Utterly Mad

A lot had happened from this current point in time. A lot of plans Roxanne had had simply didn’t happen; but no one seemed to care or notice, not even the once that involved other people. She had engaged in many other things and helped some people but for some reason that all seemed like a blur. Didn’t really matter, however, as her memory was sharp as ever and whatever this fuzzy feeling was it had gone away now.

Roxanne wondered what Lucy and the gang were up to. Last she saw of them they were camped just outside the fa- walkerville, right. Looking around she notices this wasn’t the place of just a few friends roughing the cataclysm but a rising civilization. She missed the adventure but peace was nice too. Her thoughts wondered back to the previous subject, what about Neo-SoA?

They had probably gone back to the tower. It had surprisingly gone unnoticed by the big factions at play here despite its size and purpose. Guess that fact that most of it was underground helped. Melody had gone with them, Roxanne wondered if she got membership; wondered if she had learned to cope with her “curse”.

That thought brought her back to someone else, Victor; and that in turn the new thing he and Helen were working on. “Wonder how they are going along. I don’t do groups anymore but hey, more power to them.”, Roxanne told herself. Her mind wandered to that little memory curse Victor had and if he had gotten used to it or found a way to fight it back. She had helped get a lot of that back, he at least was able to recognize Helen and their child a while ago and he seemed happy. “Good for you edgelord, you deserve some peace… after all I made you go through. Need another sip!”

To no ones surprised Roxanne was wandering around with a bottle of premium spirit booze drinking straight from the bottle. This one was quite weak but was simple to make. The fact this thing could affect your soul to intoxicate even ghost and spirits would have been a hit if commercialized but Roxanne kept the formula to herself to enjoy; only a few select people new about it.

Yes the carefree spirit walked around drinking and saluting the many working people. Today was a good day all things considered. It was peaceful and quiet until a familiar noise was heard; the handheld two way radio she carried. Roxanne looked at it puzzled before shrugging and answering it. “Hello, Roxanne Eris Luna de Gray speaking!”

There was a slight moment of silence before a deep sigh could be heard. “Seriously? Do you realize how pretentious it is to combine the names of you two into one? What am I saying, you don’t care. Why do I even bother… Anyway, enough of that. This is Victor, need to talk to you ASAP.”

Something was off about all this; Victor didn’t speak like this. Not ever since the incident; no, not where he lost his memories but the one that defined the two of them before the cataclysm even began. Something deep inside Eris’ memories triggered a feeling of uneasiness as this tone and manner of speaking was awfully familiar in a way she didn’t expect to ever hear again.

“Helloooo, why the silence? Did this thing break again?”, Victor asked.

“N-no. Had ours checked a bit ago and it’s in working order. I can hear you clearly.”, Roxanne answered.

Another moment of silence and then he spoke again. “Is that you Eris? I know you are the one speaking now.”

“Yeah, its me… How are you Vic’?”

A small chuckle could be heard from Victor. “Haven’t heard that little pet name in quite a while. So you figured me out huh?”

“Yeah, you are speaking way too casual for my liking. You haven’t been like that ever since… you know… I am sure you can remember now can you?”This time there was a long pause between the two. Eris looked intently at the radio knowing Victor was doing the same.

“Listen, I need to talk to you ok? Come to the woods to that little clearing you like so much, alone… There’s a few things we need to discuss.”

Roxanne stayed silent for a couple moments more before asking her own question. “It’s time isn’t it? Time to have that talk we have been avoiding for over a decade and half… Are you sure?”

“Listen, we have been through a lot this few years. We can’t afford to live in denial for much longer; we have people who care about us now. It’s not like the old days, just you and me against the world. I couldn’t protect you but now I don’t need to. We need to end this Roxanne. We have to.”

The answer was immediate this time, she nodded as she did so. “I know. It’s just so sudden. I’ll be right there so sit tight.”

“Alright, I will… Oh, and Roxanne?”

“Yeah?”, Can you bring me some clothes please?

That caught her off guard. “What do you mean?”

“A little experiment tore my outfit… currently hiding in a bush… please hurry, this is uncomfortable.”

Roxanne gave a hardy laugh at that. Despite everything somethings never change. “I gotcha then. Wonder which dress will look the prettiest on you~”

“I swear to god Roxanne…”

“Which one?”

“All of them! Just shut up and come here!”

After the little talk with Hector, him and Roxanne went about putting the posters she had made for tomorrow’s event. She was excited; tomorrow marked the beginning of her new vision. One where it wouldn’t just be hoarding arms and supplies until the need to fight the next enemy arose. Roxanne stood in front of one of the posters smiling at its contents.

“To the hardworking residents of Walkerville and elsewhere.

How has life been treating you so far? You, yes you, the one reading this. You surely are clothed and fed right? That has not been a problem here for some time. But one thing has been, strife. Those of you who have been here a while or have hear the stories know of the various enemies we as a group have fought against. We have overcome each and everyone of those challenges and we will overcome any that are to follow. But, what about those who didn’t fight? Those who stayed behind and made sure this place kept running?

Are we to only celebrate the warrior and not the builder, the farmer, the medic, or the craftsmen? All of you, yes you, we all contribute our part here no doubt. We all work hard to not only make this place run smooth but make it better. However, do you ever feel you could be doing more? Do you feel you could offer more? That your skills are being wasted? I for one do. Who am I? I am known as many things but my name is Roxanne Luna, the blade of sodom as some call me.

I was one of the warriors, one who’s niche was to fight the next enemy but no more. In my time here I have made many discoveries and new abilities and I feel I could help elsewhere. How? By helping others find their niche, to become the best they can offer. Self-Actualisation. Let me help you help yourself. Let’s make a journey of self discovery for the better.

If any of this peaks your interest, I am holding a small meeting down at the ruined hotel near the necropolis. Don’t worry, it’s safe; I made sure of that, former warrior remember. Just come, listen to what I have to say and if it’s not your cup of tea I will at least thank you for your time. But if you like what you hear, hopefully we make great things together! For those interested, see you tomorrow at noon!

Roxanne Luna, Blade of Sodom”

Roxanne was rather giddy about the whole thing. She wondered if anyone would show up but those thoughts were quickly dismissed. Whatever happens would happen regardless if she stressed about it or not. For now she would go to her room and get ready for tomorrow event. Hector had gone back before hand so maybe she would catch up to him. As she made her way back she heard them; explosions, gunshots and then people scrambling. She simply shook her head and continued her merry way, Once this would’ve been a call to adventure but this wasn’t who she was anymore.

Eventually she reached her room and found Hector wasn’t there. She gave a deep sigh; he probably went to check out what the commotion was. He would be fine, he always was; unlike herself. Roxanne shrugged and got to work on her preparations. Something seemed odd tho, an uneasiness in the air. It probably was the sounds from earlier; with that in mind Roxanne pushed those thoughts aside as well as she went to her “secret” stash to get some item.

A pair of hip pouches was the first was the first set of items; she could attach them to her belt in front of her revolvers for easy access. Currently she was wearing a messenger bag to carry her items but that seemed too cumbersome for what she needed to carry on her person. She had become sort of a minimalist and as such the number of items was now small.

The next item was a vail with a strange and suspicious black liquid. It appear to be nothing more than a test tube with a cork. The vial and a pipette went inside one of the compartments in her drop pouches. Next was a syringe with a white liquid in it; the liquid looked familiar to the untrained and easily recognisable to researchers such as Quinn and Dervish: Purifier Serum. The syringe, in a proper contained for carrying, was placed in the compartment next to to the vial.

The final object she pulled out was the all to common auto-injector loaded with RX-12. She used to carry it everywhere but stopped once she, well, didn’t need it anymore. But now she grabbed some and promptly put it in her pouches.

After that she took off her messenger back and emptied it of its contents. Most of the items inside were place back in their appropriate place but her speed loaders for her revolvers and her vials of essence went into the pouches. As she went through the contents of said bag, she came across one that made her snicker a bit; the silver athame Victor had entrusted her after the two had had their “I am done with this whole thing” talk a few days prior. She smiled and shook her head playful before putting away next to her ritual and ceremonial items. When she did so, she noted some stuff was missing, nothing important or that couldn’t be replaced but still odd; she would ask Hector about it later.

What wasn’t gone, however, was another set of items not in her stash that she was looking for. The first was a white sundress. The type that was light and was supported by a couple of shoulder straps; the kind that also would show off cleavage with the excuse that it was to be worn when it was hot outside. Roxanne took the dress and set it on her bed. The second item was her ceremonial robe; the one she used when performing any of her rituals; it was a red silk robe, the kind that looked like a sheet with a hole on top and a couple to stick her arms out. Normally she would wear nothing underneath it as part of the ritual but she was thinking of an exception.. She took the robe and placed it next to the dress.

Roxanne undressed herself setting her accessories on a nearby table and her outfit on the bed next to the other two items. She was left in nothing but black panties as she removed even her bra. After putting her old outfit that consisted or a leather one piece biker suit and a green cloak, she took out a rather big roll of bandages and started to wrap them around her chest. This would have two effects, keep her breast from moving all over the place and create the illusion of being smaller than they were under clothing. Once she finished with the wrapping, she put on the white dress; banges visible due to the design made to show off what she was now trying to conceal. Next she put on the robe. It concealed the dress underneath rather well but still left a portion of it stick out from underneath as the dress was still longer. The bandages were still visible from the sides but it didn’t matter. The contrast of white and dark red appealed to Roxanne as she approved of her now completed new outfit. Finally she put on her belt with the pouches, her holsters with the revolvers and on her back the katar.

