Abandon

Lycoris grabs the pictures using her own magic and takes a look at them.

"It's always difficult, dealing with things you never want to deal with...But facing those things are a strength on it's own..."

She turns to her father and looks at him with melancholy.

"...But if you're not ready, then you're not ready yet. You can always wait and prepare until then. You are a master of time after all. I'll tell him everything if you want me to, father."

Hypnos stares at him for a while. What did Medi see in him? Maybe she didn't even see anything and was blinded with her own solitude.

"...Perhaps you may use that time to better yourself in much kinder ways...While time is harsh and unforgiving...It can also make flowers bloom and trees grow...Wouldn't it be alright to see that side once in a while...?"

He didn't really have much to say, really...But he had to try...for their sakes...

---

It seems that Eniar is up to bat this time. There's nobody else to really step up this time, it seems.
But rather than hold a regular bat...He's opted to use his cane instead.

".hsirehc os uoy soahc eht ot kcab redro gnirb ot erus ekam lliw I ...mrow ,enim htiw level neve era slliks ruoy fi ees s'teL"
He laughs coldly as he prepares his stance, analyzing what may or may not happen.
He has to make sure that everything will be taken into account.

Whatever cheat he'll make, he'll have to retaliate in kind.
"♥ .ti ot drawrof kool os ,esol uoy nehw uoy rof esirprus elttil a evah I .liaf evah yam uoy slaog revetahw ees ot noisacco suoyoj a eb lliw tI .yawa nrot si ssenitpme dna yarrasid siht nehw ecaf ruoy no kool eht ees ot evol dluow I"

Siren pauses from her praying, noticing a slightly familiar reversed voice. She tries to use her light powers to understand it.
"...huh? oh, hi. I'm, not sure if you can understand me but... We're sorta waiting for a way out of this darkness to present itself. Together, I guess. Say, you wouldn't happen to know anyone here that has something we could use to escape, would you?"

---

"Darn. I guess I'll have to hop on one foot until I get access to more of my fake legs. But yeah, let's go towards the one mysterious player with a title that literally means 'probably can kill anyone'. ->" Shiny gets ready to follow Katie, hopping on one foot. She not particularly afraid, she's been dead before, after all.

---

Meanwhile, the black mage is preparing his throw.
".ytrap eht nioj ot dediced ohw ta kool ,aH"
A sinister smile can be seen from under that floppy yellow hat.

"!gnihton od lliw epoh gniripsni ta stpmetta yttep ruoy dna uoY !now ydaerla sah soahC !mlaer siht revo delttes ydaerla sah ssenkrad ehT ?rainE ,ecnereffid a ekam nac uoy kniht uoY"

The black mage throws the ball and as it leaves his hand it... disappears?

...No, it's still there, just invisible. Dylan seems to be pointing it out from his base.

The baseball moving fast and unseeable. What will you do???

As Medi is struggling to get up, something within her chainsaw begins resonating...

---

Two souls of the same template walk in the dark. They've been searching for a certain someone this whole time.
While their scenario might not be the one remembered well by the living, they are very much still around.

It's the seths Hypnos and Thanatos, the rest brothers.

"Hey, do you think we're gonna find him out here? I think we took a wrong turn a while back. There's nothing for miles!" The dreamer asks the unlicensed reaper.

"I'm not sure, but we have to keep looking. We can't let Chronos do any more than he already has. We can't rest until we can be sure that he won't meddle in the affairs of the living."

"But thanatooooos, I'm tired!"

"You're always tired. You did die in your sleep after all."

"fu." The dreamer flips him off.

"fu too." The robed child returns the gesture.

Just then however, Hypnos suddenly feels... something resonating somewhere.
"...I just felt something. It's coming from that direction!" He points off into the distance, and then begins running.

"Hey, wait up!" Thanatos picks up his robes and runs after his brother.

---

Chronos accepts his daughter's assistance, taking her hand to help himself up. The feeling of being accepted by someone, or even just being treated nicely, it almost overwhelms him, causing a faltering stumble, but he manages to stand tall once again.
Their height differences are quite apparent. Thankfully his arms are long enough to reach down to still hold her hand.
He uses his free hand to wipe his tears, and looks out towards the distant beacon.
"...LET'S GΘ."

