The Grass Is Always Greener

Kaleidoscope Addendum

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Public Services Ward II

Vapor Furnace Prime, Legend Class Mobile Station

Open Space Between Arcturus and Murphid, Boötes Constellation

19:32, 36/2/2, 15 XP

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"What's the plan, love?"

"At this point, not ending up like... well..." Carbon hoisted himself over a broken wall with his queoo and offered his wife a paw. "Just keep your head down. I'm not losing you today, not like poor Mik."

"Eyes forward then, Carbon. I know my tail is enticing," Sydney paused to climb the wall with her own vines, "but watch your own as well. We still need a plan, too."

"I didn't bring slugs for my shotgun. I wasn't anticipating snipers on a space station." The herbal otter checked his weapon and hopped into a small library. "We're not far, but they've still got a height advantage. Ideas, my parkour princess?"

"Do not call me that near my men." Sydney pulled her revolver from her holster and rounded a hallway threshold. "Clear." She came to an external wall and peeped through a dusty window. "I believe they're across this next street. Maybe we can sneak over without them noticing?"

"We don't know what tech they have. The way they hit us earlier they may be able to see through some walls. Ah." Carbon smiled as he found a prefabricated aluminum wall that was different than the steel ones around it, holding a shuttered aluminum window. "Speak of the devil. I can see through this one here. Let's get a hint before the others catch up to us..."

"Nope!" Sydney pulled her hubby back harshly by his tail, pointing to an odd blue targeting laser filtering through the shutter blinds. "They're watching the building. You didn't see that?"

"No, I didn't. It's too subtle in my vision... which means they might have similar sight and that's for a rangefinder or something. Damn."

"Well that's a no-go. Maybe we can use it against them? Is there anything you can see really well that I can't?" Sydney tapped her pistol to the side of her eye socket. "We might be able to blind them or obscure their vision long enough for our guys to take them out."

"Good idea. I'm not sure what we can use, though." Carbon examined the immediate area, then grinned as he carefully rounded the window. "There's probably a microwave in the break room."

"You're not cooking me so I can get off a shot, otter." The ottkat quirked her head as Evelyn exited the library. "Is our husband going to give us cancer or something?"

"Nah... probably not." Eve checked what that query referenced and shrugged her shoulders when Carbon returned with the magnetron unit of the microwave. "Ah, I see. Yeah, I'm more concerned with electrocution the way you're holding that."

"You're shock proof; care to stand in for me?"

"I probably should. Gimme." Eve grabbed the motorized device and found the two power wires. "I'm guessing we're making a pressure light of sorts?"

"Exactly. One cooking-grade spotlight right in their eyes." Carbon checked the library and nodded as Ilaria helped others through the partially demolished wall. "We're about ready. Now be careful when we try this, because not all of those aliens will likely be blinded. Try to take out the ones that can still see first. Even if they can adjust to the microwaves the others will still struggle to aim."

"At which point I can run through the commotion and cover fire to plant the explosives. That might just work." Sydney took out her wad of plastique and slapped it onto her shoulder for easy access. "Ready to go when you are."

"Is that safe? Doesn't...?"

Adrian gave Carbon a comforting pat on his back. "It's really hard to accidentally set that stuff off. Without a tiny shaped charge of mercury it's basically military grade clay."

"Right he is." Ilaria gave a much harder slap as she approached. "What's the gadget for? And is that a microwave busted on the floor?"

"It was one. We needed some parts." Carbon pointed to the targeting dot by the window--now joined by another--and Ari got the hint to move back. "We're making a flash bulb for anyone that can see through space-grade aluminum. Hopefully that's the bulk of them, but we'll need help taking out the ones that aren't affected." The former leader watched as a few marines lined up and then repeated himself more assertively. "We're going to distract a bunch but not all of them. Target the responsive enemies first, then provide cover fire while Sydney sets her demolitions. Understood?"

"Hoo-ah, sir."

