Author's Note: Dreams of Doki Doki is six years old as of a few days ago, and with this chapter Act 2, which I've been writing off and on since early 2020, is finally over. Thanks to all of the readers who have stuck with me and my absurdly inconsistent upload schedule for all this time, and I hope you all enjoy the finale! I promise there won't be a two-year hiatus between acts this time LOL

Power surges through my veins like nothing I've ever felt before. I feel so light, as if I could do anything!

Now isn't the time to frolic, though. I have work to do.

"Why are you here, Wyatt? I have already done what I set out to do." My boss's voice is calm as ever, but I can hear the slightest hint of fear in her voice and the corners of her eyes are still speckled with tears.

"I'm doing what I need to do. I can't just stand by as you murder innocent people!" My voice is insecure and unconfident, as after seeing all she's done I'm still unsure that I can beat her. It looked like she struggled slightly, but also mentioned that she was not at her full power.

"I have done what I came here to do, there is no reason to fight."

Suddenly, the strange boy standing next to her pipes up. "What's happening…? Is this a dream?"

"Yes, Xavier… Everything will go back to normal again soon, I promise." …Xavier? Didn't she hate that guy? What did I miss while I was being transported to the game? "Wyatt. We will inevitably fight, but you must promise me one thing."

"Tell me."

"Promise me that no matter what happens, Xavier will be safe." Tsunami once again lets her tears flow. "Swear to me that he will not be harmed."

I think for a moment, but my response is ultimately automatic. "I promise. I'll protect him with my life."

"In that case…" She sighs before beginning to walk away from her friend. "Xavier! Jump into the pit at the center of this world, then run as far from here as possible! There will be a gateway to the outside world, and I'll meet you there after I finish here."

"I'm still confused, but…" The boy huffs. "I trust you! I'll see you there!" He sprints away, and though he slows as he approaches the pit he jumps in and falls out of sight.

I sigh to myself, knowing that I cannot delay the inevitable any longer.

"Why fight me, Wyatt? You have nothing to gain, and you will not defeat me regardless of what power you have here. Let us go our separate ways, and I will not do harm as I have ever again."

"You know as well as I have that what you say isn't true…" I cross my arms and look away from her. "I know all about that Consulate, or whatever it's called, and the atrocities they commit. I'm ashamed I ever served them, even unwittingly."

"You're a smart man, Williams…" As I glance back at Tsunami, I see that her gaze is unwavering. "But even I know that not all matters need to be settled violently. We can negotiate our terms, and I can vacate my spot as a Consul if you'd like. I've already gotten everything I wanted out of that position now having brought Xavier back to me."

So that really is what she did… I guess he is different from Xavier McEnroe after all. "So you really did all this just to bring that one guy back to life, huh?"

"Would you not do the same thing if the person closest to you died?! Wouldn't you want to wreak your vengeance on their killer, and give someone who died unfairly a second chance?"

Her inquiry causes me to freeze in place. My brain short-circuits, and all I can seem to do is stare at her.

Wreak vengeance…? Xavier and co. aren't here, could she have killed them too? Could their lives have been those fragments she was collecting?

"Well?"

My brows furrow, and I ball my hands up into fists.

Finally, words come out of my mouth.

"I didn't know Quandary very well, all things considered… But wasn't she your friend, too? Isn't that what you said?"

"I did, but Quandary was-" She pauses, before looking down at her feet. "She was a necessary sacrifice for-"

Without even thinking, I rush towards Tsunami at unfathomable speeds and fire off a rising kick to her solar plexus that sends her launching up into the air.

"What the hell is your problem!? Friendship isn't a math equation!"

"Wyatt, please listen to me-"

"I've heard enough."

Moving off of pure instinct, I press up against the sim's framerate and belt out what must be hundreds upon hundreds of punches in the span of a heartbeat. Face, stomach, arms, legs, no part of her body is excused from the torrent of blows. I hear the undoubtable sound of shattered bones as she is finally sent launching away.

"What the.." I recoil in shock at the amount of power I was casually able to put out.

