Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The moment, the second that he and the others passed through the door, the one he had passed through before countless times from his past versions...  

He knew something was wrong.  

Because as soon as the door closed behind them, as soon as the ethereal light was all they could see and bathe in, everything began to change.  

The interior of the Tower was the same as it had always been, a mess of doorways, concrete walls and steps, along with random objects and articles of furniture drifting around as if devoid of gravity. It wasn't a sightly nor inspiring picture by any means, but it was something that he remembered accurately.  

Which was why when it began to shift, he knew something was wrong.  

Because as they entered, the walls, the concrete and the steps began to shift.  

And it was the torturer who summed it up best.  

"What the fuck is going on?"  

All of them watched as the steps above them shifted and broke apart like they were made of putty, not the concrete they resembled, watched as the doorways began to sink into the walls and disappear like they were made of sludge. All of them watched as everything changed, as the walls around them shifted, pulling back and creating more room.  

Until finally...  

The wall in front of them shifted, concrete sinking in before puckering like a boil and taking shape into the dread eye that they loathed.  

It blinked, stone disappearing and moulded into flesh that took stock of its surroundings.  

"Greetings: Designate Broadcaster is present, even if blinded, disturbance and planning were expected." It spoke, gaze panning around the massive room.  

He narrowed his gaze before it widened.  

Expected.  

It knew.  

"Praise: Plan formed by Broadcaster is applaudable, taking advantage of known weakness to infiltrate domain and seeking to undo loadstone." The Eyes congratulated, though its praise felt sickly to him.  

"However, such plans were founded on the idea that I am bound to the limitations of such a weakness."  

The eye snapped to where they stood "False."  

He stifled his breath, as he and the others took a step backwards.  

"Explanation: Whilst such frequencies you have used to blind are functional, it is not preventative in shadowing that which your reality is founded upon."  

"Your existence, physical and upon this plane is not forgotten and nor is the Geisha's."  

Six.  

Shit.  

"Did you truly believe I was unaware? That the moment you decided to enact such plans that you were cunning in setting them out?" The Eyes questioned, staring at them.  

"This is the domain I have created, every part of it is infused with power beyond your understanding and every section a nerve of which to trigger."  

"Finality: The Geisha has triggered such nerves and shall be reclaimed, as the Broadcaster has already been trapped and awaits reintegration."  

Mono scoffed, finally speaking to the Eyes. "Never." He defiantly spat. "Never again."  

The Eyes gave no indication of acknowledging his reply, simply staring at them.  

Fine.  

They'd show it.  

Show it what they-  

Why was something burning?  

He turned, looking at the Ferryman.  

Oh, it was holding a lit stick of dynamite.  

...  

Lit stick of dynamite?  

He barely had enough time to process the sight before the adult threw the stick at the eye mounted to the wall and watched as it exploded with enough force that it nearly set him to his knees, covering his face as smoke and dust assaulted his eyes. After it began to die down and he could see again, he saw the wall devoid of the eye and revealing the truth underneath it.  

Flesh that moved and bulged, agged and grew like weeping sores, burned by the blast as it attempted to rid itself of the damage. They watched as the flesh wrapped around itself, pouring itself into the now-open cracks.  

Mono affixed the monster with a glare. "Why did you-?!"  

"Because we need time lad, damn 'ting knows what we're here for." The Ferryman cut off, looking at him. "Need to get up lad, find this damn 'tings 'eart."  

"And where would that be?" Trazn asked, spear pulled forth. "It is unlikely that such a thing would be unguarded.  

The bag-headed teen raised his gaze into the Tower, seeing the ethereal glow that shined like the Sun.  

Where the heart...  

He saw its heart, a living parody of what truly lived, a construct that served a purpose other than animation.   

The thing above him started at him, many eyes like hives indicating for him to touch the beating flesh, to finalise what they intended for him.   

He reached out with a small hint of hesitation, placing his hand upon the flesh and-  

The heart...  

What every version of him had bound themselves to, the loadstone that made him connected and allowed him power beyond what he was capable of.  

But at a great cost.  

He knew it, knew it because of all these memories inside his head, those from his own version and those stolen from the Eyes.  

It was not in a place.  

A place existed.  

This was something else...  

"I... I think I know how to... get to it." He answered, uncertainty coursing through his words. "But I don't know how it will work."  

Veren hummed in thought. "And that is your best answer?"  

"It's the only one I have."  

Merv rolled her eyes. "Real confidence-inspiring."  

"You're trapped here with us now anyway." Alle told the girl. "Unless you've got any bright ideas?"  

She smiled. "Does killing you and then myself count as an idea?"  

All of them stared at the girl.  

Followed by the Ferryman grabbing its head, muttering under its breath. "We're all gonna fuckin' die and I'm gonna have to live for another 'undred years."  

Mono shook his head at the girl. "No. That's not an idea."  

Merv shrugged. "Then no, I haven't got anything."  

The teen flared his nostrils, turning to look at the Ferryman. "Do you have another stick?"  

It raised an eyebrow. "Aye, why?"  

"Need another hole." He answered, pointing at the empty walls. "Now."  

A nod was the confirmation he received, watching as the Ferryman pulled another stick out and then lit it up with a match, watching as the stick flew through the air before hitting the left on the right. A moment later, it too exploded and they watched as the dust settled once more, revealing the flesh hidden underneath that sought to repair the hole.  

But he was already present in front of it, pressing his own hand into the gap.  

The shifting 'concrete' halted in what it was doing, feeling his presence, the Signal coursing through his own grasp, his own power forged from a loadstone. It became confused for a moment, trying to understand what was happening, what the other part was.  

Soon enough however, it seemed to comply.  

The flesh began to recede almost, pushing itself away as the concrete began to pour into the hole. Yet, it did not form the solid shape of the wall it once was and instead, they watched as a new shape began to well... take shape.  

But it was also not a new shape, as the familiar outline of a doorway began to materialise.  

It soon became apparent to them what he was forming, making the wall form into something else, watching as it transformed into what he was willing. Soon enough, the doorway took shape with a door inside it, colour becoming apparent as it became the full thing, small scratches in wood even realised.  

Nearly all of them affixed him with a raised eyebrow. "How did-?" Came the question of Veren, only to be cut off by himself.  

"Move now, talk later."  

Most of them understood his urgency and want to move, nodding as he reached up and turned the doorknob, finding the expected sight on the other side. That being the purple, ethereal glow-like mist that would do... something when they stepped into it.  

He sighed.  

Mono hoped it wouldn't feel as bad as the first time around.  

With that in mind, he stepped forward.  

It was time to end this.

The Eyes regarded the Broadcaster's plan.  

It wasn't unfounded in execution, in understanding.  

Naturally, it was expected that the Transporter would seek to silence them, as was their nature, their defiance to them that they would seek to defy them at every possible avenue. What was less expected however, was the Broadcaster managing to reach out and use their own Signal to force the interior space to shift to their wills.  

However, that was something they were aware of.  

The Signal they made was akin to a virus, it was hijacking their own interior by mimicking their power, attempting to force it to do their bidding. It worked this time because the interior was not prepared for such a thing, it was unexpected.  

Now however, it knew the Signal, it informed them as such.  

Yet, they also knew it was part of the plan regardless.  

Let the Broadcaster believe they can defy them, let them walk deeper into the trap they have set, fall into the plan once more.  

They regarded them, watching as they appeared through the portal.  

The others, however...  

Were not required for the Cycle to continue, especially the Transporter.  

Best to remove them before they could prove a problem.  

Their gaze turned to the bottom of the Tower, looking into the place where they kept everything that was best reserved for more... broad tasks.  

This was such a case.  

And one that would serve it faithfully.  

After all, they had served them once, albeit with defiance.  

Now, there was no such ability.  

They would serve and carry out their will.  

Find these pests, deal with them, remove them so that the plan may once more return.  

And if not?  

Then it was still no issue.  

Simply a matter of time.  

As was the case with the Geisha...

Six knew fear.  

She knew what it felt like, she knew what the taste of adrenaline in her blood was like, when she felt it on her tongue like a hot wire. It was a reminder, a cause for action and the will to live, it was something she had felt a thousand times before. This was no different and she wouldn't say that it was-  

"Move!" She bellowed, making the two kids in front of her dive as the pole in front of them collapsed, hitting the ground with a reverberating metal clang. She watched as another fell shortly afterwards, seeing the cause being the street itself shaking, rumbling as it tore open like a great wound in the ground, shaking the foundations of everything.  

They had to keep moving.  

The teen in yellow turned to the others, seeing them already passing through the alleyway she told them to go through, the one that came after the 'bakery' they had been trying to seek refuge in. Yet, they had been denied that respite and now were faced with the situation at hand. That being the street in front of the bakery splitting open and them having to run.  

Not a great situation.  

Especially as she watched the bakery itself begin to sag and collapse, as the widening chasm swallowed it slowly, like a serpent.  

She thought the Eyes wanted her alive?  

Because this didn't seem like it now.  

No matter, they'd have to keep moving, try and-  

"INFORM: DESGINATE GEISHA OPERATES ON THE BELIEF THAT THEY CAN CONTINUE TO ELUDE I, THAT THEY CAN REMAIN IN THE SHADOWS." The Eyes once more blared over the speakers, nearly deafening her with how loud they were.  

"SUCH BELIEF IS FALSE, THERE IS NO MORE HIDING."  

Six kept running, catching up with the others and taking stock of the street that the back of the bakery exited onto. It wasn't a long street, a building on either end that signalled a corner to turn, only about three blocks away on both sides.  

It was still better than nothing.  

She pointed to the right, making them nod before they began to move and-  

The street began to rumble, all of them halting as they watched something bulge under the tarmac like a growing animal, waiting to burst forth from the flesh it lived in. Just like that, it did indeed happen, all watching as the street exploded outwards, sending pieces of the road flying everywhere and barely avoiding them by a few inches.  

Water, waves of it splashed over them like tidal waves, knocking many over and forcing her to brace herself as the winds pelted them with droplets that were eggs in size. Once it cleared and they were allowed to see once more, Six bore witness to the now destroyed road, seeing the massive hole that now barred their way forward.  

Great, they'd have to go the other way now.  

She turned to them, pointing to the other side and moving to-  

"Six?"  

The girl in question turned, looking to Netty who was staring at the hole that had been created.  

What was he doing?  

"What is that?" He asked, pointing to the hole.  

An eyebrow was raised, turning to see what he was pointing at in both confusion and rising terror.  

Both however, were quickly understood.  

Because something was happening under the street.  

Rising.  

Like great serpents rising from the depths like the tales of old, seeking their next meal via sacrifice. She watched as pipes, wires and random pieces of metal formed into tendrils and great mouths lined with teeth of rusted metal, eager to devour.  

They spun and turned in their 'pot' smashing through cars and walls, trying to find what they felt through the ground  

' EVERY SINGLE ATOM, EVERY PARTICLE OF THIS PATHETIC CITY IS OURS, EVERY STEP YOU TAKE, EVERY STONE YOU TURN IS INFUSED WITH THE POWER I WIELD, WITH WHAT CREATED YOUR EXISTENCE'  

The words rang in their minds like the bells that signalled death, mourning the loss of those who passed. Because in this instance, Six and the others now knew what it had meant, what it entailed when it delivered its speech.  

Every part of the City was it.  

They were walking on a living thing.  

And this was no different.  

But that couldn't stop them.  

Not now.  

"Move!" She again commanded, pointing to the other way again. "Can't stay!"  

None of them offered any arguments, running as fast as they could through the pouring rain, trying to create distance between them and the horrendous reality that lived under their feet. It was made harder however with the fact that Gema was still having to carry Jess with her injuries, as even though she had been patched up, the leg was still unusable.  

A notion that didn't help them.  

Such was the case as the tendrils noticed movement and dived back under the roads...  

Only to surge under it like worms.  

Six felt her eyes widen, seeing the road break as the pipes and cables pushed through the ground towards them, seeking to pull them apart like they were nothing but food.  

She kept the others moving, knowing that Gema and Jess were at the back, trying their best to keep up with the others through the rain and the guard's limited movement. Yet, their 'best' was not going to save them from what were essentially giant tentacles made of metal that were several times their size in both width and height.  

