS I COULD IMAGINE!"

"You're being an idiot!" Velvet snarled. "I won't let you throw yourself away!"

Then Laphicet was out in front of her, a hand raised before her. "Don't," he said coldly. "She knows what she's doing."

"I thought you cared for her," Velvet growled at him.

"I care enough about her to let her make her own decisions," Laphicet replied. "If you'd been able to do that for me, then maybe I wouldn't have had to conspire with Artorius behind your back. I'm what I am because I wasn't going to let anything stop me from trying to make a better world for you. And you're what you are because you didn't trust me enough to be able to know about it."

Velvet gave a sharp gasp. "Laphi…" Her eyes were suddenly wet. As much as it hurt, she knew it was true. So much tragedy could have been avoided if she had known about Laphicet's choice to become Innominat.

"But this is also why she has to take the oath now, if she really wants to," Laphicet insisted. "Before Giovanni comes back. He'll try and stop her, and you know Elsa won't take the oath and mean it."

"Are you sure?" Lailah asked Molly. "Are you very, very sure?"

"I'm very, very sure," Molly told her. She beamed; "And it'll come with an adventure, right?"

"That it will," Lailah affirmed. "Well, if your mind is made up…" She offered out the sword.

Molly reached out, grasping the hilt. As she raised the sword high above her head, she could already feel warmth coursing through her veins.

"You will become my sword and my vessel," Lailah told her. "You will gain powers beyond those you have imagined, in addition to the one you already have. You bear the responsibility of the world when it needs you most, and of the worlds beyond when they need the Shepherd. I will become your Prime Lord and your constant companion."

Molly smiled brighter. "If you're coming with me all the time, then I already know I'll have a friend with me no matter what. And Giovanni and Sylvie will always be my friends, too. So it's okay. I won't be lonely."

She didn't see the single tear of wistful joy flowing down Lailah's cheek. "Then it is done," Lailah told her.

A circular sigil of bright orange light spun into existence above Molly's head, then descended over her. The internal warmth increased, to the point where Molly was slightly afraid she might burn up. Then it cooled off to a reasonable sensation.

"I shall now take my place within your heart," Lailah told her. "You may feel ill for a while. For most people, it is three days."

Molly nodded. "I've had worse colds."

Lailah dissolved down into a spark of light, flowing into Molly, taking refuge in her heart. Molly immediately felt light-headed, warm again.

Elsa, Giovanni, Yang, and Harley re-entered the room. "I've thought it over," Elsa began, "and – "

They all gasped in horror as Molly fainted, dropping the sacred sword.

...

Yebba Dim Day, the isle of eight p.m., was fashioned as a giant stone head and shoulders rising from the water. Atop that head was built a stone city, and upon that scalp there was often a bustle of trade and daily duties.

This, again, was the absolute midnight. Yebba Dim Day's bustle had been quieted. Most people were boarded up in their homes or their shops, watching the streets carefully. If the coast was clear, they could sneak out, try to replenish their supplies. But only if the coast was clear. And monsters weren't the only things plaguing the streets.

For instance, Mim, Aghoul, Carrion, Shape, Sho, and Coco had taken up a hiding place in an alley. "It certainly seems a wonderful place for a young miscreant to run around and play," Aghoul remarked. "Maybe even find himself."

"Well, now we're going to go find him," Mim stated. "The rest of you stay here."

"Sho, Coco," Aghoul commanded, "do ensure that Misters Carrion and Shape don't kill each other while we're gone. After all…we wouldn't want to miss it!"

With a cackle, he departed the alley, with Mim following. Shape instantly pressed himself into a corner, backing away from Carrion. Of course, pressing himself anywhere small wasn't exactly easy with the cruciform protrusions on his back.

"What are those for?" Coco pointed to the protrusions.

"Such a rude question!" Shape hissed.

"IDGAF," Coco replied coolly.

Shape rather liked her attitude, so he reached back behind himself and grasped the end of one of the protrusions. Then pulled, and it began to slide right out of him. Coco could see now why they were shaped like crosses. They were hilts. Shape held a sharp, silver sword that until moments ago had been sheathed within his very flesh – and had a hilt made of that same flesh.

"THAT IS SO KEWL!" Coco gasped, her eyes sparkling. "Were you born with those?"

"As a matter of fact…" Shape ran his finger down the length of the blade. "Yes. As were my brothers."

"Can I hold one?"

"No! They are MINE!" Shape hissed.

"Fair," Coco sighed. "Anyway, this is super boring." She fished around in a pocket, bringing out a sparkly pink notepad and a fluffy pen. "You ever play M.A.S.H.?"

"I have mashed many of my enemies to paste," Shape replied.

"That's fun too," Coco told him, "but this'll be easier."

Meanwhile, Sho nudged Carrion with a shoulder. "So, those Nightmares," he said. "Do they have to stay at stage 0 or can they add up to something greater?"

Carrion plucked a yellow worm, holding it out to Sho as it wriggled. "They need not be any larger," Carrion explained. "My twisted dreams are potent enough that this size suits them. And this size can infect far more easily than anything larger."

"But CAN they expand?" Sho reiterated. "I'm not talking about a fight. I wanna play a game. Kill some time."

"A game?" Carrion looked uncharacteristically intrigued. "What sort of game would involve fully-fledged Nightmares?"

Sho was shuffling a deck of cards from his pocket. "Been a 100°C 60 seconds since I've been able to play this one. It's got two of my favorite things: numbers and Nightmares. I'm not gonna go easy on you just 'cause you're a level zero, though. You need to feel my experience factor! It's not like any more practice would make you able to beat me anyway!"

Carrion was both angry that Sho was condescending him and excited to prove him wrong. "Show me the game."

"Well, first, we'll need a few more square feet than this…"

Further into town, Mim transformed herself. From what she'd seen, all Abaratians looked at least a little distanced from completely human, so she chose a shape accordingly. A peasant woman, with a few extra eyes, not enough fingers, some fins, some fur, and some pieces that didn't belong entirely. She then proceeded to do the most foolish thing one could do under the circumstances, which was to stomp up the street while yelling "ALL THIS MONEY AND NOWHERE TO SPEND IT! WHY IS EVERYTHING CLOSED UP? IT'S NOT LIKE I'M IN ANY DANGER OUT HERE, YOU KNOW!"

The vast majority of the sets (not necessarily pairs) of watching eyes regarded Mim with horror and confusion, because that was a good way to get eaten or mugged. One set of eyes, however, saw Mim as an opportunity. Because it was in fact a good way to get mugged.

The dark shape sprang from a rooftop, landing on all fours before Mim. He then scrambled up to a bipedal stance, looking considerably more human. His head and general shape were shrouded by a dark hooded cloak; glimpses through it offered a view of what seemed to be a black military uniform with gold studs, tattered by time. He wore no shoes, exposing scaly, green-gray talons for feet. His height was also a dead giveaway that he was sixteen, or somewhere close to it, since sure didn't know his own birthday.

A long, jagged dagger was drawn by a hand with claws as sharp and scales as thick as the feet. "Give me all that money," a youthful voice demanded from beneath the hood, "or I'll kill you. I'll do it. I'm not even kidding."

"Well, no one said you were," Mim scoffed.

The cloaked boy flinched. "Wait. What – "

And then he felt the gentle, definite impression of a blade curving around his neck from behind. Aghoul's scythe cradled his neck, one swipe away from beheading him completely.

"From what we'd heard of you," Aghoul chuckled, "we just knew you'd fall for that."

The boy cringed. "Is there actually any money?"

"No," Mim replied slyly. "Well, yes, but you're not going to get any of it."

"I was joking, you know," the boy sputtered. "I wasn't actually going to kill you. It was a bluff. Since none of us has any reason to hurt the other, we should all just walk away now. I think that would be a good idea."

"What if we had a better one for you?" Aghoul asked him. "After all, you were looking for that money so you could buy something, weren't you?"

"Um…no," the boy replied.

"That's the only reason anyone would want money," Aghoul told him.

It was obvious the boy was cracking under pressure. "Yes. I was."

"But you don't even know where you can buy it anymore," Aghoul went on. "Such a pity."

"Of course I know where I can – " The boy cut himself off. "Oh. I didn't even think of that."

"He really is a bit of an idiot," Mim chuckled. "But don't worry. Most of our friends are."

"F…friends?" The boy was surprised; dare he hope? "You want to be my friend?"

"I think we can help each other," Aghoul told him. "If you join our army, then we'll help you get that potion you're looking for. You're already dressed for service anyhow."

"I was part of an army once," the boy stated.

"But you aren't anymore," Aghoul told him. "Why is that? Because you went soft?"

"I didn't go SOFT," the boy snarled. "There's just one person I didn't want to hurt. But now she's not around anymore, so I don't care."

"Girl troubles." Aghoul nudged the boy's back with his elbow. "I understand those all too well. So did another old friend of yours, once. Have you seen him lately, or have you been running scared?"

The boy seemed to forget there was a scythe pressed to his neck. He spun to grab Aghoul by the shoulders, shaking him excitedly. "You know him? Have you seen him? Has he mentioned me? I brought him the girl like he asked. Only because I knew he couldn't hurt her, so we would all win. Then the currents came in and we were separated – we were underwater; it was a long story – and ever since then I didn't know where he was. I figure he's angry at me, though."

"Not as angry as you might think," Aghoul told him. "We've seen him, all right. And we've even spoken to him. He was willing to cut a deal."

Meanwhile, Mim had taken the opportunity to creep up behind the boy. A swift hand yanked down his hood.

Aghoul had the briefest glimpse of a lizardlike head, slitted pupils and razor-sharp fangs, before the boy fumbled for the hood and yanked it back into place with a "NO!". Then, after a few breaths: "Please. Don't. It's why I need the thuaz. The potion."

"You shouldn't have made a big deal out of it, you know," Aghoul chuckled. "Now it's a game for the both of us to see how many times we can get you to show your face. Ah, but don't worry. We'll get you a lovely vial of miracle medicine soon enough. All you have to do is come meet your old friend again…and PROMISE that the girl hasn't made you swear off evil and Darkness."