“Looking good Roxanne!”, Eris said taking control of their body momentarily.

“Thank you! Looking fine yourself Roxanne!”, said Luna taking back control and smiling some.

Before she could continue with the self-congratulatory ceremony of sorts, she hear a knock on the door. It was firm but quick, a tell-tell sign of desperation. Roxanne, confused, went towards the door and opened it. “Rey? What are you doing here? Where is Christina?”

“Don’t know, let her out of my sight for a second and she went around flirting with the various mice-girls here.”,Rey responded. He looked up and down Roxanne noticing the new outfit; he also noted how she was now trying to “downsize” but that was something he would not comment on. “Special occasion?”, he asked.

“You could say that. Anyways, what brings you here?”

“I am starving...”, Rey responded, he look weary and fatigued. His expression was that need and he clutched his stomach somewhat when he stood still.

At that Roxanne gave a deep sigh and hanged her head low momentarily. She then looked back at Rey as to address him properly. “Come on, step inside.”

Rey nodded and followed Roxanne through the door. He closed it behind him but Roxanne spoke up again before he could step away from it. “Look the door if you will.”

“Lock the door? Why?”, Rey asked.

“I don’t need people walking in on this. It’s weird.”

“What about Hector?”

“He has the key.”

Roxanne gave another deep sigh; she moved towards the mirror in the room before speaking up while not looking at her reflection. “Damn it Rey, can’t you wait a bit more?”, Roxanne exclaimed as she adjusted her ceremonial robe. Rey shook his head almost shivering.

“I really can’t, I am feeling cold and am going numb... It has to be today...”

Roxanne gave a deep sigh and shook her own head in annoyance. Then she looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at how her outfit had come together seemingly ignoring Rey’s pleas. Eventually she turned around and addressed Rey once more.

“Ok, fine. I can’t give you a soul right now but; how about you have me instead?”

In his growing confusion, Roxanne just added more; he tilted his head as he responded with a simply question. “What?”

At this Roxanne threw her head back as she huffed in exasperation; she was seemingly annoyed at his ignorance. “Me! I am ghost, a soul. Do I have to spell it out for you?”

Rey’s expression was now not that of confusion but concern. “Roxanne… just what are you proposing?”

She didn’t answered him, instead asking a question of her own. “How do you harvest souls exactly?”

“Hmm? Oh, that? Well, attacks from regulator’s weapon harvests what I need and then funnel’s the soul to me.”

“So you need to physically strike someone with your summoned weapon?”

“Yeah, why?”

Once again she did not answer instead making a request, no, more akin to a demand. “Can you summon your regulator weapon as a hatchet please? And for the love of Anomon tone down the edginess...”

“Edginess? What do you mean?”

“Oh please spare me! Look at the way you are dressed. Gray Combat books, black work jeans, gray shirt, a tac-vest and fingerless gloves. You are just missing the shades and I would expect you to ask if my papers were in order.”

Rey just ignored her and grumbled to himself. As he did he summoned a plane looking hatched that had a wooden handle and a red glowing line going through from bottom to top. Roxanne grabbed it and looked at it. “See, this looks decent. I knew you would do it.”, she commented.

The next series of events happened too fast for Rey to rect. Roxanne went towards her altar, she placed her left arm on it, raised the hatched and then with a swift motion brought it down on her arm. She screamed bloody murder which was thankfully muffled to the outside thanks to the sound proof spell. Rey rushed to her.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” He looked closely at the wound. The hatchet was now placed next to her arm but the arm itself was quite the sight. It had been a clean cut; the hatched slice through it like butter. However, while the arm was severed it was still being held together by...her tattoos. The arm had been cut at the elbow and it was separated by an inch from the cut but the tattoos around it glowed purple and they extended out of the arm like ribbons. In her arm the tattoos were three bands wrapping around the length of her arm in a spiral going down until they landed at her wrist wrapping around it; a final band then formed and went towards her middle finger wrapping around it. But now, where the wound had been made it looked like they were ribbons peeling off and stretching to keep her arm together.

Roxanne kept screaming. “Holy fuck that hurts way more than I imagined it would!”

“You chopped off your own arm you fucking psycho! What did you expect?!”

“Pain hasn’t been a problem before so why no- ahhhhhhh!”

Her words were interrupted by another scream as the tattoos forced the arm together. Each end of the severed piece was glowing purple and soon those two sides touched and a familiar purple mist formed around it as it seemed to heal. The experience was excruciating to her but it was short lived for the hatchet started to do its work.

The hatchet’s red stripe started to glow and soon the entire section of Roxanne’s arm that had been severed was turning into the purple mist. The tattoos appeared to peel off that section of her arm as the hatchet began to consume the mist. Roxanne kept screaming and now embraced Rey settling her head on his shoulder; the pain was getting to her and out of instinct she bit down hard on his shoulder. Rey didn’t react, he simply looked at what was going on with the hatchet and the arm.

Eventually the arm was fully consumed and the tattoos dangled like ribbons. Roxanne let go of him and collapsed on the floor having gone limp. At least the ritual had worked; Rey felt somewhat more energetic but just barely. He wouldn’t die today but he still needed to feed within a couple of days. But none of that mattered to him right now as he looked at Roxanne passed on the floor and his hatchet now disintegrating being called back to him.

“What the hell just happened?”, he asked himself.

---

It had been a relatively quiet day for Melody. She went about doing her daily tasks which today were rather few. She had finished a short while ago and was now returning to her assigned bedding. Something had been bothering her however. It was as if something was calling at the back of her head, it wasn’t despair but she couldn’t make out what it was. Well, that is until now…

She who is guided by rage… answer my call… bring with you the broken man… seek my trial… and become whole once more...

“What the… who is there?”, Melody asked aloud. No one responded and her aura spell suggested very few people were around and those who were were doing their own thing. The voice didn’t speak again and the nagging feeling went away. However, she didn’t have time to relax as another voice picked up.

“Mel? We need to talk…”

Melody jumped at that but then gave a sigh of relief as she recognized that voice.

“Don’t scare me like that Dez, I am still human you know?”, Melody responded.

Despair gave a half hearted chuckle. “Yeah, that you are…”

“Anyways, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, something feels off you know? Can’t pinpoint what but…”

“But?”

“You heard that voice too?”

“The one about being whole again?”

‘Yeah, so you did...hmm…”

Melody’s expression turned to that of concern. The flurry of stimuli from the aura spell made it hard for her to sense what Despair was feeling; things would be much easier if she could wear the blindfold to filter it all out but she could not risk being discovered that she was blind.

“What’s up, what’s going on?”, Melody asked.

“Listen… this is going to sound counterintuitive but… I need to speak to Roxanne…”, Despair explained.

Melody was shocked at hearing that and expressed herself so. “What? But we are here to hide from her in the first place! Now you just want to ignore that and dream ghost’s warning? Still have that medallion you know?”

“I know, I know! Just… I need to ok? Hard to explain… Please just trust me on this on... “

“So you need to speak to Roxanne?”

“Well, not so much her but Assimilation… but now she is assimilation so…”

“Ahhh, I get ya now… Sword business… Alright, I’ll go ahead and see if I can request to leave for the day… Done all my work for today.

Just as she said that a familiar aura was sensed. Melody smiled to herself, got up from her spot and approached the man. It was the same man she had spoken to when she “applied” for the job here. It had been nothing more than a ploy to hide out here for a bit but now she seeked the opposite. The man was, just like last time, holding a clipboard looking over stuff; he looks up to see Melody approach and he flashes a smile of familiarity.

“Well hello there little lady! Melody right? Working hard from what I am hearing. How are you liking it here so far?”, asked the man

“It’s really neat, work is something I am used to and the people are nice. Thank you once again for giving me a chance!”

The man gave a slight laugh before responding. “Don’t mention it. Not like we were running low on personnel in that department but hey, better over prepared than under.” Once he finished talking, his expression turned from amusement to a semi-serious one; one to signify he meant business, not that Melody could tell either way. “But something tells me you are here to ask me something aren’t you? Go on kid, spit it out.”

Melody was surprised by what he said; he had seen right through her. Just how much did he know? Did he know of what she was going to ask? She stood there thinking a bit until she was interrupted by him waving his hand in front of her eyes. “Hello? Are you alright there?”, he asked. The gesture would’ve been one that would’ve bothered her if he was being deliberately mocking her due to her blindness but due to the fact that she was hiding that fact to the center, he knew he wasn’t doing that.

“S-sorry about that. Yes, I have come to ask something. Was just lost in thought about what to say, that’s all…”, Melody responded.

“Ah, well, don’t be nervous kid. Just say what you mean, do it like you own the place. People respect confidence and if you show some more likely than not you will get what you want. Just a little tip from me, up to you to do with it what you like.”

Melody gave one last gulp of nervousness as she took his words to heart. She then remembered a thing Randael, of a people, had taught her; one of the few lessons she had kept from him despite what he turned out to be. His advice was meant to be used before combat but she applied to everyday life. “Let your anger, your anxiety, your nervousness, let all those emotions that cloud your judgment do their worst. Ten seconds. Give them ten seconds to claim you, to eat your soul. But once that time has past, discard them like tissue paper and focus on the task at hand.”