She crashes back down onto the ground, and wills her weapon to come to her before lunging forwards once again without hesitation. Shocked by the sudden attack, I jump back just slowly enough that she manages to graze my cheek. With my senses being heightened by that modified bullet, though, I manage to regain some composure and just barely glance her strikes away with minimal cuts to my arm.

"How did you draw that much power from the sim…? This much code being inserted by a bullet is unfathomable, you must have had…" Suddenly, she stops in her tracks. Judging by the wide-eyed look her face, she's made a realization.

"Ah… I see how it is now." Strangely she chuckles to herself. "The devil has made her gambit."

"Huh…? What do you-" Before I can even finish, she lobs her scythe-blade towards me. It seems like an easy block at first, so I commit to glancing it downwards.

"Your abilities are formidable, but there's one thing I have over you."

"In the land of the blind, Wyatt…" As my arm moves to deflect the blade, it curls around my trajectory as if it has a life of its own. My reality slows to a heartbeat as I see the weapon close in on my face, and I can almost see Quandary beckoning to me…

My reality fades away as I remember my middle-school bullies, my high-school debate teacher, and my college graduation ceremony. My first job, and how I left it.

Why did I leave it, again…?

Ah. That's right.

All other memories fade away, and I'm left with but one to deliberate on.

The day I woke up to see my parents, dead on the floor.

With my mind set, I jump into the blade.

The scythe cuts through my right side, cleaving a deep gash from my eye to my thigh. The pain is excruciating, but I let the blade, slick as diamond, cut me open.

Through gritted teeth, I lunge at my true target before she is able to redirect the trajectory of the blade and grab it while it is lodged into my body.

Panic sets in for Tsunami as she scrambles to block the inevitable impact. She's too late.

"The one-eyed man is king… Right, boss?"

I speed up to as fast as the sim can manage, and make a clean slash across her body. I slash, and slash, and slash, and slash, moving so fast that her body doesn't even fall apart at first. For Quandary… Hell, even for Xavier McEnroe and all the others Tsunami has hurt.

With one final slash, I lunge behind her and out of her range. I can't bear to look back at her before the inevitable happens.

As I walk away, I hear the chilling sound of strips of flesh slowly peeling off of themselves. I suspect I won't unhear that sound for as long as I live.

I give a moment of silence in respect, but know the job isn't done yet. "She'll be coming out of the cryosleep tank soon. The rest is up to you."

"Great job, Wyatt! I'll take care of the rest. If you remember me after all this, give me a call."

"Call you…? Why do you say that?"

"I might have another job offer lined up for you after this whole mess is done and over with. Not to mention that I'd love to have you over for dinner sometime!"

Walking towards the portal at the center of the void, I wonder to myself if Tsunami's friend who she did all this for made it out okay. I should probably check on him, if I have time.

I quicken my pace towards the portal to a brisk jog, and see someone in the distance just as I get to the rim.

"Wyatt was your name, you said?" The girl asks, clearly holding back acid reflux looking at me. "Are you… Okay?"

"Yeah, save the gash down one side of my body. I'll live, though."

"Do you need me to get you to a hospital? Not that I know anything about the real world out there, but it's the least I can do."

"Everything should reset before then, I think. You'll be on your own, are you okay with that?"

"Yeah…" The girl sighs. "If the other me could do it, I can at least try my best."

"The other you…? Do you mean-"

Before I can finish the thought, she interjects with a question. "By the way, where is she? Did they manage to get back?"

"I…" Words escape me, and I'm not sure what to say. There is no right thing to say when she doesn't know what happened to them and I only have a theory. "I'm not quite sure where they went, but they were probably injured by Tsunami. I hope they're all right."

She balls her hands into fists. "That fucker… She'll pay for this."

In spite of her expression, I look off into the distant horizon of the star-speckled void. "I'd say she already has."

After another brief silence, a thought suddenly crosses my mind. "Say… How did you know where the admin backdoor was here, anyways? You didn't have any knowledge of the sim prior to today, did you?"

"Honestly, I'm not even too sure… Everything was normal, and then all of a sudden I saw this… I don't know if it was a light, or a mist, or whatever. It was in the distance, and I felt like I needed to find whatever it was that was there. It really just felt as if I didn't find that thing in time we'd all be goners. Not just me or the Literature Club, but also the other me, Serena, and whoever else."