"I still love Darkness," the boy asserted. "Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this. There are other ways to get what you want around here and most of them involve being scared. But I ain't afraid. I'm one of the scariest things on this island."

Aghoul finally dismissed the scythe in a flash of light. "We'll explain the details on the way," he said. "Welcome to the team, Letheo."

On the way back to the alley, they all discovered that Carrion and Sho had left said alley to stake out the town square it branched from. Two of Carrion's Nightmares had been inflated and shaped – still sickly yellow, but with gold accents now. One was shaped like a Necho Cat, the other a Fishboné. The Nightmares dueled in the designated battlefield while Sho and Carrion tossed cards to the ground as quickly as they could. The sum of the cards seemed to affect how much attack or defense power each Nightmare had in a given moment – it didn't take a genius to figure that the cat was Sho's on loan from Carrion, and Carrion's beast was the Fishboné.

Letheo gasped. "It's really you! Lord of Nightmares! They said – "

"DO NOT DISTURB ME, BOY," Carrion hissed without even turning his head. "I am on the cusp of victory."

The Fishboné drew back a breath, then expelled it as a ray of pure concentrated Darkness, blasting through the Necho Cat. The cat gave a pitiful mew as it disintegrated from the newly-made hole outward.

"I believe you boasted that I could not achieve such a victory…" Carrion told Sho.

Sho threw his cards to the ground and kicked them. "That's a load of null! You cheated somehow, you factoring hectopascal!"

Carrion ignored him, turning to regard the boy. "Letheo," he said, his tone even.

Letheo dropped into a bow and a kneel at the same time and nearly ended up somersaulting over himself. "Lord Carrion," he said softly. "Please forgive me for my incompetence."

"For choosing the girl?" Carrion posed.

"No," Letheo said. "I don't regret that. She's the only Light I'll ever defend. But I want to march in your army once more…to spread Darkness under your hand…"

"There isn't much more of that you can do that hasn't been done," Carrion sniffed. "All the same, a word of advice. Forget about the girl. She will only ever cause you suffering and hardship."

"Are you saying that because of the Prin – " Letheo began.

"DO NOT MENTION HER NAME TO ME!" Carrion bellowed, arms flailing as though he were about to strike the boy.

"Speaking of Princess Boa," Aghoul said with a wide grin on his face.

"YOU!" Carrion rounded on Aghoul, looming over top of him. "HOW DARE YOU – "

Then Aghoul stretched up to his full height, bones in his back cracking. And as it turned out, he walked with such a prominent hunch that he only appeared to be one of the shorter of the WHAM ARMY. He was actually able to see Carrion eye-to-eye once standing tall.

"I've had my own troubles with women, you know," Aghoul said with a smirk. "Princesses, in fact. Princesses who wouldn't marry me and ran off with someone else, in fact. You and I have that much in common. If anyone understands what you went through, it's me. And I know EXACTLY what we need to do."

"Ensure she is dead and gone," Carrion hissed.

"Dead, maybe." Aghoul shrugged. "But gone? Why have her be gone when she can be YOURS? As a prisoner, as a slave, as a slightly brainwashed housewife…the possibilities are endless!"

"Yes…" How had Carrion not put such thoughts in his own head before? No, he knew. Because he had loved Boa to the very last, even after Motley had ordered her killed on his behalf. (Supposedly on his behalf.) He had respected her even when she hadn't deserved it and that meant letting her be herself. But now, she had lost all right to have him respect her even that much. Not too long ago, he thought a good compromise would be to kill her, but to let her die as herself. Now, however, after she'd had a hand in this awful midnight that should have been his paradise but instead was slowly becoming his hell?

"Yes," Carrion resolved. "She is much more useful alive or undead than she is eliminated. I have had much time to devise horrible new methods of torture, after all…and no one to practice them on. I'll wager a guess you wouldn't want me to use Shape for that purpose."

"Not yet, anyway," Mim replied.

"Well?" Aghoul urged. "Should we go get the girl?"

Carrion's scarred mouth twisted into a wicked smile. "We should."

"And cause a rampage of destruction along the way!" Mim cheered.

"Are you sure?" Letheo broke in. "Ever since the absolute midnight, there's been nothing left to destroy. You're the first person I've even had to mug in days." He looked to Carrion. "But surely this was your plan – "

"This midnight was not by my hand," Carrion seethed. "It works against me as much as it works against you and against those of the day. It was Motley who betrayed me…and Boa who guided her hand."

Letheo flinched. "But you were…you were the most powerful. How could they? I thought surely you were the only person who could have done this. I was proud of you, don't you know?"

Carrion gave him a somber nod. "You flatter me. And I believe you should be correct. It should be me who presides over this Darkness. And yet it is not. I am as destitute as you…which simply should not be."

"Then allow me to help you regain your position!" Letheo urged. "Or a new, more powerful one in the WHAM ARMY! Mim and Ayam explained it all to me. They're capable of things even more horrific than I'd heard of happening on Gorgossium! Not to say they're more powerful than you, of course – "

"They have impressed me so far as well," Carrion admitted. "You, on the other hand…"

"Candy's gone," Letheo reminded him. "And it was only ever her. It wasn't goodness or Light or the day. Just her."

"See to it that you don't sabotage me because of any more foolish attractions," Carrion spat. "Beyond that…you did well to bring her to me, in the final throes of the siege of the Hereafter. Your loyalty should be rewarded – and because you are still of use to me, you can take that sincerely." The smile he gave was still smug. "One more chance. Serve as my soldier. You will kill and spread fear in my name."

"Yes, yes!" Letheo nodded enthusiastically. "And then…if I'm evil enough…"

Carrion knew where this was going. "Thuaz. Yes."

"Then off we go!" Mim urged. "To spread DESTRUCTION!"

"I warn you not to get your hopes up." Carrion turned away from her to stalk back to the alley. "There may very well be nothing left to destroy."

"Nonsense!" Mim scoffed. "We'll find SOMETHING! I always do!"

Sho gathered up his Flick Rush cards, and the contingent headed back to the alley to pick up Shape, whose biggest concern at the moment was how the M.A.S.H. game had apparently decided he would be married to Laguna Munn and living in a houseboat with seventeen children.

...

"Choose a weapon," Topaz barked.

Miratrix didn't even bother looking at the racks of swords before her. "I have my weapon," she snarled, "and I'm bringing it onto the field." To emphasize, she drew her twin swords.

"Outside weapons aren't allowed," Topaz told her, "especially after that stunt your friend pulled passing off his glove as a fashion accessory."

"From what I heard," Miratrix spat, "him having his gauntlet on the field turned out better for the publicity of your little game. And you let Annihilus bring in a specific staff."

Topaz angled the melt stick toward Miratrix. "NO. OUTSIDE. SWORDS."

Miratrix scowled at the melt stick, then dropped her swords with a dramatic CLANG. She then turned to the wall of weapons in front of her.

There was a pair of shortswords, exactly the length of the ones she'd just dropped, crossed in an X. "These are a set?" Miratrix asked.

"Yes," Topaz told her. "They're allowed."

Miratrix lifted them off the wall, giving them some practice swings. Clanging them against each other. There had to be some way in which these were rigged or otherwise cheap, but for all intents and purposes, they were very well-made. Which meant -
"These are exactly the same as the swords you just made me give up."

"These didn't come from outside," Topaz told her.

"Is that the only difference?" Miratrix asked.

Topaz's response was to push the melt stick a little closer, so Miratrix just rolled her eyes and sheathed the absolutely redundant swords.

She walked the tunnel leading to the arena, hearing the roar of the crowd. Above them, the Grandmaster's holographic projection boomed, "And now, the fan favorite you've been waiting for! I know you all wanted to see a certain big green super-strong somebody who can make even gods look puny! Well, you're in luck, because – "

Miratrix stormed onto the field, and they cheered even harder to see her approach. Unlike Mozenrath's match, this one didn't leave her in suspense as to who her opponent was. Though from the description the Grandmaster gave, she hadn't exactly expected to see who awaited her.

It wasn't one person but two. They were at least nine feet tall each and proportionately wide and muscular, with extremely athletic builds. They were indeed very green. The woman of the set had her hair pulled back into a ponytail; she wore a skin-tight purple bodysuit whose missing sleeve and low neckline seemed a bit too impractical for a tournament setting. The man was perhaps an even stranger sight, with his eyes lacking pupils and a red emblem tattooed across his broad, exposed chest. His dark hair was also ponytailed, and everything not in the ponytail had been shaved away.

"Because YOU GET TO WATCH THEM DESTROY A TINY UGLY HUMAN GIRL!" the Grandmaster concluded.

Miratrix's upper lip curled. As she continued to storm toward the green warriors, and they advanced upon her, she took notice of a couple of things. One was the fact that the woman held a purple spear and the man had a pistol holstered at his belt, and neither of those things looked like they'd come from the Sakaar storeroom. But the other was the red emblem on the man's chest. Miratrix knew from experience and hearsay a fair amount of the symbols of alien cultures, and this was actually one she recognized.

"You're LORWARDIANS," she spat as she approached. "All brawn and no brain!"

"Who's been saying that?" the woman yelled back. "And why should we believe the words of an ugly little human?"

"I AM NOT! UGLY!" Miratrix screeched.

"Why would the Great Blue associate with you?" the man asked. "You seem far too pitiful."

"The Great Blue?" Miratrix repeated. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The Great Blue was prophesied to reach out to our people from beyond the stars and lead us into a new age of conquest," the woman stated. "Even though he has not attempted to communicate with us, we have seen him best the mighty Annihilus."

"You think Mozenrath is your prophesied savior," Miratrix realized. "And you think he wants anything to do with you. You still haven't demonstrated any brain. After all, he sent me here to kill you."

The man let out a cocky bellow. "Obviously a test to pass before he recognizes our greatness!"