Indeed, she could already hear the guard telling the builder to leave her so that the bigger girl could live.  

That was something that Six considered idiotic and for several reasons.  

One was that it didn't guarantee her survival.  

The other being that there were better ways to survive.  

Like herself for example.  

Because she had been rejuvenated by the power she had absorbed from the loadstone, meaning she could use her gifts more sparingly. Such was the case now, as she turned to them, seeing the shadows of buildings covering them.  

She huffed.  

Before melting into the shadows.  

Within the next moment, she felt herself reappear behind them, much to their own surprise. It was short-lived however, as the teen in yellow quickly reached out and grabbed the pair of them, gaze looking forward to the others, seeing the shadow of the buildings once more.  

The three of them then melted like she had done a mere moment ago, manifesting in the shadow of a building and quickly forcing them to keep running. The others had already reached the end of the street and turned right, a command that she hadn't given but one that she would have given.  

It was towards the Tower after all and even though that wasn't part of the plan...  

Hey, we have bigger things to worry about, your bond will be alright. Sokage commented from the inside. He's survived worse after all.  

Worse?  

She didn't know if there was anything worse than what was happening.  

What he was walking into.  

Well... there isn't, I was just trying to make you feel better.  

Oh.  

Right.  

...  

She... appreciated it?  

You're welcome. It replied, though the words were surprisingly not spoken with any hint of-  

Duck!  

She did as asked, forcing the other two to do the same by grabbing their shoulders. She felt something speed past her head and the others had already moved down the right turning which prevented them from being hit. It didn't stop whatever had been thrown from impaling the building that had sat in front of them, which revealed to them what had been thrown.  

Which also made her eyes widen in surprise and even a small amount of fear.  

Because it was one of those massive wooden poles that the wires hung from for electricity.  

How had it-  

Six turned, looking behind her even though she shouldn't have, finding the reason to be that the road behind them was exploding...  

...because more of the tendrils were coming forth, shattering the road and turning it into nothing more than another chasm to add to the City's look. The pole had seemingly been the work of one of the tendrils that had thrown it at them.  

Again, she thought the Eyes wanted her alive?  

Since throwing a pole at her very much ran the risk of killing her before she could even think about it.  

That was simply the truth and one she couldn't even argue with.  

So why was it doing so?  

Did it simply want to scare her? Make her prone to mistakes?  

That was not going to happen.  

Not with everything at stake here.  

Which is why she kept the other two moving, wanting to catch up with the others, try and find a way to avoid the Eyes so that they could become hidden, then...  

Then...  

She didn't know.  

But they couldn't remain here.  

They needed time to regroup, to think.  

Mono was in the Tower, he was the one who was enacting the critical plan.  

They had to hang on long enough for him and the others to succeed.  

Maybe.  

Saying in one spot however was not the answer, as they couldn't afford it.  

The others dying without cause, in vain was... disrespectful.  

Both to them and to herself.  

Who would she be if they died without a reason? Without knowing their passing would be worth nothing?  

Not that they would die anyway.  

She would not let them.  

It was something that she wouldn't permit.  

Granted, she knew that they had already lost a few kids and Six wasn't going to lie, those deaths were disastrous, especially on her part for not trying harder to prevent them. Yes, she had told the others that she couldn't predict everything and stop them from dying, but she knew how to prepare for nearly anything to at least mitigate the issues that could arise.  

And she hadn't used enough of them.  

Idiot.  

Regardless, the girl kept moving as they approached the others, who were...  

...standing still?  

Six ground to a halt behind them, confusion arising as she came to a stop. "What are you-"  

She heard steel and concrete bend, screech like a great beast, a sound that made her ears scream as her gaze raised itself to look at the sight in front of her. It was a sight indeed, one that she had seen on the buildings of the City before.  

But never like this.  

Because the buildings in front of her were moving.  

Shifting like they never should.  

It reminded her of the first time she was here, when she had been on that door with Mono, sailing into the City and seeing the buildings leaning like they never should. This was not that however, for what she was seeing was the buildings moving on their very foundations, pushing aside concrete and metal to move.  

Seeing it made her mind question what was real, the impossibility of it causing her to freeze in place, simply to stare at what was happening. It simply shouldn't be possible, she had seen these same buildings crumble into nothing at the slightest gust, seen bricks fall apart like dust.  

Here they were however, at the very end of the street that they had turned onto about a dozen blocks down, moving with the screeching that told them everything. It soon became evident however what they were doing.  

What the Eyes were doing.  

They were blocking them in.  

The buildings were squeezing themselves together, forming a barrier, a wall to keep them from moving.  

Six spun on her heel, looking behind them down the other street only to see the same.  

No...  

This was a terrible position to be in and they couldn't stay here.  

She looked at the buildings to the left of them, seeing that whilst they were tightly spaced, there was still enough room for them to get through. If the Eyes truly knew where they were and could sense them, then they'd be able to squeeze through without risk of being crushed.  

Probably.  

The Eyes wouldn't risk it, right?  

They needed her for their precious Cycle and that meant that any risk of killing her would be avoided.  

So, she quickly barked an order. "Move, now!" She shouted, earning their attention as her hand pointed to the smaller passage, neither an alleyway nor a street. Naturally, most of them hesitated upon seeing the small space, not exactly wanting to move through when they had seen the buildings move.  

Yet, the burrowing of the tendrils heard behind them only served to prove her point in needing to move.  

All of them got her point and swiftly followed after her as she was the first to dive into the small space, seeing the other side where another street was. If they could get there, maybe they could find a way to try and seek refuge, let things calm down enough for Mono to-  

-to what?  

He was already in the thick of it, now that she knew that the Eyes had expected him to enter the Tower, it made any possibility of him simply walking out without issue... impossible.  

The more likely outcome was that he would-  

No.  

Don't think about that.  

He was Mono, she had seen him get through difficult situations, she knew he could handle himself and would be okay.  

That was the truth.  

He...  

He wouldn't want to make her angry, now would he?  

He simply wouldn't.  

Six knew they'd be able to succeed, like every time before where they had.  

This was not the time, the point where they would fail.  

It simply wouldn't be.  

So, she kept running and running, looking behind her to see the others pushing through like rats to follow after her. She was already over halfway and they needed to make some distance, though it might have to do with her being-  

The walls on either side shifted, quaked.  

Her eyes widened.  

"MOVE!" She bellowed at them, forcing her legs to move faster before she was turned into nothing but a fine paste, a stain. Six passed through the narrow space, feeling the walls move ever so slowly together, to form a barrier to keep them from moving.  

Though in this case, it was more like a tomb for them.  

She swallowed, keeping her thoughts of death in the depths of her mind.  

They would not die.  

With a final leap, she found herself on the other side, another street with another set of buildings that hadn't moved yet. In another moment, she spun on her heel, seeing the others coming towards her as the walls around them closed like the mouth of a predator, crushing them into pulp. The thought of it of course motivated many of them, pushing them to run faster.  

They poured through as it became tighter, the walls now barely able to accommodate their size.  

Two came through, gasps on their lips.  

Another three.  

Then two more.  

Another four.  

Then both Jess and Gema, having been in front of her from before.  

The walls were getting closer.  

Another four.  

Followed by three.  

Then five.  

They were getting closer now.  

Too close.  

She knew instantly that they weren't all going to make it.  

Not without assistance.  

She mentally sighed  

Did they always need help?  

Was she some kind of caretaker?  

The teen focused herself, reaching out with her hand as a mass of tendrils shot out and pushed themselves above the heads of the kids, surging into the small space as it grew smaller, threatening the crushing pressure that put fear into their hearts.  

Then, once she knew that the tendrils were behind them, the teen pulled back with all her might, forcing the shadow to become solid, though not of a sharpened kind that would rip through them like nothing.  

That was the farthest thing she wanted.  

Within a moment, the kids were swept from their feet and dragged through the remaining space, yelling and screaming incoherent curses as they were pilled into each other. They could complain later however, as she finally dragged the pile of about a dozen kids through the gap, watching them tumble over each other as they came to a rest.  

All of them released sounds of confusion and pain as they separated themselves from the pile of limbs, obviously not enjoying the fleshy blob.  

But it was better to be in pain than dead.  

That was what she was-  

"Help!"  

Six spun her head fast enough that she heard her own neck crack.  

A kid.  

Still making their way through the gap.  

They had been farther behind than the others.  

Must have tripped or fallen in the rain, the surfaces of the walkways weren't stable and they had been running for their lives.  

Wait.  

It wasn't just any kid.  

No, it was one of the builders, another of those she had worked with.  

Jackel.  

She was very helpful and she had been the one carrying a few more of the supplies they had.  

"Jackel!" Gema screamed, approaching the gap and reaching in. "Run, you need to run faster!"  

The girl tried her best to run and get closer, to escape the now smaller gap. However, it soon became apparent that no matter how fast she ran, nor how much she perhaps wanted to escape the jaws closing in...  

Death was still going to have her.  

There was that realisation in her face and Six saw it, saw it clear as day, that look of realisation that you weren't going to live anymore and this was simply... it.  

Jackel knew it and her face fell.  

But not before unhooking the backpack she carried, barely able to squeeze it through. Then, even as she ran, knowing what was going to happen, the girl managed to toss it forward, caught by Gema who was quick to throw it behind her, arm held out still for the fellow builder.  

Yet...  

She couldn't stick in much longer.  

Which was the reason why Six grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back, making her exclaim in surprise as the walls finally closed.  

Right as Jackel's arm stuck through the gap, a final attempt to escape the fate that she had been damned to.  

Unfortunately, that was not the case.  

Instead, they simply watched as she became stuck, screams leaving her lips as she tried desperately to claw her way out. It was all for nought however, as the walls simply kept closing in and within a moment, her screams died as her body was crushed, pulped into nothing as the blood and viscera were splattered onto the soaked street.  

The builder's arm, once reaching out for desperate help twitched before going limp, staying like that for a moment more before it twitched again...  

Before then sliding and flopped to the ground, the only piece of her that survived.  

All of them stared at the sight, seeing the gruesome end of a kid, a fellow that they knew and had been killed in a way that none of them wished.  

It was Gema however, who had the most active response, turning to Six with a scowl and words at the ready.  

She was cut short however, by the teen leering at her.  

Leering however, was perhaps selling it short.  

Gema knew what leering was.  

Hell, she knew what a hateful glare was.  

This, however?  

It was nothing of the sort.  

This was a commanding, overwhelming look of anger, one that spoke of frustration, rage and patience finally running thin. It was a look the bigger girl had seen before, many times in fact, but the look that Six was wearing made her heart quiver in its place, desperate to escape its confines.  

Not helped when the teen spoke.  

"She's dead Gema, I know that." The yellow-clad teen spat, looking at the others. "I wish that she wasn't, but she is."  

"But..." She turned back to her. "Don't blame me for what happened, don't blame me for making sure you didn't lose an arm."  

The teen leaned in closer. "Blame them." She nodded her head at the massive tower that hung over them like a shadow, always seeming to watch. "They wanted all of this."  

With those words, she then spun on her heel and looked at the others, signalling for them to move.  

Gema meanwhile, turned to look at the bloody reminder, smeared across the wall.  

She hung her head.  

Why hadn't she been quicker?  

Was there going to be even more death?  

All because of this... thing? Wanting to enslave them?  

No, not them.  

Six and Mono.  

Two people who didn't even want to be a part of what was happening.  

But it revolved around them.  

She lifted her gaze, taking a final look at the arm of her friend, feeling the emotion in her throat. Yet, she had to push it down, no matter how much she wanted to desperately let it go.  

It wouldn't bring her back.  

All they could do was not die.  

And maybe, bury her when they had the chance...

The inside of the Tower was still how he remembered it.  

An endless series of corridors, doors and pieces of furniture that defied reality by deciding that bending into odd shapes was the norm. Already through their journey, they had seen a table with legs reaching the ceiling, a wardrobe with several more doors than needed and a clock that was not only ticking backwards but also had five hands.  

He had seen it before of course, though that didn't mean he was happy with seeing it.  

It made his head hurt in reality, seeing things that simply didn't work as intended.  

Not like he was the only one though.  

"Is it always a mess?" Alle asked, looking over the cracked walls.  

Mono shrugged. "Don't know, just seems like that's how the Eyes want it."  