"You felt this all?"

"I don't fucking know! It was just an impulse, okay!?" The girl stops herself before taking a deep breath. "Anyways, on my way I found Yuri, then Monika. When I saw her, she pointed me to where the door was and asked me to open it when I heard a knock. I was confused, but she's my friend. I couldn't not trust her, you know?"

"Interesting… Any clue where she went?"

"She ran off after we chatted… Seemed like she was in a hurry." She shrugs, not bothered by the notion much.

"I take it she's not around anymore, either? Seems as if we're the only two people by the center."

"I guess… I wonder what she had to do?"

"Who's to say?" I shrug, too mentally exhausted to even make an attempt at guessing. "Anyways, how does getting out of here and grabbing some coffee and pastries sound? There's a bakery near my work that makes the best muffins."

Natsuki pauses to think to herself, then she chuckles.

"That sounds amazing right about now."

In a violent, sudden breath, Tsunami awakens.

"Ugh… What…" She clutches at her head with her hand, feeling nauseous and disoriented. She tries to get up, but is stopped by the glass of her cryosleep tank.

It doesn't take long for the memories to start coming back to her. Like cuts to the face, she begins to remember what happened inside the sim.

I completed my mission, Xavier is waiting for me now! But Wyatt…

As the last small detail hits her, her breath begins to grow heavy. Her heart beats out of her chest, and the thousands of years she has spent as a god seem to fade away in an instant.

Gently, Tsunami opens the glass door and creeps out. What greets her, though, terrifies her to her core.

The private surveillance room is alight in a cacophony of raging flames. Sparks fly from flailing electrical cords, and smoke fills the room. Unable to breathe, Tsunami has no choice but to stumble out of the room and back out through the security gates. The gates no one else should have been able to get through without my permission, she thinks to herself.

As she makes it out through the gates, the smoke begins to clear. Instead of relieving, though, this comes as a source of alarm to the Trickster-God.

These are meant to be airlocked… For the smoke to be out here still must mean…

Her pace quickens to a run as she winds through the narrow halls of the facility. A left here, a right there, with no choice but to aimlessly follow the ever-thickening trail of smoke.

As the turns one final left corner, her fears are all but confirmed.

Smoke blankets the main surveillance room. Every computer has either bluescreened or just completely broken, and it's impossible for Tsunami to see more than a couple feet in front of her face. And splayed on the office chairs, the tables and the ground alike are the headless bodies of her employees.

What happened here…? Tsunami crouches down to take a closer look at one of the supervisors, seeing that they were likely taken out by some sort of explosion. Judging from the other bodies she can see, it's probable that they were all killed the same way. As she continues to look around at more bodies, it becomes evident that only one person could have set up such a massacre.

"Sensitive as ever, huh, Sayori? Don't worry, they'll be back soon."

The scar-clad woman needs not turn around to see who's talking with her.

"Not another step."

"Come on, have some manners! Come over to me and greet your old friend."

"I will do no such thing," Tsunami says, slowly standing up, "I'd advise you to stop playing these games."

"I'm not playing any games… Is it such a crime to want to catch up with my old vice president once in a while?" Tsunami can hear the tapping of light steps on the ground circling around her until she is forced to make eye contact with her adversary. Her long locks tangle and twist down her spine, her blazer and pants hanging loosely on her shoulders. Most intimidating of all, though, is the completely emotionless smile and vibrant green irises that bore right into Tsunami's soul.

"What do you want? My business is done here."

"I'm well aware that your business is done, and that's exactly why I'm here. As a matter of fact, I happened to overhear that you were willing to vacate your seat as a Consul." She pauses to adjust her stance slightly. "Is that true?"

"I am, not that it's any of your business." Tsunami huffs, once again turning her head away from the woman. "Need I say again that my only goal was to bring Xavier back to me?"

"You don't need to, I understand. I was just wondering if you had another job lined up after you quit. There are some strings I could pull if you-"

"I am not joining your little rebellion, snake. In fact, you should count your blessings that I haven't taken your life and ended that pathetic effort already."