"Tell me something," Miratrix said with a smirk. "Did Lorwardia ever get its lost territories back from Bodacia, or does that empire still have colonies over your lines?"

"Bodacia was destroyed!" the man growled.

"And I'll bet anything it wasn't by YOU," Miratrix replied.

"I tire of this girl!" the woman yelled. "Let us slay her and be done with it!"

"I will destroy her with one fist!" The man drew back such a fist, hurtling to close the distance toward Miratrix.

Up above, the hologram informed the audience of the fight they were watching:

MIRATRIX

VS.

WARHOK AND WARMONGA

With a scream, Miratrix hurtled toward Warhok as well, her own fist flying. The two fists collided, and Warhok, to his surprise, found himself halted from the momentum. Miratrix was holding him back with a single punch.

"But HOW?" he gasped.

"You keep saying I'm human," Miratrix told him. "Assuming I'm from Earth. Like I said: no brain."

With a roar, Warhok drew his fist back again. Miratrix ducked the next punch, then shot closer to him, dealing a roundhouse kick to his abdomen that sent him flying.

Warmonga, angered, rushed Miratrix with spear ablaze and a cry of "WAAAAARMOOOOONGAAAAAAAA!"

With a twirl, both of Miratrix's swords came to hand, and she brought them up in an X formation to parry the spear in a shower of sparks. Then she removed the lower of the two swords to swipe at Warmonga. The Lorwardian leapt back to escape; Miratrix performed a front-flip to get close and start striking again.

By then, Warhok had regained his bearings, charging Miratrix from behind with a wordless "AAAAAAAAAGH!". His fists were curled, ready to fly again.

As Warhok's fists and Warmonga's spear converged, Miratrix launched herself high into the air, spinning gracefully between the attacks. When she landed, it became a game of evasion. As both Lorwardians pummeled the place where she stood, she continued to duck, dodge, spin, parry, strike at any opening. While Warhok and Warmonga were obvious powerhouses, Miratrix's evasion was nothing less than a dance, a ballet of absolute precision.

"WHY IS THE SMALL UGLY ONE NOT ALREADY DEAD AT OUR HANDS?" Warmonga bellowed.

"Because I'm more powerful than you think," Miratrix seethed, "and BETTER THAN THE BOTH OF YOU COMBINED!"

She went low, smacking both her fists into the ground. A shockwave of energy rippled through the immediate vicinity, knocking both Lorwardians backward. Miratrix panted; that attack always took a little more energy, and she couldn't just spam it, but it had its time and place. And that had definitely been it.

As the three warriors converged on the field again, the Grandmaster remarked, "It's really a shame she's so ugly and non-marketable. Look at those moves. I could still beat her in a dance-off, but those are some moves."

"Eh, she might have the martial arts, but I bet she's useless with a basketball," Swackhammer commented.

"She's just an inferior and horrible-looking version of me," Topaz stated.

"Is somebody jealous?" the Grandmaster replied.

"No," Topaz grunted. "I just said she was inferior to me and I meant it."

"You still brought it up," Swackhammer pointed out.

"It's okay to be a little jellyyyyy," the Grandmaster said, his voice singsong.

"I am NOT jealous!" Topaz hissed. "…And don't say 'jelly' or you'll make me hungry for sandwiches."

A pause. "Now I want a PB&J, myself," the Grandmaster realized.

"Eh, PB&W is better," Swackhammer said dismissively.

"What's the W for?" the Grandmaster asked.

"Windowpane," Topaz guessed.

"Not edible," the Grandmaster told her.

"Worms," Swackhammer sighed. "Deep-fried worms."

"Actually, that does sound delicious," the Grandmaster realized. "After this, we all go get sandwiches. Peanut butter, deep-fried worms, and I'll have extra marshmallows on mine too."

They weren't the only peanut gallery watching Miratrix's dance. Thanks to the rod Mozenrath had seized, he and the Huntsman were observing it all from the comfort of the Lost Lounge of the Sun.

"She is very skilled," the Huntsman remarked. "I had suspected as much…and yet she still has surpassed my expectations."

Mozenrath shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Kamdor just didn't know what he was giving up."

"The Lorwardians offend me with their very existences," the Huntsman said. "Also, am I truly supposed to believe they are superior among the galaxy I myself hail from if the Galactic Council seemingly has no trouble keeping them at bay?"

"That is a very excellent point," Mozenrath said. "Though from the looks of it, YOU would have no trouble keeping them at bay."

"I won't disagree," the Huntsman stated.

Warhok and Warmonga were yet again trying to pin down a slippery Miratrix. "This one is annoying!" Warmonga spat as her spear slashed.

"I haven't been this ANGRY at anyone since that cetacean Galactic Officer who had the gall to punch me in the face during the Woolagong occupation!" Warhok seethed.

Standing her ground, Miratrix dared them both: "COME AND GET ME!" And stood perfectly still.

They fell for it, proving once and for all that they were as stupid as Miratrix had claimed. They ran at her, each cuing up a killing blow.

They swung. She backflipped, arcing up and over their attacks. There was a spurt of blood, but not hers. She'd lured them to each other, made them attack just before she removed herself from the equation, and now Warmonga's spear had just hacked off one of Warhok's fists.

"YOUUUUUU!" Warhok shook the bleeding arm at Miratrix as though there were still a fist attached. Blood sprayed onto the rest of his body and over the ground.

"That was an obvious trap," Miratrix told them both. "You got what you deserved."

"NO!" Warmonga gasped, eyes wide at Warhok's injury. "For this…you must SUFFER!"

"Make me," Miratrix challenged.

She and Warmonga raced to each other once more as Warhok stayed back, attempting to tie off his bleeding arm in the fabric of his cape. Miratrix leapt high, ready to bring down her blades on Warmonga.

Warmonga, however, was fueled by a new rage, a new thirst for vengeance. Her moves were a little quicker, a little stronger this time. Her body lit up with a crackling electric energy. A single hand closed around Miratrix's leg, and instantly, Miratrix was paralyzed, wracked with pain. A scream escaped her as she was thrown roughly to the ground, bouncing and rolling across the arena floor. Bindings of pink energy, alive and electric, held her in place, trussed up and weak.

Warmonga advanced, spear poised to slice Miratrix in half. "This is for Warhok!"

Miratrix wanted to make a snappy remark about how Warmonga had been the one to remove his hand, but her mouth was locked, unable to move. Only her eyes flicked from place to place.

"No, let me!" Warhok surged up beside Warmonga. "I want to avenge the wound she gave me!"

"I will be the one to kill her!" Warmonga pushed him away.

So Warhok pushed back; "No, I will!"

They argued a while longer, and as they did, Miratrix tried desperately to struggle. The electric bonds held her tight, firmly frozen, but she refused to give in. Her entire body, her entire being was thrown into the effort.

Including a dormant core of power, deep down below the surface, that Miratrix hadn't even realized she still had. It began to swell within her, red-hot, and with it came a euphoria.

Her last stand had been at the ritual site of the Octavian Chalice. She'd commanded the Chalice to give her power of great magnitude, and it had obeyed. Her foes had been stronger, and at the end of it all, Kamdor had chosen that moment to turn his back on her, to imprison her and fuel his own success. But somehow, it had never occurred to her that Kamdor locking her inside the amulet didn't undo the Chalice's boon.

"I have an idea!" Warmonga said at last. "We will kill her together!"

Warhok drew his pistol. "A fine idea indeed."

Weapons poised, the two Warlordians approached Miratrix to do her in.

But before they could strike, she exploded.

Breaking the bonds, Miratrix expanded, changing shape. No longer was she a humanoid; a creature that best resembled an owl, with shimmering silver feathers, winged her way up above the Lorwardians, its size making even them look paltry. Miratrix, in her new body, pumped her wings hard – not to gain altitude, but to stir up a wild and wicked wind that tore at the Lorwardians' hair and clothing, threatening to throw them off balance.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Warhok yelled.

"I don't know." Warmonga scowled. "But it needs to die!"

They raced to the edge of the arena, fumbling with what at first appeared to be scrap. Then Warhok took to the air on a pair of red-and-black metal wings, with Warmonga riding a purple hoverboard in hot pursuit.

Miratrix saw red. Now those definitely weren't allowed in the ring, or wouldn't have been if it were her, and really just emphasized how much the Grandmaster let the rules fluctuate to produce the greatest entertainment value. The rage was channeled into Miratrix's wind, and now the currents swirled so hard that both Lorwardians had a hard time keeping on course and much of the audience had a hard time keeping in their seats.

Warmonga attempted to slash out, but was pushed just off center by the whipping winds of Miratrix's wings. Warhok fired off several rounds of laser energy, only to have them rebounded directly toward him by the silver feathers. Power Rangers they were certainly not.

"TOGETHER!" Warhok yelled.

"TOGETHER!" Warmonga agreed.

They met in the air, flying side-by-side. Then, in their final play of utter idiocy, they rushed Miratrix head-on.

"WAAAARMOOOOONGAAAAAA!"

"AAAAAAAAAAA – "

Building up all the power she could muster, Miratrix let loose a screech, and on that cry rode a bolt of searing energy, somewhere between fire and lightning. The beam split, targeting each Lorwardian separately.

In a horrible flash and a pair of agonizing screams, both of the Lorwardians were obliterated, turned to ash in Miratrix's breath.

That had taken up the rest of her power; she fell to the arena floor a smaller humanoid once more. Her back hit the ground with a thump, and she winced from the pain. But then smiled. Because they were applauding her.

Forcing her way through her injuries, Miratrix rose, holding one sword high. "I AM BEAUTIFUL!" she screamed.

The audience gave a chorus of screams of agreement. Most of them had known that already. But a greater percentage than you might think also had a thing for monsters with feathers.

"MORE IMPORTANTLY," Miratrix yelled, "I AM POWERFUL! I HAVE WON! AND NOW!"

She threw both swords into the ground of the arena blade-down so they stuck like stakes.

"I'M GOING TO RETRIEVE MY SWORDS!" Miratrix yelled before hurrying out of view.

