Void felt it. It wasn't a matter of how brief it was. Her hair had raised as she felt the electricity. A brief power surge had flooded the environment, causing the lights to flicker and disrupting all the machines. No one else felt the more physical disturbances on their body though, Void had acted like a lightning rod for most of it.

The Herrscher sighed as she glanced to her side, noticing the absence of Thunder. The other Herrscher had left when things had gone crazy. Perhaps it was correct to say, she had made things go crazy so she could leave. No matter, she was gone now, leaving Void to handle the two tiny humans who were approaching them.

"Mei-senpai, these are my sisters, Void and….Thunder?" Kiana's voice trailed off as she glanced around for Thunder. "Hey, where'd she go?" She wondered aloud as she looked over to her older sister. "Where's Thunder?"

"Thunder had some work she forgot to do," Void answered as she looked at the little girl beside her smol tuna sister. It was a young Raiden Mei, a Mini Mei if you would. "Hey, cutie? What's your name?" Void asked politely.

"This is Raiden Mei." Kiana interrupted in excitement. "Doesn't she look just like Thunder?" Kiana wondered. She also recalled hearing Thunder be called 'Raiden Mei' as well or was it Ei? Eh, it was close enough to be so, and that was good enough for her.

"Hmm. She looks like Thunder." Void repeated. She rested a hand on her chin as her eyes looked over Mini Mei. The younger girl seemed to become intimidated by her stare. Void flashed her a Cheshire cat grin. "No, she's much too cute to look Thunder." Void chuckled. "But I don't doubt she'd grow up to be a beautiful girl," Void admitted, making the Mini Mei blush.

"T-thank you, Ms. Void." Mini Mei stuttered.

"But big sis, Thunder is pretty too," Kiana argued.

"Eh, she looks ugly when she lies," Void told her.

"But Thunder never lies," Kiana noted.

"Then why is she ugly?" Void questioned.

"You're being a meanie to Thunder again. I'm gonna tell mom." Kiana threatened with a huff.

"Fine, I'll be nice," Void told her. "But first I have to ask. Does little Mei's parents know she's here?" Void questioned.

"Uh,"

"Thought so." Void realized as she patted their heads. "Let's go find her parents, I'm sure they are worried," Void told them as she took the duo by their hands and went to find the other adults.

"I wonder if Thunder has calmed down yet?" Void thought. She sincerely hoped that her fellow Herrscher was handling her emotions properly. As one with similar experiences, she knew how daunting it could be when meeting those from your past.

Meanwhile….

Thunder crashed into the mountainside, her body leaving a small crate on impact as she embedded herself into the stone. She was moving too fast, and her head was going all over the place. She materialized her giant hands to help herself out of the dirt.

Cough, Cough.

She spat out some dirt that had gotten in her mouth. "Yuck!"

Cough, Cough.

Once she had finished, the Herrscher of Thunder managed to sit on the ground. Her breathing finally slows as she manages to try and steady herself. Yet even as her heart rate returned to normal, Thunder still felt a heaviness on her mind.

"I really am pathetic." She muttered to herself.

"I wouldn't say that." Ana consoled. "You're just not in the right frame of mind, right now."

"Pathetic is probably the last word, I'd use to describe you," Owl added. "You've done a lot, good and bad; staring death in the face and overcoming nearly every obstacle thrown before you."

"Yet I can't even face my parents or my past self." Thunder huffed.

"That's not exclusive to you," Ana noted. "I've had my own fair share of shame and guilt. It's a natural response to have."

"Yeah, but did I really have to short-circuit the whole place?" Thunder wondered. No doubt Void would mock her about it later.

"Okay, that was pretty funny." Owl chuckled.

"Ignore him," Ana told her. "Just take your time, take some deep breaths, and relax. When you're ready to face them, you'll face them." She consoled the Herrscher.

Thunder inhaled and then exhaled. One deep breath in and then one out, letting her worries go. "Thanks."

"Any time," Ana told her. "So, what are you going to do now?" She wondered.

"I'm not ready to go back."

"I never said you did."

"I think I could use a spar." Thunder admitted. A good fight always helped brighten her mood. "And I know just the opponent."

Thunder looked up taking stock of where she was with her phone's GPS. Once she knew her position, the Herrscher then turned into lightning once more as she darted into the sky, jumping from cloud to cloud as she headed to her next destination. With her speed, it didn't take long before a certain Harbor came into her view.