"Ready when you are, Eve--"

"I need help!" Iolvin kicked down a side door, a hinge flying into a window and attracting half a dozen various sighting lasers. He huffed over to the others and slid against a wall, the whole time draping Michelle over his back. "They're on the ground too! Watch behind--"

"Down!" Ari pulled up her bow and loosed an arrow, the projectile finding purchase in a crustacean-like enemy soldier. "Eyes to our rear! Open fire!"

"There's civilians! Watch your fire!" Yoyo fed his niece into his lap so he could shoulder his rifle. "Half a dozen locals and twice that in enemies." He centered his railgun on the carapace of an insectoid soldier and put a steaming hole into it. "Carbon, do your thing. We'll hold them off."

"We need all the covering fire we can muster though." Carbon grit his teeth and sighed into his gasmask. "Fuck. Take out the flankers first, then we'll move forward with the sapping."

"Aye, sir!"

The lot of soldiers took aim, individually placing fire wherever the enemies poked through. "That's not so bad, bro. You could have taken them with the marines we left with you."

"No, there's one missing. She was different." Yoyo reached for a knife poking through a hardened ammunition box as he reloaded his weapon with fresh shells and capacitors. "She took them all out herself. Where the fuck is she?"

"Maybe she found Arty's trail." Ari offered a paw to her brother for a lift but he chose to stay put with Michelle. "I appreciate you looking after my daughter, but you need to focus on your son too. He could be in worse danger than we thought."

"He's a bright kid. I'm sure he can hold out until we catch up..." One of the civilians slowed down and fell to a knee, apparently sobbing beneath her cloak. "But these people can't wait any longer. They're losing their loved ones."

"Well we need to redirect them away from--"

"My quarry..." The apparent sobbing turned into an umbral chuckle as the hooded woman stood tall, two knives in her paws. "I guess my hunt starts here."

"Well, shit." Iolvin looked to his husband and then to his wife. "Zoë, don't let that woman near Adri! Everyone focus fire on her!"

"But she's just out of her--"

That soldier fell to the floor clutching his gushing throat. "I was hired to fight these baboons? Hah." The meerkat glanced at Iolvin with a devilish smile. "Whatever. I learned something interesting. The lot of you are family, eh?"

"Shoot!" Iolvin raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, but in the confusion he forgot to prime his first round. "Fuck! She's the one that--Ah!"

"Yoyo!" Zoë darted in front of her husband with her estoc raised, her eyes darting between the assailant and the large knife now flailing from Yoyo's artificial shoulder. "Only your arm... Get back. I'll keep her at bay."

"I'd like to see you try." The assassin lunged forward and low, her remaining knife slashing for Zoë's feet. To her surprise the estoc maneuvered gracefully to parry the attack, redirecting it into the open air. "Well aren't you full of surprises for a human? Then try this."

Another attack crossed from the reverse side, a backhanded stab. The Zoë bashed the point away with the caged hilt of her weapon and counter-thrusted, the hooded attacker backflipping out of the way as if she fully expected the riposte. "Are you playing with me now? I'm not holding back, you wench!"

"Yes, that much is expected. Then have at this, perhaps." The meerkat wound her arm back and looped it forward quickly, releasing her knife so it sailed toward the human. Zoë anticipated that option after her husband's wound and deflected the blade with the midsection of her estoc and a satisfied grin. "Such a disappointment. And here I thought I had a fun opponent for once..."

"Says the one that's now disarmed and helpless. Everyone talks big when they can't land a single blow."

"Oh? Didn't I?" The assassin smirked as she nudged her snout to Adrian... holding the pommel of the knife above his heart. "To think your movements are so predictable I could manage a killing blow... unbelievable."

"Adri!" Iolvin slid Michelle to the side and lunged for his gasping husband, webbed paws clasping atop the instrument of death. "No no no... Gods, no..."

"...o...yo..."

"Don't worry, pops. You'll see him again soon enough." The hooded meerkat dashed forward and angled Zoë's weapon to slice her armpit, shoving the blade into action with a tripping kick to her calf. With unending momentum she kicked off the human's collapsing leg and darted to Iolvin, both shoving his chest into Adrian's to bury the knife deeper as well as pirouetting to retrieve her other weapon from the larger otter's arm. "Welcome to my parlor..." Her surgical assault gracefully ended mere yards from her counterpart in this universe, the meerkat hiding all but her grin beneath the shadow of her cowl as she fixed her gaze upon Evelyn. "Heh. I may have found a dance partner after all."