The cheers followed her all the way into the hall, where she, finally hidden from public eye, allowed herself to stagger from the pain and lack of energy. A guard reached out to her; she slapped him away.

"I'll get a sofa ready," Mozenrath said, whipping his hand so that suddenly a wool blanket appeared in it. Though it appeared he was prepared to show comfort, he was really looking forward to mocking her injuries and babying her on purpose to see how long it would take her to lash out.

The Huntsman nodded. "She has shown great resilience even beyond her more magical qualities. She would make a good Huntsgirl indeed."

...

Vexen, Deymos, Vincent Edgeworth, Victor Blake, Albert Krueger, Simon Laurent, skekSil, and Xerxes stood before the wasteland of glass that led to the entrance to the Deepground.

"One of you," Vexen commanded. "Clear this mess away so no one here impales themself before we ever get to our opponents."

Albert raised his hands, giving a polite golf-clap. A horde of black-and-white Dream Eaters surfaced and went to work right away at clearing the glass.

"You won't get extra points for showing off," Vincent muttered.

Finally, a clearer trail was left to the Deepground. Eyeing up the entrance, Vexen chuckled. "After all this time, you truly thought you could hide from your own maker?"

They entered, then hiked deep into the underground neighborhood, passing through the dark labyrinth of streets. Vexen had been here before as a child, and so was able to easily pick out the street that would most quickly lead them all to the central square.

"Yeah, don't like the vibes of this place!" Deymos pointed out. "Got a really bad feeling that really bad things are about to happen here."

"And what would you have us do?" Vexen sniffed. "Leave?"

"Nah," Deymos replied. "But you gotta let me complain, okay? It's a form of self-care."

At last, they reached the central square. A favorable sight. All of the Tsviets were gathered in one place for a conference: Weiss, Nero, Azul, Rosso, Argento, Shelke, Genesis. Standing with back turned to the newcomers was a tall figure in a dark leather coat, sporting long silver hair.

Good, Vexen thought. They hadn't found out Tsumugi yet.

He gave a nod to Deymos, who cleared his throat; "Sorry not sorry to crash your party, guys."

"How pitiful," Vexen added. "Thinking you could hide here. And so easily fooled by our – "

The silver-haired figure turned around. Revealing Tsumugi, in her standard form of a blue-haired young woman, pressed with her back to his chest, an improbably long sword held against her front and ready to slice her in half at a moment's notice.

"Wait," Deymos realized. "If that's – then THAT'S – "

The silver-haired man gave a huff. "Your greatest experiment come home to the roost. Only to find that the rest of them had fallen for this sorry imposter." Sephiroth's single dark wing puffed out behind him, stray feathers curling to the ground.

"I'm sorry!" Tsumugi squeaked. "I tried to stay in character, and I had it down to an art, but then when the real one showed up, I couldn't talk my way out of it!"

"I've been expecting you," Sephiroth went on. "It truly is pitiful, you know. First, your inferior crop begs me to share my superior cells to repair his deteriorating form."

"We were friends," Genesis seethed. "We were BROTHERS. You, me, and Angeal!"

"And he begs me to lead his resistance," Sephiroth went on. "As though my time is at all well-spent helping wastrels wage petty wars. But then things got a little more interesting. You arrived. Surely you know well that the creation has far surpassed the creator, but in case you still choose your delusions of grandeur over cold reality, shall I demonstrate?"

Vexen found his breath quickening, his heart thudding. What he wouldn't give to be able to remove it then and there and feel no fear. He swallowed hard, forcing himself to appear more confident than he was. "You have in no way surpassed me," he stated. "In fact, I have surpassed you with my latest creation."

He stepped aside, revealing the cyborg trio. "Allow me to introduce Vincent Edgeworth," Vexen said, "and his cohorts Victor Blake and Albert Krueger. Improvements upon you in every sense of the word."

Genesis gave a scoffing hiss. "You brought a small man named 'Vincent' to be our destruction? Do you truly underestimate us so?"

"Don't speak of me as though I am a Tsviet," Sephiroth told him. "After all, you mistook a girl in costume for me. You just lost what little respect you had from me."

"Then we have no quarrel," Vincent said. "We came to deal with the Tsviets. They have something we require."

"We may have no quarrel," Sephiroth said, "but your existence is the last thing that tethers me to a sense of inferiority. Of mortality. You see, when you 'improved' me, you transformed me into the very entity my mother had worshipped for years. An avatar of Chaos itself. I am a god; you are but a human who quivers in fear at the sight of a god. Jenova and Chaos are my true mother and father. You must be removed from my history. You will be but a memory, and then forgotten."

"YOU will not have the honor of destroying him!" Rosso spat. "To destroy Even is OUR revenge! You love what you have become due to him while the rest of us SUFFER!"

"THE TSVIETS WILL KILL HIM!" Azul roared.

Shelke nodded. "He ruined our kingdom. My sister would never have been in danger if not for him and what he let happen."

Genesis drew his own sword: a broad, crimson blade. He struck a pose, bracing for battle. "We will destroy him and all that are loyal to him," he stated. "Even his new experiments. They deserve to be put out of their misery anyway."

"Don't think you've escaped my wrath either," Sephiroth told him. "As far as I'm concerned, the Deepground is now filled with vermin I must exterminate."

"Hey, hey!" Deymos stepped forward. "Can't we talk this out? You and I had a MOMENT, remember? Not like a romo moment, but you know! Remember me? I went by 'Demyx' back then."

Sephiroth regarded him with utmost condescension. "We've never met."

"Sure we have!" Deymos went on. "You were at the Showdown at Hollow Bastion; I was at the Showdown at Hollow Bastion…you went after Cloud; I went after Sora…we're brothers in hunting spiky-haired idiots!"

"I have no memory of this," Sephiroth stated. "After all, there were many crawling pests on the field that day. You were one in a million."

Deymos folded his arms. "Well, you didn't have to be rude. But I mean, it's not like it matters. The point was to keep you talking."

A sudden, sharp pain in Sephiroth's wrist. He flinched, as anyone would. Not by much. Just enough to turn his head to see Xerxes biting down. Just enough that with his loosened grip, Tsumugi was able to duck away and hurtle back toward her allies.

"The perks of going unnoticed," Deymos chuckled nervously. "Anyway, we're in super trouble now, aren't we?"

"You have no idea," Sephiroth responded.

He rose into the air, wing flapping, sword braced. Genesis immediately shot upward to counter him, blade at the ready.

"VINCENT!" Vexen pointed upward. "TAKE CARE OF THIS!"

Vincent gave a nod, stepping forth. He remembered the procedure, what he used to do when roaming the halls of Myers Corporation. What he'd practiced out on the testing fields in Soleanna Port.

In the same vein that Sephiroth and Genesis had deployed their wings, Vincent fanned out a host of electrical cables from his back, their ends sparking violently. His head detached from the neck, extending on another set of cables; his eyes glossed over to complete blackness, from iris to pupil to white. He bent his knees, with more cables protruding from his waist like a skirt, then sprang into the air. Every single cable in him lashed out toward the two angels.

That was the cue. The Tsviets rushed Vexen and his own. The latter defended. And all at once, the Deepground was chaos.

Sephiroth's masamune clashed again and again on Genesis' rapier, the two men flying through the air. Then Vincent leapt onto Sephiroth's back like a pack, driving his sparking cables into the warrior and jolting him with electricity. Sephiroth blew Vincent off his back in a hot rush of fire that illuminated the cavern almost to daylight. Genesis, seeing his opportunity, cast a flurry of red orbs toward Sephiroth, only to feel the pull when Vincent's cables wrapped around his ankles and started pulling him down like an anchor. Sephiroth sliced through every single orb of Genesis' with his own sword before casting another column of flame to envelop Genesis while he was being tethered.

With a slice, Genesis severed the cables holding him down, letting Vincent drop. Vincent snagged the edge of a rooftop with one hand, using the leverage to vault back up and away from the spurting flames. Sephiroth gave Vincent a derisive look, casting a Thunder spell to keep him back. Vincent's entire body crackled with electricity, but he gave no sign of being bothered, absorbing the Thunder into himself. With that, he extended his limbs out on still more cables, giving himself a larger, more spidery appearance.

Genesis sent a burst of Dark energy at Sephiroth; it exploded in a cloud of feathers. Sephiroth came out flying, Masamune slashing angrily; three strikes at Genesis and then Vincent had soared right past Genesis to slam a heavy fist into Sephiroth's face. Genesis rose above, angling his sword for the kill.

Sephiroth called into existence a bright, fiery orb, one that knocked Genesis out of place and set his feathers aflame. Several meteors revolved around the orb, bolstered by Darkness. They burst forth, seeking out Vincent and Genesis.

Genesis was easily able to cut through the meteors. Vincent punched through each one that targeted him. The orb expelled more and more; both Genesis and Vincent seemed prepared. So Sephiroth went a step beyond. He put his focus on Vincent, gathering a new attack while sending not another meteor but the entire fire-orb at Genesis.

Genesis howled as he was surrounded by bright red-orange. A golden halo appeared over Vincent's head, and then a Dark aura closed in on him all at once, wracking him with pain. Sephiroth geared up for the final slash that would take care of Vincent, preparing to do the same to Genesis afterward.

As he surged, however, he came to a startling realization. The spell used on Vincent was meant to break down the stamina and health of any opponent. In some respects, it had worked. Half Vincent's chest was torn away, and his skull had been split right down the center, half his head hanging off.

But he wasn't dead. A silver brain tinted with pink glowed. Dull metal ribs stood against throbbing red flesh. Calling upon more energy from within, Vincent ripped even more of his own skin apart, his metal skeleton expanding to double him in size.

By the time the masamune reached him, he stopped it with a single hand, pushing back on Sephiroth. "You can do your worst to me," he said with a smirk. "I can guarantee you I've already survived it and more."

Sephiroth dropped to the rooftop that Vincent stood upon. And then, a very singed Genesis did as well.