"Ahaha, you think you can kill me? With what, that little string toy of yours?" Her face contorts into a condescending sneer. "Don't make me laugh. You're really no different from your millions of video-game character counterparts after all, Sayori."

"And you're not the antagonist of that game for nothing. Just because we're not a part of that narrative does not make it any less true." Tsunami fires a glare at her adversary, and begins walking in her direction. "You will never be anything more than the deluded, obsessive villain of your own story."

"Moving towards me, are you?" The flames of the facility cast a grim shadow on the woman's face. "We have no reason to fight, Sayori. Unlike you, I hold no grudges."

"It was always just a matter of time. Just as I wreaked vengeance on McEnroe, so too will I have your head for what you did to me."

"McEnroe…? But no one knows where I…" She stands shocked for a moment, clearly put off-guard by Tsunami's comment. Instantly taking advantage of this opportunity, she lunges in and releases her scythe-blade. Her opponent makes an effort to back out of the way, but the split-second delay in her reaction proves to be effective in creating a shallow slice across the left side of her abdomen.

"What's wrong? Did my little string toy give you a scratch…?" Tsunami sneers mockingly as the woman stumbles back. Without giving her a moment's rest, the consul slings her blade out once again.

The emerald-eyed woman instinctively lumps away, a look of shock remaining plastered on her face all the while. Taking advantage of her disorientation, Tsunami flaps her hand to the left, and just as she does her blade twists in midair to enter into her opponent's blind spot. A grunt of pain can be heard as metal peels through skin and blood slowly trickles down the wound.

"Just lay down and submit yourself to your fate. The revolution dies with you." Tsunami lines her blade up to the throat of her helpless adversary, poised to go for the kill. "I'll do my fellow poet the mercy of asking for your last words."

"You…" Her voice is quiet, even the first word being hardly audible.

"I can't hear you. Speak up, unless you'd rather tell me in Hell."

The woman continues not to move, until suddenly a chuckle can be heard. Then another. Soon, the woman cannot help but be consumed by laughter.

"Well? What's so funny!?"

"Oh, nothing." Finally, she brings her head up to meet eyes with a piercing glare and a wicked, unhinged grimace. "It's just…"

"You just made me remember something very, very unpleasant."

Before Tsunami can react, Monika touches Tsunami's scythe-blade with the tip of her finger. In an instant, it explodes into a blast that knocks both parties back.

"What on Earth…" Tsunami jumps back and makes distance with her opponent, unsure of her capabilities. "Your Divine Teaching…"

"What, is even the all-powerful Consulate unaware of my abilities? They should really consider a change in leadership…" Monika shrugs as she walks towards Tsunami. "In any case, it's a shame you squandered all that time you have over me in the Cathedral… Even after all of the training you've done, your abilities are still raw in spite of their power."

"I need not your backhanded compliments. I am very well aware of my capabilities, and it will be more than enough to end you."

"Let's see how your actions back that up!" Monika lunges for one of the exposed wires flailing around on the ground, and throws it Tsunami's way. Its movements begin frantic and unpredictable, but as Tsunami dodges to the left it begins to melt into a hot, molten rod. The rod, with its new form and constancy, weans in her direction just enough to splash searing droplets of copper onto her arm.

Not to be outdone, Tsunami closes the distance with Monika and crouches for a sweeping kick to trip her off her feet, but in anticipation Monika sidesteps and throws a punch that Tsunami blocks. The two then exchange blows, with most of one's impacts glancing or being deflected by the other.

"So you can't blow me up with your powers," Tsunami chuckles while attempting another punch to Monika's solar plexus, "Interesting."

Blocking the attack with her arm, Monika replies. "If you must know, my abilities can't be used against the Fartime. But don't worry, I have plenty of other ways to deal with you."

Between blocks and blows, Tsunami contemplates to herself. So she can cause items to explode, and heat wire to molten temperatures… But her ability doesn't affect the fartime. Is that enough to understand her ability?