She flew past the harbor and into the nearby mountains, looking at a suspiciously large tree in a nearby canyon. Thunder smiled as she saw the crystallized tree, her core of Earth resonating with it.

"Oh, you're going to fight him," Owl noted. "Are you sure it's a good idea to awaken him now? He can get rather….grouchy when he is disturbed."

"That's good, I want him to get angry. It's more fun when he doesn't hold back and decides to get rough with me." Thunder smirked. Upon reaching the tree's base, she summoned her gauntlets once more and began digging into the ground. She removed several kilograms of dirt before she uncovered a particular seal. "Alright Az, time to wake up," Thunder told it as she placed her hand on the seal.

Within the Earth, a creature that hid been dormant for eons awoke once more. "Who dares disturb me?" The Lord of Vishaps roared as he felt a new yet familiar presence enter his prison.

"So bored." Flamescion groaned as she lay down on the couch, flipping through channel after channel on the television. She had decided that she did not want to think about the situation any more than she had to. For today and maybe tomorrow she'd just let herself believe it was a fever dream and pretend it never happen. As if.

She tried to rationalize how this had happened. Her mind only concluded that it must have been something Otto did in the Imaginary Tree. It was always Otto's fault most times after all. Now that Otto was blamed the next question was what did she do now?

From the looks of it, there was another HoV and HoT in this timeline and from the way, things went before it seemed like she would need to tread carefully with her interactions with them. HoV had proven stronger than before, matching her blow for blow, but thankfully she seemed less genocidal than before. Perhaps it was a sign that HoV truly did have good deep down, it was just buried under all the hatred and pain Sirin had suffered.

That left the Herrscher of Thunder to worry about. Mei-Senpai and her Herrscher persona were always so distinct before, but now Flamescion wasn't so sure upon seeing this Thunder. Mei was always patient and quiet and kind, while her Herrscher side was more inclined to violence, arrogance, and hammy.

Now that she thought about it, a lot of Herrschers tended to get hammy whenever they spoke. HoV couldn't go two sentences without calling someone a worm or insect. Heck, HoS was practically screaming at them that they were lame and losers during the fight.

"Focus Kiana," Flamescion told herself. What could have driven Mei so crazy? Was her loss to HoV so troublesome? Despite this HoV being tamer, it seemed like that wasn't enough to reel in Mei's own anger. Her own Mei had joined WS in an attempt to save her, so perhaps it was possible for Mei to go to such extremes.

"But Mei is still Mei, right?" Flamescion wondered as she pillaged Void's fridge, looking for something familiar. Surely if Void was part Kiana, then she at least had some of Mei's cooking in her fridge. At the very least maybe Mei left some food for her there.

"Looking for something?" A cheery little voice questioned. Kiana looked up quickly finding a floating child observing her. She looked like an elf and was currently holding what Kiana assumed were chicken…mushroom…skewers in both hands.

"Who are you?" Kiana asked bluntly.

"Paimon." The little elf girl answered as she nibbled on one of the skewers. "Do you want one?" Paimon questioned.

"Uh, sure," Kiana answered as she took one of the skewers from Paimon. "Where did you come from and what are you doing here?" She continued to question.

"I came from outside, and I raided the Void's food storage," Paimon answered as she continued to nibble. "You should know this fridge is just for show, she hides all the good stuff in her secret fridge," Paimon informed.

"Do you mind showing me it?" Kiana questioned

"No," Paimon told her. "Wouldn't be a secret fridge if I just blurted it out to everyone," Paimon added.

"Uh-huh," Kiana added. "So is there any other reason why you decided to drop by other than food?" She wondered aloud.

"Oh yes. I came to check on you." Paimon added. "How's adjusting to this weird alternate version of the past?"

"I only got here a few hours maybe days ago," Kiana noted.

"Oh right," Paimon said sheepishly.

"Are you related to all the time travel mumbo jumbo that Void talked about?" Kiana questioned.

"Yeah, I'm related to it," Paimon told her. "I'm the one trying to find a way back for you."

"Any luck?"

"Nope."

"Oh." Kiana's voice dropped. "So, I'm still stuck here."

"Think of it as a vacation. Once it's over you can get back to your never-ending war with the Honkai." Paimon chuckled.

"What about my friends?" Kiana lamented. "I can't just abandon them."

"Idiotka, you've been displaced in time. It doesn't matter how long you stay, you'll always return back to when you left." Paimon deadpanned.