"Eve! Cid! Go!" Carbon lunged at the assassin, screaming as he sacrificed one of his queoo to absorb a slice rather than his belly. "Do it! Our daughters won't make it if we don't--!"

"You even have those annoying plant things on your side?" The meerkat stabbed Carbon in the side, where a lung would have been if he were fully Yangurran. "Your turn. How many times do you get to kill your boss and still get paid?"

A paw snagged the assassin's ankle, Carbon groaning past pain to protect his mates. "Syd...ney..."

"Get off me! And where... where did you hear that name!?" The meerkat stared into Carbon's eyes as he lost consciousness, the two sharing more than a simple gaze in the moment. "Your... daughters...?" She looked up and noticed Sydney's features, hidden beneath her transformation into a hybrid of species. "Impossible."

"Not if we beat you to it." Evelyn fired up the magnetron, causing the whole of the sniper nest to open in blind return fire. "Sydney! Go!"

"So in this universe... I..." The meerkat instinctually crouched as Ilaria tried to send her whole bow through her face with the enitre mechanical force of her artificial arm. Spotting her error in allowing the marines to encircle her, the meerkat kicked off a nearby wall and slid to a safer vantage. "Here to do a job, Wraith. She's just another target..."

"Return fire! Cover Sydney!" Ari drew an arrow to nock and took aim at the assassin. "She's mine."

"I'm flattered, but you're not my type." Wraith took a light step to the side just as the arrow passed, the fletching friction-burning her chin from the literal close shave. "The next one goes into someone else you love. I'm not here for you, girly. Back off."

Ilaria raised her bow for a followup shot. "You killed my brother! Like fucking hell I'm letting you go!"

"Tch." Planning her next motions carefully to avoid the second arrow, Wraith coiled her arm and flicked her knife out of her wrist to soar for Sydney--or that's what would have happened if Ari hadn't anticipated the attack and shot the knife out of the sky with a trick shot. "Interesting. You've made my list, friend. Seems your whole family is full of surprises."

"I'm across!" Sydney fumbled with her semtex explosive as she slid to a stop. She peeled the protective seal off and slapped it into place below the outermost corner support column of the snipers' building. "Bollocks, the detonator! Eve!"

"It's--" A sniper blast snagged the enigma in the chest by chance, sending her flying backward with more damage to her pride than her person. "Damn! Ari, get Sydney the--"

"Fuck. On it." Ari stepped backward slowly with her bow pointed at Wraith and searched the ground for the tiny device amongst rubble and bodies. "Where was it?"

"Oh, I see now. That's a proper heroic plan, isn't it?" Wraith held up her paw with a small silver bar between her fingers. With a snap she cracked open the metal tube, liquid metal oozing down her paw. "I'm out of knives and mayhem. I guess that means my part is done here. Ta-ta, heroes."

"Who the bloody fuck was that hag!?" Sydney watched the shadowy figure disappear in the direction of her little girls, then returned her attention to the soldiers now being shot by unfazed snipers. "Gods... The girls..."

"Fuck!" Ari swung her bow to the tower and loosed her arrow in frustration, an alien body soon falling onto the street. "What the hell do we do now!?"

"I'm... sorry, girls. I'm so sorry. I never meant to see you again so soon, dad..." Sydney pulled out her taser grappling gun and flipped the charging circuit. "Eve? Take care of our kids, will you?"

"What? You can't be serious." The silver jackal hurled debris out of her way with the force of a freight train, her only goal to stop her wife from going too far. "This is overkill and you know it, Sydney!"

"You know my motto, silly." The ottkat fired her grappling claw around the explosives, then created a force amplifying field around it using her nanites. "Especially when it comes to family." She held the trigger upright and faked a smile for her loved ones as she pulled the second trigger. "There's no such thing as overkill."

