The Closing of a Tome.

This is the end of Muffin's Excerpt and The End of The Story except for one last detail.

Emergency services gathered around the burning warehouse on the wharf. The fire was resisting all attempts to be put out. As the battle raged to keep the fire from spreading to the surrounding buildings a figure, burned, riddled with bullet holes and with just a blank abyss on it's face between the mouth and forehead, staggered out of the building. A paramedic spotted the figure and rushed over to help the injured man. The man turned his eyeless face towards him and a torrent of black birds flew forth swarming the poor paramedic and then turning on the rest of the people in the area. Before long the burned figure stood amid a pile of picked clean skeletons and raised his head to the sky. "May... I... I'm coming for you May..." It spoke in a raspy voice. It's words wobbly and uncertain. It began walking and the swarm of birds followed behind it.

As the figure passed through the city the birds killed anything alive and the figure stole for itself: a Machete, a cloak and then it headed into the suburbs where it stopped at a small house and went inside picking up a skeletal mask like one would find in a costume shop with a cap over one eye. It put on the cloak and the mask and The Faceless Bastard went back outside.

Muffin and the others were celebrating their victory at Muffin's place. Portnoy and Dr. Malice were drinking and talking about the future, Muffin was just drinking and The Liar merely sat and watched them all. The party had been going for about an hour when there was a crack of thunder and the lights went out. Muffin jumped to his feet, but had imbibed quite a bit of alcohol at this point and stumbled back to the chair after about a few second standing. The Liar immediately stood as a cry entered hearing.

"May! Come on out!" Faceless called out. He stood in the street swaying drunkenly as birds perched on every rooftop.

The Liar stood up and went to the door looking out. Dr. Malice rose to go with her, but as he reached her she put a hand to his chest and flung him back knocking over the table he and Portnoy had been sitting at then went outside.

Faceless spotted her and took a few steps towards her. "May... I'm so glad to see you..."

The birds began letting out piercing cries and flew down towards her. A mist rose up from The Liar and obscured her from view and soon covered the whole street. The birds tried to find her in the mist, but couldn't and the mist sapped the life out of them. When the mist cleared the birds were dead and The Liar stood directly in front of Faceless. He smiled beneath his mask and hugged her.

"I... I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I'm so glad you're back." He spoke clutching her to him.

"Sergei. What's happened to you?"

"Lots of things. It's ok now though. We're together again" He said.

"Oh Sergei... They've taken your mind from you..." The Liar said hugging him back gently.

Faceless whimpered slightly. "No... It's ok. We're together. I didn't get to say it before you died, but I love you May and we're gonna be together forever now."

The Liar smiled weakly. "You're right..." Her hands moved up taking off his mask. "I love you too, Faceless. I'm sorry."

She kissed him and as she did she began to take over his body. He stiffened momentarily and then relaxed. The  sound of more birds filled the air as May's body fell against his and The Liar took complete control.

"I'm sorry."

The lightning came down from the sky striking them both amid a chorus of shrieking birds as Dr. Malice and Portnoy, supporting Muffin, watched from the window. As the lightning faded there was nothing left where they had been standing.

So, ends the story. There were more stories ahead for the universe and the heroes were part of some of them, but this was the last story where they were the heroes.

~The Voidskipper   

Everything is Ending Pt. 2

Continuing to transcribe the events here from Muffin's point of view as taken from his own writing.

When I arrived with Megan and The Cold Boy to the area of The God's Way where the others were I found arranged before me the entirety of The Fears, with the exception of The Empty City and the obvious exception of The Quiet. The Unnamed Child was also missing and the reason why seemed obvious with my new knowledge. I wonder if she ever dared to travel through The God's Way. Again my mind took a couple of agonizing moments to settle The Fears into manageable forms. At this moment I did however notice some strange things about my own allies. The Liar of course was a Fear and so the same effect occurred there as well. Portnoy looked completely normal, but he had the same quality of seeming like just a picture imposed by my mind as The Fears did. He also seemed to glow slightly with some sort of internal light. Dr. Malice also appeared strange. It took me a time to realize it was him. He appeared as a man in his mid to late forties with greying hair, receding a little on the sides and in front. He had a wispy almost goatee and he was pixelated. The Cold Boy announced my presence and The Fears turned their attention to me.