---

Meanwhile, at the beacon, two parties meet at the same time.
Thoren, with Raine, Frost, and Kusari, and then Alpha Seth with Kat.

"...Seth?! What the fuck is he doing here?" There is a sense of surprise from Thoren, but somehow also... relief?

"...Thoren!" Seth calls out to his fiery brother.

Almost simultaneously, they leave the sides of their respective kats and meet in the middle with a tight warm embrace.
They both surround each other in their own magical fire, though it doesn't burn either of them.

"You have no fucking idea how much I missed you..."
"I could say the same thing... glad to see you're still alive..."

Raine would be able to feel the closeness of their bond as Thoren also reconnects with Seth.

Meanwhile, Kusari, obviously excluded from this reunion, walks off to find his significant other.
It seems she wasn't even that far. He walks towards the Kat that looks very much like the one of his alpha counterpart, though not too close.

"...is that you? Are you the one I've been looking for?"

Kusari stands before her.
He's petrified.
All this time and she never knew?
Would it be better if he just, didn't tell her and left her side for the sake of her safety?
...no. he can't do that.
He can't leave her waiting forever.
She has to know the truth.
Even if she hates him for it.
"...h-he-hello... I... I have to tell you something."
Kusari pauses, his words can scarcely escape him. His neck gash begins to trickle a stream of stale blood.
"...I'm... I'm the reason that you're dead."
A familiar chained scythe that was once hanging in the living room is now held in one of his hands. The blade is still stained in blood similar.
"I killed you, and... I'm sorry."
he braces and waits for the worst. The shame is already threatening to consume him.

---

Meanwhile, not too far away, alpha Seth and Thoren are still conversing.
"How the fuck did you get here?"

"Dreaming, I guess. I was looking for Kat after she went missing on Christmas. What about you?"

"Me and my love helped defeat the scourge and somehow it wound up being a fucking rerun of the last fucking battle. It turned out the Rob from my timeline was the only one keeping a fuckton of pissed off ghosts from fucking up everything. At least I think that's how it went. The shell of that bitch did some crazy ass move and now we're all here. I'm worried this dark ass place is all that's left now, but something tells me there's still something to fight here."

Seth listens to Thoren's story thoughtfully. A great deal of unease can be sensed from him, especially by the two he connected to.

"Well fuck. We need to find that bitch and get the fuck out of this place." There's a bit of worry, but it's largely masked by resolve and determination. Seth's feelings can be sensed best by Thoren, though if Raine listens with purpose she can likely sense them too.

"Yeah. But where do we look?"

"Chill out, Thoren. We'll figure it out. We always do."

---

Medi's cry for help is heard incredibly clearly by Hypnos! He keeps running and running towards the source of the call, Thanatos following behind in his bumper car.

Soon enough, they arrive at the site of a band of link seths led by a vaporwave memelord seth, a fuckton of shotgun seths huddled around a square hole in the ground, and a familiar nuicence calling the shots.

Hypnos runs up to Raphael and socks him in the jaw. He attempts to beat up the toppled over antagonist.

"THERES SOMEBODY IN TROUBLE HERE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO THEM?!"

The gunners look over at the crazed dreamer punching Raphael over and over.
The band stops playing.
Thanatos shows up in his bumpercar just in time to run into them both, keep going, and launch them into the pit below.

Rid, noticing the distinct lack of music, looks up. Three seths, one in a bumpercar, two stuck clinging to the front, are falling down towards the center of the room, where the nightmare is reforming into a barely shaped glitch clone looking thing.

Instead it gets hit by the trio in a glorious but mostly contained explosion.




The smoke begins to clear...


Coughs being forced out of old habit...

A stubborn skeleton man stands against all odds.

A pile of rubble at his feet, two donetiered spirits with barely enough energy to escape.

Where the nightmare was, a ball of dark energy sits and lingers. A voice reverberates through the area, echoing in a suspiciously close manner.

I AM THE DARKNESS THAT LIES WITHIN YOUR HEART. THE MORE YOU FIGHT, THE STRONGER I BECOME. THROUGH YOUR OWN FEAR I TEAR YOU APART. I SHALL AWAIT YOU AT THE SOURCE OF ALL STRIFE. ALL WILL BE LOST, JUST LIKE YOUR LIFE!

and with that, the dark orb flies up and out of the deep square pit.
"HEY WAIT A FUCKING MOMENT BUDDY LET ME KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS ALREADY!" Raphael swears and yells at the orb as it leaves his grasp far sooner than he can even chase.