"The Tsviets need a new hero," he seethed. "One who won't ignore their plight. For them, I will take it upon myself to destroy you both."

"It seems I'm being tested more than I imagined," Sephiroth said casually. "What a thrill it will be to pass the test."

Vincent, sparking with rage and actual electricity, struck a fighter's stance; "If you are angels, then consider me Leviathan, here to condemn you."

The three of them rushed each other at once. Fire, Darkness, Thunder were all ablaze.

On the ground, Nero had become a font of pure Darkness. Tendrils erupted from all around him as he lashed out with his steel wings to try to catch one very speedy target.

Albert Krueger rather enjoyed his new cyborg reflexes. They were allowing him to run circles around every patch of dark tentacles that erupted from the ground below. However, every time he got close to Nero, the steel wings kept him back.

"If you ask me," he said, "you're desperately in need of mental health treatment. I'll begin conducting the sanity check immed – "

Albert was suddenly seized by both forearms, the metal hands at the ends of Nero's wing prosthetics holding him aloft. "My sanity?" Nero laughed. "That was gone a long time ago. I no longer need it!"

"Well, then, you're beyond my help," Albert replied, keeping on a smile as he struggled. But that smile was faltering.

Until Xerxes came swooping in, chomping down on Nero's wing hard. Hoping the same trick would work on him that had on Sephiroth.

"I'm sorry," Albert told him, "but those are metal."

Xerxes sighed. "Worth shot."

"If you think I need 'treatment,'" Nero declared, "then you have no idea the scope of my pain. But allow me to show you!"

A burst of thick Dark tendrils burst upward, swallowing Nero, Albert, and Xerxes alike. Albert was momentarily pressed into the depths of despair, flailing around a dark void deprived of all sensory cues.

(Loneliness – left behind – no one wanted him – well, if that was how it was, then he might as well - )

Then the Dark cleared. Albert stood on a stone platform isolated in a spinning green-gray vortex. Similar platforms were scattered through the air; there was no ground in sight. There was, however, a ceiling of stone. Nero stood upon it, upside-down in the air.

"Welcome to my Darkness," he stated. "For you to have survived must mean your heart is truly black and rotted."

"I don't think that was exactly a secret," Albert replied. "But it may also interest you to know that I've suffered a lot of Darkness before."

Nero gave a "hmph" before informing him, "Your friend isn't quite so healthy."

In a panic, Albert realized exactly what that meant. He sprang from one stone platform to the next, hurriedly seeking.

Nero took that time to transform. His wings expanded, surrounding him. He mired himself in a mass of Darkness, the wings breaking apart into eight arachnid legs.

By the time Nero had fully become arachnoform, Albert found Xerxes. The eel had been dark-hearted enough to survive, but only barely. He lay on the stone, patches of his skin burned, his breath ragged.

"Tell…Mozenrath…" Xerxes sputtered. "if he's going to forget Xerxes…then leave Xerxes dead. But Xerxes…proud of him."

Albert scooped up the eel. "Necromancer or not," he said, "saving your life will benefit both of us in the long run. May I?"

"What…is Albert doing?"

Albert passed a hand over Xerxes, calling on a little Darkness of his own.

Purple crystals surrounded Nero, floating into formations. Nero extended a hand upward, casting Darkness in such a way that the crystals refracted it into a hundred rays of searing energy.

A black-and-white form shot through half the batch of crystals, shattering them into glittering shards. Nero's eyes widened when he realized he was looking at a black eel with a white fanged face.

"XERXES NIGHTMARE NOW!" yelled the newly-Dream-Eater Xerxes.

Albert evaded the rest of the beams by leaping from platform to platform. Withdrawing a pair of knives from his belt, he remarked, "That's not the only Dream Eater in my army, of course. I'm sorry, but your sanity check is EXTREMELY overdue."

More Dream Eaters gathered around him, forming a demon cyclone, a platform of writing bodies upon which Albert Krueger stood. The therapist was propelled toward Nero, daggers ready to bite.

Xerxes flew in at Nero from behind, fangs extended.

"Hmph," Nero scoffed. "So be it."

To all eyes in the Deepground, Nero, Albert, and Xerxes had simply vanished from view. Which Victor Blake found worrying. But he had other problems currently at hand: namely Azul bearing a massive gun that was aimed at him.

Victor fired Azul a smirk. "Compensating, I see."

"DO NOT MOCK ME!" Azul let off a blast from the weapon.

Victor's new cybernetic joints allowed him to dive out of the blast range and reposition. "If it's guns you want to play with," he said slyly, "then I can join the game."

Vexen had given his metal arms a host of new features. With merely an exertion of will, Victor was able to transform them into a pair of flexible energy cannons, which he pointed at Azul. Twin beams fired directly at the overmuscled man, sending him head over heels.

Azul recovered, repositioning his gun. Now that he held it by the barrel, it served as a massive mallet. Azul leapt into the air with a roar, bringing the hammer down toward Victor.

Victor danced around it, changing his ammo to more of a gatling-gun style. When Azul landed, the hammer pounding a hole into the bare ground, Victor switched to a different adjustment, both arms now becoming honed broadsword blades. Victor rushed Azul, who raised the hammer to parry both swift swords.

"I won't lie," Victor told him. "You have a good body. There are many out there who might be interested in you based on looks alone. It's a shame you have to open your mouth and speak, though. It's probably the reason none of them have committed."

"You think this is a good body?" Azul seethed. "I'LL SHOW YOU A BETTER ONE!"

The hammer spun, catching Victor broadside and sending him tumbling. As Victor righted himself, he saw Azul's body morphing, splitting right through his tight garments as he expanded into a massive blue creature. A bull with wicked horns, metal scales, reptilian jointed legs, and a lashing tail. Pawing the ground twice, Arch Azul charged Victor.

Victor waited until the last second to evade him with a twirl. "Olé!" he laughed.

Arch Azul gave a roar; a ball of blue-white light charged up between the points of his horns.

Victor, sensing now might be a good time to go on the defensive, switched his arms out again for a pair of featureless jointed rods. Putting them out to either side, he was able to generate a dome of a deflection shield around himself, red energy pulsing through it.

Arch Azul's light broke, becoming fifty searing shards of energy. They pummeled Victor's shield, and the first round fizzled out harmlessly, but the rest gave Victor cause for concern in how they shifted the whole dome and threatened its now-flickering structure.

When the light subsided, Victor dismissed the shield, running Azul head-on. He switched his arms again; now they had regular hands, but telescoped out. Reaching forth, he grabbed onto Arch Azul's now-dormant horns and used them as leverage to launch himself up over the beast's head, landing on Arch Azul's back to ride him like a passenger.

Arch Azul immediately went into a frenzy, bouncing this way and that to try and shake Victor. Victor held firm, and so did his proud smirk.

As Rosso charged Tsumugi with what looked like a cross between a distaff and a crossbow, Tsumugi babbled; "Okay, think, THINK, who would have the best moves to counter – I GOT IT!"

In a shifting of panels, Tsumugi's appearance changed entirely to mimic one Scarlet Overkill. In a near-perfect receation of Scarlet's attack patterns, Tsumugi slid beneath the swiping staff, dealing a sharp kick to Rosso's gut.

Rosso was thrown back, but then turned the distaff on its side, firing out bright energy blasts from its crossbow mode. "You cannot stand above me!" she boasted.

"Don't you at least get my joke?" Tsumugi asked as she transformed her skirt, making it one with her robotic body so that it could propel her into the air on rockets. Much like a certain gown Scarlet had worn to a villains' convention. "Rosso versus Scarlet! It's a pun if you really think about it. I know puns are a low form of humor, but – "

"THE ONLY 'SCARLET' THAT WILL BE PRESENT IS YOUR BLOOD RUNNING IN RIVERS!" Rosso kept firing at Tsumugi.

Tsumugi swooped down to charge Rosso, dealing a hard punch to her solar plexus. "Sorry to disappoint," Tsumugi said, "which I admittedly do very often, but robots don't bleed! I should know from when I worked on Keebo's design!"

Argento drew a wide silver sword as she advanced gracefully upon skekSil. "Hast thou what it taketh to face a Tsviet?" she asked.

"Hmmmmm…" skekSil reached to the sword sheaths at his waist, pulling dual curved blades. "Chamberlain was always more manipulator than fighter."

"A greater number of weapons shan't make up for lack of skill," Argento said, striking a perfect battle form.

"But Chamberlain HAS skill!" skekSil argued. "Chamberlain skillfully traded favors in order to earn weapons that are more than they seem!"

With the flick of twin switches, the blades on the swords blazed with energy. SkekSil crossed them, then threw them apart with a wild cry; an X of energy shot toward Argento.

She could see the exact angle she would need in order to dodge it, and did so. "Analyzing weaponry," she muttered, searching over the Zorg productions with her eyes. "Weakness analysis at one percent."

At the same time, she brought her sword down on skekSil. SkekSil's slow speed was normally a disadvantage on the battlefield, but Argento was a strategist, not a fighter by nature. She'd been built for intellect. And she was well aware that she was just as slow in her sword strokes as skekSil was as the two clashed and parried.

Shelke rushed in. She wasn't much of a fighter just yet, having only so far mastered cloaking technology, but she knew that if she could assist Argento, then skekSil would be easily overcome. Then she was sideswiped, and before she knew it, she was lying on the pavement, Simon astride her and pinning her down.

"You're coming with us!" Simon barked at her.

Shelke's brow furrowed. "Screw you!"

She bucked, throwing him off of her, and then kicked him with both feet. However, she knew that going in for Argento was no longer a smart plan. Shelke activated her cloaking, taking off running into the streets of Deepground.

Simon sent a grapple down the same alley she'd just run, hooking to a window ledge and pulling himself up to catch up with her. She was in such a hurry that it wasn't hard to spot the scenery she dislodged and jostled as she tripped down the street. Simon swung down on the grapple's cord, landing before her and cutting her off. He could tell from the movement in the environment just before him that she'd turned to run back the other way, so he aimed the grapple at the center of the alley.