I stepped forward to join my allies and gave The Fears as respectful a bow as my rebellious streak would allow and then launched into my glorious speech. It went something like this:

"Hey. So, I know you guys want to kill me and all, but I have a reason you shouldn't. I came here to meet you, but in order for me to inform you of why you shouldn't kill me I'm gonna need us all to pop into the normal world for a short period. That okay?"

Breath taking, right?

The Fears didn't seem happy, but obviously they were willing to hear me out because we were back in the normal world.

They say the imagination is a door to countless worlds. The Empty City sounded inside my head like the trumpet of revelations and a passage extended from behind me projected by my mind. A Door opened from my imagination and memory to link to another universe. Metaphors are fun aren't they.

At the end of the hallway stood a figure. I didn't recognize her by sight, but I knew who she had to be. With everything in place I began to explain. 

"The Empty City told me about another Universe. One where my plan succeeded. It took me there and showed me what happened. You're all dead there and so I imagine you didn't know about it. If you go speak to the figure at the end of the hallway she'll explain. Her name is Unikeia and she's your replacement in that other universe."

While The Fears went to speak to Unikeia and learn about the other universe, though I imagine she'd keep quiet about her own personal secret, I fell to my knees and Dr. Malice came to support me. Having a Fear use your head to open a path to a universe that should be impossible to reach takes a lot out of you.

I rested for a bit before The Fears returned. The Blind Man spoke. "This information is... Interesting and will be added to The Archive, but how does it prove we shouldn't kill you?"

"Because I'm not a threat anymore. I've seen what happens if you die. Things only get worse. I won't try again and you know how to stop my plan now if someone tries to enact it again anyway. So, I guess what I'm saying isn't that you shouldn't kill me, just that there isn't a reason to kill me and certainly no reason to kill my allies who never really did anything to you anyway other than save this entire universe. So, to sum up. We're not a threat, We saved you and this universe, killing us would be a dick move."

I waited for them to deliberate, but I already knew what the answer was going to be. Unikeia's appearance wasn't just to provide explanation and there was a reason we needed to create an actual connection to the other universe instead of just a projection. Unikeia would use her powers to help me convince them. Assuming other me's plan worked we had made her sole ruler of an entire universe and even a monster can be grateful.

The Fears decision came down exactly as planned and it was finished. The Fears would let us live. Megan was leaving which was... unfortunate, but she was happy about it so... I don't mind... Much. No clue what Portnoy and Malice will do and I... Well I'm going to go back to being The Muffin Man. 

All's well that ends well and stuff... 

Everything is Ending Pt. 1

The group headed out to their final confrontation with the fears, in sullen silence. The Liar had left them for a time and returned with normal looking clothes and the bandages that had covered May's body gone. The lack of blood on the clothes giving the impression she had somehow healed the chest wound and probably closed the gaping hole where her arm had been. The group walked in a careful formation. It would have been preferable to have used their respective paths, but it would be far too risky. It took some time to reach their destination, walking. It wasn't anywhere special. Just a wide open area, far away from civilization where there would be no collateral damage if things went wrong.

When they finally stopped at their destination they moved into a small circle and Muffin began to speak.

"Alright. We're going to start now. A few warnings. Where we are about to go is not owned by The Fears or as far as we know anyone. It's technically neutral ground, but not in the way you might think. The power of the fears will be mitigated here , but they will still be dangerous and they will still be able to do things they just won't be as capable of influencing the area as they would be in their own realms or our own normal realm. Second warning... This will be disorienting, and in some cases painful, as all hell so be prepared for that. Everyone ready?" There were a few chorused noises of assent and then The Liar and Muffin opened a door into The Godsway.

Unfortunately, I can't see into the Godsway and so I could not get a firsthand account of what happened and instead I'm afraid I only have a transcript of Muffin's own account so the following will switch to a first person account of the events that transpired from Muffin's point of view.