With the nightmare out of reach, Rid makes his way back over to Medi.

"Medi... are you okay? It's gone now. I don't know what the fuck happened, but it's gone, and we're safe."

Rid tries to help Medi up with his one hand.

The chainsaw resonates once again.

Hypnos is shaken out of donetier, remembering his calling.
He sees her with... his chainsaw? Is that how... this makes no sense. But, if she thinks he can save her, maybe he can do something.

He walks over to Rid and Medi to offer his assistance.

"Here, let me help." Hypnos offers his assistance as well.

Upon making contact with her, the chainsaw begins sending a large store of memories to him! Every moment Hypnos and his chainsaw has ever been with her, he now remembers, despite not technically being the same exact one that was with her.

Hypnos seems frozen for a moment while trying to process all these new memories. All he can seem to figure out now, is that Medi is a nice girl worth saving.

"What the fuck, man. I thought you were helping?" Rid casts him a glance.

"Ugh, let me focus first..." he blinks.
Enough clicks for him to function again.
"...Medi, it's you! You've gotten stronger! When I last saw you, you were in a lantern half lit! Let me help you up first."

Hypnos tries again to get Medi on her... foot?

"What the fuck happened to her? Shouldn't you have been guarding her?" Hypnos snaps at Rid while trying to keep Medi propped up.

"Hey, I lost a fucking ARM in that laser! Don't tell me I didn't try to protect her!"

"Hey Tha-Theta! Get the fuck over here! Medi needs some help!"

Hearing a shortened version of his alias, Thanatos reforms from donetier, but is quite pouty.
"My name is Thanatos! Not theta!"

"Keep telling yourself that when you show up to class tomorrow! Now get your stunted ass over here!"

Thanatos, well, theta just about marches over to the small group, when a certain tenacious skeleton man grabs and picks him up by the hood.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, LITTLE BITCH? YOU AND YOUR FRIEND JUST TRIED TO BEAT ME UP!"

"and so?"

"AND I'M THE ONE RUNNING THIS FUCKING SHOW! YOU CANT JUST ATTACK THE LEADER OF THIS OUTFIT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES, RIGHT?!" Raphael stares interrogatingly at theta with his dimly lit eye sockets.

"Hey, leave him alone, Raph! The nightmare is gone and we're all here together again! We don't need to start up old shit again here." Schrodinger pipes in from the sidelines with Rudolph at his side.

It takes a moment, but Raphael finally puts the squirming edgechild back down.

"...FINE. DON'T FUCK THIS UP, KID."

Theta dashes over to Hypnos and the others. He blows a raspberry.
Raphael flips him off with a bony middle finger in return.

It seems things are just as they always seem to be with them, even if they're an unknown distance away from home.

---

Chronos follows his daughter at a reasonable pace towards the beacon. A confusing slew muddles through him. On one hand, he's gained the trust of his perfect little princess, who's even accepted him as her father, but on the other, a certain strain of dread he's ignored but felt often, the kind felt when the entire world is against you.
And then, there's that bittersweet sense of... disappointment? Is that the way to explain it? Either way, he's not sure if he'll ever be able to set foot near his heart's desire ever again.
He's fucked up far too many times to be worthy of her love.
Nobody as delicate as her could ever last amongst a monster, even if she did love him.
But... for some odd reason, he just, doesn't want to change. Why should he throw away this magnificent persona just for the approval of someone who may never even accept him? He likes being an asshole! He likes revelling in his vast stores of power! He likes causing death and destruction! He likes seeing his victims in pain!

...all except for one.

Maybe two. Arguably they could be counted as one and the same.

He doesn't want to see her in pain again.
She won't accept him if he hurts her again.
He's not sure if his heart can handle her rejection.

So the question stands. How does he keep from being destroyed by his own feelings, while still retaining his identity?

Chronos keeps thinking in silence as they continue onwards towards the beacon.