And so she did. Once more she went silent for ten seconds. The man was about to ask her again if she was alright when Melody began to ask her request. “I am thankful for what you and the center have done for me, I really am. I wish to stay here for a long time if I am permitted; this place is really inviting. But, a little thing has come up; something personal… It is a bit delicate and I need to take care of it… So, I wanted to ask you if I could get a few days off so I can do so. 3 days, tops, and I’ll be back. I have already finished my work for today and if you check my review I have no marks. S-”

Before she could finish her remarks, he answered her. “Granted.”

“What?”, Melody asked, a bit confused at the sudden conclusion.

“Granted. Take a whole week if you need to.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah, no kidding. You said personal stuff right? I get that, we all have a life and I assume yours is still outside of this place. I don’t know your past or really care; that is yours alone. But if you need to take care of something, well, you do what you have to do. Besides, it’s not like we are starving for bullet loaders.”

Melody smiled at his statement. She was about to thank him but then another though crept in and made her smile go away a bit. “W-what’s the catch?”

The man simply smiled. “Smart girl, I like you more already. Yeah, there is a small catch. Like I said, we are not really starving for bullet loaders, what we need is fighters. It’s getting harder to justify those numbers to those I need to report to. So, consider your time off a suspension of sorts. A week long suspension. When you come back, you and I will have a little interview and see if we will still keep you on board or not...among other things. That seem fair? Really the only way I can grant you those days off”

Of course there was a catch, Melody knew it; nothing came for free, especially to her. She was a little disheartened but she did need those days off. There was no choice but to accept. “Alright, I accept…”

The man nodded and closed his clipboard. “Understood. In that case; see you in a week kid. I have to go and do paperwork now. You take care.”

“Thank you… for everything…”

“Don’t mention it. Really, don’t, you’ll kill my reputation.”, the man joked.

---

“Ugh...w-where am I?” The air felt cold and everything was dark. A numb sensation was felt but it was ignored in favor of figuring out what had happened. It wasn’t until a familiar voice was heard that it all became clear.

“Oh thank god you are awake!”

A little smirk formed upon hearing those words. Weakly she spoke. “Which one? There are so many now…”

“This is not the time for jokes Luna!”

He was right, but Roxanne didn’t care. Humor what was kept her going, her own specific brand of humor anyway; verbal pranks if you will. The numb sensation was quickly registered as her now missing arm. She opened her eyes to find herself in her bed tucked in by her blanket with Rey watching over her sitting in a nearby chair.

“D’awww, you did this for little old me? You really do care~”, Roxanne teased.

“Shut it! I was panicking ok? What the hell was I supposed to tell others if something happened to you?!”, Rey asked half angry, half worried.

“Hey guys, Roxanne did it again. She played with stuff she wasn’t supposed to. Let’s see what unintended consequences we have to deal with now.”

“...That common?”

“You have no idea…”

Roxanne grabbe the blanket with her good hand and pulled it off her. She then sat up and stretched a bit yawning before rubbing one of her eyes. The way she nonchalantly did this as if she was waking up from a nap was what was bothering Rey the most, not that she cared. Then she went ahead and looked at her “wounded” arm. It had been neatly bandaged as if to stop bleeding; all it needed was a tourniquet and it would look like a first at job. “Bandages? Seriously Rey? It’s not like I am going to bleed out. I am waaaaay past that point.”

“Panic, remember? I did the first thing that came to mind, give me a break.”

With a playful roll of her eyes and a smile, she started to undo the bandages slowly. “Did it at least work?”

“What?”

“The ritual, did it work? Are you not gonna die on me yet?”

“Yeah, it did. It feed me enough to grant me about 3 more days, 2 if I use my abilities. It would’ve been four but you did bit me pretty hard on the shoulder...that took some energy to regen…”

Roxanne looked away a bit embarrassed. “Heh, yeah, sorry about that… force of habit… “

“F-force of habbit? Wh- No, you know what, not even going to ask...”

“Yeah, it’s better if you don’t…”

With that being said and done, she finished undoing the bandages and took a good look at her arm; Rey too looked at the wound intently. The end of the arm still glowed purple and her tattoos still protruded like ribbons. They had been wrapped around her arm to put the bandages on but now that she undid them they resumed their position to dangle as if they were still attached to the arm.

“That is going to heal up, right?”, Rey asked nervously

“Eventually.”, Roxanne responded calmly.

“Eventually?! What kind of response is that?!”

“Christ, lower your volume Rey. I am right here, no need to yell…”

“Sorry, just… please tell me you have a way to fix this…”

“Relax, I do, just, let me do my thing ok?”

“Last time you said that was about an hour ago and you literally chopped your arm off…”

“It’s been an hour? Huh, thought it was longer. Anyways, fiiine, I’ll let you in on it.” Roxanne stood up from the bed and stretched again before going to her drawer to retrieve something. Upon finding it, she turned around and showed Rey a gem while smiling with selfrightouness. “This is a soul crystal, you know what this is?”

Rey stared at the gem dumbfounded. “A-a soul crystal? That is 5 soul shards into one...it has the same properties as a human soul but condensed into a crystal form...y-you have one?”

A simple nod confirmed that he was right. “Yes, a looooong time ago we were dealing with a higher spirit of harvest who started to use soul shards to power himself and other things. We defeat him and cease the shards. This is the last one that remains, 5 shards combined into a crystal. This is the purest form of spiritual energy there is. You could get so much essence from it, it’s packed with energy… so, if I consume this like so…”

Roxanne held the crystal in the palm of her hand and then made a fist. Suddenly her tattoos started to glow purple and from her arm wound the purple glow inside her arm extended out and formed the shape of her arm and hand. The tattoos wrapped around it as it formed the shape and outline and then it materialized as her hand should be. Her hand was completely restored. The process took but a minute to which Roxanne smiled all the way through and Rey stared at in awe. Once the arm reformed, she moved it gently and slapped at it a couple times to confirmed it “worked”. She then extended it to Rey as if showing it off. “With this I can accelerate any of my process to an absurd degree. This would’ve taken about a week to heal, but with it it took only a minute.”

Silence permeated the room after that. Rey looked at Roxanne in disbelief and she reveled in that with triumphant glee. However, he wasn’t in that state for the reasons she expected.

“S-so… let me get this straight… You chopped off your arm to feed it to me… knowing you would regenerate it...then used, of all things, a soul crystal to accelerate the process… is that right?”, Rey asked slowly.

“Yup, really smart right?”

Rey tried to utter something but he only ended up stumbling his words. Eventually he gave a deep sigh and facepalmed. “This is so fucking stupid…”

Roxanne was no confused at that reaction. “W-what do you mean?”

He looked up at Roxanne, an expression of slight disappointment and annoyance. “Roxanne… I could’ve consume that crystal and not have to feed for a whole month… that was the equivalent of a human soul… not only did you make the process much complicated that it needed to be...doing something incredibly dumb… it ended up being that much more inefficient…”

Silence once more, this time it was Roxanne who looked on perplexed. Her previous aura of pride vanished. “O-oh… is that so… You can feed off that?”

“Yes, Roxanne, I can… Alternate fuel sources, that’s what that means…”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?!”, Roxanne asked now suddenly angry herself.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe communicating your intentions out loud instead of avoiding questions like you know better! You don’t know everything Roxanne and people who do are just trying to help. If you had let me in on what you had planned I would’ve told you all about the crystal from the beginning. But how the hell was I supposed to know you had one if you didn’t answer my question about what you had planned?”

For the third time if a short span of time, more silence. Roxanne reflected at what he said. Is this what Hector and the others were trying to get at? Is this why they were annoyed at her “secrecy”? Maybe he, an to extension the others, was right; maybe she did need to listen and share her intentions more. It was a mute point now but would keep it in mind for later. “Yeah, guess you are right… Sorry for not trusting you then… I thought you were going to simply shut down my idea without rebuttal like many always do…”

“Well, if you explain yourself, maybe they wouldn’t. But sometime they need to shut it down, for your own good. We are just trying to help. Like you are trying to help me.”

Roxanne smiled, he nodded quietly and turned around to look at her drawer again only to close it and sigh. “You know what, I am way too over my head for this… I can only promise to take you on hunts but for emergency measures maybe we should see an expert…”

What Roxanne said surprised him. She wasn’t once to give up and seek the help of others that easily. Still, it was a welcomed change for him. “An expert? What do you have in mind?”, Rey asked.

“The Flames of Arcana...”, Roxanne answered.

“Helen and Victor?”

She nodded. “Yes. He specialist in spirits, souls and whatnot while she is an expert in applying arcan practices safely and warding against unwanted things… I am neither… so I assume it would be best to seek them out...”

“I see… so you are saying they could help in other ways than just feeding then… Well, I trust you even if I don’t know about them. Wouldn’t hurt to give that a try.”

“Yeah, they too are just trying to help. I am sure they can offer something to us. Besides, you and I could focus on the hunt. To satiate our desires…”

Rey looked at her confused and slightly concerned. “Ours?”

“Sure, I am Assimilation now remember? My primal instincts urge me to feed as well, to harvest… so when we are on the hunt, maybe I could indulge myself as well…”

He grinned upon hearing that. “Just like the old days right? Only this time more is at stake…”

She smiled back. “Yes, just like the old days… just you and me and our respective victims… those days were cut to short… time to make up for lost time don’t you think?”