We entered the God's Way. The moment you enter... Well, I don't know about when Fears, or any of the other creatures out there, enter The God's Way, but when I enter it I'm just immediately hit by a debilitating sense of loss. Not loss like of a loved one. Loss as in a loss of identity, motivation, order, purpose... All of the things that make you and make you do things are just gone. You then have to struggle to reclaim those things within yourself and find out who you are and why you are there... Sometimes the answer isn't what you're expecting. Regardless, once you've put yourself back together you can then actually experience The God's Way and the best way to describe that is... Well, diminishing. If looking out into space makes people feel like a speck of dust experiencing The God's Way makes one realize that dust is far more important than you. Of course this again requires a great feat of will to not just give up on everything right there. As for an actual physical description of the place the only way to describe it is to say it's the reality of an illusion and the Illusion of reality. It's the place you were when you entered, but in a form infinitely more majestic and grand then it was. If you entered while in a sewer that sewer in The God's Way would still be more majestic and grand than anything built by the hand of mankind. As well anything in there has sort of a ghostly feeling to it while also still being more solid and unyielding than you. If you ever enter The God's Way do not hesitate to touch something. The feeling of your flesh yielding in the same way water yields to your touch is something you will never ever get a chance to experience anywhere else and is... Well a bit weird, but not in fact unpleasant. Anyway enough about The God's Way. When we had entered and after we had acclimated we were immediately split apart. Megan stayed with me but everyone else vanished. My hand gripped Megan's tightly as something began to coalesce before us. It was The Archangel. Now I should point out. Another strange thing about The God's Way is you can't hide who you are, so when I say The Archangel showed up I don't mean the guy in the gas mask or any of the other bodies he uses or even the strange forms he takes that other people have reported on I mean The Archangel appeared before us. It is a remarkable trait of the human mind, however to protect itself and my mind only attempted to process what was in front of it for a couple of agonizing seconds before just mentally inserting the gas masked man in it's place. The fact Megan didn't start screaming and freaking out tells me her mind did the same or similar. He simply stood there staring at us and I eventually couldn't take it and spoke. "What's going on? I wanted to talk to The Fears not just you."

"I know and so do they. You friends are informing them of that fact as we speak. I took you aside for reasons of my own."

"Which are?"

"Your entire family was meant to die. You ruined that for me. I don't really care about the reasons the others want you dead. I just know I want you dead for defying me and regardless of what you want or they want I'm going to kill you both right here." 

It's already hard to fight a creature like The Archangel who's form is so utterly beyond comprehension, but when you can't even see the incomprehensible form and how it's attacking it's downright impossible. There was nothing we could do. This hadn't been part of my plan. Luckily neither was what happened next. As the unseen blow undoubtedly came towards us I saw my breath come out in a visible cloud and then my mind screamed in pain as it struggled to adjust to the sight of another unthinkable creature appearing as The Cold Boy entered the event. My mind settled on The Cold Little Boy and The Gas Masked Man standing motionless as their true selves engaged in some invisible battle. "What are you doing?" The Archangel demanded of The Cold Boy who tilted his head in my vision and then responded in a voice that made my ears start bleeding. No that was not exaggeration.

"The Muffin Man is an enemy of ours for understandable reasons, but the girl is mine and I do not agree with the others regarding her execution I will not allow my servant to be harmed for her brother's crime." Something unseen happened and The Cold Boy stumbled backwards. The Archangel seemed to loom larger in my mind's view of him and his voice took on an echoing quality like hundr thousa milli lots of people were speaking at the same time.

"You have no power. I am not some weak mortal, nor am I alone. I am inhabited by the infinite dead all of their power furthering mine. What can you do against such power?"

"The true power I wield and the reason for this form is that my foes and prey underestimate me. Even those like yourselves who would know better underestimate me. If not my power than my range. You push away your allies and even those of your own kind and surround yourself with power and the dead who hate and fear you. Already we are among the loneliest creatures in existence. Incapable of acting in any normal capacity with the multitudes of creatures that are bound by time and space, but having pushed away the others you have become even more alone." The Cold Boy responded and then frost began to appear on The Archangel and he began to become smaller in my view. He turned his mask towards me and I could see ice forming on the mask and then he was gone. The Cold Boy looked at Megan and gave her a smile then his face turned grave when he looked at me. "You wanted an audience with us you will have it and I will bring you to them. Know though that whatever happens I will not allow your sister to die and she will be coming with me to serve as was her wish."