When the hook pierced into Shelke's back, she screamed, falling to her knees and becoming visible once more. Her hands flew to the hook, trying to pry it out among the slippery blood.

Simon planted himself in front of her, looking down upon her. "It's only a flesh wound," he said smugly. "Not anything to get all worried about. Yet, anyway."

"Why?" Shelke called up to him. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you belong to us," Simon told her. "Vexen MADE you, more than he made anyone else in your circle of companions! You're OUR prize! And the way it all worked out, well, I guess I'm the one who wins you."

He kicked her in the side of the face with a metal boot, and she reeled from the impact, vision blurring. Another kick brought her unconscious.

"You have spirit, though," Simon taunted her. "Just like someone else I bested."

Deymos and Vexen had agreed on a strategy. The former conjured; the latter froze. Deymos' sitar strummed rapidly, conjuring up geysers to fence Weiss in, bubbles to descend upon him, and Vexen turned them all into solid ice, creating barriers and bludgeons. Vexen then cast a circle beneath Weiss, tracking his feet and reading his data. But Weiss was a master of the twin katanas, and broke through every icy obstacle that Vexen and Deymos threw at him, swinging hard and fast.

"Is your data thingy almost done already?" Deymos asked in a panic.

"In a moment…a MOMENT – " Vexen replied. "NOW!"

He recalled the circle. Deymos strummed an old classic from his repertoire, and up from the circle spurted ninety-nine watery clones of Weiss. Vexen froze them over, creating an army of ice men for Weiss to fight.

This kept Weiss busy cutting them down for a while, giving Vexen and Deymos the opportunity to conjure several more geysers and water-walls while Vexen froze them to heavy weight. Weiss was presented with an utter barrage of foes, and soon, all the ice had closed him in completely.

"YEAH!" Deymos put up his hand for a high-five. "Up top!"

To which Vexen, without even really thinking about it, slapped the hand with his own. Obviously in a better mood than usual.

Until Weiss burst from the ice with a new weapon in hand: a massive gun, similar to Azul's save for the pair of electrically crackling pincers at its end. With a thrust and a roar, Weiss slammed the barrel around Frozen Pride and into Vexen, the pincers closing around him and dealing a wave of sharp lightning into his skin.

"NO!" Deymos yelled. Only to be kicked aside by Weiss' meaty leg, tumbling over the street.

Vexen screamed. Struggled. To no avail. Weiss held him aloft, grinning. "And to think I would be the one to hunt down and kill the man who ruined us all," he boasted.

"D-don't!" Vexen sputtered.

"You've reached your end," Weiss told him.

Deymos saw red. In a flash, he was on his feet, surging toward Weiss, not even thinking about chords or currents. Instead, he grasped his sitar by the neck, swinging it like a bludgeon until it rammed into the back of Weiss' head.

The first blow startled Weiss enough to lose his grip, to fumble, to let Vexen free of the gun. Vexen dropped to the street, hurriedly crawling away. Deymos, however, was in no way finished. He kept swinging the sitar like a bat, pummeling Weiss again and again.

Until with an angry yell, Weiss took aim at Deymos' face with the gun's barrel, not even bothering with the pincers. Deymos instinctively raised the sitar to protect himself, and now the pincers were employed, snapping the instrument right in half.

"…Foofie," Deymos muttered.

Bright white light charged up at the end of the barrel –

A hand seized Deymos' forearm, nearly squeezing the life out of it. Deymos was flung back, back behind another body, and before them both, a shield was raised into the air, levitating by magic.

Deymos gaped at Vexen. "Did you just – "

"I owed you a debt," Vexen told him, letting go of his arm. The shot from Weiss' weapon thundered against Frozen Pride uselessly. "Don't overthink it."

The sounds of a storm echoed throughout the Deepground. Overhead, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Vincent were still clashing in a rainbow of light, their battlefield becoming more and more expansive. Azul and Victor's conflict was making more and more holes in the street. Rosso had structurally compromised several buildings on her quest to destroy Tsumugi. Argento and skekSil weren't making that much of a ruckus; Simon dragged an unconscious Shelke out of an alley and flashed Vexen and Deymos a thumbs-up.

"He's got her!" Vexen gasped. "Now all we have to do is escape with our lives!"

"Yeah, easier said than done," Deymos groaned as Frozen Pride adjusted to keep blocking Weiss' shots. "If these guys aren't careful, they'll bring down the whole cave!"

Vexen gave a start. "Bring down the whole cave…THAT'S THE SOLUTION! We'll bury them in a tomb of their own making!"

"WHAT?" Deymos yelled.

"And escape," Vexen told him.

"No, I'm stunned you actually took my suggestion!" Deymos replied.

"It was still my idea to make it productive," Vexen explained.

"Theeeere it is," Deymos replied.

"Hold the line!" Vexen told Deymos, trading places with him. Deymos was now in charge of maneuvering Frozen Pride while Vexen fiddled with his scroll. Adjusting to a particular frequency.

Vincent, Victor, and Tsumugi heard the communication coming from inside the circuitry in their own heads: "Bring down the Deepground and FLEE!"

They all understood it perfectly. Vincent was well aware that his own contingent was halfway there to begin with; Sephiroth and Genesis were now clashing with enough force to have put several new ridges into the cavern wall. Vincent merely dropped out of it, flipping himself to the ground to where Victor was casually riding Arch Azul.

Vincent seized Arch Azul by the horns, looking at Victor dead-on. "VICTOR!"

Victor's eyes widened. "Why, Vincent. You look absolutely stunning as a monster. Were you aware?"

"This isn't the time for flattery," Vincent told him, blushing anyway. "Put your arms to use; I'll handle the beast!"

Victor leapt from Arch Azul's back, bringing out the cannons again. He fired bursts of energy at the scored cavern walls, at the tall buildings and the reinforcements holding it all up. Vincent then picked up Arch Azul by the horns, swung him around twice, and flung him into the far wall.

The impact of Arch Azul's body against the cavern wall was the final straw for the cave itself. But at the same time, Tsumugi had been adjusting her course to hide behind building after building. Rosso was very easily tricked into slashing through supports and blowing up buildings on her way to rid herself of Tsumugi. Now half the Deepground was collapsing as well.

"SHE'S COMING DOWN!" Tsumugi yelled. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"WHAT?" Weiss roared. He dropped the gun, taking up his katanas once more, and whirled toward Vexen and Deymos like a cyclone, blades outstretched to carve a path of destruction.

Vexen cast a hand toward the broken sitar, binding its halves together with ice. "A temporary solution," he said, "but use it wisely!"

Deymos used a toe to kick the instrument up into his hand. The strings bound with crystalline ice were stiffer than usual, but he could work with it. He strummed new chords, forming watery replicas of Weiss' katanas in midair. They tilted, angling toward Weiss.

As they flew, Vexen froze them all solid, fifty icy needles shooting toward the Tsviet. Before he could get to his targets, Weiss was impaled from all sides, blood shooting.

"AGH!" He dropped to a knee.

"And now for the grand finale!" Deymos played an intense tune, notes rapidly rising and falling.

Weiss was surrounded in an enormous bubble, filled throughout with water. Vexen cast a hand toward it, and the bubble became crystalline ice, freezing Weiss in place.

"That'll hold him, all right!" Deymos pumped a fist. "Now let's get out of here!"

Vexen cast a Blizzaga line, hopping onto it to slide away; Deymos was right behind him in an instant. Then Vexen asked over his shoulder, "Was that inspired in any form by my ice blade?"

"You have an ice blade?" Deymos babbled. "I don't know what you're talking about. DEFINITELY didn't take inspo from you with the big freeze either."

Buildings collapsed into shrapnel. The cavern shook ominously, with rocky debris falling down from the ceiling. Rosso and Argento had abandoned their opponents to run for cover; Arch Azul stood over them protectively as the walls came down.

"Wait, wait!" SkekSil hurried toward the Blizzaga line, his naturally slower gait hindering him. He saw Simon hop on with Shelke, speeding out of view. "Wait for Chamberlain – "

The line of ice expired from the point at which it was cast, depriving skekSil of his escape route. All he could think to give was a "Hm-m-m-mmmm" of utter anxiety.

When he was grasped beneath the arms by strong metal pinions, and lifted high into the air. Tsumugi, still in Scarlet's form, was carrying him out. "Many thanks to Ultimate Cosplayer!" skekSil sighed.

"You know how you can repay me?" Tsumugi said slyly. "Join me in joint cosplay!"

"Chamberlain would enjoy that very much, of course…"

Genesis and Sephiroth seemed not to care that their world was caving in. Still they clashed, the reverberations from their magic working to speed the collapse. Arch Azul was focused on keeping Rosso and Argento shielded. Weiss was still frozen. There were no Tsviets left unoccupied to bother the WHAM ARMY, and so when Victor and Vincent reconvened on a rooftop, they were undisturbed.

"Where is he?" Victor asked Vincent, eyes wide with panic, and Vincent knew exactly what he meant.

"He disappeared along with his opponent," Vincent replied. "I feel as though they're here somewhere, in some sense."

"Vincent, I know how you feel about this, but I'm not leaving here without – "

"You don't know how I feel about this," Vincent snapped. "Because I'm the one not leaving until he's accounted for. When it comes down, I can survive it. You can't. Get out of here, NOW."

Victor had to admit that the cyborg currently twice his size and showing scars of the previous battle that barely fazed him at all had a point with that. "Fine," Victor said. "But if I find out you set this up to let him die…I won't forgive you."

"I wouldn't forgive myself."

Victor took off running, leaping from rooftop to rooftop with what was still standing. Vincent then scanned the battlefield, looking for any sign.

All there was seemed to be chaos and collapse, until – there! A Corridor of Darkness opening, and a purple-gloved hand faltering through it.

Vincent lunged, landing before the Corridor as Albert's front half struggled out of it. Xerxes shot past, screaming in terror; Albert's upper body was suddenly encircled in Dark tendrils as a steel hand clamped to his shoulder.