“Maybe… just maybe… a lot of things have changed since they but the principle is still there. The goal should be to minimize the need to even go on hunts anymore. But when we do we might as well enjoy them...  By the way, didn’t you say you were done fighting.”

“Bah, never said I wasn’t a hypocrite… Besides, I am doing to to help a friend. It’s not like we are doing this just for the hell of it like we did all those years back. There is a purpose this time. And sometimes some people have to die for the greater good.”

“Heh, that I can get behind…”

But suddenly Roxanne grabs Rey from his collar and pulls him towards her; their foreheads meet and her expression as stoic and serious as can be. “That being said… No matter how desperate you get… If I find out you hurt anyone around here… not only will I stop helping you but I will hunt you down like I was supposed to all those years back… That is the once condition for going on this hunts with you… leave the people here alone”

Rey was somewhat shocked from the sudden change in attitude from Roxanne. The scene would’ve been comical; a 5’8” woman pulling a 6’2” man towards her by the grasp of his shirt’s collar. Weren’t for the tone of everything that had happened now, even he would’ve find it funny. “Didn’t plan to… I am sure you would be the only one after me if I did anything of the sort…”

Roxanne let go of him and step back. “Good, nice to see you are using your head...and yeah, the hypocrisy in that doesn’t escape me…”

Before Rey could make a retort, there was a sudden knock on the door; the only sound “programmed” to go through the sound spell. Rey and Roxanne looked at each other before she gestured him to open up the door. He nodded and went to do so. Upon opening the door, he found Melody on the other side. She looked a bit nervous and was now wearing her blindfold to suppress her aura spell and filter the sensations it caused. Upon sensing Rey she jumped a bit.

“Melody right? What brings you here?”, asked Rey.

“Uhhh… I-I could ask you the same thing… w-what are you doing in miss Roxanne’s room? She has a boyfriend you know?”, Melody responded.

At that Rey looked at Melody surprised and then started laughing heavily to Melody’s annoyance. Roxanne then went and checked on the commotion. “Oh, Melody it’s you. What a surprise.”

The presence of Roxanne unnerved her more as the Roxanne reacted to Despair and as her wielder Melody felt that. Still, Despair said she needed to talk to Roxanne and her she was. All that time spent trying to hide from her wasted, the warning from “dream ghost” ignored. Melody stood there as Roxanne and a now calmed down Rey looked at her patiently. Finally she spoke. “H-hey there Roxanne, Roxanne’s friend.”

“Name is Rey. Nice meeting you.”

“R-right… nice meeting you too. Sorry if I am interrupting something...”

“Nah, we are already done. It only took like an hour anyways, quite interesting experience. The logi-”, Roxanne started to respond before being interrupted by Melody, something she found surprising.

“N-never mind that… N-not my business anyways… Besides, I have to talk to you about something urgent… Maybe I come in?”

All the while Roxanne had been listening to Catnip speak, she had been thinking of things as they came along: Katherine’s new patterns, seems she wasn’t the only one with new “adornments”; the work the missling had made and how she had missed just sitting around talking to her friends. The tidbit about the contacts had thrown her off but she choose to go with it as it made things simpler, however, she knew an explanation for the rest was in order. It was in the middle of her thoughts about the chapel Hector was working on and what a coincidence she had similar plan that Catnip made her question.

Oh? Me?, Roxanne responded, she leaned back and gave a deep sigh before continuing, Where haven’t I’ve been? Word of advice girls, stay away from magic if you can help it… it’s only been a mess for me ever since I’ve delved in it. Not like I haven’t been a mess before hand! Infuser notwithstanding. Roxanne chuckles a little to herself but stopped when she noted no one else shared her humor. She cleared her throat and continued. Well, a few days before I departed I got an invitation to a little reunion of people involved with Shadows of Arcana, you know, the group I belonged to before the cataclysm. So I go there and I have this heartwarming reunion with Rey here.

Roxanne waves her hand to point at Rey who waves back awkwardly. Hey is… a long lost friend of mine from before the cataclysm. He was affected by the shifting too so he is team shifting too! Anyways, I met with him and with Christina too. She was one of the founders of our little groups. So we talked and had a few drinks as friends do. I had planned to stay for a couple days but then...

Another deep sigh from Roxanne and then a few seconds of silence before continuing. The other shoe dropped… Turns out the guy who invited me was a baddie and wanted to make me his slave of sorts. He chooses the wrong ghost… in short I uhm... She looks around and see kathrine and as such decides it to tone it down in details. I took care of him so that he wouldn’t bother me anymore. And that should’ve been the end of that but it can never be that simple… As I went and did a little celebratory dance I was jumped by someone else, don’t worry, they were taken care of too, and I passed out. When I woke up I found out I had these lovely tattoos and ‘contacts’ too. I was also pretty week from the beating so I had to rest there for two weeks and recover. These two were really nice in taking care of but now I am back!

Despite being overly excited now, Roxanne gave Catnip and Kathrine time to process what she had said. Still, she didn’t give them time to respond as she continued. By the way, ‘nip, I wanted to tell you and ask you a few things… First, our group, SoA, is operational agains so if you hear the name know that it’s us. We miiiight use a few zombies in our ranks so that is why I am letting you know… to prevent any incidents. Second, well, my friends and I were discussing a few things, I won’t bore you with the details but I wanted to ask if you know of any place I could use to hold a small gathering? I want to put up posters and have a little gathering for a club of sorts I have in mind… if it’s ok with you that is...

With that Roxanne finally quieted down for a moment too and metaphorically catched her breath. She noticed Rey and Christina awkwardly smiling, not sure of what to do.

How rude of me… didn’t give anyone else the chance to speak… Rey, Christina, anything you wanna say or ask my friends here?

“Nah, I am all good for now. Thanks for the coffee Kathrine. Can I call you by your name? Or is it too early?”, Christina responded.

“There is nothing particularly that comes to mind. I am sure this isn’t the last time we will meet anyways, if I have an inquiry I’ll be sure to ask. Still, I am your service if you need anything.”, Rey said as well.

Well then, guess we have two shy ones here huh? Kinda unexpected. Anything else you two wanna ask us? Roxanne had suddenly gone to her “Eris” persona but this time it didn’t feel like a switch; for the first time it felt like the two were one in the same and it visibly intrigued Roxanne. She noted Catnip and Kathrine looking at her eye color shift and smiled. Oh that? What can I say, advance contacts. I can change my eye color from pink to purple but the outer part stays black...

---

Elsewhere Lucy and Roxanne’s new zombie servant, Leonard, were heading back to the tower that once belonged to Plague. They were driving Roxanne’s APC as she was using the motocycle she found in the meantime. Lucy was the driver while Leonard was reading a piece of paper Lucy had manifested when he had asked more details on the pieces of anomon.

The poem read as follows:
[Seven pieces, seven swords; seven mages, seven souls.
Three were broken, four remain; two made shields, one left dead.

Seven kingdoms survey the land; as the sun rises they make their final stand.
The skies will darken, the rivers will run dry; as he awakens all will surely die.

Seven mages are called upon; one common goal they all cling on.
Different kingdoms they represent, all to which to god they had repent.
They set aside their differences to defeat the monster; he who threaten to devour and conquer.

The seventh mage captured the beast, the first bore its mark.
The rest created the seals and together they divided it up.
The broken god was born, Anomon was no more.

Seven pieces, seven swords; seven mages, seven souls.
Three were broken, four remain; two made shields, one left dead.

Assimilation, Annihilation, Convergence, Despair, Pestilence, Storm and Void.
The power was taken, the typhoon quelled, the ailment cured and from the corpses two more were made.
Trinity and Fantasia, Guardians of the night.
They envied the union and fought it will all might.

The first through fourth was handed a sword.
Firth and six a shield in tow.
The seventh left empty handed, for their hand was too slow.

The mission was done, the goal accomplished.
Nothing was left, the goal was achieved.
The mages however still ploated with glee.

A puzzle emerged, one with dire consequences; for once the mages had passed the swords would remain.
They plotted a plan for the legacy to go on. One of 6 wielders would the whole set one day obtain.
Once united the god will be awoken and he who bears the mark will become his chosen token.
No one will stop, not even the bravest knight; for he will unite all armies under ever darker night.

One man will have the power, one man will expose the sham.
But by then it will be too late for salvation for he will be no other than the lamb.]

“What does it mean?”, Leonard asked.

“Read it carefully, it’s kinda obvious. Mind you, some of it is wishy-washy noustromous tier prophecy stuff but it holds up. It was written a few centuries ago by a man who knew he was about to die too…”

“Noustromous?”

“Don’t worry about it… just, what do you think it means?”

“A group of people came together to seal a powerful being and sealed in swords? That much is clear but… can only be stopped by the lamb?”

“Ah yes, the lamb… back in the day people were very religious. They assumed if Anomon was reborn again it would bring the apocalypse himself and only the second coming of the messiah would stop him.”

“Messiah? Wait, aren’t you-“

“I don’t wanna talk about it ok? I am not as dumb as to rebel against dad a second time… Anyways, just shut up and think things through for a bit; gotta concentrate on driving… we’ll discuss it later...”

“As you wish Miss Morningstar.”