With one purposeful pull of a trigger, Sydney's mission was finally complete.

Karidan Estate

Wildebrooke Perimeter, Wildebrooke Reserve

Earth (Sol-3), Sol System, Local Interstellar Cluster

09:40, 8/1/3, 16 XP

---

"Maybe she isn't home?" Caitlyn fumbled her paws as her sister tried the door knocker for the sixth time now. "Panos would have answered by now. Maybe we should try again later?"

"No, she's home. There's smoke coming from the chimney." Leannan sighed at the lack of a response. "She's normally crazy about seeing us after so long. What gives?"

"Well if you were told your only daughter wouldn't be knocking again, you'd probably be slow to answer too." Carbon looked away from the door and took a deep breath, soon to exhaust it as he was hit over the head. "Ah! Eve!"

"Stop moping. Sydney wouldn't want you to make her mother feel even worse."

"Ah... Yeah, sorry. It's just..." The hybrid gripped a light fixture with one of his vines to prevent his weak knees from failing him. "It feels like it was yesterday. I can't..."

Cait latched onto the otter and tucked his head into her chest. "Dad..."

"Normally I'd say you're too soft on him, but--" One of the front doors creaked partly open, then a familiar, if weary, face greeted the group. "Grandma! Long time, no... see..."

"Welcome, loves. Come, make yourself at home." The life was vacant from her words, Bailey putting on a forced show for her dear family. "Apologies for the wait. I sent Panos home early."

"That's fine. We can meet up later." Cait latched onto her grandmother now, trying to instill some of her abundant cheerfulness into the slogging widow. "Have you been well? How are you holding up?"

"I'm... quite fine, little one. I've been keeping busy so my mind doesn't... wander." Bailey let loose a hint of a smile as Lea joined the hug. "The both of you have grown, haven't you? Certainly you, Cait dear."

"I have?" Caitlyn looked down at her modestly larger chest and the hint of a belly that drove the changes and immediately her face flushed pink. "O-Oh, yeah. I'm getting a little larger, aren't I?"

"I'm sure all of the boys in town will have their eyes on you, lovely. You're starting to show the family looks, much like you mother at that age..."

Carbon swallowed harshly and forced himself to step forward. "Bailey, it's okay to cry. We're here for each other, after all."

"Oh, don't be such a wimp of a bloke. Either cry yourself or grow some bloody bollocks." Bailey shook her head as she released her grandchildren, then waved Carbon and Evelyn over to the next room. "I can't have you flaking out on my newest grandchildren, can I? It isn't fitting for their growth."

"The kids are here? I thought I said you should let Panos take care of them while you--"

"You act like I haven't mourned before. A hint though? Worry about your feelings for your wife before you help others. It won't do anyone good if you're not true to yourself first." Bailey opened a childproof gate uncharacteristic of the manor's aesthetic. "These two know something is wrong. If you're lying to yourself about your grief, you'll only worry them further."

Carbon slowly nodded once as he passed the meerkat. "Thanks, mum. I'll try my best."

"You better try quickly." Evelyn crouched as a small clone of Carbon attempted escape, the boy looking very much the spitting image of his father but with a few more prominent Yangurran features. "Chroma! You're so big! I see you grow as fast as your big sisters did, don't you?"

Carbon caught the other child as she tried to escape, a perfect match of various silver furs to her twin brother. "Woah now, Luma. Don't go running off."

"They're so cute!" Cait beamed a smile for the two and the twins enthusiastically rushed her knees. "The last time I saw you I could hold you both in one arm. Look at you now!"

Lea fell to a knee and snagged Chroma by a queo tendril. "Hey, give me some love too."

"They're looking happy, at least." Carbon followed Bailey to a sofa beside a smoldering fire and chose to load more wood and stoke the flames. "Was everything alright? There weren't any complications, I hope. They can breathe normal air fine?"

"These two wonderous kits are in perfect health, far better than mine when I can't keep up with them, apparently." Bailey eased into her seat and finally relaxed. "I didn't expect to take care of them for so long. I'm... guessing you had to leave them due to..."