"Vincent," he panted. "Help me – "

He fully expected Vincent to gloat. To knock him further back into Nero's clutches with a smile, with some one-liner about how he'd tell the others it was a lost cause.

He didn't expect Vincent to seize him with both hands, wrenching him hard out of Nero's tendrils. One of Vincent's steel-reinforced hands grabbed the fingers of Nero's prosthetic, snapping them clean off. Albert fell forward out of the extradimensional space, and Vincent gathered him close to the chest, like one might hold a child. Then Vincent took off running before Nero could emerge.

"WAIT FOR XERXES!" Xerxes shot after them, a bullet of black and white slowly cooling off to gray again.

Albert took a moment to process what had just happened. His rival, who at one point he had considered an archnemesis, had just saved him from the collapse of the building and also from Nero. Said rival was also a giant bloody cyborg with steel exposed through torn skin. Which was strangely more enticing than disgusting. Albert, despite himself, let his eyes shut, his head resting back on Vincent's metal ribs. Circumstances aside, this felt lovely.

Xerxes blasted out of the secret entrance, onto the field of the shattered reactor. Vincent hurtled after.

Sephiroth glowed with a bright aura; Genesis had one of his own. "Let's finish this," Genesis seethed. "And I will prove I never needed you."

"Your voice betrays the desperation in your words," Sephiroth replied coolly. "It's I who never needed you." Said with such confidence that Genesis, sadly, knew Sephiroth meant it. "Now let us bring an end to this senselessness."

They charged toward each other one last time. The impact from the collision sent out a shockwave of magic that signaled the death knell for the Deepground cavern. All at once, the rest of it came down, bringing with it the neighborhood located in the Castle District above.

"It's over," Even said, regarding the entryway that had just filled itself with debris. "They're gone."

"AND WE MADE IT OUT ALIVE!" Deymos pumped his fist. "SUCKS TO BE ANYONE LIVING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS WALL, BUT THAT'S NOT OUR PROBLEM!"

"Indeed it isn't." Vexen smiled.

"Heyyyy." Deymos skipped over beside him. "Remember what I said about us making a great team? Huh? Huhhhhhh?" He put up a fist. "Permission for playful victory sucker punch?"

Vexen smiled at him, surprisingly sincerely. Thinking of how Deymos had practically bashed Weiss' skull in when Vexen was in peril. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt…"

"Ha-HAAAA!" Deymos gave a light punch to Vexen's arm. "We rule; Sephiroth drools!"

Vincent, now free of the blast zone, roughly dropped Albert on the stone and walked to the edge of the pit to lean against a wall. He took stock of all the injuries he'd sustained that would need to be repaired.

Victor sidled up to him. "You really do look quite handsome, you know."

"Your lies impress no one," Vincent replied with a glare. Knowing that he had to look like a half-metal zombie, cords still sparking.

"No, I mean it." Victor dropped down to his knees, looking Vincent in the eyes. "Does it hurt?"

"I've been through worse."

"Now that I think about it, I'm rather biased," Victor said. "I think you'll always look beautiful to me."

Vincent swallowed hard. "We…should have a discussion once we're in a more private space."

"I think that would be wonderful," Victor replied, eyes sparkling.

They were interrupted by the sound of a hacking cough that was obviously faked. Both looked toward Albert, who was making a very dramatic show out of his forced coughs.

"My apologies," he stated. "I had something in my throat."

"Did you?" Victor teased.

"While I have your attention, though," Albert said, "I suppose I could thank you for not leaving me behind. Only because it's proper etiquette to do so."

Victor stood, approaching him. Reaching out a metal arm to lightly rest upon Albert's shoulder. "We promised, remember?" he said. "Not to leave each other behind this time. It would've been an incredible shame for us to reunite after so many years of separation only to lose you so suddenly."

Albert was gobsmacked at the sentiment. "I'm. You're."

"In other words, you're welcome." Victor gave Albert's shoulder another clap, then moved away.

Albert then looked to Vincent. "You…?"

"I prefer not to give a comment," Vincent huffed, trying to reel in all his stray cords.

Albert just stood there and stared at him.

"What is it?" Vincent barked.

"He's not lying," Albert said. "It's a good look on you." He smiled, showing off his pointed incisors.

"Don't mock me," Vincent grumbled. Still blushing.

Tsumugi reverted to her default appearance, hopping up and down while clapping. "That was WONDERFUL!" she cried. "I wish we could've gotten it on film! The ratings would be amazing!"

"Hey!" Simon interrupted. "She's waking up!"

He'd lain Shelke on the cobblestone; she was stirring, her eyes cracking open. "What…?"

"Your friends are dead," Simon told her with a grin. "Maybe if you'd come quietly earlier on, they'd still be alive."

"NO!" Shelke gasped, tears pricking her eyes. She sat up, drawing in her knees. "They were the only family I had!"

"I guess you're an orphan now," Simon said snidely.

"Go on, go on!" skekSil urged, gesturing Vexen toward Shelke. "Figure out if invisible girl is No. i!"

"The question that spurred the experiment." Vexen strode to Shelke, leaning down to her bent form. "What are you hiding?"

He produced a card. Swiped it against her head. Watched the image develop. To his disappointment, it was of a moment where he had Xion's presence accounted for – and this was not where she should've been.

Casting the card to the ground, Vexen spat, "She's just an ordinary girl!"

"I could've told you that!" Shelke sobbed.

"Ordinary girl might've been lying," skekSil informed her. "This was only way to know for certain."

"So you're saying that was all for nothing?" Tsumugi pouted.

"No," Vexen said, once again smiling oddly sincerely. "We tested the capabilities of our rescued cyborgs and saw them hold against powerful foes. Said powerful foes – and failures of past experiments – are now buried and gone. This is a victory indeed, and one we should celebrate back at base." He looked to Vincent. "I see you will also need repairs."

"There must be a way to let me transition more easily without needing to be sewn up each time," Vincent grumbled.

"Yes, there must," Vexen agreed. "I shall think on the matter and have a solution shortly. For now, let us be off."

"HEY!" Shelke was suddenly on her feet. "WHAT ABOUT ME?"

"No offense," Deymos told her, "but literally no one cares." He breezed past, waving off her concerns.

The WHAM ARMY contingent headed out, and the last thing Shelke heard of them was Xerxes telling Deymos "XERXES CAN BECOME MAGIC MONSTER NOW!". Then they were gone, and Shelke sank to her knees, sobbing.

She looked to the rubble, and the wall that separated her from the carnage that was the district plunged into Deepground. Hoping that if she stared long enough, it wouldn't be true.

Then came the eruption. Something on the other side, at the heart of the Deepground, had broken through the surface, and it headed for the sky. A flash of silver, a flapping wing dripping dark feathers. Shelke gaped as Sephiroth ascended, then flew out of sight.

Not long after, the rubble blocking the door burst into shards. Genesis stumbled out, sword at the ready, even whiter with decay from the struggle.

"GENESIS!" Shelke rushed to him, practically tackling his waist in an embrace. "You're alive!"

"I am." He put a tight-gripping hand atop her head. Not even looking at her, but past her, into a hypothetical future. "Our arsenal may be destroyed, but our war continues. And it is now on far more than a single castle."

"Our…?" Shelke asked through her tears. "Are the others…?"

"I'm surprised Even forgot," Genesis told her. "He made them harder to destroy than that."

Sephiroth hadn't gone all too far. He descended to the ledge overlooking Villain's Vale, surveying the broken shell that used to be Maleficent's stronghold. Even though his eyes passed over the castle several times, it wasn't what he'd come for.

The sound of heavy footfalls behind him. "Well?" Bowser growled. "What happened?"

Sephiroth turned to regard him. "They proved themselves inferior and unworthy. We do not need their aid."

There were some who would berate Sephiroth for taking it upon himself to cull the ranks of the planned. But he who Sephiroth and Bowser served would have wanted exactly this outcome, and they were both aware of it.

"Boss has another assignment for you, by the way." Bowser held out a paper-sized playing card. "Says only you can do it."

Sephiroth delicately plucked the card, reading the assignment.

"But I'm going along," Bowser insisted. "You got all the fun lately, and I'm sick of being left out!"

Sephiroth nodded. "Just don't get in my way." He pocketed the card. "If you're destroyed in the fallout, you'll have no one to blame but yourself." He strode away.

"I know that!" Bowser insisted as he followed behind. "You just watch! You'll be glad you had me there when it's all over!"

They had no more destruction to wreak here at Radiant Garden. But compared to where they were going, this kingdom had gotten off easy.

...

In the end, unfortunately, Mim and Aghoul had to face a horrible truth. There was just nothing left of the Abarat worth destroying.

The tents and rides of the carnival of Babilonium had been scattered as shrapnel, metal wrapped in canvas. The forests of Yzil were black, dead, and quiet. The ziggurat of Soma Plume had been broken open, the mummified bodies inside scattered and picked through by beasts. The caverns of Huffaker had collapsed closed, leaving many to wonder if the Skein that connected all life was preserved within or damaged. Odom's Spire, the twenty-fifth hour, was shrouded in impenetrable mist; no one knew if the island even still existed inside.

After picking through every wasteland, every broken city, every hunting ground for the Eldritch, the WHAM ARMY contingent had to admit defeat. Worse yet, it seemed that Princess Boa had disappeared off the face of the map. Mater Motley was still living large on Gorgossium, but Carrion himself had ordered they stay away, knowing that the defenses would be difficult to breach even for them. The only thing that made Mim and Aghoul relent was when Sho reminded them they'd be spending the exact same amount of energy on Loki, so they should save up for him first, then regroup before even thinking about launching an invasion on Motley.

That left them only one thing they could even consider doing. On the isle of Pyon, the wealthy metropolis of Commexo City had gone dark. The CommexoWorks factory that once produced Panacea, the ultimate miracle cure, and raked in enormous profits for it was now scrap half submerged in water. There were whispers that a Requiax had managed to get inside, to latch itself to the CEO, to destroy the company from the inside out. Mim and Aghoul of course had no idea what a Requiax was, but they liked the sound of it.