“Morningstar… jeesh, what was I thinking…”

As the first rays of sunlight illuminated this particular corner of the arguably ruined earth, Roxanne walked into Walkerville proper with Rey and Christina in tow. The atmosphere was tense from recent events the trio did not know about. While Rey and Christina picked up on it and were rather wary about it, Roxanne simply continued nonchalantly with a smile on her face. Roxanne showed the other two around superficially as they walked towards Catnip's place, or what she assumed to be after asking some of the misling given many of the buildings were new or modified. Many of them looked at Roxanne with confusion and worry at her new “aesthetics”. The color of her Iris and Sclera along with the tattoos visible in her face and down to her neck were quite the visual for some yet others didn’t really pay much attention to as that was far from the weirdest thing they had experienced.

“So, this is where you live now?”, asked Rey.

“6 years and counting.”, Responded Roxanne

“What’s with all the mice people?”, asked Christina.

“Well, Catnip, our leader, went missing for about a year. We thought she had died and many of us mourned her... However, she eventually came back and with her she brought them here. They call themselves Misling and are very hardworking people. Apparently they were the result of science gone wrong.”

“Huh, that’s quite the backstory…”

“As with anything in this farm, nothing is simple. We have had spirits of death and harvest, people have died and come back like myself, lots of magic shenanigans and the occasional science experiment. If I were you, I would drop every expectation you have, this place can be… colorful...”

The trio walked forwards, Christina waved at the pacing Misling while Rey seemed to be in discomfort. Roxanne took noticed and promptly brought it up. “You ok there Rey? You aren’t looking so hot...” He looked up at her and made a forced smile. “Yeah, I am fine it’s just that it’s been 3 weeks since my last… meal… feel kinda weak right now...”

“It’s been three weeks already?!”, Roxanne exclaimed, “Christ time flies sometimes...”

“Yeah, it does… and from what I hear you people have been very through at chasing off bandits and most of GA…”

Roxanne gave a deep sigh. “How much longer do you have?”

“About a week…”

“Alright… Damn it Rey, I told you I was done fighting… But whatever, I will help you find a meal after I am done catching up here. Just give me a couple days ok? Anyways, we are here.” Roxanne stood in front of what she was told was were catnip lived now. She was quite impressed with what had been done to the place and if she was honest a bit intimidated as well.

“What is wrong, having cold feet?”, Christina asked.

“No...it’s just… things have changed I suppose. It’s been only two weeks but it feels like forever...”

It wasn’t know to any of them about the whole ordeal with the undead rising a while ago or that Catnip had assisted with it. Roxanne knew she might not be home but she could wait. With a small sense of hesitation and dread, she knocked on the door and awaited an answer.

---

Another day that of hiding in plain sight had begun. Melody woke up from her assigned sleeping spot; she went to the changing area to put on her proper outfit she had adopted here, which included her blindfold during nighttime, ate some of the canned food she was given and went on her way to her work station. It was once she reached her work spot that she heard it again, Despair started to speak.

“Hey, Melody…”, said Despair suddendly. This shocked Melody for various reasons. First, there was no usual banter by speaking formally. Second, she referred to her as Melody rather than Marrie. Lastly, her “tone”, for lack of a better word in the context of telepathic communications, was off as if something was bothering the sword spirit.

“Oh, hey there Despair, what’s up?”, Melody responded. She had been tempted to start teasing Despair back but this seemed to not be the time.

“So… Are you comfortable here?”

Melody found the question odd. She was content in her position here and was secluded as order; besides, this was Despair’s idea after all. “Yeah, I am. No complaints here. Why?”

“Even with the higher ups seemingly distraught over something? That’s good to hear…” There was a pause which further worried Melody but eventually Despair spoke up again. “Listen, a few things have happened and it’s worrying me… Maybe that being from your dream was right and we should move… No sure, want your thoughts on it.”

“Things? What sorta things?”

“Well… First of all, I have reconnected with Void and Conveyance. Their signature seems different and they have made no attempt to communicate… I can’t detect Assimilation anywhere but traces of it seem to be in Luna’s signature…”

“Roxanne? Wait, you called her Luna?”

“That’s not the point Mel! Anyways, yes, but not only that. Seems like Roxanne’s own signature had changed slightly… I fear the worst…”

Melody was starting to get even more concern now. For Despair to be worried something big must have happened and she didn’t like it one bit. “What do you think happened?”

“This is just a possibility but it fits the data… I have no other explication but to think that Roxanne has become Assimilation’s wielder… and you know what that means…”

“Wait… are you saying…”

“Yes, that is what I am saying… Worse, she seems to have access to Void and Conveyance but has made no attempt to assimilate them… Something is off Melody… I don’t like it…”

“Despair… that can’t be… Roxanne would never… she couldn't have ok?! She is not gone!” Melody was starting to get a bit too loud for her own good and was beginning to sob a bit.

“Calm down… please… I might be wrong… I don’t know what is going on but… We need to make a decision before Roxanne finds us…”

bNight eventually came; Eris and Hector had their little discussion and while he choose to go to bed she stayed up reading some of the books Luna hadn’t touched yet. Soon after the moon showed itself in the night sky Luna finally “awoke”

“Well look who decided to wake up. How was your nap?”, Eris asked

“Nap? You call that a nap?Funny...”

Eris shrugged, still in control of their body. “I don’t know what to call it.
What the hell happened anyways? What was that whole passing out thing?”

“Reconstitution...”

“Reconstitution? What?”

“To put it simply, we are tied to the wound in the veil now. Any changes to it will affect us as well. It seems like something in it was patched and as such our information, as Victor would put it, rebalanced itself to find a stable spot. If it wouldn’t have found one that would’ve been it for us.”

Eris stayed silent; hearing this was not what disturbed her as she could’ve have pulled the information from their shared memory. No, what disturbed her was just how calm Luna was about the whole thing. Dry, clean and sterile delivery as if it didn’t matter. “Ok… That still doesn’t explain why you went silent for so long.”

“Due to my past shenanigans I am a bit more complex than you so it took a bit longer to reconstitute me than you.”

“...I will choose to not take that as an insult...”

“Good because it wasn’t meant as one.”

They two stayed silent. Luna had not bothered to asked Eris for control of their body yet and it was somehow concerning. The two personalities were acting as separate entities more than ever before; was their progress to coalesce being undone?

“Luna, are you ok? Seems to me something is bothering you...”

If Luna was the one on the wheel this would’ve made her chuckle a bit. “Seems we are still far from coalescing if you cannot pick it up... Well, let me ask you. What is the one universal thing every creature post-cataclysm has fought for? Why do we go on loot runs and fight the hordes of the undead? What in the end are we striving for.”

All of the sudden, Eris could now read Luna again, things were returning to normal... well as normal as they could be relative to them. Luna toon over their body seemingly subconsciously and Eris didn’t notice. “Survival?”

Luna nodded and gave a deep sigh. She closed the book Eris was reading and looked at its cover. She smirked and put the book away before continuing. “Survival... is that all we are good for? Look at us, are we just going to wait until they day we stop existing?”, Roxanne told herself, “Well, I don’t want to just sit idly by. The veil is something we can’t really mess around with and no doubt better people are working on it and basic survival has not been an issue for years. It think we should focus on the middle, relief the symptoms of the cataclysm; learn it’s cause and both contain and assimilate them. Humanity was here first, it’s only fair we too seek out our place in this world.”

Eris was now slightly more confused but she knew where this was coming from and where it was leading. “The symptoms? What do you mean?”

“The dead starting rising, creature from other worlds arrived, our fellow man started to change and mutate… and what did we do? Well, what we always do as a species when there is something we don’t understand. We fought… We fought, we secured, we survived. The survivors quickly learned to kill the zombies but very few bothered to understand it. What does it want? Why does it attack us? Can we reason with it in any way? Nah, it’s easier to hack and slash...”

There was a long pause there. Roxanne placed here hands on her forehead as if stressed over something. “We have been doing this for almost a decade and it has all been meaningless. My transformations,our deaths, the enemies we fought… all meaningless. We could’ve just stayed here, rebuild like we had and justs keep to ourselves but no, the call to adventure was to hard for any of us to resist and in my case… our case… drove us to become abominations… I am tired of all of it you know? No more fighting, no more the next mission… Those areas have already been taken...”

“Then what do you propose?”, asked Eris. She was curious, concerned and astounded by what she heard.

“I want to learn. Figure out the rules of this new world. I want to see what is safe, what needs to be destroyed and anything between. I want to share my findings with the world so that one way we may once more claim our spot as he dominant species. It took about 2 and a half centuries after industrialization for us to reach our peak; I am sure given what we now have available we can do it again...”

More silence filled the room. The two needed not to talk about it anymore; they knew it others views and thoughts and a conclusion was quickly reached in their psyches. “We will need manpower you know? I really doubt we can do this alone? Should we get SoA involved i. this? The Flames of Arcana?”

“Nah, they have their own goals and objectives. We can use the resources of SoA if need be and I am sure Helen and Victor will be willing to help some once we start producing results.”

“Fair enough… than what about Hector, I am sure he would be willing and someone we can trust.”

Roxanne got up and sat next to him by the bed. She stroked his hair as he slept making her smile. “Hector is a warrior at heart. I can’t ask him to lower his sword. Although from the mistakes from before I learned a thing or too… first, we won’t leave him in the dark and if he wishes to help I am certain we can find something for him to do...”

“Ok then… then who do you propose?”