Megan let go of my hand then and approached The Cold Boy. "I don't mind. Even though I have my brother now I once wanted to be part of your court and I still do. You don't scare me and you never have. I thought that you didn't want me though?"

"The Archangel convinced me that you were a trick. You were being used by others to undermine me, but The Shadow and events since then have convinced me otherwise. You will be a fine servant."

Megan smiled in response to that and then The cold Boy brought us to meet The Fears.

I will end the recounting here for now and continue with the events later.

Destiny

Portia rejoined Ashen, Mistress and Abby. Memories she couldn't quite place flowed into her mind and her mouth moved without giving her time to think. She told them that she had discovered from the false god the location where their targets would be holed up and that if they moved quickly they could catch them there.

With no reason not to believe her they moved out and Portia led them, without quite understanding why, to a wharf. Vague memories of a warehouse somewhere in the area led her further in until they were standing in the middle of a small offshoot leading between two warehouses. It was at this point the trap snapped closed. A voice that Portia hadn't noticed building in her head spoke suddenly with the roar of trumpets and she screamed in pain as The Liar forced herself back into control as at the same moment the loading doors of the two warehouses opened. One empty the other with Muffin standing in the way.  Dr. Malice, and Portnoy revealed themselves on the roofs both armed with guns aimed down at Ashen and his crew and finally Megan stepped into the exit behind them blocking off their retreat.

"What the hell is this Portia?!" Ashen roared with anger. The Liar smiled and turned to him.

"You know, Sergei... Originally Muffin intended for me to just kill all of you myself, but I refused. I reasoned that it just wouldn't be fair and I'd already taken so much from you that you deserved to have at least a chance at dying in combat so I convinced Muffin this was a better idea." The Liar informed him.

Faceless' eyes would have narrowed had he any as he responded. "You... You're The Liar aren't you!"

The Liar responded with a mocking curtsy. "Guilty as charged. I'd offer to let you surrender, but I know you wouldn't accept and even if you did it would merely be a trick so I'm afraid it's time you died and this time don't come back," Portnoy and Dr. Malice opened fire and Ashen turned and ran towards the empty open loading doors.

It was obviously a trap. He knew it was, but the cold little girl scared him, The Liar was too dangerous, The Muffin Man probably wouldn't be a problem, but with the bullets raining down he didn't fancy his chances to get past him in time and besides... He figured he knew who was waiting within.

As he dashed through the doors they began to close behind him, but Mistress' tendrils lashed out catching the door and letting her pass inside before they slammed leaving only Abby outside. Bullets tore into her as she simply stood there and then she began running. She ran straight for The Liar. As she ran her mouth moved garbled sounds emerging and slowly becoming more clear.

The Liar began to back away in surprise at this sudden charge but stopped as the first clear words escaped Abby's mouth. "I remember you..." A bullet tore Abby's arm from her shoulder, but she barely slowed down and hit The Liar with a tackle that sent them both to the ground. "I remember what you did to me... What you made me do. You're the one who killed me!" She screamed as her hand ripped free from it's binding to her chest and wrapped around The Liar's neck strangling her. "It hurts. Every second hurts and every memory hurts worse. It's agony! You did this to me and you're going to make it stop hurting!" The Liar looked up into the girl's eyes and reached up grabbing her head. There was a moment of stillness and then The Liar's hands dropped lifelessly to the ground as Abby slumped forward.

Muffin rushed towards them readying to attack Abby, but her head raised and turned to him. "Stop. It's me The Liar," She stood up and looked at May's still remaining arm, "She wanted this... She..." The Liar chuckled. "She actually let me in..." Muffin stared at her for a second then turned to the closed off warehouse.

"The woman got in as well... Should we go help?"

"No... This is probably better than he hoped and if we in any way mess up his fight he'll never forgive us."