"I do not believe it is that." Nemeren spoke, looking over the walls. "We know that this place was once a true place yes? That is was built in reality?"  

Her question was directed at the Ferryman, who nodded in response. "Aye, damn 'ting was built for real, saw it built since day one." It scoffed. "In record time as well, despite how often the Mayor said it'd take a few years to build a new housin' section."  

They blinked.  

What was it on about?  

Regardless, the older girl of the group nodded her head. "Then perhaps what we see is not the Eyes doing? Perhaps this is simply what the inside of this place once looked like?"  

He hummed. "Why does it all look wrong then?"  

Veren was the one to answer him. "It could be that the Eyes, their kind, don't quite grasp how we view the world." He gestured to the walls. "Maybe all of this is 'normal' to them?"  

Normal?  

Mono scanned the walls.  

For some reason, he doubted it.  

Even if they did not view the world like them, he found it hard to believe that they would choose to make the inside of this place as aggravating to the eyes as possible. Then again, that wasn't what the Librarians were saying was it?  

They were saying that to the Eyes, this was what normal meant to them and that this strange odd look was what they knew.  

But again, he found that difficult to believe.  

To him, the reason was that the Eyes had taken this place over once it had been built and had never truly cleaned it out, removing all the junk. Instead, it had become disorientated by the proximity to the Signal, twisted into the shapes they saw.  

Again however, that was just his views on it.  

In reality, none of them knew and they would probably never know.  

Not like he wanted to anyway.  

Instead, he simply kept directing them.  

How?  

Because he could... 'feel' the heartbeat.  

There was a certain rhythm, a feeling that echoed through the walls in such a way that made his skin feel wrong, like it wasn't his anymore. It rang through the halls, pounding in his ears like drums and every step he took got him closer to it.  

That was how he knew to get to the centre, the heart of this place.  

Just like how he had listened for the music of Six's box, he now listened for the heart of this place, following it to the doors that encouraged the sound to grow louder, closer to the source. It was, however, only a sound he could hear seemingly as he had asked the others if they could hear the sound and they had told him that they couldn't.  

The thing they could sense however, was the disorientation from the doors.  

That feeling, that twisting of the stomach and fog in the mind as they passed through the doorways of glowing energy. He didn't know how to describe it really and he also didn't know why it felt different to going through the screens.  

Was it because they were simply a different way to grasp the Signal? Channelled in such a way that made them different?  

He didn't know in reality and didn't care enough to find the answers.  

What he cared about was getting through this maze of doors, halls and odd-looking furniture to find this heart, separate it, free themselves.  

Finally be free from everything, all this pain, all this death, all of it done in the service of something that was ultimately pointless.  

They'd finally be free from it.  

He saw as the corridors turned again, a hall in front of them and one to the right. The teen reached for the wall nearby, placing a hand upon its surface, feeling the warm concrete and the shifting mass hidden underneath.  

But that wasn't what he was feeling for.  

No, it was the other part.  

He felt it.  

That beat.  

Closer to the... right.  

The teen indicated as such, the others following as he led them around the corner, seeing at least twelve doors down the hallway that led to various different parts of the Tower.  

Or maybe nowhere at all?  

It was hard to say with this damn place.  

Regardless, he could still feel the beat, echoing through the Tower and making sure to guide him through the endless halls. It was going to get much louder at some point and at that point, he would know that it was only a few more moments before they could enact the final part.  

A part he was looking forward to.  

Still, he followed the corridor and saw the various doors on either side, listening to the heartbeat and stopping at the third door on the right. He felt it pulsate through the door, making him open the doorway and stare again at the glowing portal.  

He sighed.  

Then, he walked through it.  

In one moment, he felt like he was being torn apart, like unseen winds were pulling in every direction, ripping his flesh and bone from his being until he was nothing more than a mind. In the next moment however, he felt every single piece of his skin being reattached like a raging fire, pulled on with hot wires and made to function again.  

It wasn't a pleasant experience.  

Mono stumbles from the portal on the other side, shaking his head and looking at the new room he was in.  

Naturally, the walls and the ceiling were the same, grey concrete that made his mind think he was in some kind of weird home made of sand. The other part of the room his eyes were dragged to however, was the desk and other pieces that reminded him of those 'office' buildings that he had heard about.  

Various cabinets, shelves and objects were scattered atop the desk, a chair with a set of wheels and a strange device that looked like a set of metal balls suspended by string, sitting next to each other as they hung from a frame.  

Not quite sure what they did.  

He had no more time to look however, as the others came from behind him, stumbling into the room like him and clutching their heads, Alle especially groaning as she tried to make sense of reality again. Even the Ferryman, who seemed more toughened than them was disorientated by the whole thing.  

"Fuckin'... forgot how 'orrible it was to do all that." It cursed, shaking its head. "How all those gits did it is past me."  

Mono ignored its words, instead watching as the Ferryman looked around the room and seemed to almost... hesitate.  

It was like the monster had seen something that it did not believe existed, fleshy face staring at the desk in the room with distant, non-existent eyes. Slowly, the Ferryman dragged a hand to sit atop the desk, tracing the lines of the wood it was made from, all the way to a strange-looking triangle that was perched atop a stack of papers.  

"Uh... something wrong with it?" One of the Merv's boys asked, pointing a thumb at the monster. "Looks a bit... sad."  

The teen pushed his lips.  

It did seem that way, didn't it?  

Almost like the desk meant something to it.  

But they couldn't exactly stand around.  

Not now.  

So, he instead clicked his fingers to draw the kidnapper's attention, the monster turning to him. "Something wrong?" He asked hesitantly.  

The Ferryman regarded him for a moment, seeming to look him over before sighing. "Nah lad, just..." It turned to the desk again. "Memories of decades that went by, 'tings that 'ad changed."  

"Bad things?"  

It scoffed. "Bad that they did change lad, not so much that they were bad to begin with." Came the explanation, before it turned to the other door in the room. "Not like there's much to do now."  

Part of him did wish to inquire further, learn what made the Ferryman so... melancholic.  

At the same time however, he couldn't, for fairly obvious reasons previously mentioned.  

So, he simply followed the Ferryman to the door along with the others, all of them passing by the desk, each wondering what exactly the monster had been distracted by. Granted, there was an exception to that case and she was someone who could care less for the problems faced by another, regardless of who they were.  

Hell, Mono didn't like the Ferryman and thought it a sarcastic monster who cared little for the misery it had inflicted upon them for no other reason than it simply was to do so. Even he however, knew that the Ferryman wasn't so deeming of all the suffering present, especially when there were beings more powerful, more sadistic than it.  

Said monster then opened the door, exposing the same layout that they had seen countless times now, the magenta glow starting to sear his eyes with how much he was seeing it. Regardless, the group walked out into a hallway with hundreds of doors, each of them-  

Wait.  

He turned his gaze around.  

This was...?  

The hallway that he had gone through, that the Eyes had shown him. It was the housing for all the Broadcasters that had come before him, all of them that had been chosen and given a room, numbered from one to one hundred and eleven.  

His final number.  

Mono scoffed, turning to the end of the hallway that he knew and seeing-  

Not his number.  

What.  

He blinked, narrowing his gaze as he attempted to read the number that the plague depicted. It was difficult from the distance he stood, but he was still able to read the number on the far end.  

112  

The teen pulled a face.  

He looked to the side of the door.  

There was another one added from before.  

He knew it was his own.  

Another one added?  

But what had-  

Realisation.  

Ah, right.  

Lez.  

The exiled one had been taken, turned into a Broadcaster whose goal was to capture him, return him to the Eyes so that he might fulfil a purpose he hated. Lez had attempted to betray the Eyes of course and that had gone as well as expected.  

Still, he was surprised that the Eyes had given him a room at all, considering that the boy hadn't been a Broacaster for that long. Then again, he didn't know what exactly happened inside this place, what the Eyes had done to turn Lez into an adult, make him old enough.  

Time didn't exactly work normally here and he wasn't wanting to find out how it worked.  

Instead, he turned his gaze to the other end of the hallway, seeing it continuing onwards with a right turn a few meters down.  

He placed a hand on the wall.  

Hmm...  

Mono lifted his hand and pointed to the right turn, making them nod as they walked. He could feel it growing closer now, not close enough where it pounded in his ears, but close enough that the tremors were growing larger.  

Large enough now that he could feel them in his skull.  

"What's with the shaking by the way?" Merv asked, looking around the hallway as they made to turn. "Doesn't feel very fun."  

He stopped walking.  

Wait.  

None of the others could feel it before.  

Why was she...?  

The teen turned to look at them all, most of them wearing signs of confusion as he did so. "Something wrong?" Alle perplexedly asked.  

He glanced at her. "You can... feel the tremors now?"  

"About a minute ago yeah, why?"  

Mono shook his head. "Because you couldn't before, why can you now?"  

"Perhaps we're growing closer?" Recne offered. "Such a creation would naturally create vibrations."  

"Except there's nothing natural about this place." He countered, looking around the walls. "So why-?"  

A thud came from the far side of the hallway.  

The one they had just come from.  

All turned to look at the disturbance, weapons drawn including the Ferryman's gun.  

They waited a moment, looking for the source before another thud told them where it came from.  

It was the door at the very far end.  

The one meant for Lez, the latest Broadcaster in a line of so many that it boggled his mind for how long it went on. Another thud confirmed it, a shuddering of the wood that made them all grip their weapons with greater focus.  

Something was here.  

They all knew it, they could all sense it.  

Something... wrong.  

He swallowed whatever nervous spit was in his mouth, staring at the door and what was echoing from behind it. Another thud, louder this time, an echoing sound that made him grip the knife he held even tighter.  

A moment later another, making the others do the same as him, waiting to see what barged through the door, waiting to see what would make their lives difficult.  

Another, this time he saw the hinges for the door bulge outwards lightly from the force.  

Then, a final one, the wood the door was made from splintering slightly.  

The teen steadied himself.  

Finally, the door moved.  

As the knob was turned.  

Slowly, the knob was let go and the lock clicked open and they all watched as it was lightly pushed open. It creaked as it did so, hinges barely oiled as they swung open towards them with the slightest hint of what was inside.  

They all stared, wondering what had changed, wondering what had occurred.  

It moved slightly more, opened slightly more and he watched as the doorway finally became open to them and revealed...  

Flesh?  

Indeed, it was seemingly pale flesh like his own.  

He shared a look with the others.  

Was it the Tower doing so or was it-  

An arm shot through the door, grabbing the frame of it and making them jump.  

Then, another arm came through, gripping another side.  

Followed by another.  

And another.  

Another.  

Many more joined in, all grasping the doorway, all at different points and angles.  

He felt the air get caught in his lungs, stepping back in preparation to run, to try and escape what he thought was the Eyes and their onslaught of flesh. Yet, if he had thought clearly, he would remember that the Eyes never had arms in their flesh, nor would they appear in a room like what they were seeing.  

No, this was something else.  

Which was an observation, a conclusion he finally made when the arms finally began to pull on the doorframe. He watched, they all did, as the flesh the arms were connected to bulged and pulsated as it was forced through the gap, watched as the sickly coloured skin was pushed against the walls, spilling into the room like sap. Sores, bumps and scars began to appear on the flesh as it spilled through, marking it with dust and bits of the concrete as it did so.  

After a few moments of it pouring through however, it soon became apparent that what was coming through was too big for the doorway, too much mass to squeeze through the passage.  

He thought that it might have stopped whatever was coming.  

No, instead the thing simply resorted to another answer.  

Breaking down the doorway.  

The flesh bulged and pressed against it, his eyes widening as he saw the wall begin to release sounds of cracking, breaking as the mass began to have an effect. Each of them took steps back as they heard the sounds, Mono sharing a glance with Alle as they witnessed what was happening.  

After a few more moments, the wall crumbled even more, hands grasping onto the walls with nalls that broke and bled as they found purchase, seeking to pull the mass through further. Within the next second, the walls were pushed even further and Mono watched as it-  

He fell to the ground, clutching his ears with a scream on his lips.  

Something... something had just happened.  

Loud.  

That was it.  

Something loud had just gone off.  

It had deafened him, he could tell with the ringing in his ears, felt before when the kids of the village had been digging out the tunnels into the cliffside. He hadn't liked it then and this was even worse than that.  