“Well, there are dozen of misling here who are loyal and hardworking. I am sure some will be interested in our cause. Besides, maybe they can be the first thing we can learn about… mutations, yes… learn them so that no one follows in GA’s footsteps...” Roxanne had a gleam in her eyes and then an epiphany. With do excitement she go up from where she was and got a pen and paper.

“Already getting to work?”

“Yes.Just leaving a note for Hector.”

“So much for not leaving him in the dark...”, Eris teased.

“Shut up… I just need to gather a few material, talk to a couple people around here and get this ball rolling. Might even have to go to the center… Afterwards we will tell the knight here all about it and hopefully with good news.”

Without any time to waste, Roxanne finished up the note and put on her entire get up. One piece leather suit, cloak, revolvers, bandolier and katar. She gave Hector one last look as she stepped out of the room into the night. “As long as the sun still shines...”, Luna whispered before both she and Eris started laughing.

Soon after their little reunion, Roxanne excused herself to Hector as she fetched her things. She reminded him that the two weren’t supposed to meet just yet and still had to take care of a couple things. After a goodbye kiss the knight, she put her mask back on and exited their shared room. Her destination wasn’t too far off yet she still didn’t quite know what to expected. Roxanne walked north towards a particular clearing in the dense woods near walkerville; she used to frequent it when she needed some alone time with nature but now she had a guarding looking over it and she wanted to check on him.

As Roxanne walked, her modified two-way radio sounded off; it was Leonard. “Hello, Leo? What’s up? Something holding you back en-route back to the tower?”, Roxanne asked

“Yeah… about that…”, Leonard responded, “We still haven’t moved… A little argument broke out. It seems Clara doesn’t want to meet without seeing her little brother and Christina is taking her side. Rey and Lucy don’t care either way but are pointing out you must have your reasons for us to go.”

Roxanne gave a deep sigh before answering. “Tell you what, tell them to stay put there for the night and tomorrow I’ll give them a tour of walkerville myself. As for Clara, make her take Void and Coalescence, give her a ride to the Hall and let her talk to Victor. While she is there, tell her to put the two pieces in the little warded drawer they have going; gonna need to ask Helen to help me make one some time soon…”

“Understood...just one thing if I may…”

“What is it?”

“Void and Coalescence won’t be too happy that you made them dormant and then put them in a drawer. They see you as their mother you know? Might make them...unstable…”

“Don’t worry about it; they have the mentality of children. I’ll deal with it later, just do as you are told ok? Luna and Grey out.”

The two way radio went silent afterwards and Roxanne put it back in its place. She have a deep sigh and rubbed the sides of her head. “It’s always something with you people...”

“Well, you don’t make things easier either you know?”

“Not now Eris! I am not in the mood...”

“Awwww, don’t want to talk to yourself either?”

Without saying a word Roxanne continued walking forwards as thoughts went through her mind; thoughts that were both her and Eris. She became more and more confused and needed clarification and what better way than talking to herself on the matter to see if she missed any little details.

“Hey Eris, you there?”

“Oh, look who decided to talk... Of course I am here, where else would I be?”

“Right right… Listen, there is something that I still don’t get...”

“There’s a surprise...”

“Shut up this is important!”

“Fine, what do you want?”

“Why are we still talking, pretending and outright feeling like we are two different people?”

“Oh that? Well, it’s kinda obvious from what Lucy said.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we were two different people who became a single consciousness, and rather forcefully at that. We have different personalities and some aspect of that make us incompatible due to some differences we have. Think of it like the arcane version of Multiple-personalities disorder.”

“Right right… but how do we fix it? It’s starting to get annoying arguing with...myself of all people...”

“I feel ya sister! Well, Lucy said that it would naturally happen over the course of a couple decades which is when our personalities will coalesce into one.”

“Did you just say decades?! What?!”

“Calm down, that is just the default time frame. It can occur much sooner if we work out those difference of ours that are incompatible. If one can convince the other of the other of their point of view in all those fronts then we would be able to coalesce much sooner.”

“Huh, so we need to talk things over then… What sorta things?”

“Well, we have different values, belief and moral compasses so we should focus on those. We can either deal with them as they come or we can set aside time now and again to deal with them.”

“Eh, I can set aside some time to talk to myself some more. Anything we could discuss that comes to mind?”

“Well, one that comes to mind is that fact that you won’t allow me to mess around with neither guys or girls...”

Roxanne stopped in her tracks; another argument was about to erupt and she knew if she continue walking she would wander elsewhere. “Goddammit Eris you fucking slut! I already told you I am straight so I won’t allow you to fool around with girls. And we have a boyfriend!”

“Correction, you have a boyfriend. How is it my fault you decided to give up and settled down with the knight? Besides, you let him fool around, why can’t we?”

“Bitch, you know very well why! I am a ghost remember? I can’t really...you know...satiate his ‘needs’ properly… so if he wants to seek that elsewhere he is free to do so...”

“And what about our needs huh? Do those not count for anything?”

“Ghost remember, we don’t really have any.”

“Oh really now?” Eris forcibly took control for a moment; she took her right hand and jabbed her fingers on her upper chest where the main tattoo seal was. Right before she struck she handed over control to Luna again. Luna fell to her knees as the sensations form the jab took hold and she moaned loudly before plating her hands on the ground as well.

“Y-you fucking cunt! Do-don’t you ever...ever d-do that again!”. Roxanne exclaimed in between hard breaths.

“Awww, what’s wrong? Luna can’t take a little teasing?”, Eris responding in their mind not bothering taking hold of the body to let Luna feel everything.

“F-fuck off!”

“Anyways, I made my point. You can’t use being a ghost as an excuse anymore.”

Roxanne slowly go up and then dusted herself after regaining her composure; she adjusted her mask and continued in the direction of the clearing. “I am not having this conversation with you now… I have a mission to complete why thank you...”

“Fiiiine, but I am not dropping it...”

A while later Roxanne found the clearing in the woods. She walked towards it noting the bright sunlight that permeated through the trees signaling she was close. A bit of excitement took hold as she approached but that soon turned to dread and awe as she looked at the scene before hand. In the middle of the clearing was Jim just where Roxanne had planted him; well, a few things were off from when she last saw him…

First, Jim was bigger, much bigger. The once small desert triffid that lived in Roxanne’s pot had no grown to the size of a compact car and it appeared to have “bloomed” growing tendrils that borrowed themselves to the ground. Second, said tendrils came back up and would dig themselves again making a pattern that resembled a mat. The whole clearing was covered in this mat of tendrils that originated from Jim. Third, Roxanne realized that Jim wasn’t a “him” but a “she” because she recognized this as she uttered it’s name: “Triffid Grove...”

Indeed, Roxanne had accidently created a triffid grove about a couple miles away from the farm; and Jim was it’s queen. She just looked at what she had done with awe seemingly in a trance until that was cut short by vines slowly entangling her body. Roxanne had not time to react as they wrapped around her arms, legs and waist before they suddenly lifted her up. In futile desperation Roxanne attempted to struggle against them but to no avail. Through her mask, Roxanne witness as a mutant wasp flew by only for it to be pierced by a vine and then dragged down to the mat below. She gulped hard at this before her attention was shifted elsewhere.

A tendril rose from below and in front of Roxanne; this one was a little different than the other. It was thinner and also had what looked like a needle on it’s tip. It was transparent but soon it began to turned purple from the bottom up until a purple fluid spurted a bit from the tip. The tendril then lined itself up with Roxanne’s chest just above her breast where Eris had jabbed...well, herself… Roxanne gasped knowing what this meant and she didn’t like it. She knew that wouldn’t actually hurt her since it wasn’t an arcane attack but if that little jab had provoked such a reaction from her being stabbed in the seal would be so much worse. Her struggles resumed, this time much more violently which irritated Jim.

Seemingly out of nowhere, another vine rose up; this one was thicker than the tendril but not as much as the ones that made up the mat. Then without any warning it slapped Roxanne on the side of her head which immediately made her cease her struggles. This little act made her mask fall of onto the mat leaving her face exposed; Roxanne’s pink eyes looked at Jim with terror and somehow she knew Jim was looking back. She waited for Jim to pierce her chest but that never came; on the contrary, the tendril lowered itself and then then vines that held her up unwrapped from both her arms and legs but were still wrapped around her waist. Jim brought Roxanne close. “W-what the? Jim? I-it’s me… Roxanne, remember me?” Jim’s head tilted a bit before it did something Roxanne would recognize: it’s now massive maw opened and it gave a light yawn before closing again.

“Jim! It’s you!” Roxanne hugged the tiffrid with her now free arms. She held the hug for a minute before letting go at which point the remaining vine lowered her to the mat and unwrapped to her waist. It then picked up Roxanne’s mask and handed it to her; it seemed Jim had some sort of intelligence. “Oh Jim, you are so grown up! I am so proud of you! But… bad Jim! Bad! You have been a naughty bo- girl… girl apparently...” Roxanne gave a deep sigh of both relief and annoyance. “Oh you big dumb and adorable weed, what and I going to do with you? Hmm… wait I know! That catalina lady wants to talk to me still I hope… she has some pull in the center, maybe I can convince her to leave you alone… heh, worth the shot...”

---

Leonard once again pulled up to near the hall in his motorcycle being mindful to not draw any attention. However, he didn’t have Roxanne as his passenger this time but rather it was Clara. She got off the motorcycle checking her stuff.