Faceless and The Grinning Reaper stood just inside of the warehouse and faced the figure standing in the center. "Sergei..." Harold said as he nodded towards Faceless and then he turned his head to the Grinning Reaper, "... and you?"

The Grinning Reaper smiled behind her mask. "Forgot me, huh? My name is Clarissa Lerouge," she turned angling her scythe out in a battle stance taking in both Harold and Faceless, "but you'd both know me better as The Grinning Reaper,"

Faceless reacted with shock at The Grinning Reaper's aggressive act and pulled himself a way from her getting into his own battle stance. "The hell are you doing?"

"I remember who I am. I remember that you killed me and this just became the perfect time to get my vengeance against almost everyone I have a grudge against. I'll kill you and the doll and then I'll be free."

"Well then I guess this just became a free for all," Harold stated quietly as he drew out his pistols and aimed one at both of the other two.

The three stood with their weapons ready and their eyes trained on each other waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Harold started the fight firing at both of them with his guns. Faceless and Reaper dashed out of the way and towards each other. Faceless caught Reaper's scythe blade with the machete and guided it to the side before attempting to land a punch on her mid-section but a tendril erupted from her body and caught his hand attempting to crush it. Unfortunately this forced off his glove and her tendril retreated from the flame that erupted out from his hand. They then both jumped back dodging another pair of shots and more of Reaper's tendrils launched towards Harold who dived out of the way and began firing at the tentacles that re-angled to catch him.

Meanwhile Reaper and Faceless continued their side of the fight. The tendrils were an advantage Reaper hadn't had last time, but they were also a disadvantage. While they added an extra, highly versatile weapon to her arsenal they restricted her ability to fight with the scythe as she had to avoid hitting them. The scythe isn't a very wieldy weapon at the best of times even in hands as skilled with it as Reaper's. Faceless made good use of this staying near her tentacles and staving them off with fire to restrict her ability to hit him with the scythe. Even so he sustained more than a small number of cuts with the scythe each one eliciting bursts of flame from the tears in his outfit. He dodged out of the way of another scythe slash and had his attack with the machete deflected as the scythe spun around for another go. He was left vulnerable in this second and Reaper took full advantage and three tendrils stabbed into his chest as the scythe came around and hit him in the head. His head cracked to the side and the welding mask fell off. Fire erupted from his face burning Reaper who backed away from the sudden increase in fire and heat.

Faceless let out a cry of rage and pain and the coat burned away leaving him naked just fire in a human form. He rushed at Reaper and tackled her holding her down and lighting her aflame. Tentacles launched out from her body and the one's pursuing Harold arced back. They pierced Faceless all over his body as Reaper screamed in pain and Faceless' roar increased in pitch and fervor. Harold tried to take advantage of this moment and fired a few bullet's into Faceless' body, but Faceless didn't even seem to notice. Reaper's screams ceased as she was reduced to nothing but a charred corpse and then Faceless stood, the tentacles impaling him simply melting away as he turned to Harold.

Harold emptied his guns into Faceless' body and Faceless stumbled back a bit but then began to charge. His machete was melted away, but he didn't need a weapon now. Harold tossed away his pistols and drew out the rifle on his back and fired. The bullet seemed to hit something still solid within Faceless and he was thrown backwards. Harold aimed again and fired and this time blood spurted out of the bullet hole but immediately evaporated as it exited the body.

"I guess you're body's still in that inferno, Sergei. Your fire is weakening and my bullet's can reach the real you. You can still die!" Harold yelled as he sighted on Faceless' head. The inferno obscuring Faceless suddenly changed in appearance, wings of flame spreading outwards from his head and eyes like a hawk appearing where Faceless' eyes would have been. The firebird lifted away from faceless' body and then flung itself at Harold. Harold's eyes widened and he fired at it but the bullet just passed through. The bird hit him with such force it drove him against the wall and set him aflame. He screamed in terrified agony as the entire warehouse began to light. The fire spread from him through the area and within seconds the entire warehouse was aflame.

Outside the rest of the group watched in awe as the fire rose into the sky. The Liar blinked and then swallowed. "I guess that's it then..."

"All three of them are dead?" Muffin asked with a pained voice.