"...Yeah. Mum, we couldn't sit by and do nothing. People were in danger and--"

"Watch the fire, honey." Evelyn snagged a wayward tail dangerously close to the fireplace and took a fire poker from her mate, using her imperviousness to flame to directly tend the embers with her paw. "Bailey, your daughter was a hero to her last breath. She saved dozens of lives that day... including ours, most likely."

"I have no doubt Sydney gave her all. That ran in her blood, the same as my poor Tristan." The meerkat took a moment to reflect on her memories, then slapped the place beside her. "But enough of that. Let's discuss more pleasant matters with the children about, like how you look rather like a coyote of sorts."

"A jackal, actually. I felt... like it might be nice to have a more relatable identity. My brother and I don't really have original forms, after all."

"Your brother? You have family, dear?"

Carbon lowered his voice and found an armchair nearby. "She insists she does. I'm... not sure how to handle that kind of trauma."

"Damnit, Carbon. We're not doing this again. Flynt is--"

"Eve, woah. Calm down, please. We can figure out how to get you help later, but for the sake of the kids..."

Evelyn frowned in frustration, her eyes and ears darting to a space beside her often. "Alright. But you need to promise me you'll actually hear me out later, not just call me crazy."

"Enough. I'm already at my limits dealing with my daughter's death. Whatever demons you two carried home from that battlefield, keep them off of this consecrated ground if you will, thank you."

"Sorry, mum. We... had a lot of losses... A lot of Spirits forging Paths." Carbon panicked as the full weight of Cait and Luma hopped into his lap. "Ouch. What gives, sweetie?"

"Nothing. Luma just wants to cuddle. I decided that sounded delicious too."

"...Da..." Luma slithered her queoo around her father's sides and entwined them to his. "Dada."

"Spirits..." Carbon gave his daughter a kiss atop her head, fighting and failing to keep his face barren of tears. "Yes, dear. I'm your 'dada'."

"Ma..ma?"

The distraught otter shook his head, the kisses now flowing forth as readily as his tears. "I'm sorry, Luma. Your 'mama' is... is not..."

Bailey stood and placed a single kiss on her son-in-law's head as the whole of her grandchildren swarmed him for a family hug. "Take all the time you need, son. My house is our house." She rose slowly, looking out the rear windows to the garden where her husband now rested. "We'll stay strong together. I'll... go make some tea."

"I'll help." Evelyn joined Bailey to the kitchen, nodding in satisfaction at the pile of children so endeared to their father's wellbeing. "I've always taken care of Carbon by myself. It wasn't easy." The silver jackal held the door for her mother-in-law as she stared back. "But with the family we've raised, perhaps life will finally be a little easier on his soul."

"Love and time, dear." Bailey pulled a kettle from a cupboard and held it under a water faucet. "It takes a lot of both and the willpower to apply them, but that's all it takes to heal a broken heart."

"That's... beautiful. You have a way with words, mum."

"Well you are talking to a songwriter. But that little gem isn't mine." The meerkat took her kettle of water and placed it on the stove, taking a deep breath as moisture welled in her eyes. "Those words come courtesy my daughter's muzzle, when I had lost my own mate."

"Sydney said that? She... didn't always like to act soft, but..."

"She had just smashed a dozen bottles of whisky after downing half of one, love. It wasn't a condolence..." Bailey sank as her legs betrayed her. "She made a promise, that then and there we would stand strong and... overcome Tristan's death together..."

"Mum..." Evelyn caught her mother and held her close. "Sydney really was someone special, wasn't she?"

"Of course she was." Bailey fought to regain control, only falling further into her new daughter's embrace. "She was a Karidan."

The Nexus

Intersection of Time and Space

---

"Oh, there you are." A very friendly face greeted Sydney with a hearty grin. "Good morning, sunshine."

"V-Volk?" Sydney fluttered her eyes in her foggy, bright environment, soon realizing she was laying in the husky's lap. "I'm... I've been here..." She tried jerking upright and immediately lost her sense of balance. "Bloody hell! I still haven't relayed my dad's message from the last time yet!"