What had just...?  

He raised his head, seeing the fleshy thing in front of them writhe as it now sported several holes, bleeding an almost blood-like substance, though the consistency of it looked more like jelly than blood. It writhed and hissed as the blood left its stained skin and Mono was quick to turn to the source of them upon doing so.  

The Ferryman.  

Now holding a smoking barrel of its revolver with an almost dismissive look to its face.  

"What the fuck are you-" Alle began to rant, only to be cut off by the Ferryman scoffing.  

"Don't start with me, I weren't just gonna stand there whilst that 'ting came through like the rest of you gits." It stated with a tilt of the gun. "Maybe you'd like to learn how to not act like a buncha of fish without water and-"  

The rumbling continued, the concrete still bulging out as the mass behind it forced the doorway to give way. Naturally, the Ferryman was quick to act, flipping the revolver open as it sought to load more rounds into the weapon 'just in case' something went wrong.  

He didn't question anything it had said, instead watching as the flesh pushed itself through more and more until...  

It finally gave way.  

Concrete was shattered, collapsing like a wall made of sand, kicking up dust and debris that briefly made him throw up his hands to keep the dust from entering his bag and irritating his eyes, lest he not catch what had emerged from the doorway.  

However, once he lowered his hands and looked, he regretted looking.  

Because what he saw was nothing short of disgusting.  

Mono didn't even know where to begin, where it ended and what it even was. The best way to describe it was a blob, a mass of flesh and limbs that defied all logic in existing. It was almost rounded in shape, yet the flailing limbs and other lumps prevented any true definition of the word from applying to it. Indeed, many arms and legs stuck out from the moving flesh, different sizes, lengths and textures all grasping, supporting the massive thing.  

Massive being the correct word, as the flesh that came into the hallway didn't fit correctly, pushing into the walls and the ceiling to fit correctly, seeming to almost suppress the light in the hallway, even though there were no providers to it.  

Yet light or not, he could still see the masses on the skin, shifting, groaning and-  

Wait.  

He squinted.  

Before his eyes widened.  

Oh.  

Oh...  

Oh... fuck.  

They weren't just masses, lumps or bumps.  

Faces.  

All the shifting masses, atop and under the skin... were faces.  

Tortured, pain-filled faces, set into a silent scream of agony as they tried to let their agony be known, yet lacked any true way to do so, devoid of any lungs. They were numerous and evershifting, moving about the great monstrosity with desperate cries on their silent lips.  

And as the thing managed to finally settle into the hallway, a final part of it was made known.  

A mouth, a head, sunk back into the flesh facing them, no neck or back of the skull seen, simply eyes and a mouth, nose devoid. Hair stuck around the edges of the skin, raven black with hints of silver peeking through. The mouth was stuck open, revealing rows of teeth of different sizes and placements, a pit that didn't seem to end into the fleshy being.  

Along with the eyes of...  

...  

Oh.  

He... he hadn't seen them at first.  

But now?  

Now he did.  

It...  

He took a step back, looking into those mismatched eyes.  

"Lez?"  

Merv turned to him in surprise. "What are you-" She looked to the creature, eyes widening.  

"Boss?"  

Her boy's totalling three in number did the same, hidden eyes under their gear staring at the abomination that was in front of them. "Is it... really him?" One questioned, turning to their leader.  

The torturer simply nodded. "I know it is." She declared, turning to Mono. "What did-"  

"He made his choice." Was his explanation to whatever question she wanted answered. "He wanted to try and deal with things that hate us."  

Mono stared into the eyes of his former friend, former enemy and former... bond.  

Though the latter was a want, never a reality.  

Oh, how he had wanted to.  

But he too knew his eyes, knew what he was looking at.  

Lez.  

Now turned from a Broadcaster into...  

This.  

A being of fleshy nonsense that had no end or beginning, stuck together with-  

He narrowed his gaze.  

That...  

A face moved over the surface of the skin, dragging itself along in silent pleas for death, for an end to the suffering it was experiencing. Yet, the suffering was not what drew his attention, even though it was something that usually did.  

No, it was the face itself.  

Because he knew it.  

The face of one of their own.  

A guard, one of those that had been missing when the adults attacked.  

When everyone's bodies had been...  

Taken.  

And the nearby villages had also been...  

"It's them." He whispered, staring at the construct, the abomination of flesh. "It's them."  

" Who?" Krakos questioned.  

"All the dead, taken from the village, all those from nearby." He felt something sick stir in his stomach. "It... fucking-" The boy swallowed the bile in his throat. "-they're this."  

The understanding gleamed in everyone's eyes, turning to the mass of flesh as it continued to push through. "Why?" Alle whispered in horror.  

"Because the Eyes don't waste anythin' lass." The Ferryman answered. "Anythin' that can be used, will be used for somethin' and this?" It loaded another round into the revolver. "This is a reminder of what failure is to it."  

He swallowed.  

Failure.  

They couldn't fail.  

Not now.  

Which was why the boy felt the static grasp in his hands, forming into a tightly packed bolt that he was quick to aim. Once the thing that was once his friends began to move, the distorted head of Lez peering at him with hungry eyes.  

He threw it.  

The bolt was quick to travel through the air, producing a whine like a travelling bullet mixed with a crackle of sparks. Once it met the flesh of the creature, the bolt exploded into a sea of static-laced sparks that burned into the flesh of the monster, burning the skin and muscle. A hole was produced as a result, weeping the blood that barely seemed to move.  

It roared in response, a truly earth-shaking one as the thing regarded them in contempt.  

Then, he and the others watched as the wound, the blood that it produced slowed, stuck into the hole and began to clog it up. Before his very eyes, he watched as the blood became solid, forming scar tissue that was easily matched into the surrounding flaps of flesh.  

Mono pulled his lips into a thin line.  

Ah.  

Right.  

That wasn't good.  

...  

"Run!"  

The others did so as he asked, running through the corridor and turning the corner that they wanted to go down. Behind them, the creature of a thousand pieces roared and clambered after them, many hands pulling them through the corridors, forcing themselves through as the flesh scrapped and bled against it.  

As fast as they broke the skin however, they were quickly repaired by the gelatinous blood, sticking into the cuts like glue.  

He and the others continued to run, his hand reaching out and grasping a wall as the corridor split into two.  

"Left!"  

The teen turned the corner, another hallway with another set of doors on each side. This time the hallways reached out as far as he could see, with many other halls on each side with doors between those hallways.  

Fuck.  

Confusing.  

He reached out, placing a hand on the wall again.  

...  

He could feel it, but...  

There wasn't a set direction.  

Just a feeling of the direction, not the exact point.  

The right was what it told him.  

Right what though?  

Door, hallway?  

Which?  

A roar rang behind them, turning to see the thing still crashing its way through the hallways.  

They had no choice.  

He looked around, seeing the doorways and the halls.  

Doorway.  

It had to be.  

Which?  

There were so many.  

How could he-?  

"Mono, what are you doing?" Alle questioned, looking at him desperately.  

He felt his heart race.  

Fourth door down.  

Had to be.  

The teen ran up to it, pointing to it as the Ferryman practically ripped the door open and stepped through as did the others, the creature roaring as it turned the corner.  

But they were gone, doorway now opened as they stepped through it and-  

Same hallway.  

He knew it was the second they stepped out, looking to his right and seeing the hallway they had just been down.  

Along with the flesh that sought them.  

Shit.  

Wrong door.  

It turned to them, Lez's screaming face opening wider to show the teeth.  

Why did nothing go their way?

They were running out of space to run.  

She knew it well.  

Herded like prey into a corner, no escape in sight as they became blinded by the desperation of living, the desperation of wanting to survive. Yet, that blind want became the prey's downfall, unable to see the walls that would become their tomb, the trap to be sprung.  

Oh yes, she knew it well.  

For how many times had she done so?  

Cornered animals that she was hunting, force them into traps so that she may eat?  

More times than necessary? Considering that you could have just killed them with your powers?  

Yes, she could have.  

But she hadn't wanted to grow lazy from using them too much.  

There's a difference between being lazy and enjoying hunting, somethin' that I think you're well aware of.  

...was that so wrong?  

In this case? Yes, because you tried to lie about it and say that it was for a completely different reason.  

She told no lies.  

Not even to these kids?  

The teen looked over those gathered, panting breaths and fear in their eyes.  

That was... different.  

Different maybe, still doesn't mean it isn't lying.  

'Would you tell them about what's happening?' She spat in her mind, trying to soothe the tightness in her throat by downing another gulp of water.  

The shadow was silent. Don't they deserve to know?  

Six scoffed.  

Know?  

They would know.  

It was always obvious when death was rising, when whatever you were hoping for died before your eyes, torn from your reality. She knew it well because she had seen it a dozen times and experienced it as well, those moments where everything fell apart.  

This was no different and the atmosphere told them that everything was becoming worse.  

Oh yes, they had managed to get away from the tendrils of steel and hide in a run-down building that was devoid of anything, seeming to have burned down at some point. Yet, she could hear the streets bursting from below as more of the tendrils were created, see the buildings move as they worked to box them in.  

And they were.  

Because what other options did they have?  

At the moment they were relying on the building they were in seeming to be slightly less influenced by the Signal that soaked every part of the City, along with the blinding effect of the loadstone. But that was only going to last so long and Six knew that the tendrils would find them eventually and if not that then the Eyes would do something to Mono.  

She suppressed a surge of negative thoughts in her mind.  

No, Mono would be okay.  

Maybe.  

He... had survived...  

Worse?  

The teen kept saying that, but she was beginning to wonder if it was simply to keep herself feeling safe, rather than him?  

She didn't know in reality, something to be added to the long list of things that she needed to learn, though not at the very bottom. No, it was fairly important and more than likely, would help her and Mono understand how they felt about one another.  

Maybe.  

Regardless, they couldn't stay here.  

Six could hear the echoing sounds of those steel tendrils, rising from the ground as they slithered through the streets, looking for their prey. She knew they would find them soon, if not their own footsteps if they tried to hide.  

"We need to move." She told them, looking over those gathered. "Now."  

"Why?" Gema asked, gesturing around the place. "Shouldn't we just hide and-"  

"They will find us." She interrupted, pointing outside. "This entire City is trying to find us and they will eventually."  

The builder gave a frustrated sigh. "So you want us to go out into the streets again? Where they can see us?"  

Six hummed. "I don't know if they can." She mussed, looking to Jess. "It seems the shroud still works."  

"But they can sense where we are?"  

"Only with touch and sound." She told the builder. "Staying in one place would be correct, but there are other things looking for us, nowhere to hide."  

"Then what are we doing then?" Gema asked, throwing a dismissive hand outwards. "Just... prolonging the inventible till we just belly up and die?"  

"Buying time." Was her answer.  

"Until what?" Bap questioned, looking outside. "Damn thing knows that Mono's inside and what we were planning, how much more can we actually do?"  

"Enough that we still live." she turned to him, nodding her head outside. "Enough so that maybe it gets distracted."  

"Distracted?" The head guard scoffed. "Six, this thing can look in every single direction at once, it's feeling us through the ground as is making buildings move." His face stretched into disbelief. "What 'distraction' can we even make?"  

Six huffed. "Then you would rather have us just lay down and die? Accomplish nothing?"  

"That's not-"  

"Then what?"  

He became silent. "You really are a mean-spirit ain't ya?"  

She released a single note of amusement. "Mean? That's a first."  

Bap blinked. "Wait, no one's called you mean before?"  

"No."  

"How?"  

"Because despite what people think, I don't talk often."  

"And because you don't they don't know how you are sometimes?"  

She affixed with a look of annoyance. "Sometimes?"  

"You have to admit you're not very... sociable sometimes."  

"Implying that I have to be?"  

He sighed. "It would be better if you were, considering you're supposed to be leading us, but it just feels like a-"  

The ground rumbled, silencing whatever complaint he may have had of her. Instead, everyone grew silent as they heard, saw the walls shake of the burned-out building seeing the flakes of ash and cinder fall to the ground like dust.  

Six locked eyes with Bap, motioning for him to silently get the others moving.  

She knew they had been found and moving now was the best choice.  

So, he did so and indicated for the others to follow, gesturing to the hollow doorway that they had come through. The others did as asked, watching as he turned to the teen in yellow and pointed at the-  

The ground shifted again.  