"...I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THE EASIEST WAY FOR YOU TO RETURN TO YOUR GROUP HERE..." Kusari bursts into tears. The chained scythe drops to the ground.
"...But... I couldn't live with... what I done... I'M A FUCKING MURDERER! AND I ALWAYS KILL THE WRONG PEOPLE..." Kusari turns away from her, but doesn't move from his spot. He doesn't deserve her kindness.

---

Hypnos points at the chainsaw. "I heard a call that couldn't be ignored. I'm glad we made it here in time."

"Thank you, I guess." Rid looks up. The pit appears to be three floors deep. "We need to get the fuck out of this hole first."

Raphael, closer to the center of the room, is busy thinking.
There's quite a few seths just standing around down here. Most of them seem clueless. Those with rocketscythes have noticed that they have ran out of gas for some odd reason.
But somehow, it seems, a solution is forming.

"IVE GOT IT! EVERYONE, TAKE OFF YOUR COAT! WE NEED TO TIE THEM ALL TOGETHER TO MAKE A ROPE!"

The seths immediately protest. They can't just sacrifice their mobile source of security!

"HEY, SHUT IT! UNLESS YOU BITCHES WANNA BE STUCK IN HIS HELLHOLE FOREVER, YOU DO AS I SAY! NOW GET TO FUCKING WORK!"

and with that, the seths hesitantly listen and begin taking off their trenchcoats and tying them together.

It takes a little while, but eventually they produce a quite long and sturdy rope.

Raphael takes one end and bites down on it. He then gets a running start towards the wall and leaps up to cling onto the bricks! The skeleton man begins climbing with incredible strength up the wall, holding the end of the rope in his mouth!

Everyone else just sorta stares at him.
"...how the fuck is he doing that?"

"The same way he always does. While being angry as all fuck."

"How poetic. Indeed, for what it counts... yours is a better shade than this."

Wayland chuckles at his overindulgence, hand tightening around hers as he catches her eye. And that's enough, for him to turn his gaze upward and force all the strength he can muster to his arm. Pulling yourself up by one hand, hard enough with a good grip. His on the edge of that shrinking chasm is middling at best and he's got her to support, but more than the effort, more than the task.. he feels relief. And he could swear its relief that pulls the two of them out of that pit, relief that sets them down on something resembling solid ground as the gap shrinks and vanishes.

"One thing I've learned is death and sacrifice are vary rarely an end. If anything, beginnings, to another story or a new chapter. Right now many are gathering, pooling their efforts, fighting, reaching their hands out to others lost in this darkness. So, Mistress..."

Drawing his blade from the ground and sheathing it in his own mount he turns to her with a calm smile.

"Would you like to get going?"

---

The Knight watches the girl go to Rid, mouth upticking in a smile. His gamble paid off he figures, and as he watches her fight side-by-side with Rid against that nightmare interfering crosses his mind. But as he watches the grip he hadn't even realized tightened on his spears lightens up, and the tension eases away. This isn't a battle he needs to fight, this is for them. So he prepares to leave, only for Lycoris' exit to catch his eye as well.

"...The hell."

That's cheating, isn't it? Snorting, he dispels his spears with a shake of the hands and watches the conversation between the three unfold from his one-way vantage point. Each side of her taking one path... that's definitely cheating. It's not like he's the police or anything though and it seems like she has some resolution she wants to realize too... Her state of existence is a mystifying one. But. It's not much his business, either.

Chronos, though.

Chronos... The sad state he's in. Sprawled out, bawling his eyes out over dealing with emotions for once. It's... It's something he wants to remember always. So he pulls his phone out his pocket and snaps a candid camera photo of the guy responsible for so much death and destruction, in a puddle of his own tears. All isn't forgiven but between this and his aid earlier... It's a start.

Besides. Grudges are bad for your skin.

And finally he turns forward. Between these two diametrically opposed points, he runs, snapping his fingers as the portals vanish without a trace. There's a light in the distance... as good a waypoint as any. He has a feeling he can guess who it is, too. This is the time to gather.

You...

"I'm coming for whatever or whoever you are you yellow rat bastard."

You... You idiots!

Clear stands, staring into the darkness with a look of defiance.

"Then how does it work? Oh disembodied voice of the void? You seem to have all the answers about the universe don't you?"

Clear keeps her hands at her sides, lightly holding her dress.