"It's alright, sugar. Everyone's disoriented for a bit when they make their way here the sad way." Vasily looked over to his side and nudged his chin to Cassandra. "Some of us don't come around as fast, my son's girl over there for example. She took the better part of a year to wake up for some reason."

"Really? How long have I been out? Is there even a sense of time here?" Sydney then noticed a very generous massaging of a paw below her shirt. "And why the fuck can't you keep your paws to yourself? Horny bastard..."

"It gets lonely up here. Sue me." Volk pulled his paw free and helped Sydney sit upright. "Honestly I was getting a bit bored holding you all those months. Sorry, Cid."

"Months?"

"Not much different than Cassandra over there." Vasily cleared his head and a gap in space opened up before him, granting a ghostly viewport into the world he one occupied. "See? Hm... Looks like Iolvin is still stuck to my grandson's side. Glad I taught that boy well."

"What... am I...?" Sydney lost her sense of balance, toppling into Vasily's chest. "Why do I feel so weak? I... I just want to be able to do that."

"It takes a bit of getting used to, Cid." Volk shifted the viewpoint to find Carbon. "Aha. That wife of yours is like a beacon in this place. Makes finding my old pal a lot easier."

"Carbon... Evelyn..." The two ran circles around a room with two blobs of quicksilver, pulling a well into Sydney's heart. "They look so happy. Are those...?"

"Your children? They sure are."

"They're so big... Have they been doing well? Are they--?"

"They have a good family. It's all fine." Volk nudged the view back a bit, showing Bailey giggling across the room as she played a violin, the lively music driving the children to their hyperactivity. "Things are considerably less glum than my own side of the family, thankfully. You'll see it all though. It doesn't take much time for us martyrs to get used to this looking glass stuff."

"Martyrs, eh...?" Sydney smiled as her older children joined the fun, bringing warm cookies for their younger siblings. "I'm fine with that. If it means they get to live like this, I'll take that trade."

"I took a lot longer than that to come around myself. Lucky you."

"Well you had a lot more time to watch over everyone so I envy you in a way."

"Yeah... The grass is always greener, eh?"

"What's wrong. You're not the type to mope."

Vasily closed down his viewport and took a slow breath. "I'm just concerned for my grandson and his... well, I guess they are mates, after all." He shimmied so Sydney could see around him and offered a view of a very frustrated, very exhausted vixen. "This poor little lady gave some of herself to keep us here. I can't help feeling like I owe her a helping paw. I offered to help but she just kept pointing me to you."

"Vixellyn? She's here? She... died, or someone...?"

"I guess you could say that. It doesn't feel quite the same with her as the others. Hell..." Volk lifted Sydney up and placed a kiss on her lips. "Even my sleeping beauty has the same feeling about her."

Sydney averted her eyes as her face flooded purple with tinted blood. "M-Maybe I can help. What's bothering her?"

"Honestly, I can't comprehend it. It's something greater than those of us here. I do know she's been gathering more of us though... or more that feel like you, actually." Vasily shut his eyes and some of the ethereal fog cleared away, revealing potentially thousands of Gnomes. "I can't figure out what her goal is here. The people she's calling don't seem to have a common thread between them."

"No, she knows what she's doing. If you saw her during that battle... Vix seemed to be more than capable of something great, or at least confident toward that point." Sydney wobbled to her hindpaws and faced the flustered fox. "If I can help her and pay her back for the both of us, I'm taking the opportunity. Want to help?"

"I told you I don't know how, right?"

"That doesn't sound like my Volk. My Volk taught us to engineer our own solutions with what little we had at paw." Sydney reached a paw down, offering to lift the much larger husky. "Come on. Family comes first, right?"

"Heh. That's my Cid alright. Yeah, family comes..." Vasily held his paw out, snickering to himself as is fingers phased clean through Sydney's paw. "Is that it? I see now."

"What? Hey, stop screwing around, big guy."

"Not my call, kiddo." Vasily shook his head slowly, his trademark grin only growing larger. "Do me a favor?"

Sydney scrambled to grab ahold of her friend, completely unable to make physical contact. "Wh-What's...?"