“You have the swords with you?”, asked Leonard.

“Of course I do, it was part of the deal.”, Clara respond.

“Alright then, just making. We don’t want any mistakes you know?”

Clara glared at him while he remained looking forwards towards the road. “Listen here you undead fuck, you may think you are a big shot because you are Luna’s servant or whatever but I won’t all you to talk to me in such a tone, do I make myself clear?”

“...My apologies Miss Ironwood.”

“Good, now on you go. I’ll take care of my part of the deal…”

With that, Leonard took off again leaving Clara alone. She was wearing black jeans, a grey dress shirt and a black denim jacket. On her back were both Void and Coalescence which she was tasked to take care off for now. With little reservation, Clara have a deep breath and walked towards the door of Victor’s room.

---

Victor was sitting in a chair in the room pondering something, the note in the journal to be more specific and what Roxanne had told him before she left during their meeting a while ago. He remembered that she asked him something as she was exiting his room with her mask already on:

“Hey Victor, before I go, let me ask you something...”

“What is it?”

“If today was the end of the world, if this was our last day on earth… would you come back for me?”

Victor had smiled when he heard that, he had no memory of it but he recognized those word from the note and he responded to that as he had done all those years back. “To the end of the world and back…”

Roxanne had just laugh upon hearing that. “So you did read the note huh? Good, saves me a lot of time… did you tell Helen about it?”

“I can’t bring myself to do so… even though its something irrelevant now… the way things are going, why risk it?”

“Eh, I mean, that’s fair but… what if she finds out from someone other than you? That would hurt more wouldn’t it? Besides, you are no longer that person are you? You have a choice to make… The Victor I knew would have had burned the note already… what will you do?”

Those last words were what stuck to him, what would he do? Keep the status quo and risk what Roxanne said or bring it out to seal up the last wound? A wound he had no memory of from what was from all intents and purposes another life… That train of thought was interrupted but a sudden knock on the door. Victor’s attention was brought to his aura spell that revealed a single person behind the door. He was thankful they weren’t shielding themselves like the last two had.

Victor was about to ask who it was because he didn’t know who this aura belonged to but he didn’t due to a simple reason: the aura felt familiar and to the point he felt he could trust the person behind the door. Almost as if by instinct he opened the door to find a woman looking at him with both excitement and relief. She gasped and smiled before abruptly pulling him into a hug.

“Victor! It really is you! I finally catched up to you! It’s been so long...”

He was quite confused and pulled her off before responding. “Uhhh...who are you?”, Victor asked.

The woman looked at him confused. “It’s me, Clara, your sister… Don’t you remember me?” She knew the answer to that but she clinged to the hope that it wasn’t true.

“Sister? Oh… no...sorry...I don’t remember...”

“She who shall awaken… I am the wielder of Anomon’s burden. I am indifferent to the union and scoff at the goal. I, the maiden of ruin, will show you true despair.”

Melody was taking a small break from her now somewhat routine tasks. She was eating a sandwich chanting that under her breath multiple times. Those words appeared on her mind suddenly without explanation but she had an idea of what they meant. She tried to contact Despair but the sword wouldn’t answer; well, not until now.

“Do not fret my child, for I have awaken!”

“Can you cut that out? This is serious!”, Melody whispered angrily.

A small laugh resonated from Despair in Melody’s mind. “Hahaha, you are so easy my dear. Sorry I didn’t respond sooner; it wasn’t safe. What do you need?”

Melody explained to Despair about the chant and how she had no idea what it was. “Would you know?”

“Ah yes, the chant for my Sword Drive.”, Despair responded.

“Sword Drive?”, Melody asked, “What is that.”

“Well, when I or one of my brethren deem a weidler worthy enough, they may use a specific chant to active our Sword Drive. Think of it as a last resort ability we can bestow our wielders in case of an emergency. Each one of us gives our wielder a different benefit with our drives.”

“Different ability? Like what?”

“Well, I grant my wielder the skillset, rage and determination of every wielder before hand; and not just my wielder's but the ones of my brethren too. Convergence grants their wielder the ability to use their 7 stored abilities at once. Assimilation harvester all energy around it to power all the abilities it acquired; it is essentially infinite energy while the effect last. And void grants its own power to its wielder; or they can choose to bargain with the spirit inside the blade to channel that power instead, however, they price of that bargain is up to said spirit.”

“T-that’s… pretty cool actually! Can I activate your sword drive?”

Despair gave another hardy laugh. “No no, you are still too inexperienced at this. The fact you want to activated it just because it’s cool signifies you aren’t ready. Besides, if you did, it would give my location away and we can’t have that; this place is cozy enough plus you are now finally a productive member of society.”

“I will choose to ignore that… then why did I suddenly learned the chant?”

“It seems the forces within me are gearing up for trouble… nothing should come of it but in times of great desperation we may temporarily grant a wielder to access our drives before they are ready. Just keep doing what you are doing and you will be fine… Also, you might want to finish that sandwich, your break is almost over.”

---

It had taken a while but Victor was re-learning many of his lost skills; he hadn't forgotten how to do them he simply had forgotten the ability itself so he “learned” these skills rather quickly as he was just relearning the steps to perform them. However, one of these skills was giving him trouble: the shadow spirit.

The shadow spirit was an ability he had learned years before even meeting alt-Roxanne. It was the ability to grant your shadow sentience and bind it to you by removing any chance of it having free will. He had temporarily sacrificed this when he was in the works of getting Randael as the spirit of the void; he temporarily made his shadow spirit the spirit of the void causing him to be without a shadow until Randael accepted his offer. However, now the shadow spirit wouldn’t even manifest.

He had already learned a similar ability; he could manifest the shadows of a room and make them temporary shadow spirits but it wasn’t the same. Keyword being temporary. He had used this ability to show Lucy he could defend himself back when she paid him a visit. Despite being able to do this the shadow spirit spell didn’t work.

“Maybe I am missing something… It’s a fun puzzle at least. Hmm...wonder if anyone else would know about it…”

---

The convoy, if you could call it that, stopped just shy of accessing a road that would take it towards the farm. It had successfully avoided the center and the hall arriving where it wanted to go. However, both the armored vehicle and the cargo truck stopped, a passenger got off and got in the motorcycle along with the cloaked driver and the two continued on towards walkerville following the road that would take them straight. The passenger appeared to be a man wearing a brown duster, denim pants, a black polo shirt and a grey Kevlar west; for head gear he was wearing a cowboy hat with six bullets in the front and a wooden mask similar to the driver.

“You will the all the talking for now alright? We have to gauge the people’s reaction here first. As far as they know I am a mute, got it?”, the cloaked driver said as they clutched at their wooden mask.

“As you wish. What shall be our names?”

“Eh, how about Eris for me and Leonard for you?”

“Then Leonard will happily serve mistress Eris with my entire being.”

“Geez, a bit dramatic much? Anyways, here we are...walkerville…”

The motorcycle reached side of the farm where the various structures and people could be seen. The driver slowed down until they turned the corner to the proper entrance gulping hard at the sight of catnip’s train. They both got off the motorcycle, Eris took out a piece of paper from inside her cloak and Leonard step forward incase anyone approached. Both were armed with revolvers visible on both sides of their waists just in case. These weapons weren’t meant for the people of walkerville but for both the hazards of the cataclysm and those who seeked to harm them. Not that the people of walkerville would know. The two walked inside of the farm looking around the buildings for one in specific, their confidence evident as if they owned the place, and took mental notes of the place.

"Ughhhhh...where am I?"

"Look who decided to finally wake up? How are you feeling?"

"What?"

Roxanne looked around and realized she was in a simple bedroom with plain white walls. She was in a bed clutching at some bedsheets and in front of her touching the other side of the wall was a woman sitting in a chair. Her crimson business casual outfit matched her long wavy hair in color; she was looking at Roxanne with a mischievous grin and her arms crossed.

It took a moment for Roxanne to recall anything that was going on; she felt like is she was having a hangover and her memory was a bit faulty. Eventually she realized this was the woman she attempted to jump in the hallway after her "meeting". Then she somehow knew who this person was; a memory that wasn't hers.

"Lucy?! What the hell are you doing here? And why do I know who you are?" Roxanne suddenly felt a bit cold; not cold in the way she had felt previously due to being a spirit but the cold one feels when they don't take a jacket in an autumn afternoon walk. Confused, Roxanne looked down on her and realized two things: one, was wearing nothing and only the sheets she was clutching were covering her exposed form and she could actually feel the texture of the sheets, the air around her, the bed underneath her, ect. "What the hell is going on? Where are my clothes? What did you do to me?!"

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at Roxanne's reaction. It was definitely expected but it still didn't fail to amuse her; a welcomed catharsis to what she had to go through just a couple of hours prior. “Well hello there! It’s good to see that you at least know who I am; that saves times. It seems you assimilated some of coalescence memories before you went all medieval on them. As for why you are undressed, well, here have this.” Lucy manifested as small hand mirror and tossed it to the bed in front of Roxanne. “Take a look at yourself. Don’t be shy.”

Roxanne picked up the mirror and examined face; what she saw on that reflection alarmed her. Her eyes’ irises were still a bright pink from before, however, her sclera was a no longer white but a pitch black; she kinda liked the look but still had no explanation for it. Next she noticed what was around her eyes; imagine a girl who applies way to much mascara who then has an intense crying session, now smudge that all around your eyes like warpaint and then down towards your neck. It looked like if it was a both a tattoo and paint and Roxanne couldn’t take her eyes of it; she traced the pattern with her gaze along her neck down under the sheets. Lucy smirked at what she knew Roxanne would see.