At that moment, instead of a punch, Monika throws a strike her way that looks more like an open-handed grab than any kind of punch. Tsunami instinctively puts an arm up to block, but as soon as the hand makes contact with her sleeve she realizes she's made a grave mistake.

"Gotcha."

As Monika tightens her fingers on the cuff of her sleeve, Tsunami pulls out her pocketknife in the blink of an eye and slings it back towards her dress shirt, at the same time jumping back in a desperate effort to get it off. The knife cuts a clean streak through the placket of her shirt, but just as she is about to fully pull it off the chain reaction begins.

Beginning in the cuff, Tsunami feels a strange feeling of compression for a fraction of a second before the loudest sound she's ever heard slams her to the ground from behind.

Tsunami's ears ring, and she feels as if she's likely lost hearing in her left ear entirely. Her focus then shifts to the searing feeling she feels on her spine and the backside of her head, knowing in an instant that the damage dealt to her will be fatal if she does not receive immediate medical attention. On Monika's watch, she'll likely not get the chance to.

"I'll give credit to your reaction speed, Sayori. If you had taken even a little bit longer to move, you'd be dead." Monika, ever-mocking, looks down at her opponent with a smile. "...Though I guess in the end the result is the same."

"At least do me the mercy of not calling me by that wretched name before I die, you witch…"

"Maybe I'll consider it if you put your money where your mouth is and call your old friend by her own name yourself, hmm?" Tsunami tries to stand up and face her once again, but she cannot will her arms and legs to move. She begins to feel a tingle of fear as Monika makes her approach. "I'll even give you one last chance. Join the rebellion, and you can live on serving a better purpose. Isn't there still some love in your heart, Sayori…?"

At first, Tsunami says nothing. She just lay on the ground facedown and motionless, showing no hint of emotion. Then, a movement.

"...All right, fine. I'll join your movement. I did this all for Xavier, and it's what he would want for me to live on."

"Ready to go then..." Without missing a beat, Monika walks towards Tsunami and stretches her hand down at her with a smile. "...Vice president?"

Grinning solemnly, Tsunami slowly clutches her hand and pulls herself up. "Ready."

Hands clenched together in unity, Tsunami falls into the crook of Monika's shoulder for a tight embrace. The battle now over, the leader of the rebellion pats her old friend's back as they begin to head towards the exit.

"And by 'ready', Monika..." Sayori mumbles under her breath.

"Sorry, what did you say? I didn't quite hear you." As Monika leans slightly in Tsunami's direction to hear her better, she feels her new partner's grip tighten.

As she feels this, Monika falls to her knees in an instant as an immense weight falls over her. Before she even fully understands what is happening, it's now her with her chest to the ground.

"What…?"

"By 'ready', what I meant to say was…" Tsunami, still standing, begins to walk away from Monika. "...I'm ready to see your life end for what you've done to me."

"It's a shame, really," Tsunami mumbles, stumbling to the exit of the still-aflame facility. "After all that mockery and posturing, your abilities are still raw in spite of their power."

Finally making it to the exit door, she leans on the wall and gives it a nudge. As she hobbles her way out of the building, the wall she touched begins to crack and break until it starts folding in behind her. In one fell swoop, the weight of the entire building collapses in on itself.

Having now exited the ruins that once were the simulation facility, the consul drops onto the curb and rests her strained, seared body.

Did she not understand my Divine Teaching after all…? This victory felt too easy.

At any rate, there is nothing to dwell on. Now content but without closure, Tsunami hunches over on the curb and mutters to herself.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way… Old friend."

As she makes these parting words, though, she feels a hand lightly touch her shoulder.

"Don't mention it."

The voice puts a pit in Tsunami's stomach as she spins around too quickly and loses her balance, falling onto the road.

Who Tsunami sees standing before her terrifies her to her core. Bloodied and bruised with multiple bones evidently broken, Monika grabs Tsunami by the collar and lifts her up to eye level. "Impossible… You should be-"

"What, buried under a pile of concrete? You didn't really think that would work, did you?" Monika's facade of kindness is beginning to slip away, her smug grin now replaced with one of cruelty. "I gave you a chance, Sayori. An opportunity, out of nothing but a desire to be together with my friend again. And what did you do? I guess you really are a fitting Trickster-God after all… An irredeemable coward of a deity!" Monika slams Tsunami's limp body onto her knee with all her might, and lifts her back up just to do it again. And again, and again, and again, until Tsunami's face is nothing but a battered mess.