"Focus, soldier!" The fog started condensing into heavy clouds, hastening Vasily's words. "Just one thing. Please, kiddo?"

Sydney held out her arms, desperate to keep her friend in view. "You name it, I'm on it."

"Don't waste it."

Karidan Estate

19:45, 06/2/2, 17 XP

---

"Carbon, love? Why don't you head to bed?" Bailey stepped out the back door, wrapped tightly in her night robes. "Bloody... You'll catch your death out here, I'll have you know."

"It's going to snow. You know I can't just let that fly." Carbon took his umbrella and held it out, carefully stepping ahead of a small path. He eased down and placed the cover over one of two graves, shielding it from the coming flurry. "There. Weather the storm, Sydney. You always do."

Bailey stood at her son's side, hugging against him for warmth. "That's because she's in proper company."

"It really is nice that she's beside her father. I like to think she's not alone where she went."

"You misunderstand me, son." The meerkat gave her son's gas mask a playful rasp of her claws. "She's lucky to have you here, even after she's gone. I'm sure she enjoys the daily attention."

"I know you want me to move on without her. Know that I'm not holding myself back or anything. I just... choose to rest for a bit. I grew up with war, and it's ironic that only beside Sydney's resting place have I found peace." Carbon checked the door as Evelyn came out to join the two. "I'll move on. Just let me stay at her side a little while longer."

"I won't deny my daughter a little more time with her soulmate. Just don't let it get the better of your health, dear."

"That includes sleep, Carbon." Evelyn nudged against his other side, sandwiching the hybrid. "It's almost midnight and you're overdue for a hibernation cycle."

"You know I couldn't miss this. It's the anniversary of her ultimate gift." Carbon checked his modified Vietnam era watch as it passed pulsar midnight, smirking as a snowflake landed on the glass. "Well that's that. Good night, Sydney. Sleep well."

"...I won't."

Bailey fell faint, barely caught by two queoo. "Mum! Damn, you scared the crap out of--" Carbon froze in place as he looked to a grip on his arm, the paw belonging to his lost wife. "Path to the Abyss..."

"Carbon? Eve?" Sydney quirked her head in utter confusion. "Wait, wasn't I just talking to... uh...?"

"Sydney!" Carbon threw himself upon his mate's small frame, tackling her to the grass. "H-How!? Spirits, this is crazy!"

"I... was with Volk for a bit, and then..."

"Holy crap. You saw Vasily?" Carbon shook his head and crammed his mouth upon his wife's own for a much needed kiss. "I don't know what strings that old hound pulled, but I'm paying him a visit next! Fuck, I missed you s-so... so damned much..."

"Don't cry, silly otter." Sydney brought a thumb up to his face and brushed the tears from his eyes. "I'm real. I don't know how or why, but I'm back for you."

Evelyn harrumphed and held out a blanket she originally brought for Carbon. "Er... As much as I'm willing to overlook regarding this family's habits, I'm not sure I can ignore."

"Huh?" Carbon pressed himself up a bit and realized he was laying on his very nude wife atop her own grave. "G-Give me th-that!"

"Hey, not so fast. At least promise we'll have a go in a proper bed later." Sydney smiled as her mates helped cover and lift their ottkat from her grave. "Oh, bugger. What did you do to my mum?"

"Huh? Oh!"

"I've got her. Grab mum." Evelyn held back a chuckle as she lifted her wife for a kiss of her own. "I'm... not even sure how to express how happy I am to see you, Sydney."

"You can start by finding the nearest hot bath." The ottkat grinned a familiar, possessed grin, her gaze holding upward as the snow cascaded and danced. "I won't waste it..."

"Hm?" Carbon lifted Bailey into his own arms and followed Eve's lead. "Oh, we won't waste that bath. No, we're just going to soak and cuddle until it goes cold again, my love."

"That's a promise, is it? I happen to know you're an otter of your word." Sydney couldn't shake that inherited trademark grin now hers, lowering her voice to a contented mumble as she whispered into the night sky. "No, I won't waste one minute of this second chance at happiness."