"I can't imagine anyone surviving that blaze," she responded.

Muffin bowed his head. "Poor Harold... Still we have a lot more to do and we don't have time to mourn anyone. Let's get going," Muffin stated and they left before emergency services began to arrive.

Motion

The door to the fridge flung open and Muffin, forgetting about the slight gap between the bottom of the fridge and the floor, stepped out, tripped and landed face first on the ground. The empty city stood behind him framed in the doorway and showed no sign of mirth at this slapstick performance. It merely spoke quietly. "Remember the plan." and then the door closed leaving Muffin face down on the kitchen floor. A light flashed on and Megan looked down on him.

"You really should sleep in the living room with the others. The carpets are much more comfortable than the kitchen tiles." she stated causing Muffin to respond with an incredibly succinct gesture of annoyance. However his thoughts suddenly flashed up a memory.

"In that world... You were dead," he exclaimed standing up in a single movement and hugging her tightly.

Megan hugged him back, "Bad dream?"

"Nightmare. Help me wake the others we have to have a meeting," he responded letting go of her with a slight amount of hesitation.

"Why?" she asked even as she moved past him to follow his orders.

"I know how to get us through this." he answered with a smile.

It didn't take long to rouse the others and Muffin quickly informed them of what he had learned (Which can be found here) and after revealing his plan which I will not reveal as of yet for dramatic purposes he informed them that the only preparation left was to deal with Faceless and the others. As part of this plan The Liar would have to leave again going undercover as she used to in the body and mind of her victim and allow Portia to rejoin Faceless' ranks. As the sun dawned she set out and the rest began to prepare for an ambush.

Portia wandered back in a daze. She remembered killing The Traitorous god and then nothing... Her memory was a blur. Her most recent memory was just suddenly being conscious in the forest where she had fought the god and an urge to go back to her team. There were concerns as she headed back. Certain thoughts kept trying to surface in her mind but she could never fully grasp them and she felt wrong. Alarm bells triggering but then immediately being calmed by what almost felt like another voice in her head. Everything felt wrong and her head hurt but she couldn't remember why. She just knew she needed to get back to her team.

Revelations

Sleeping arrangements were strange that night. There was only one bed and Megan was sleeping in it. The Liar was on watch somewhere upstairs at a window, Portnoy had managed to snag the couch and everyone else slept uncomfortably on the floor of the living room. It wasn't a problem though. Dr. Malice hardly cared and Harold and Muffin were used to sleeping in much less comfort if they ever got to sleep.

A sound awoke Muffin and he sat up. There was a strange light coming from the kitchen. He looked around at the others and counted they were all lying down. Perhaps it was Megan. He warily entered the kitchen and saw the fridge door was open but no one was there. He rolled his eyes annoyed at whoever had left it open before realizing the light coming from the fridge was a deep red and thus not at all normal. He ran through a quick checklist of the fears trying to think of anyone that might use his fridge, but couldn't really think of one. He approached the fridge and peeked inside. Before him was a sprawling city. His eyes widened and he swore. "You have got to be fucking kidding me... In my fridge? The Empty City in my fridge? Are you serious?" he asked in irritation and the answer came.

"Dead serious," a voice said as a figure began to appear in the doorway. It was an androgynous just barely human looking figure. It had no eyes or features. It was a human if you had just the basic outline of a human.

Muffin looked at it for a few seconds then began to close the fridge door and the voice spoke quickly. "I can help you beat the fears," it said.

"You are a fear. Go away."

"You don't understand. You don't know what I do. I exist connected to every universe even those I'm not actually a part of I am aware of even if I disconnect myself as I did with this one during The Amalgam attack I still know what goes on and I want to inform you of some very important things you need to know."

"Whatever keep talking but it better be good..."

"Or else what?"

"If you're going to be sassy I'll just close the door."

"Fine. Look, The Amalgam attacked your universe and you guys fought it off and stopped your own plan from making things worse but because of that plan you're now a threat to The Fears and they want to eliminate you before you either try again or tell others how to do it-"

"I already know all this-"

"-Look shut up and be patient. God do you have any idea how infuriating you are-"

"-No how infuriating am I?"