"Monika… Please…" The Consul's voice is reduced to a hoarse and desperate groan.

"Here…" With her free hand, Monika digs through her left pants pocket. "I have one last parting gift for you."

"What could you possibly…" As Monika's hand slowly creeps back out of her pocket, fear courses through Tsunami's veins. She pulls her hands up and tries to rip Monika's arm off of her shirt collar, but her grip is unmoving. To the consul's utter horror, a grim smile begins to cross Monika's face as the object she grabbed fully reveals itself.

"...Want a cookie?"

Tears begin to flow down Tsunami's face as the reality of her situation truly begins to dawn on her, and she scratches and claws at Monika's hand and wrist in a final desperate attempt to be released. Monika does ultimately release her hand, only to grip Tsunami's jaw tightly and pinch it open before her weak and wounded body has any time to react.

"Open wide, Sayori… I pray your sweet tooth hasn't gone away?" Monika uses her teeth to rip open the cookie's plastic wrapper, and begins to slowly inch the pastry towards Tsunami's mouth. All the while, the Trickster-God's tears mix with blood as she violently shakes her head and tries in vain to clinch her mouth shut and plead. Blood pools under her cracked and broken fingernails as she scrambles to find any release, any escape from what seems like inevitable fate. As it creeps closer and closer to her forced-agape mouth, the struggle only intensifies. But despite the skin and blood flying off of Monika's hand with each attempt, her face shows only a sadistic, vindicated sneer.

Monika holds the cookie right in front of Tsunami's mouth for a moment, not pushing it any further for no reason other than to deride her defeated opponent. "You know, this would never have had to happen if you had never stepped out of line… We could have been living happily together as friends in the sim, blissfully ignorant of the world that awaited us outside. Look where that's landed you."

"It doesn't have to be this way… Please…" Tsunami is practically gasping with each word, completely overwhelmed by excruciating pain and fear. "I don't want to die…"

"Ahaha! Oh, you're funny… I gave you one last chance, you respond by trying to bury me under a building, and when that doesn't succeed you think now you can roll back on your previous choice!" Monika's face only continues to contort into a cacophony of cruel superiority as she relishes in her victory. "Silly Sayori, the world doesn't work that way!"

Not eager to delay certain victory any further, Monika shoves the cookie straight into Tsunami's throat.

"Now eat up."

At first, nothing happens. Tsunami hangs from Monika's grasp completely motionless for a moment that feels like an eternity, her eyes wide in tearful resignation. As Monika notices a slight compression in her adversary's cheeks, though, a sick smile crosses her face as she knows the battle is won. A faint rumble in the consul's cheeks, then a vibration. A cracking of bones followed by the tearing of muscle, Monika's grasp does not waver even as skin begins to peel and tear. When Tsunami's single sky-blue eye begins to bulge out of her socket ever-so-slightly, though, Monika's right ring-finger twitches for an unfathomably, infinitesimally small fraction of a second. Just as it does, a deafening blast fills the silent night sky with crimson and blue. An expansion of matter, instantaneous, wipes the Trickster-God from existence.

Her grasp now empty, Monika moves to wipe the splatter of blood off of her face. She does so, before looking down at the stain it must have surely left on her fingers.

Instead, she finds that her hands are spotless.

Wordlessly, Monika walks down the curb to her car. She pulls her keys out of her back pocket, and presses a button to unlock it remotely.

As her car drives away from the ruins of the facility, a ripped dress shirt and an empty pair of pants blows away from the curbside with the wind.

Turning onto the freeway, Monika switches on her car radio. It tunes itself to her desired station midway through a song, and the melody soothes her. Letting go of her thoughts, she leans back and focuses on the open midnight road.

And so, she drives.

And drives.

And drives.