This time however, it was directly underneath them.  

Bap raised his head, looking at the others. "Mov-"  

He was cut off by the ground exploding beneath his feet, tendrils of endless steel rising and sending splinters of wood, ash and concrete everywhere.  

Six was thrown from her feet, landing on her back with the wind forced from her lungs. Once she regained herself, she pulled herself up, now sending four tendrils of steel now writhing in their presence.  

A scream turned her gaze up.  

Bap.  

Caught in the tendrils of one of them, ending in several smaller ones that wrapped around his body, as if testing him, seeing if he was something else. She knew what it was after and knew it wouldn't take long for it to decide.  

Which was why she brought her shadow to bear and-  

The tendrils around him squeezed and the boy's screams were cut short as he was crushed, pulled apart into nothing.  

Six watched as his limbs were scattered about, torso thrown away by the tendrils as they searched for more. She gave them no time to do so, launching the shadowy wave she had been readying and watching as it cut through the tendrils, sending pillars of metal crashing to the ground, barely avoiding the massive structures.  

She had little time to focus on them however, given the current situation.  

Plus, she could still hear the ground grumbling, more of the serpents of iron crossing the distance of the City to attack.  

To kill...  

They were growing impatient, the Eyes wanted to end this as they said, wanted to make sure they finally had their beloved Cycle back into motion.  

Good.  

That meant they were getting distracted.  

Her eyes caught the briefest hints of Bap's head as it rolled from her view, eyes filled with shock.  

What cost was that distraction, however?  

How many more were going to die for it?  

...was she going to die for it?  

For this... end goal of setting themselves free?  

Was she going to let her own life be placed on that line? That this world would finally be free from these things? That perhaps Mono and everyone else would unchained?  

For another time in her life, she had no answer to give, no explanation in her mind.  

Sacrifice wasn't a word she used often, for to her it was an idiotic one.  

Now however?  

Well... they'd have to see.  

That didn't mean she was just going to let things happen, however.  

"Move!" She barked, making the others do as told as they exited the building.  

It was Jess however, still carried by Gema, who paused at the teen.  

"But what about-"  

"Move." She again ordered, forcing them to move as she did the same, seeing his head still rolling around.  

They couldn't do anything for him now.  

Just... try and survive.  

Then, maybe if they lived through this, maybe if they had the chance to do so, they'd find his body and bury it.  

In this moment, however?  

It was spent running, trying to avoid the same fate.  

The moment they exited the building however, she realised the problem.  

Where the hell where they going to go?  

She could see that the buildings were again moving to block them in and the teen also knew that the way they had come from was already blocked. They could turn right down the street they were on, but she knew that was where the tendrils had come from and there was a high chance there were more.  

The only option really was to go forward, not a street by any means but an alleyway to go through. It wouldn't be as tight a fit as before, given that it was an actual alleyway, not a small space between the buildings.  

Six made to indicate to them where to go and raised her hand.  

Only for her foot to meet something cold and metallic.  

Her gaze turned downwards, finding that she had stepped on a sewer grate that was slippery and nearly sent her flying. The sight of it however, was enough to make her realise something.  

Maybe they didn't have one way to go...  

She again looked at the cover before pointing to several of them. "Help." She ordered simply, pointing to the grate.  

They nodded in turn, six kids coming over and reaching for the grate, pulling the heavy lid off and allowing access to the sewer below.  

The stench hit her nostrils.  

Nice to know that hadn't changed at all.  

"You want us to go-" Cindy began to question, though was quickly silenced by her.  

"Wouldn't risk anything down there, too tight of a space, could kill me." She emphasised the last word with a thumb into her chest. "Want me, remember?"  

"Suppose so..." The server relented. "But what about." She nodded her head at Jess.  

"Figure it out." Was the response she gave, pointing to the kids who had helped her move the cover off and pointing down.  

They did as told, beginning their descent into the sewers as they grabbed the bars, making their way downwards. It was good they were as well, for Six could hear the distant sound sounds of the ground crumbling, roaring as it was torn apart by the tendrils, as the buildings moved still to block them in.  

Blocking them in however, would only work if they were above ground.  

And by doing this?  

Well, it would certainly be harder.  

Granted, the tendrils could still come after them, but dealing with one threat was better than two any day. So, she instead watched as they finished their descent and Six placed herself into the hole to enter the sewers as well. As she did, the girl felt the tremors again, accompanied by the sound of rushing water that made her realise just how-  

Water?  

She turned her head.  

Why water?  

Six paused, letting the sounds pour into her mind without any distractions, obstacles that might obscure. It soon became apparent however, that the water she was hearing wasn't on the surface.  

No, it was echoing off the-  

"Get out now!" She yelled for the kids in the sewer, who seemingly realised what was happening as they began to climb the rungs to escape the incoming tide that was to sweep them away.  

The teen herself had already climbed out with being at the top, looking down at the others as they climbed up. Yet, the water was quickly pouring in and she heard the swell turn the corner from the section they were in.  

"Move!"  

They climbed with fear in their eyes, many of them nearly slipping from the water on the rungs and the sweat they were practically leaking. One came up and was quickly thrown aside, along with another.  

It was coming close enough.  

She grabbed the next one, throwing them aside as she reached for the-  

Too late.  

The water came, pulling the next kid who was reaching for her out of reach with a scream that was drowned out by the disgusting, foul liquid. The other two kids hadn't even got a chance to speak, taken away by the water as it began to fill up to the line of the hole.  

Six was quick to back up, looking at the hole and the surrounding area.  

"What do we do?" Jess questioned looking around, panic in her eyes like the others. "Where-where can we go?"  

She...  

Her eyes traced around the area, seeing the massive buildings and the shifting parts as they moved to box them in.  

"I... I don't know." She admitted, glancing at everything. "We're being boxed in, no way out, trying to make us panic."  

"And it's working." Gema finished, stepping back from the hole.  

"We can't just stay here!" A kid yelled, looking at the growing pool of liquid from the sewer. "We... we need to somewhere!"  

"Where though?" Another shouted.  

"Anywhere!"  

Six looked around, seeing the shadows around them darken as the buildings became their demise.  

Wait.  

Shadows.  

What about...?  

But she had never tried something with so many...  

The buildings shifted again.  

What choice did they have?  

"Jess, bone, now." She barked, moving over to the guard.  

Said guard pulling herself away, looking at the girl in revulsion. "What- you're not going to-"  

"Do you want to live? Or die not doing anything for him?"  

Jess flinched at the question, eyes darting from her to the bone in her hand, all the while Gema flared her nostrils. Eventually, she caved however and offered the bone which to the teen's credit, took with care and grasped it.  

"Everyone, pile in!"  

They did as asked, looking around in horror as they heard the tendrils of steel burst from the ground.  

"What are we doing Six?" Gema questioned, looking to the girl.  

Only to see the Yellow Devil holding the bone in both hands, eyes closed as she focused on it and the power within herself.  

"Six?"  

"Quiet." She hissed, letting the shadow pour off her.  

It licked at the heels of those around her, making them shiver in fear and disgust, watching as the liquid shadow attempted to steal their life. She pulled it back from them, telling it to simply consume the power of the loadstone, eat away at it as she grew the shadow more and more.  

Six could not lie, however.  

It was starting to hurt.  

She... had never tried this with so many.  

And it didn't feel good.  

Not at all.  

But she kept going, gathering more of the shadow around them, letting it feast on the loadstone to keep growing. As it did however, she could feel the power of the loadstone flicker, spark and pause as she feasted more upon it.  

The shroud was failing because of it.  

It should hold.  

Should.  

She felt the ground tremble, the tendrils of steel rising from the ground as she kept focusing.  

The others nervously looked at her and the tendrils, seeing them getting closer as the ground was broken and thrown about. Six knew they wanted to speak, to plead for her to hurry and do something. In reality, she did as well but knew that her concentration was somewhere else.  

Somewhere away from the ground.  

Six raised her gaze, staring at the street as the tendrils got closer, sharks that sensed their prey, eager to catch them.  

She raised her gaze again, shadow now finally encompassing them all as she felt the bone in her hands spark and shake, along with her own hands. She ignored how her body felt tight, unable to breathe as droplets leaked from her eyes that she knew were not tears.  

Then, as the ground finally burst...  

The teen closed her eyes.  

And felt everything go dark.  

...  

Just for a moment, however.  

Within the next moment, she was in agony.  

Then the next?  

She was falling.  

All of them.  

It didn't take long for them to hit the ground however, carpet over a wooden floor that barely cushioned their fall. Barely being the keyword, as the teen felt herself and others landing atop each other, eliciting cries of pain as their weights became apparent.  

She however, was lucky enough to be able to roll away.  

Which was good, considering that she felt like she was choking.  

Her lungs felt heavy like liquid iron was sitting in them, her throat felt drier than any desert she had travelled. She struggled through it all, feeling the blood on her cheeks from her eyes as she tried to keep the pain from becoming too much.  

But fucking hell did it hurt.  

"Six!" Someone exclaimed, stopping next to her and pulling her up to sit. "What's wrong?"  

It took her a moment to realise it was Harp speaking and another to release a dry rasp that gave him cause to act. He quickly pulled out a bottle of water, pushing it to her lips and making her drink long of it.  

The water soothed her aching throat and made the iron in her lungs cool and harden, allowing her to finally speak. "T... thank you." She finally breathed.  

He nodded. "Don't mention it." The apprentice dragged her to her feet, the girl raising her head to look around. Many of the others were picking themselves up, clutching heads and limbs from the fall, groans leaving their lips.  

"What... where are we?" Came the question of Gema, who looked around before picking her bond up, who dusted herself off.  

"Up." Six responded, taking another sip of the water. "Had to... get away from the streets."  

Jess took a look around, seeing that they were now in some kind of apartment, one of many in the City. "So you brought us up here? Into a building? Something which that thing is moving?"  

If she had the energy she would have scoffed. "Better than being down there." Her eyes darted to the window. "And they won't move it, too risky."  

Understanding gleamed in their eyes. "But... how long will they wait?"  

"At least-"  

The building rumbeled.  

A look of horror spread across Jess's face. "I thought you said they wouldn't-?"  

Six cut her off with a glare.  

Not. The. Time.  

Instead, the teen in yellow pointed to one of the scouts and the window she had used to get them in. "What's happening?"  

Said scout jumped for the window and peered over it, before quickly turning to her with a grim look. "They're... they're..."  

"What?"  

"Tendrils, burrowing inside." They pointed, fingers moving to mimic snakes. "They're coming up."  

The building shuddered again.  

Of course.  

The Eyes weren't going to shift the building.  

They were just going to make sure they had nowhere to run instead.  

Box them...  

In.  

...  

She had fallen for the bait again.  

Why did nothing go their way?

It was gaining on them.  

This thing of flesh, stolen from kids.  

And he, nor the others with him, had any idea of how to stop it.  

Sure, the Ferryman had suggested throwing dynamite at it to make it explode, but that had been thrown off the table, more or less because it risked them as well. Immortal though the kidnapper was, they weren't and that was something they couldn't fix.  

Though the Ferryman had seemed almost disappointed by the rejection of its idea.  

No idea why though.  

As such, they had kept running from the thing.  

The problem however, was that they only had so many directions they could go.  

Now, that wasn't to say that they didn't have anywhere to go, far from it given the seemingly infinite rooms of the Tower. No, the problem was that they had to get to the heart still and they could only turn away from it so many times before something happened.  

He knew that bad things were going on with Six and the others and they couldn't last forever.  

And this was taking forever.  

As they passed through another doorway which took them from one room to another and led them no closer to the heart, it was beginning to become clear of another issue.  

That being they were growing tired.  

Try as they might, adrenaline didn't last forever and didn't soothe the pain building in their limbs.  

They panted, pausing for a moment as they regarded the current hallway they were in, another set of three doors on either side with a small chasm across the hallway.  

"What... what are we doing... bag boy?" Merv questioned with a flick of her hair. "Can't exactly... run forever from..." Her gaze turned from the doorway they came from.  

He regarded her for a moment before speaking. "Find the heart... get inside, deal with... that thing."  

She scoffed. "Didn't think you were that rude to him."  