All over her body were more tattoos; they were intricate patterns of arcane and religious nature. Many of them she recognized but not all; a few she knew were seals used by SoA which perplexed her a bit. Then it hit her; this markings on her body were a sort of seal on her. “W-what did you do to me?” Roxanne asked nervously still clutching the bed sheets.

Lucy smiled and shook her head in amusement before answering. “You have been a very bad girl Luna. What you did back there was a bit too far for me to simply let it slide.”

“What do you mean? What did I do?”

“Well, let’s see. You invoked the help of two of the pieced of Anomon for help to ‘teach a lesson’ to a third. Normally this would’ve just resulted in all three pieces being reborn and scattered elsewhere but nooooo; the piece in question had to be assimilation and it had to be you of all people to rebel against it… seriously you and Victor have given me so many headaches that I choose to ignore…”

Roxanne glared at Lucy for her comment. “What do you mean me of all people?! If there is something you want to say just say it to my face!”

“Oh, feisty all of the sudden are we? I respect that. Alright, let me explain it to you in terms you can understand. You aren’t normal; you have committed a lot of dumb decisions in the name of power. Do any of these sound familiar? ‘Don’t use the infuser Roxanne. Please go get that cough checked out. Be careful, even if you are a ghost you aren’t invincible.’ Well, do they?”

Now obviously both irritated but with a sense of wrongdoing she looked down to not look at Lucy in the eyes. “What of it? Why are you bringing this up now? Yeah I did some mistakes but who hasn’t?”

“Mistakes? Oh no, you fucked up everything up Luna; and trust me when I say I know what fuck ups look like. I had to come down here and fix your damn mess! Those little mistakes you made turned you into an unstable paradox of information. You needed magical bracelets to even be able to interact with the world for goodness sake! Then you, the living paradox, had to go and mess around with Assimilation... “

“He attacked me! I had to defend myself!”

“Was harvesting its power, calling the two other pieces, and becoming 3/4th of Anomon part of that? And whatever did you do with Plagues corpse? I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

Roxanne clutched at her sheets a bit more. “Oh...that… Well… I kinda did a ritual on him…”

“A ritual? What do you mean?”

“You know… guided him to the after life.”

Lucy blinked a couple of times upon hearing this and then rubbed her eyes. In any other context she would simply had asked for more details but Lucy was well aware of Roxanne’s ritual to guide souls to the afterlife. “You ate his corpse?! Roxanne what the fuck?!”

“It was in the heat of the moment ok! I was having fun and got carried away…”

“Having fun torturing Assimilation to actual death… Christ you people need help…”

“You are one to talk! You have done more fucked up shit than I have!”

“I am not the one who almost messed up reality!”

“Yes you were miss ‘this apple is tasty why don’t you eat it!’”

What followed was an awkward moment of silence between the two; they simply stared at each other for a moment before Roxanne spoke up. “Ok, that was too far… I am sorry.”

“No no, you are right. I have no right to criticize anyone. Sorry for snapping at you; I have just been stressed as of late.”

“Well, I’ll cooperate with you now. Just tell me what the hell is going on and what I need to do. Deal?”

“Alright then. How about you start by standing up and let me take a look at you for a moment.”

Roxanne blushed deeply and recoilde back a bit. “What?!”

“Listen, I need to make sure the seal are holding up and run a couple of tests. Besides, who do you think put those tattoos on? I’ve already had my fill on the sightseeing.”

“Y-you… I can’t believe…”

“What? Will it make you more comfortable if I undress to? That’s fi-”

Roxanne interrupts Lucy before she could finish that statement. “No no! It’s fine! I’ll get up.”

Lucy shrugs “Your loss then. Now come on, we don’t have all day.”

Roxanne reluctantly go off the bed and let the sheets drop to the floor. After about 30 minutes of Lucy making diagnostic checks on the seals and some teasing at Roxanne’s expense, she told Roxanne she could get dressed. The black dress she had left in the wrecked APC in favor of the leather tracksuit was on a dresser waiting for her.

“Wait, where did you get this from?” asked Roxanne.

“I took the liberty of fetching it from the APC. Well, I actually fetched the whole thing including it’s cargo...and I also fixed it up for you.” Lucy responded.

“You did what? How?”

“The storyteller's debug menu. I deleted the items and summoned copies from it. Not that difficult and no laws of physics were violated!”

“Ok, so what did you learned from that...check up?”

“Well, the seals are doing fine. You appear to be more sensitive to the touch where the seals are more concentrated.”

“Tell me about it…”

“Just don’t tell anyone where those areas are; they are your weak points after all, in more ways than one.”

“Like hell I’ll tell anyone!”

“Not even the knight?”

“Shut up! ...Anyways… care to explain to me what is going on now that the initial shock is gone?”

“Alright. Take a seat then.” Roxanne sat down at the edge of the bed she awoke from while Lucy sat back on the chair against the wall but this time she brought the chair closer to close the gap between them a bit.

“Ok, I’ll start from when you went full idiot. Now, you attempted to take over the newly created sword of singularity instead of Assimilation doing so. Normally, this is impossible; the 7 mages, myself included, put wards in place when creating the pieces to prevent this. If we didn’t do it, nothing would’ve prevent Randael from gaining Anomon's power back when he was the spirit of the void. Well, remember when I called you a living paradox? That combined with the recent gash in the veil from the canadians the conditions were set to somehow override this. You successfully became the the sword of singularity itself; no, not the spirit of singularity like you were the with void but the actual consciousness of the sword. Meanwhile, you trapped Assimilation in Plague’s body and then outright killed him effectively destroying on of the pieces for good. Now you and I know that isn’t really a good thing… Then I arrive to find you walking down the hallway brandishing a blade and Plague’s head in the other. I took you in and found out you did quite the mess… First of all your existence was rather unstable so the pieces would’ve just separate and be reborn again. But wait, you killed assimilation so if that would’ve happened the consequences were something I wasn’t willing to let happen. Now, I couldn’t let you run around as Singularity either. You being you I didn’t trust you wouldn’t just try to assimilate Despair and become Anomon yourself. So I decided to I had to manually separate you. The first thing I did when I separated you was I needed to figure out how to deal with Assimilation being dead and then I realized ‘Hey, Roxanne is here! Why not use her consciousness?’ And so I did. Congratulations on the promotion by the way. You went from being the spirit of void to the sword of Assimilation. Good job! And since this counts as being reborn you choose the nearest weapon to host you; your katar. So that katar is now the sword of assimilation which is the physical embodiment of you. Following so far?”

“S-so I am a piece now?”, asked Roxanne

“Correct! Moving on. You still are rather unstable due to everything you have gone through this last 8 years. Mutagen, becoming a ghost then spirit and now a piece. This is where the seals come in. As long as those tattoos hold, you will not disappear into the ether. They also serve as an energy source so you don’t need essence or the bracelets to use your senses as if you were alive. But is the seals are ever broken, you will disappear. This is important, you understand what I am saying?”

Roxanne looked at the marking in her hands and then back at Lucy before nodding slowly. “I understand. I need these to survive.”

“Good good. Ok, now, as a spirit you can still be harmed and destroyed by any exorcism or attack meant to dispel spirits. If you are killed by it then Assimilation will simply be reborn again with a new consciousness meaning you will also disappear. And finally, if the sword is destroyed and a rebirth cycle is triggered then it will acquire a new consciousness destroying you as well. Do you understand that as well?”

“I do… Protect myself and the sword, got it…” Roxanne responded.

“Ok, good…” Lucy gave a deep sigh. “This is gonna be a punch to the gut… The only reason you are even able to exists now is because of the wound in the veil. That creates an instability powerful enough so that reality doesn’t simply collapse on you and destroy you… That means…”

“It means that no matter what happens, I will die once the wound in the veil is fixed… Right?” Roxanne said finishing Lucy’s statement.

“Yes, that is what it means. You seem awfully calm about it too. Are you ok?”

“Eh, not like it matters. You are right, I caused this to myself so I accept my faith. I’ll die along with this world’s problems; seems fitting no?”

Heh, oh Roxanne. You say this now but in a couple days the reality of what that means will hit and you will have an existential crisis.”

“Whatever…” Roxanne was pretending to not be affected by what Lucy was saying by acting stoic but the facade was rather thin. “Anyways, what happened to void and convergence?”

Lucy gave another smirk at the question and got up to fetch something from a drawer. “Well, they were forced to be reborn. However, since they were a part of you their consciousness shifted as well; for all intent and purposes, they are different beings now but with their usual powers. But...something weird happened…”

“Something weird? What do you mean?” Asked Roxanne.

“Here, pick them up and feel for yourself.” Lucy handed Roxanne a one handed bastard sword made out of dark steel and a kukri that seemed to shift between different shades of purple. Roxanne grabbed them and the kukri turned pink at her touch. Roxanne’s jaw dropped at what she heard from the two sword in unison.

“Mom! You are finally awake! We were so worried about you.”

Roxanne looked at Lucy with a face of disbelief and defeat. She looked back at her with sympathetic look.

“Congratulations?” said Lucy softly.

“I just wanna go home... “

“That can be arranged…”