"Enough to infuriate a god like being who is literally just a sentient landscape. Now shut up and let me help you!"

"Alright fine..."

"Right... So you know all that what you don't know is that you only succeeded at both those things in this universe. In the first and second universe you didn't. In the first Megan was crazy and you didn't realize she was one of the ones needed to fight the amalgam and by the time you realized it it was too late."

"Wait Megan was crazy?"

"Yes in that universe The Shadow of Anarchy was not removed from her till much later and it permanently messed with her head. In this universe you sided with the Nightlanders and got it out almost immediately. In the other universe it took decades to find her again and her mind was irretrievably damaged."

"Wow other universe me is a dumbass"

"Agreed."

"Hey!"

"In that universe however as the Amalgam were destroying everything a new universe was created somehow. I am unsure how and in that universe your history with megan was the same as it is here. She was her normal quiet but confident self and helped you defeat the amalgam but you didn't manage to stop your plan and The Fears were all killed."

"It worked?"

"Yes but not how you imagined it..."

"Oh? What happened?"

"This is the point of my visit. This is where I show instead of tell. Let me bring you to that other universe so you can tell yourself exactly what happened."

"Why should I trust you?"

"It's because of me that The Amalgam came here and it's because of me that all of this happened. I can only make it right by helping you. You fixed my mistake and it's only right I repay you by saving you from the consequences."

"That's an honorable sentiment from a murderous eldritch location."

"Well I was human once."

"Wait what?"

"Come with me and that too will become clear."

Muffin hesitated, but eventually he stepped through into the fridge and The Door shut quietly behind him


Elsewhere Mistress stood in her room placing batteries into the scythe and sighing as they failed to work. Too long had it been powered by Ashen's hands. The mechanism was fried. It was just as well. It's unique nest killing property would no longer be effective against her current prey and the normal scythe would work just fine on any other foes. Her memories had returned. Not the moment she had grasped the scythe but in a short period of time afterward. She was too take orders from the man who killed her. There was no way. She would kill him and then she would kill the doll and maybe then she'd do what the fears asked and kill the rest. First though she would get her vengeance. She froze a feeling passing through her. She turned and he was there. The Slender Man stood watching her. Her resolve momentarily broke. "I... I... I won't work with him... He killed me... I can't..." Something passed over her. "I won't. He killed me and why should I listen to you. You let me die! You let me go to that terrible place to be used by Him for all eternity..." Something seemed to break in her and she was crying black oily tears beneath her mask. "When I betrayed Him for you you promised me you would never let him get me. That I would never be sent to him. That I would never end up like my brothers but you lied! I ended up there anyways and you did nothing to stop it! I don't work for you anymore and I won't work for the man who murdered me. I'll kill him I'll kill all of them but not for you! Not for them. I'll kill them for myself and then I'll leave. I won't work for any of you. I... I won't fight against you," her voice grew timid again, "It would be suicide to fight you," Her stance again grew more confident though as she finished her speech, "I won't fight you but I won't be controlled anymore!" She finished her speech and stood facing him her eyes clouded with tears and her body trembling. He merely watched her for a few moments and then disappeared. She fell to her knees and gripped the scythe tightly to herself taking off the mask to wipe away her tears.

Regroup

Muffin's band fled the park as quickly as they could to regroup at Muffin and Megan's home but it wasn't fast enough. The Wooden Girl had been keeping tabs on Harold and during the fight she had moved a number of puppets under the command of a doll to the area. The band ran straight into an ambush.

The dolls slipped into view as the band reached the street on which Muffin and Megan's house stood and The Band faced down the barrel end of a firing squad. The Band looked upon certain death and calculated their odds. The gunfire would kill Muffin and portnoy definitely, would probably kill Harold, would be unlikely to kill Megan and would merely destroy Dr. Malice's current form. Two of them would probably survive but that wasn't good enough. Each desperately thought up a plan as at the same moment someone else walked into the street behind the puppet firing squad. "If you enjoy life stay perfectly still," a female voice spoke and then a mist began to envelope the street. A normal army would have begun firing blindly and probably many of our heroes still would have been killed but an army of puppets only fires when ordered to and the puppeteer hesitated.