They picked through the wreckage of CommexoWorks. Sho at first thought it his greatest canvas and reservoir of materials yet, roping Shape and Coco into helping him build a mountain of trash that stretched almost as high as the skyscrapers in the nearby city. Once he sat atop it, though, he looked out into the night upon night and felt only wistfulness.

"From up here, sitting on the richest guy's stuff, you'd think I'd be the number one," Sho sighed. "Always said that any tree can drop an apple, but I'd drop the freakin' moon. So what happens when there's no moon to drop?"

He slumped. "And barely anything to crush with it."

Coco and Shape sank down to sit beside him on the mountain. "It mega sucks," Coco sighed.

"I once pledged to serve the Darkness," Shape recalled. "I never thought it could be turned against me."

At the base of the garbage mountain, Mim, Aghoul, Carrion, and Letheo picked through what remained, seeking a particular item.

"It's not fair!" Mim kicked a pile of scrap. "I never thought I'd see the day when there was nothing left to ruin and make uglier!"

"Well, we could technically just blow the entire world to smithereens," Aghoul reminded her. "But that's not our style. After all, it would leave us with even more literally nothing to break, and no one to kill!"

"If you ask me," Mim said, "it's almost worth…" She bit back bile. "Saving, so it can be in its prime when WE show up."

"At least we should salvage the parts that can be added to the empire," Aghoul realized. "If this were OUR midnight, it wouldn't be so bad."

"Many times have I thought that exact sentiment," Carrion muttered. "It was always meant to be my midnight, and now I suffer it."

"Well, we'll just have to take it back, then," Mim said. "After we're done with Loki."

"I'm sure Mozenrath would see it as an opportunity to renovate," Aghoul mused. "And Yzma can do amazing things with a fixer-upper."

"It seems a lost cause," Carrion lamented. "I've fallen so far…was it truly never meant to be? Did providence favor my grandmother, since the beginning of it all?"

"Now, you stop talking like that!" Mim barked. "Or we'll have to give you a smacking!"

"Yes, there's really nowhere to go but up," Aghoul added. "We're looking at a world that's dead in the truest form. What we need here is an UNDEAD world! Risen from the grave, more horrifying than ever!"

A smile twitched at Carrion's lips. "Do not tempt me with false hope."

Mim ran over, leapt into the air, and slapped him. "I WARNED you that was coming!"

Carrion rubbed at his face. "No one has EVER had the gall to do that before," he seethed, looming over Mim.

She folded her arms. "So what are you going to do about it? Give me nightmares? Cast a horrible spell on me that disfigures me? Go on, do your worst!"

She wasn't scared, the way most people would be. The way most people should be. And that just sucked all the fun out of it, so Carrion didn't bother. He merely turned his back on her. "Very well, then," he said. "If you promise hope, I had better see it come to fruition."

(Because he couldn't be broken one more time.)

Mim danced and spun her way to Aghoul. "That one's got problems," she said. "Good thing we came along."

"I think he needs a good dose of devil-may-care attitude," Aghoul agreed.

Then came Letheo's yelp: "I FOUND IT!"

Mim and Aghoul rushed to him, and after a pause, Carrion did too. Letheo stood in the wreckage of what had once been a storeroom with metal walls. Golden, glittering liquid had spilled into the water, along with the shards of its former glass containers. Other glass vials and bottles remained intact on the shelves. Those all bore labels that identified them as "CommexoWorks Panacea (Guaranteed to Cure All That Ails You!)".

"This is it," Letheo said, stunned. "Panacea. I don't know how I never thought of this before."

"If it cures everything," Aghoul said, "then obviously it has to treat whatever the thuaz did."

"And you'll be exactly as dependent on it," Mim said with a nasty grin.

Letheo grabbed a bottle off the shelf, splashing excitedly on his way back to the others.

Aghoul recoiled. "Careful, now! That stuff cures EVERYTHING! If it gets on me, why, I could end up alive! And nobody wants that."

"Indeed not!" Mim huffed.

"Okay." Letheo kept his distance, pulling back his hood to reveal his fangs, his slitted eyes, his almost dragonlike countenance. With a claw, he tried to undo the bottle's top, only to find it sealed on too tightly. So he smashed the glass against a nearby fallen metal panel and drank from the jagged lip.

Carrion gave a sigh of resignation. Of course. Letheo was the same as he always had been.

The Panacea began to take effect. The claws on Letheo's hands and feet retracted, making them look far more human. His face became softer, rounder, like that of a human teen. His scales thinned out, retreated into his skin or fell off like shed. At the end of it, what stood before them all was a boy who looked more or less human, with dark green-gray skin and patches of shimmering scales here and there. A mane of curly black hair cascaded down from his head. Among his age group, he would be considered quite a looker – the vestigial scales aside.

"I need to keep this," Letheo said, an edge to his voice. "It's the only way I can be me."

"You know you don't have to worry about looking ugly here, don't you?" Aghoul urged. "After all, look at me and Mim! Ugly as toads, ugly as sin, ugly as sinful toads, and proud of it!"

"Indeed!" Mim agreed. "Around here, we all wear our true faces!"

"This…is my true face." Letheo ran his fingertips over his cheekbone. "This is who I want to be. What you saw…it hurts, to be like that. And I've done terrible things…which I suppose doesn't matter, because we're off to do more very terrible things, but I've just lost control, and I like to know what I'm doing."

"Well, if that's what you want to be," Aghoul told him, "then we'll be all too happy to feed your fatal addiction – I mean help you get the treatment you need."

"Here!" Mim threw a drawstring purse at Carrion's head. It bounced off.

"…Why?" Carrion sighed.

"Pick it up!" Mim told him. "I don't give gifts often, so you'd better not be disrespectful when I do!"

Carrion bent, pulling up the bag from the soaked ground. He could feel the magic sparking through its threads. "A bag of holding…"

"Fill that up with as much of the gold stuff as there is here," Mim told him. "Also get the shade of that color so we can pass off a watered-down fake back at the shop. We'll round up the others, and then it's off to Asgard and all its horrendous sunlight!"

She and Aghoul set off to the hill of trash while Carrion helped Letheo stock up on Panacea. "It really is a shame, you know," Mim sighed. "A world without sun and it's gone completely to waste."

"Yes, well…" Aghoul trailed off.

"Well? Well what?"

"Far be it from me to practice anything close to compassion," Aghoul said, "but it seems to me that these three NEED the WHAM ARMY. Carrion's dredged in misery, Shape is skittish about getting a knife in his back even though he already has four, and Letheo has a lot of lint between his ears."

"Far be it from me to ever practice anything close to charity," Mim replied, "but I'd say we're doing them a service."

...

In the dandelion forest, Yzma, Wuya, Mera, Indus, and Prisma gathered around their new hostage.

"Indus," Mera demanded, "get a barrier around her so she doesn't try any funny stuff."

Sofia was surrounded by an amber-colored barrier, fencing her into a small circular area on the grass. She jumped, but Indus had made the rim too tall for her to reach.

"She can definitely not try any funny stuff in there!" Indus assured. "Because I made it a SERIOUS barrier."

Mera rolled her eyes.

"All right, princess," Wuya told Sofia sharply. "Here's what's going to happen. We'll drop the amulet in, and you use it to summon a flying horse or five that will get us up to the Mystic Isles. If you're a good girl, you won't end up like your brother. Be an EXTRA good girl, and…who knows? You might get a share in the profits."

"I'll never join you!" Sofia spat.

"Tough words from a girl with a dead brother," Wuya retorted.

Sofia sank to her knees on the grass. "James…"

"Oh, I'm so EXCITED!" Prisma started dancing around the forest with wild abandon. "Finally, back to the Mystic Isles, so I can take what's mine from Azurine! She even got my house, you know! It was a very nice house! Ahhhh, I can't wait to go home and begin the reign of my beautiful crystals!"

"Eh-ahem." Yzma held the deep-violet amulet straight out over the barrier, then dropped it inside.

Sofia regarded it with trepidation. She had to plan her next move carefully.

Yzma extended an index finger to the air; "TO THE MYSTIC ISLES!" She then pointed that same finger at Sofia; "SUMMON THE AIBORNE TRANSPORTATION, SOFIA!"

Sofia gathered up the Amulet of Avalor, looking deep into its gem. There was a small window here in which she might be able to do something. They expected her to use the amulet to summon a flock of winged horses, but she knew the amulet could help her in other ways. Specifically, it could summon other entities that could help Sofia instead.

She clutched the amulet, concentrating hard, willing with all her might. In the past, the amulet would summon a princess from a faraway kingdom for a short amount of time to assist her with a particularly difficult problem. She needed that now – if not a princess, then just someone, anyone who could help her.

The amulet responded in kind. At its behest, a Corridor of Light opened up in the skies just above the forest – it had chosen exactly the person to help Sofia, and for a little longer than normal, too.

Four skimmers came blazing through it, leaving a trail of light in black, gray, white, and purple. It looked like a particular pride flag, if you knew the colors. The skimmers descended, landing neatly in the dandelion forest. Their riders hopped off into the grass.

Sofia gasped. She knew one of them. The one who'd come to her rescue when Princess Ivy had terrorized Enchancia. "RAPUNZEL!"

Rapunzel's eyes flicked to where Sofia was held in the Barrier. "Sofia!"

"Oh," Stork said as he walked up beside Rapunzel, Ven and Papyrus in tow. "It's YOU."

"I could say the same thing," Wuya retorted.

Yzma, seized up with pure frustration, managed to eke out through gritted teeth: "WRONG. AIRBORNE. TRANSPORTATION."

...

A/N: Cutoff point for Abarat is obviously Absolute Midnight because we have not heard even the slightest whisper of book four in ages and I begin to lose hope we ever will. Though it's also been a while since I had access to a physical copy of Absolute Midnight so please forgive errors.