His nostrils flared. "That isn't him anymore Merv, despite what you might think."  

"Pretty sure I can see his face inside it-"  

"Don't let feelings get in the way." He cut off with a glare.  

The torturer blinked, digesting his words before wordlessly turning from him, looking over her remaining boys.  

Alle meanwhile, approached him with a grim look to her eyes. "Mono... that thing isn't going to let up and we don't even know what to do when we find the heart."  

He shook his head. "Can't let that stop us Alle, just have to push on."  

"Lad's right, unfortunate as that might be." The Ferryman agreed, looking over its revolver, rounds checked. "Gettin' stopped because we all start havin' doubts is a surefire way to get yoursen' killed."  

"And you think that charging blindly is the answer to that?" Merv asked, pulling a face. "Because I thought that bag-boy was supposed to be the leader here?"  

"That doesn't mean I have the answers to everything."  

"Really? Coulda' fooled me with how you acted with-"  

The door opposite them burst open with a thunderous crack as the wood met the concrete.  

They turned, surprise in their faces and fear in their hearts.  

Because that wasn't the door that they had come through.  

But it was the door that the blob of amorphous flesh was now slipping through.  

All of them moved to dive away from the thing, bodies thrown to the side to escape the many grasping limbs of the blob of flesh. Two of Merv's boys however, were not as quick to the draw as them, forms grasped by the many limbs, pulled into the waiting arms.  

They kicked and screamed, begging for help that they could not offer and instead, were watched as the limbs pulled them up to the mouth of Lez, forever hung open like a pit. Then, they were shoved inside, the gaping maw crashing around them, bone and flesh crushed beneath a hundred teeth, turning them into nothing but slop.  

Not exactly what any of them wanted.  

Which is why they began to run again.  

It wasn't easy though.  

They were getting tired and they could only run for so much longer.  

Heart.  

They needed to get to the heart.  

He reached out, placing a hand on the wall, feeling the pulsating beat of the Eyes that rang through the walls.  

"Left!" He called, turning down a split of straight ahead and left.  

They followed, coming to a set of steps that rose over the middle of the dreaded Tower, nothing new he hadn't seen before. They raced up the steps, taking note of the distance down that they could see.  

Because it was a long way down.  

He... hadn't even been this high when he had rescued Six.  

Was the heart at the top of this place?  

It didn't matter in reality, all that mattered was getting to it and-  

"What the hell are you doing?"  

Mono turned at the question, seeing that the Ferryman was standing at the top of the steps, looking down as the thing of flesh began to rise up them.  

Only to then see that the monster was holding another stick of dynamite, already lit and ready to be thrown.  

Oh.  

That was what it was wanting to-  

The Ferryman threw the stick, all of them watching as it flew towards the monster and...  

...was battered aside by one of its many arms, exploding further down the Tower with no damage done to anything.  

A pause from the monster.  

"Shit."  

It then turned back to them and ran, as they did the same, the fleshy thing racing up the steps towards them. Again however, Mono could feel the exhaustion starting to get to them and soon enough he wouldn't be able to run as fast as he currently was.  

No, they had to do something.  

Get to the heart, slow it down, something.  

" How... can we slow it down?" He asked the others, panting as he did so.  

Merv turned to him, eyes filled with equal parts amusement and fear. "You tell me bag-boy, your... your idea to come here."  

The urge to hiss at her was ignored. "Not helping..."  

"We... might have something." Trazn offered, his fellow Librarians nodding in unison. "But we need... a moment to focus."  

"You need time?" Alle questioned. "We don't have time."  

"Then we'll make time." Mono told her, feeling the wall again as they approached a crossroad.  

He pointed to the right, making them all move as they came upon another hallway, but one that ended in a bigger room that had several doors along the hallway and the larger room. Said room had several pieces of furniture either melted into the concrete or floating around, the most distracting of which being a potted plant that was spinning at an alarming speed.  

No idea why though.  

Regardless, it was the chance they needed.  

The bag-headed teen pointed to the other end, looking to the Librarians and nodding.  

They would get their chance.  

Trazn nodded in turn, sprinting ahead with the rest of them as they followed, the Ferryman turning the corner last as they ran still. The Librarians reached the room first, turning on the spot and making a formation.  

The praetorian stood in the centre of them, eyes closed as the rest of them stood around him, Veren and Nemeren stood behind him, whilst Recne and Krakos stood either side of them. All of them placed their hand upon him, closing their eyes as he uttered a single command to those who approached.  

"Hold it."  

Mono spun on the spot, nodding to the others as they made to take a stand.  

The Ferryman reached behind itself, fetching another larger gun that it had brought, a shotgun like what the Kneebuster had been, although this one seemed to be much longer in length and had an extra barrel underneath.  

Meanwhile, Merv and her remaining boys drew the crossbows they had made, aimed at the hallway as Alle drew the bow she had brought.  

He meanwhile, simply let the static flow through his hands.  

Hold....  

That was what they needed to do.  

Hold.  

The thing crashed around the corner, sending dust and rubble flying as it charged towards them, blood and viscera dropping from its lips.  

A pause.  

Then, the Ferryman made the first move, a yell leaving its lips.  

"Ears!"  

It was understood instantly, all of them covering their ears as it pulled the trigger.  

An explosion happened, buckshot racing through the air and sending metallic balls into the flesh, creating dozens of holes whilst others hit the concrete. The force of the blast made the beast stagger but not stop.  

It pulled the trigger again.  

Another explosion, more pellets hitting the thing as it got close, more holes appearing that were quickly sealed by the gelatinous blood.  

Mono heard something going on behind him, whatever the Librarians were doing emitting a static-like sound, like the air catching fire.  

He ignored it.  

Instead, he watched as Merv and her boys shot their crossbows, bolts flying through the air and finding purchase within Lez's flesh, puncturing the flesh around where his neck would have been. That time the thing gave no indication of being hit, simply continuing to charge.  

The teen flared his nostrils.  

Then, he threw his hand out, sending static to crawl across the floor.  

Crawl being the key word, as the static moved like a thousand hungry insects, moving towards the beast before grasping its many legs and hands. They pulled at them, burning and sending static jolts up the flesh and causing it to scream in pain.  

It stumbled again, making him pour more power into the attack, hoping that it would be enough to keep it there.  

'Lez' roared in pain, its gaping maw opening with drool and blood, a crazed look to the mismatched eyes like a rabid beast. It pushed itself forward, pain ignored as the hands pulled itself from the pool of static, intent on reaching them.  

He gritted his teeth, finding the urge to reach for the bone and-  

"Ears!"  

Eyes widened again, as he dropped what he was doing and covered his ears.  

Again, the explosion rang forth.  

Yet, this time there were no pellets, instead a singular loud bang occurred as something hit Lez straight in the mouth, sending blood forth in an arc as it coughed it up. Again, the beast stumbled from the shot, a few arms clutching where the thing's neck should have been.  

But even with the wound...  

It still continued, blood pooling in front of it as it ran.  

The static behind them grew in volume.  

Come on... hurry.  

Again, he readied his powers, hearing the Ferryman break open the shotgun it was carrying as shells were thrown aside, intent on reloading it.  

Mono threw his hands out again, a bolt of static striking Lez in the flaps of flesh, burning it and making the small of fat enter his nostrils.  

It didn't stumble.  

Merv fired, as did her boys.  

It did not stumble.  

Alle added her bow.  

That obviously didn't make it stumble.  

If anything it seemed to make it run faster.  

Great.  

He readied the static again, another bolt was sent forth that struck it in the face, burning the skin of it away to reveal bone that was tinted yellow, hints of cancerous growth atop it. The flesh was quick to be filled in and Mono watched as it got closer.  

It was only a few meters away from them and he along with the others were beginning to back up as it crossed the final set of doors in front of them to-  

"Move."  

The command was from Trazn, whose voice was barely a whisper.  

But he heard it all the same.  

So, he moved to the side with a leap, turning at the same time to see what the Librarians were doing.  

Only to see them all literally glowing, light pouring off them like they were mini-Suns, blinding him.  

That was all he got however, before Trazn lifted his hand.  

Then?  

The light cut forth.  

It formed into a line, as tall as the hallway and as thick as a piece of paper. It was cast in glorious gold, reflecting what he and the others saw as it went forth. He could feel the heat even from where he stood and the others started with widened eyes as they did so.  

Lez, however?  

A different story.  

The light sliced through it like it was nothing, searing through the entire form into two halves, from the side of its head at the top, all the way to the bottom of the 'torso.' A scream barely had the time to leave its throat as the light cut through it, silenced as the blade went through it and into the wall behind it, leaving a searing print that almost seemed to melt the concrete.  

As quickly as happened however, it finished at the same time.  

The light from Trazn's hand stopped, along with the light that was pouring off them to begin with. All of them sagged, letting go of each other and falling to their hands and knees, trying to regain themselves from what they had done.  

At the same time, the beast of flesh began to stagger, feet and hands uncertain. Doubly so however, when it doubled in forms when the two halves fell away from each other, sliding down the walls before resting on the floor.  

All of them stared at the thing, watching it for any sign of movement.  

When none came after a few moments, Mono turned to the Librarians, his face set into concern.  

A first for this lot.  

"You... okay?" He asked, kneeling beside them.  

"We... will be fine." Trazn answered, taking deep breaths. "It is simply... draining, taxing to try and use one's soul in such a fashion."  

"In what fashion would that be?"  

Veren steadied himself. "The soul is a dark thing Brokencaster, to use such gifts we wield means to expose it to such light, burn it away bit by bit, it is why we do not use it."  

He blinked.  

"Wait, are you saying that it...?"  

"Indeed, every usage brings us a step closer to the end of our stories." Recne answered, shaking her head. "Every time, using the opposite of the shadows intended for us, turned instead into a light that harms us."  

"The... opposite?" Alle raised an eyebrow.  

They nodded. "Six was gifted the shadows, as were all Geishas before her, yet we were those not granted that full title, thrown away." Trazn explained with a nod of his head.  

"We discovered that our souls were still changed however, tainted with the touch of the Maw, power not meant for us."  

"Yet, it was through that change, that we discovered that every force must have an opposite."  

Nemeren closed her eyes, nodding her head from side to side. "For every shadow that must be cast..."  

"...a light must be shown." He finished, looking at them.  

So... that was why they were called that.  

Not just because of the eyes or the coats.  

Because that was what they were.  

The opposites, the failures, given a power that hurt to use.  

That killed them.  

In a way, they were the opposite of Six, given that she was more of a loner and they were a group at all times.  

"Ya know, that's nice and all..." The Ferryman commented, throwing aside what looked like a casing for a rifle. "But we're on a timer."  

Trazn nodded. "Yes... we need to move." He concluded. "Give us another moment and we shall move."  

Mono nodded, turning from them and standing.  

Only to see Merv, looking over at the beast of flesh with a distant look in her eyes.  

He frowned, approaching the girl who barely registered his presence.  

"Something wrong?"  

She turned to him, scoffing as she stared at his hidden face. "Something wrong? Really? You ask that after what's happened?"  

"I know for a fact that nothing has bothered you through this entire thing." The boy deadpanned. "Except... this."  

The torturer flared her nostrils. "I... just didn't think he'd go down this easy." She answered, looking over at the body. "Always seemed like he knew how to survive anythin'."  

Mono snorted. "He did, but that was mostly because he threw other people to survive."  

"You say that like there's something wrong with it."  

He affixed her with a glare, eyes daring her to speak again. "I still don't know how he put up with you."  

"Because he saw me for who I was." She proudly stated, smiling like she usually did. "Didn't like me hiding it."  

"I doubt that."  

"Excuse me?"  

"He didn't care about you, Merv." He leaned in. "Just cared about what you were worth, how much you could do for him and you just happened to swallow everything he told you."  

She scoffed. "Big talk comin' from you."  

"That's because I am bigger.  

The girl shuffled on the spot, sound echoing down the hallway as wood creaked. "And I suppose you knew everythin' about him didn't ya?"  

"More than what you understood Merv, even if you were closer to him than I was."  

"You say that like you didn't have any interest in him and I'm preeeety sure you did."  

"That isn't the point of-"  

Something slammed open.  

Something wooden.  

Something loud.  

Something behind them.  