"Still. I don't belong here." She admitted.

"Belong is such a strange word. Who truly belongs anywhere? What gives us the right to decide what belongs and what doesn't?" Paimon told her. "Eh, sorry got all philosophical."

"Eh, Bianka's gone on far more wordy tangents," Kiana admitted. "Hey, so does this mean that Bianka's still the OG Kiana in this timeline." She wondered.

"Well, she's the only Kiana in this timeline, technically." Paimon corrected. "The K series clones aren't a thing, so there isn't any other Kiana's running about."

"And from what I've heard, Sirin and Bella are all doing well."

"They are, relatively speaking. Bella's currently trying to figure out why guys are only hitting on her, much to Himeko's dismay and Sirin's sulking at a power surge messing up her score in the arcade." Paimon noted.

"Wait what?"

"Himeko, Sirin, and Bella are friends in this timeline," Paimon explained.

"That's…a strange thought," Kiana admitted. She was technically the reincarnation of Sirin. Her Herrscher side had been responsible for Himeko sacrificing herself while her Kiana side had considered Himeko a mother figure and aunt. Hearing Sirin and Himeko were friends in this timeline was a strange thing to consider, especially given how things went in her own timeline.

"Wait…Bella is attracting guys? How? Why?" Kiana wondered.

"Benares has a human form in addition to her dragon form." Paimon deadpanned. "I thought you'd know that."

"My memory of that life is still a bit scrambled," Kiana admitted. Still, it was good to know Benares was doing okay.

"So I know you're still trying to cope with the insanity of all this, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor," Paimon asked Kiana.

"What kind of favor?" Kiana wondered.

"There's a disturbance in Liyue's mountains that I need you to check. So far it's nothing that humans should be aware of but I suspect someone there might need some help." Paimon told her.

"Liyue…. where's that?" Kiana wondered.

"Just concentrate on opening a portal and I'll redirect it to Liyue," Paimon told her.

"Will you stop sulking already," Himeko sighed at the glooming purple-haired girl. "You already beat the game." She rationalized.

"But the score isn't saved." Sirin lamented. "No one will know what I did."

"We'll know," Himeko told her. "Me, you, and Bella are aware you beat the score." She elaborated. "Isn't that enough?"

"No." Sirin moped. "Sometimes just you and a few people knowing what you did, isn't enough," Sirin told her. Whether it be good things or bad things, sometimes it just isn't enough to know them for yourselves.

"Fine." Himeko sighed. "I get the feeling this isn't just about the game. Isn't it?" She wondered.

"Why do you play games Himeko?" Sirin questioned.

"Huh, that's a weird question?" Himeko wondered. She then put a finger on her chin as she contemplated an answer. "I guess it's because its fun and helps me relax," Himeko answered.

"That's a nice reasoning," Sirin told her.

"I mean, what other reasoning is there." Himeko pondered.

"I play because some games let me feel….like a hero," Sirin admitted. "Like I can go and pick up a game and I become the hero of the story." She told Himeko. "It's nice being able to feel like a hero every once and a while and forget about being just me."

"But you can be a hero Sirin," Himeko assured. "I've seen you in some of those trials. You have potential."

"I have power, but I'm not sure I can be a hero, or if I even deserve to be one," Sirin answered.

"Why would you even think that?" Himeko questioned. "Is it because of your family?" It wasn't uncommon to feel inadequate when compared to everyone else around you. Himeko could only wonder how it must have felt being the daughter of a family of illustrious heroes like Cecilia, Siegfied, Theresea, and Ei.

"No, it's not because of them. It could never be because of them. This is pure because of my own actions." Sirin answered. "When I was…. 'younger' per se, my powers caused a lot of problems for people. I hurt a lot of people." Sirin admitted.

"Oh, so that's why," Himeko muttered. "You think you can't be a hero, because you accidentally hurt people." She reasoned.

"Yes and no," Sirin answered. "I didn't accidentally hurt anyone," Sirin said grimly.

"You didn't?"

"Himeko, I've intentionally hurt people with my powers before," Sirin admitted. "And…. I've enjoyed it." She confessed.

"I see," Himeko answered.

"You're taking this very well." Sirin wonder as she glanced at Himeko.