The mist circled around people in a way that almost seemed like an animal searching through a crowd for the smell of it's owner. The street was silent and tense as the mist wove it's way around the scared figures trapped within and then the mist seemed to find what it was looking for. The mist cleared almost instantly from around our heroes and instead pooled around the puppet firing squad and it's leader. The doll watched the mist fearfully and in that moment he made a mistake.

He gave the order to fire and the moment he and his soldiers began to move the mist sprang. It forced itself into bodies through the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and pores and then those afflicted began to fall apart. It was decay, rapid and unmerciful. Their bodies degenerating almost instantly until they had decayed down to nothing but skeletons. The mist then left their skeletons and returned to the woman standing at the end of the street. "You can move again now," The Liar informed them as our heroes looked upon her with surprise.

Shortly after the band entered their temporary residence and first Harold relayed his story (Leaving out Jack's words) and the Liar relayed hers informing them of how she had been on the run from Portia and then taken her body and about the powers she had gained from adventures in another universe she can no longer remember. Dr. Malice then informed everyone of his own story. How after he had been killed by Mistress and Echo he had been stuck in his body but had managed to transfer himself to Echo's headphones which were apparently bluetooth capable and also filled with Choir. He had been stuck fighting against The Choir inside of The Headphones until Echo had attempted to use them in the battle opening a connection Dr. Malice had taken to enter the boy's body proper where he had made the discovery that Echo was Marcinius Trowess. The name meant nothing to the rest of the group and so Dr. Malice further explained. Revealing that Marcinius had been a student of his who had run afoul of the choir and come under their control and how eventually he himself had been forced to kill him. Twice now as he stated with a pained expression.

Harold confirmed this by informing them that Ashen was The Faceless Bastard and that he surmised the others they had faced were likely also dead people that the fears brought back in order to kill them. Portnoy became sullen upon hearing this and turned to The Liar.

"You said her name was Portia right?"

"Yes it was,"

"Then it was her," he responded with a sad sigh and at last informed the rest of them of his own history with The Fears (Which can be found here). Dr. Malice explained that Deadman (He helpfully provided names for their enemies based on Echo's memories) was probably Jayson. Portnoy explained that he knew he had a cousin Jayson but Jayson had gone on the run before his mother's death and so when he went to live with his aunt and uncle he never got to meet his cousin. Harold said Abby was probably a Proxy he had once met named May. None of them had any clue who Crucible or mistress were. They also figured that now Echo and Portia were no longer threats, Crucible seemed to be dead or gone and Muffin was pretty sure that Deadman or not he had crushed his skull hard enough that it would not be a problem in the future.

"So we know who our enemies are now and it can be assumed they know us since Faceless apparently recognized Portnoy... We're going to have to deal with them but not just them. The Fears are still after us themselves and we need to find a way to stop them or at least a way to survive," Muffin explained.

"Right... You got a plan?"

"... No"

Meanwhile Ashen awoke in the park the sound of sirens approaching. He glanced around taking stock. Deadman was dead, Echo was gone, Crucible seemed to have defla- He stopped. His memories swam into focus and he cursed loudly. They had brought Faceless back to fight... They brought The Grinning Reaper and May back as well and they had brought back him? They brought back him and let him loose? They... They couldn't of been that stupid could they? He rushed over to the deflated suit and began tearing it open looking for any signs that something solid had been within. There was none. It was as he feared. The Fears had set loose Harold, Servant of the brute. More memories flooded back. The Fears... Right. He had served The Convocation but they served him as well. He spoke to the phoenix within him. "We're going back to the old deal. You just tell me what you want and I decide how it goes down, understood?" There was no response, but he chose to accept his ability to continue living a yes. He picked up the scythe and woke up Mistress and Abby. He handed Mistress the scythe. "This belonged to you anyway. Toss away those stupid claws and use it." She stared at him uncomprehendingly but took it and then he turned to Abby. "May..." he paused. "Good to see you again" he said finally and then turned and began to leave the two women following him solemly.

They were gone by the time the police arrived.