All of them turned on the spot, turning to look at what the hell had just made the disturbance. It was swiftly revealed however, that the turn wasn't fast enough to stop what they did see, as it swiped at them.  

The thing that they saw was Lez, whose form was pulled through an open door, looking at them as half of what he once was. The other, more important aspect, was what he swung at.  

That being neither him nor anyone else.  

But the Librarians?  

They had been targeted.  

For they were the closest to the door that had happened, Lez having emerged from a door directly behind them in the larger room to the right.  

It was obvious how he got there, given the door.  

And following the sight, it was obvious what happened next.  

Several arms swiped at Recne, swatting her aside with enough force that she went flying into the concrete with alarming speed. As expected however, the impact was what was heard, a cracking of bone as she met the wall with that force, her head twisting as she did so.  

There wasn't even a moment for her to scram.  

Simply understand what happened.  

Veren wasn't as lucky.  

A set of arms grabbed him, forming a tighter barrier around him that ensured no escape. He yelled for help, feeling the hands around him grow tighter. They responded in kind, his static building up as he threw a bolt into the side of the thing. It growled and roared at the attack.  

All that did however, was simply make the limbs holding Veren twist.  

Then?  

He got what was expected.  

The limbs twisted him apart, separated at the waist into two parts that were silenced further by him being tossed into the gaping maw of the creature, eviscerated by the gnawing teeth.  

"NO!" Trazn screamed, reaching for his spear. "HOW DARE-"  

"Move!" Mono screamed, grabbing the boy's arm along with the Ferryman picking up the other two as they raced for another door. He knew it was the one they needed, he had felt it the moment they had walked into the other room.  

The final one.  

It was why he agreed to hold the ground in the first place, to get rid of the thing behind them.  

But it hadn't died.  

How?  

He turned enough to see the creature as it stumbled fully from the door it had entered, seeing the hallway and another door that it had come through. The damn thing had opened the door whilst they had been distracted, confident that the Librarian's attack had ended its existence. All that lay there now however, was the other half of the creature that still kicked and screamed in silence, as the still mobile part changed its position, now running more like an animal, the burnt half that facing upwards as the mouth hung at an angle.  

It still chased them... even after all this?  

Madness.  

But they couldn't focus on it.  

Too long they had been chased.  

It... had to end now.  

Whatever the cost.  

They reached the door, or doors in this case, a pair of them that the Ferryman tried to open.  

It did not.  

But then he touched them.  

And they did.  

Then, they stepped through...  

Into the heart of this madness.

Six felt the blood run down her face in an amount that was concerning.  

Especially because it was streaming down from her eyes, bleeding in such amounts that droplets were falling off her face.  

But she couldn't stop.  

Not now.  

They... they still had to live.  

That had been the order, the command for the past ten minutes.  

They had entered this apartment complex, ran through the halls after she had saved them, finding a central spot that seemed like a kind of waiting room, various chairs and tables scattered about with pieces of machinery that she knew were for cleaning.  

And when they did?  

They prepared.  

She told them all to ready themselves, to used whatever they had left, set it up so that they could buy more time.  

It was a grim command, a finality that she didn't like to use.  

What else could she tell them though?  

Lie?  

That wasn't her.  

So, she simply told them the truth.  

"We're going to die."  

There was an initial impact of fear, dread and desperation that went through their faces as she told them as such, many wanting to find a way out of this situation. But she reminded them that there wasn't any, that any possible hope of them escaping now was dashed.  

All they could do was hold on.  

Survive.  

For as long as they could.  

They accepted it then, doing as told.  

Weapons were drawn, dynamite and explosives readied as they looked around the room, a set of windows to their left, doors on every side except that one. They moved furniture to the doors, placed sticks to be thrown and fires to be lit, to try and slow everything down.  

Then?  

They waited.  

The air was thick, the tensions high, all of them standing with weapons ready, hearing the rumbling beneath their feet, growing louder with every moment.  

"Are... are we really going to die?" Netty asked, looking up at his friend.  

Six hummed. "More than likely."  

"Aren't you scared?"  

Another hum. "I am."  

"You don't look it."  

"Because I am not scared of death itself." She told the boy. "I've died already, came back from it, saw the other side." The teen sighed. "I'm not scared of death."  

"I'm scared of dying."  

"Aren't they the same?"  

She smiled, however small and humourless it was. "I wish they were."  

The teen turned, hearing a final rumbling, grip on the bone she held growing tighter. "I wish they we-"  

Floorboards burst as tendrils erupted around them, steel and wires forming nerves of the Eyes that were quick to locate them, attack them. However, she attacked first, power from the loadstone absorbed as the teen in yellow yelled.  

Then, she flung her hand like a knife, waves of shadow coming off her palm like blades.  

They cut through the tendrils sending steel to the floor, as one, two, three and four met it, sending splinters everywhere.  

A pause, her breathing heavy as the bone in her hand began to burn her skin.  

Followed by the windows shattering, as Agents crashed through them, screens alive with images of eyes and limbs of wire and steel.  

Her fellows were quick to attack, arrows, spears and smaller explosives thrown to destroy. They fell one by one, not a single one reaching them as the TVs fell to the ground, destroyed remains of a bygone era, hubris made manifest.  

Another pause.  

Then more flooded through.  

More tendrils, more screens, the noise in her ears growing as the remains grew.  

That had been the situation for the past ten minutes.  

Waves and waves of tendrils and screens, coming one after another till they had been forced to move to an apartment because the room was unstable, tendrils wreaking the floor, filling the room to the point they couldn't move.  

The moment they did however?  

More tendrils struck.  

Before she could act, two burst through, eviscerating four more kids who screamed and begged, turning them into mush.  

Her counter was swift, vengeful as she felled them like trees.  

But even when they got to the apartment.  

It didn't stop.  

More poured through, more bodies piling up every time they came through.  

Every time she used more of her powers, every time she relied on the loadstone to keep her going. But it was taxing her, she could feel herself growing more tired, her flesh beginning to scream as the hand that held the bone began to smoulder, burn from holding it. Yet, she still did, holding onto the node, keeping herself from stopping even as her eyes bled, making sight a chore.  

Now, she stood, a Yellow Devil among a sea of steel and glass, the others gathered around her, fear in their hearts. They had already lost more to the waves, more that fell to the onslaught. Five more had fallen, including Harp, who had been butchered by a screen that had impaled him with its tail before throwing him aside.  

She had made sure to break it in two.  

But they kept coming.  

Her chest heaved, looking up at the room, trying to keep herself awake.  

As it spoke again.  

"Curious: Desginate Geisha's ability to endure prolonged usage of Signal is a cause for study."  

Six turned to the voice, finding the source to be a screen, watching from the ceiling.  

It hadn't done anything though, nor did it move when she turned to look at it.  

She guessed it had been there a while.  

"Question: Why does this one decide to delay that which happens? To cause the death of other mortals in doing so?" It pondered, the screen flickeirng.  

The teen sighed, gritting her teeth. "Our... choice, not yours..."  

Something akin to a sigh left the screen. "Disappointment: Choice, a misnomer from your kind, believing that they serve their own function, not of any others." It replied, as another wave crashed through the windows, earning their attention.  

It did not stop speaking, however.  

"Choice is a lie, forged by mortals to justify their own existence, to make them capable of functioning."  

She threw another wave of shadows, blood leaving her lips as she did so. Then, she watched as Cindy threw another smaller bomb at a screen, exploding in its 'face' and sending shards of glass flying.  

One shard hit her however, slicing across her chest, making her drop her weapon as she clutched it.  

"Cindy!" Her bond screamed, clutching the girl.  

"Explanation: This function however, has always been in service to greater powers, to those that answer higher callings, such as I." The Eyes spoke, looking over them. "Even now, the 'choice' you believe is but a lie, still tied to the function of I."  

"As has always been."  

She spat more blood. "And... you aren't?"  

"Elaborate?"  

"You... you're a slave as well, aren't you?" She narrowed her gaze, weakly gesturing to nothing. "All... all of this... you want to escape, run from something."  

It stared. "Reply: My kind fear nothing, it is a foreign concept."  

The teen scoffed. "If that were true... you wouldn't be trying so hard to get... him back..." She wiped the blood from her eyes. "Get... me back."  

More staring. "Amusement..."  

"Who has told you that I seek your return?"  

She blinked.  

What-  

The ground burst from below them and she turned with the powers and-  

"No."  

A tendril wrapped around her arm, faster than what she had thought.  

"No more."  

It tightened, smaller parts wrapping around the hand, the bone she held.  

"Denial: Such hubris shall end, this defiance this..." It paused, an angry ping of static entering her ears. "... annoyance, shall cease."  

"You. Shall. Cease."  

They gripped the bone with force.  

"All. Shall. Cease."  

Something entered it.  

Then?  

It rattled, more than before as power was poured through it, making her arm burn with the heat of the Sun, a scream leaving her lips.  

Before it ceased, all at once.  

Leaving her to stare simply at the now useless bone.  

It was empty.  

She couldn't feel anything.  

What had it-  

"Amusement: Did you believe that such a smaller loadstone could directly threaten I? That such power was beyond I?" The Eyes questioned, raising her with the tendril to the screen, as the others screamed below her.  

"False: All that was required was direct connection to cease functioning, to pacify the designate Geisha." she looked up, seeing the screen in front of her.  

"To believe that you had a choice in function, shows the hubris that your kind-"  

She thrust her other hand forth, sending a javelin of shadow forth that broke the screen, followed by a slicing motion that cut through the tendril that held her.  

That, of course, meant she was no longer being held.  

Which then meant she fell to the ground.  

Hard.  

Air left her lungs, blood filled her mouth and eyes.  

Around her, more fought, more died.  

Mono...  

Where was...  

Mono?

Mono thought the heart of the Eyes, the Tower to be a great many things.  

He thought it perhaps a giant battery, a generator made of flesh or even just a giant TV.  

But he should have remembered that it would be... nothing of the sort.  

What he and the others saw when they walked through that door, when they entered through the portals with the rolling of their stomachs?  

It was something else.  

For when they entered, they immediately noticed something that was off.  

That being the floor was flesh.  

No, not the floors.  

Everything.  

The walls, the ceiling, everything was made of flesh and muscle, pulsating against their skin with wet squelches that made his skin crawl. The room itself was massive, roof reaching far above them with the red mass that sported many eyes and parts that he did not recognise. Despite the height however, the room was only as large as the previous one, if not slightly less.  

But that was because of what stood before them.  

For on a pedestal of flesh, of eyes, stood the heart.  

The heart of the Eyes.  

Literally.  

What he stared upon was a true mockery of what he could call the organ, a parody of metal and flesh that hurt to look upon. It was made of flesh that had long turned black, pulsating blood that could be seen through metallic veins mixed with glass that was as black as the muscle that it pumped into. Metallic motors and machines dotted the heart along with plates of steel, zapping and spinning as they served whatever function they did.  

It... hurt to look at.  

But they couldn't stare for long, however.  

Not as the doors behind them burst open, as the creature came after them.  

And as the walls spoke.  

"Greetings: It would seem the Broadcaster has arrived finally." The Eyes spoke, words carrying off the walls. "Approximately six minutes and fifty-four seconds later than expected."  

Mono would have responded to the Eyes, if not for the thing behind them.  

He turned, ready to face the thing.  

Only for the Ferryman to ram itself into the beast, hands finding purchase within the tainted flesh as it tried to hold it back.  

"Go... lad! Finish it!" The monster screamed, silenced as the other monster placed hands upon it, seeking to push it into the fleshy ground.  

The others gave cause however, more blades added that served to annoy the beast but also distract.  

Long enough for the Ferryman to place the revolver into the thing's mouth and pull the trigger.  

But he had already turned around, climbing the pedestal and unhooking the satchel he was carrying, placing it alongside the bone.  

"Inqusitory: What does the Broadcaster truly believe they shall accomplish? What outcome have they dreamed shall be reality?"  

"That I shall be removed? Free from what they believe is slavery?"  

There was a hint of amusement to its words as he fished out a jar of blood, along with a knife for his own palm. "Slavery implies that you do not do this of your own free will."  

"False."  

A cry behind him, that of Merv as she was tossed aside, blood following her swiftly.  

Ignored, in favour of cutting his palm, grabbing the bone with it and feeling something crawling into it.  