"Look I'm not going, to be honest. I'm trying to rationalize you being someone who'd actually hurt somebody." Himeko explained. "I've seen you around that troublesome little sister of yours and you seem like a very patient girl. Not to mention, despite your…. aggression in other areas…. you seem to have a lot of self-control." Himeko reasoned.

"I've had therapy and counseling to thank for that," Sirin admitted. "My sister recommended this one wolf, he's really good."

"So, you have a therapy dog." Himeko perked up. "That's good. I have to meet him sometime. Does he like belly rubs?" She wondered.

Sirin paused for a moment. Did Andrius like belly rubs? Or would they be demeaning to him? The image of the Dominator of Wolves enjoying a small human rubbing his belly was a funny sight to behold honestly. She doubted that Himeko would be so brave seeing him the first time though.

"Maybe one day." Sirin wondered. "But yeah, I've been getting some help, so I am getting better at controlling my temper and rage." She admitted.

"Well as long as you're getting help."

"I still don't think I'm fit to try being a hero," Sirin admitted.

"If you don't mind me asking….what exactly did you do?" Himeko inquired. "What could have possibly made you feel like this?

"That's not something I'd like to share," Sirin admitted.

"Seriously." Himeko deadpanned.

"Let's just say that if it was known, I sincerely doubt you'd want to associate with me or Bella," Sirin told Himeko solemnly. "I sincerely doubt anyone besides my family would want me and Bella."

"Well fine, I'll drop it," Himeko told her. "But just know that if you ever feel like talking, I'm always available."

"You mean like when you're on a date." Sirin jested.

"Yes, you can call me even when I'm on a date, and I'd be there to listen to you." Himeko smiled.

"I doubt it."

"Oh come on, you don't believe I'd put you above my date." Himeko gasped.

"No, I just don't believe you'd get a date in the first place." Sirin chuckled.

"Why you?" Himeko grumbled as she slightly jabbed Sirin's shoulder. "I'll have you know I would have gotten plenty of dates…if Bella didn't steal them all."

"Hey, don't blame Bella. This is all on you." Sirin giggled.

"Speaking of which where is Bella?"

"Okay…. this should be the last one," Bella noted as she dropped the body in the dumpster. "They should wake up in a few minutes….right?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. At the very least I think a few hours." Kurikara noted. "Hopefully they'll think they were drunk and remember nothing at all about what transpired."

"Humans can be so disgusting at times," Bella grumbled as she closed the dumpster.

"Agreed." Kurikara noted.

The twin dragon girls had been minding their own business….(arguing about which of them was better) and some human pigs had thought they'd had the gall to attempt courtship with them. Nevertheless, the two girls had denied the worms but they still continued to harass and bother them. Eventually though one of them had made an attempt at touching Benares's hide and Kurikara's chest.

Suffice to say, the filthy worms were lucky that their Mistresses had forbidden them from killing any more humans. That being said, they were not banned from using force against those that troubled them. Given the circumstances, they were more than happy to use force, excessive force at that to solve their problem.

"Shall we rejoin the others?" Kurikara asked.

"Sure, but let's stop by the washroom and freshen up. I smell like human filth." Bella noted.

"Really, I didn't notice."

"Why would you, you are clearly lacking in your senses?"

"Hmmph."

Flamescion and Paimon soon emerged from the portal in Liyue's mountainside. The Herrscher was left astounded by the scenery in front of her. She could hear the sounds of the waterfall echoing around the cliffs as she looked around the spring.

"I've never been here before." Kiana realized.

"Nor would you ever," Paimon added. "There are some locations in the world that you'd never visit in your timeline. It's only through minor deviations that you'd eventually come to places like this."

"So there is supposed to be a disturbance in the area. That's strange I'm not seeing any-"

Her words were cut off as the ground beneath them started to rumble. She looked around once more, but nothing seemed to change. That's when Flamescion realized, it wasn't around her, it was below her. She knelt and placed her hand on the ground, and to her surprise, immense amounts of Honkai were swirling below them.

"Is this an eruption?" She wondered.

"I wouldn't say it's an eruption, but there is something releasing a lot of energy below. Maybe you should go and check it out." Paimon noted. "You can find the door right by that giant crystal tree over there," Paimon told her as she pointed at the tree.

"Okay…" Kiana said as she rushed towards the source. Now that she thought about it, this power was feeling familiar to her. Wait…was that Thunder?

"Now, this was too easy." Paimon mused as she disappeared once more.

AN: Bella literally has to beat the boys off, but as expected of the best girl.