And drives, until the road warps and distorts itself. Purples and golds move on their own to outline the stars, the lanes of the freeway stretching and contracting into both infinite lanes and none at all. The flow of the song begins to slow ever-so-slightly, until it reduces and divides itself to near-inaudible levels. After what feels like an eternity for Monika, everything freezes.

And then…

The music is replaced by the blare of an alarm.

Monika, now slightly drowsy, motions to hit the snooze button out of habit. Before she manages to reach it, though, a click turns the sound off.

Monika opens her eyes, and looks to the hand the deed belonged to. That gaze snakes up a beautiful arm and a rugged shoulder, finally meeting a pair of deep brown eyes on a gorgeous face.

"Good morning, Xavier."

"Rise and shine! And get in the kitchen, I'm making breakfast."

Monika's stunning husband beckons to her with a smile, his perfectly-trimmed brown hair still managing to ruffle into a chaotic bedhead.

"You're too good to me, baby. I'll be right there."

As her one and only leaves the room, Monika sits up and begins to change into her outfit for the day. As she begins to undress from her nightgown, though, a disturbing thought weighs on her. Sayori just had to remind me of what I tried so hard to forget… Now it's all unraveling.

Trying her best not to let her thoughts weigh on her any further, she slips on a shirt and some joggers and hurries her way to the dining room.

As Monika is about to take her seat at the table, her spouse pipes up from the kitchen. "How many slices of bacon would you like, honey?"

The sudden noise causes Monika to flinch slightly, but she maintains her composure regardless. "Two, please."

"Awesome…"

The pair remains in silence for some time afterwards, with the only noise filling the room being the ambient sound of oil frying on a pan. Left alone with her thoughts, Monika is forced to confront the actions she wanted so badly to be free of.

"Babe… Is it okay if I tell you something?"

Even better. Now I have this garbage to deal with again… "Yes, Xavier, of course you can! You can tell me anything." Monika stands up and begins walking towards her husband, her every move at this point locked into habit. ""Is there something wrong?"

Fidgeting to himself slightly while waiting for one side of the eggs to fry, he turns to face his wife. "Well… You'd love me no matter what, right? Even if something changed about me?"

Without missing a beat, Monika bounces back. "Of course, honey! I'll always love you unconditionally!" Digging her thumb into her forefinger, lies like these become more difficult to utter every time she tells them.

Monika's man, rings under his eyes from exhaustion, cracks a smile at her disingenuous words. "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately… About who I am. Who I want to be."

He pauses, arms twitching as he nervously checks the underside of the eggs and bacon before looking back at his spouse nervously.

"I think…" The wretched, disgusting copy of a man, his voice now timid, has the gall to continue speaking. "I think on the inside, I've-"

"Whatever it is you're going to say, honey, I'm sure it's just your imagination." Monika grasps the back of his head, gripping firmly as she whispers into his ear. "I think you'd ought to just forget about all of this and finish making breakfast like a good husband should."

Monika's words immediately render the man motionless. Like a wind-up toy that has used up its charge, not a muscle of his body moves a single inch. Incapable of doing a single thing without her express permission, he stands limp in the kitchen. With this time that she's been given, Monika knows what she must do. She delves deep inside of her head as she did once before, and removes the memories she finds unfit to take residence in her conscience. She rakes through her file without mercy, leaving her guiltless and innocent once again. Mow it down and leave no stone unturned, until…

Hmm… What was it that I was doing again…?

Monika looks around in confusion, having seemingly zoned out for a split second. When she spots Xavier's pan beginning to smoke, though, her mind quickly moves to more pertinent things.

"Honey, our breakfast!"

"Shit!" Having apparently spaced out in his own right, Xavier's attention snaps back down to the stovetop. "Sorry about that, babe, you all right with your eggs and bacon being a little bit… seared?"

"Of course, silly…" Monika slings her arms over Xavier's shoulders, hearts pulsing in her pupils. "Now get your head down here so I can pay you back for all your hard work."

The pair exchange a deep kiss, pulling each other into a tight embrace. Without another care in the world, they bask in each others' loving presence.

The other side of their eggs and bacon would soon burn as well.

DREAMS OF DOKI DOKI, ACT 2 - B-SIDE: END