"All that you have done Broadcaster..."  

Another yell, that of the Ferryman as the creature took the revolver from its hand.  

Along with its hand, as the maw chewed through it, before the Ferryman kicked away from it before teleporting to the other side of the room.  

"Is of the will of I, of the being that created you, the perfect one."  

"Forever and more."  

He opened the jar, splattering its contents onto the heart.  

"Resolution: These mortals however, are not of the plan designed and those that our-"  

A scream from Alle.  

"-have become obsolete."  

"The Geisha included."  

...  

What?  

He turned, seeing the monster that was formerly Lez devour the final of Merv's boys, before it stalked upon Alle, who was clutching a bleeding side and leg, slowly pushing herself away from it.  

"They have proven to be a risk to the Cycle, their plans to escape it, learning from each version, a threat."  

The creature stalked closer.  

"Theory: Perhaps that is why this Cycle became this way, that the Geisha was able to twist some aspect of it enough so that the outcome would change, for even a small change could influence it?" The Eyes mused.  

He moved.  

"It is of no consequence however, it shall not repeat."  

The maw opened wide.  

As did his own.  

"LEZ!"  

It spun to face him, chest heaving as he looked at his former friend, his former enemy.  

Former bond.  

Along with the several sticks of dynamite he was clutching, including a lit one.  

He narrowed his gaze, staring at the creature as it stared back.  

There was a hint there, a small part of the mind that had once been the exiled one that was buried underneath that saw through it all and recognised him. It was short lived however, drowned out by whatever orders it was given.  

Lez roared, charging forward.  

As did he, a scream on his lips that was silent.  

He often wondered what would happen if he did what he was about to do?  

About how if he didn't know where he warped and tried to, what would happen?  

That was the question and he would find the answer.  

For as the creature leapt for him?  

He disappeared from its sight.  

It collapsed, pushing itself up with confusion.  

Where had he gone?  

Teleportation?  

The thing looked around.  

But nowhere to be found?  

...  

Why did it feel...  

Warm inside?  

It touched itself with many hands, finding a hotspot on its 'chest.'  

What had happened to-  

Bang.  

It went.  

Flesh and gore, bone and marrow were sent flying everywhere, as several sticks finally found each other and exploded from the inside. All present barred witness to it, all present splattered in the fleshy, its own and others, covered head to toe in the matter. The remains fell from the sky, tainting the very air with life as another ended.  

And as another rose from the flesh, his face ruined by what had happened.  

No bag in sight, face on show for all to see.  

But in reality, he didn't care.  

It didn't matter.  

Not at this moment.  

Instead, he moved, crawled towards the pedestal, limbs tired as adrenaline left his body.  

All the while, a million eyes watched, seeing as he moved.  

Then, he finally reached where he had been, bone clutched with shaking hands.  

As his lips moved, his eyes closed.  

Before words were spoken.  

That were never meant to be spoken from him.  

Nor any of his kind.  

And he felt...  

Nothing.  

He spoke them again.  

Again, nothing came forth.  

Mono opened his eyes, looking at everything in front of him and the bone he was clutching.  

Everything was right, all of it was present.  

He knew what to do, what words to speak from a language that hurt to speak. They were the words meant to unbind that which had been anchored, the words he was to speak of his own loadstone to undo it, to free himself from it.  

They were universal, both literal and in concept.  

Why wasn't it working? Everything was right.  

Why?  

A noise came through the air.  

A horrible noise.  

One that took a moment to understand.  

Laughter.  

Laughter from the Eyes.  

A thousand pairs looked down upon him. "Amusement..."  

"Did you truly believe that this was to be as easy as intended?"  

He blinked.  

What-  

"Question: Why would I, the greatest of three, invite trespassers into the centre of my being? To the anchor that keeps my presence bound to your own?" It asked, voice still containing those hints of mirth.  

"Why would I, allow them to travel through a creation that I control in every function? Every surface a mere illusion that you believed?"  

The wall shifted, as if for emphasis.  

It laughed again. "Why would I, send a failure to guard that which would enable the downfall of all that I have built? When I have greater servants in these very walls? When these walls are I?"  

Mono blinked.  

Oh.  

This...  

This was all...  

Planned.  

Every moment of it.  

Planned.  

The Eyes had allowed it.  

All of it.  

To prove a point.  

"Reminder: I told you Broacaster, I informed you of such."  

He...  

' All that you have done Broadcaster is of the will of I, of the being that created you, the perfect one.'  

All he had done...  

"Explanation: Loadstones each have their assigned creators, those that built them and the necessary actions required to bind them a universal function." The room shifted, flesh moving around him.  

"But not the permission."  

Permission?  

"Each loadstone can only be undone by the one who brought it into existence, the words spoken and the binding uncaring if not delivered by the one who did so."  

The flesh crept up towards him. "Truth: The first, the one who brought this loadstone before you, they passed long ago and their lips are silent."  

"But... the Maw...?" He finally breathed, staring at the heart.  

"They fell because the creation of the Geisha was that, a replication of the creator that spoke those words, that which they spent countless Cycles refining to do what they did." The Eyes answered, its namesakes staring at him.  

"It is why they must be removed from this design, they are a threat."  

He felt the flesh coil around him, a thousand eyes watching, a million souls doing the same.  

Failure.  

Failure because he hadn't thought of that.  

That every step he had taken was planned, predicted.  

All of it.  

Led here, into the very heart as a reminder, a reveal that nothing he did, that any of them did...  

Mattered.  

Six...  

Oh... how he failed.  

"Excitement: All that is left now is to bind you to I once more and then we shall begin anew."  

...  

...  

Wait...  

Bind...  

Bind...  

He looked to the Eyes, seeing the flesh bringing him closer.  

Bind...  

He could touch it now...  

Mono closed his eyes, opening his lips as his mouth was filled with flesh.  

As a thousand insects left his own.

...  

Six stared at the ceiling, barely able to form a coherent thought.  

It...  

It was over...  

Nothing left to give.  

Nothing left to save.  

All she could feel was pain, all she could feel was the failure weighing down upon her.  

Get up Six, you can't just-  

'And do what?'   

Sokage became silent.  

Because it knew what she spoke was the truth.  

There was nothing left.  

No sounds around her, no limbs that moved.  

Just existence.  

Filled now, as a screen entered her vision.  

"Amusement: Did the Geisha truly believe they would succeed?"  

She could only stare with spite.  

"Every step you took was a planned endeavour, every plan you made predicted."  

The teen kept silent.  

"Finality: Unfortunately, future plans do not involve you."  

No sounds left her.  

"For you are a threat to-"  

She plunged her fist into the screen with what she had left, shadows tearing through it.  

The screen shattered and fell back from her.  

Six breathed a sigh.  

As did another screen.  

"Annoyance: Truly, your existence shall not be missed, for I shall seek a replacement that will serve greater than you."  

"One that should even rival the perfect Broadcaster that I forged."  

She scoffed. "You... didn't make... anything."  

"Silence."  

"All of this? Everything you... made?" She swallowed the blood. "Is... ours, never yours."  

"And what decrees that?"  

"We do." She breathed. "I chose to die, I chose to end, you don't."  

It stared. "Spite: Even now, you seek to defy what I am, even with all that was displayed, you still-"  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

She was floating.  

One moment she was there, lying on a wooden floor with blood leaving her body, surrounded by steel and death.  

In the next, she was floating.  

Floating above the City, high above the buildings.  

Not just her though.  

Everything.  

Cars, TVs, furniture, buildings themselves, bricks, bodies, everything was adrift, as if gravity itself had been removed from their existence. She saw the bodies of those she knew float past her, along with the cars and tendrils that had pursued them.  

She tried to turn herself, but found that whatever she did was stopped.  

Like she had no control over herself.  

But she could turn her head.  

And she did.  

In the direction of the Tower.  

She wished she hadn't.  

Because...  

Because...  

Oh...   

Oh... no...  

It...  

She screamed.  

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt!  

What was she looking at?!  

Why couldn't she see?  

WhY cOuLdN't ShE sEe?!  

It was akin to looking into the very heart of the Sun, yet like all things that belonged to these horrendous creatures, perverted in every way. It was stained with violet, orange and gold, a light that seemed to shrink upon itself into nothing, starting from the gold, fading into the centre of violet. Cracks in the sky were plastered around, like glass had been broken and one could no longer ignore what lay on the other side.  

None of it should exist.  

It hurt to look at.  

All of it did.  

But the worst offence sat in the centre of it all, floating in front of her.  

Them.  

A massive, gigantic being of flesh and eyes, tendrils and muscle, pulsating, bleeding into reality like a boil. That was what she thought it was, for within every blink she stared at it, for every moment she bled from her eyes to do so, it changed from one moment to the next.  

There was nothing there.  

Yet at the same time, there was.  

A dozen, a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion eyes...  

No, there were none.  

In the next, there were simply eyes.  

Nothing but them.  

Then, with the fear it felt, the being turned.  

And looked at her.  

"Response-"  

No, not her.  

"Idiotic."  

Him.  

She could see him.  

The one she cared about.  

The one she valued.  

Her other.  

Her bond.  

The one she... loved.  

Mono.  

Floating like her, in front of the cosmic affront.  

Bleeding like her.  

For he was without that which concealed his face.  

As it stared upon the thing before them.  

"What did you seek by such actions?" The thing spoke... or did it?  

There was no other sound.  

She couldn't even hear herself breathing.  

And... nothing was moving truly.  

Just... floating.  

"Did the Broadcaster believe what they have done is any hindrance to I? Greatest among a sea of filth? Or did they suffer a mental break, thinking that what they spoke would produce harm?"  

It floated him closer and she desperately wanted to help him. "Annoyance: I thought you were greater than this, that you would know of what furthering the connection, the manifestation would do."  

"Clearly you did not."  

He... breathed? Deeply of what the thing said, raising his head, staring into the many eyes of the god.  

Then, even with what seemed like the infinite distance between them, she heard him speak.  

"Yes... made connection... stronger..."   

He smiled. "Manifested... all... of... you."  

The thing did nothing for but an instance, for but a single moment of time, it did not respond.  

Then, in less time than what would take for any of them to blink, something passed along the infinite eyes of the god.  

Something that it thought itself above, immune to, incapable of.  

But she knew it well when she saw it.  

Fear.  

Fear of death.  

It made to move seemingly, its form turning faster than anything of its size could be capable of.  

A Tower behind it, a thing of obsidian night that was broken apart revealed, now akin to the screen with the hole that sucked in the light inside it.  

She saw it.  

As did he.  

For only a moment.  

It hurt to look at.  

But he knew that-  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

...  

He thought he knew pain.  

He thought it was something he had felt.  

That whatever agony he could feel, was all the same.  

But he was wrong.  

Oh... he was wrong.  

This...  

Agony was selling it short.  

Suffering did it no justice.  

Death was not a solution, nor an escape.  

For within the moment that he saw the thing before him turn.  

It was replaced by something... worse.  

A light.  

Brighter than the Sun.  

Darker than any abyss.  

Encompassing everything.  

Leaving nothing to see.  

He could not see.  

All he could do was exist.  

Exist, exist, exist, exist.  

Suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer.  

Please let it end.  

Death, death, death, death.  

Everything hurt.  

He existed and did not, felt it and did not.  

Please.  

Why?  

What had he done to deserve it?  

All he felt was pain.  

All he heard was pain.  

All he saw was pain.   

That was his existence.  

Till something cut through the light.  

Voices.  

Thousands of voices.  

All speaking at the same time.  

But not all the same tone, language, volume or way.  

A thousand speaking.  

Yet, the boy only knew one.  

The one that he could hear, even with his existence.  

"PLEASE, WE DID NOT MEAN THE INSULT, WE DID NOT MEAN TO STEP BEYOND OUR BOUNDARIES, WE ONLY SOUGHT TO BETTER OURSELVES."  

"PLEASE, WE DO NOT DESERVE-"  

Then...?  

Silence.  

As everything...  

Went...  

Black.  

But not before he saw it.  

Something looking at him.  

Worse.  

Not at him.  

At everything, at everyone.  

He felt it in his soul.  

It stared at them all.  

Judgement.  

It did nothing.  

Then...  

He was...  

Nothing.