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Chapter VIII

Pollenburn

The hospital doors burst open. It was already packed with victims of the Puritan attack but the presence of two Elemental Lords put the young wolf severely bleeding on the gurney at top priority. Nurses cleared the way for others while doctors swarmed over the unconscious Jacob Reaper. They inserted IVs filled with a nutrient serum in his arm while they gave him doses of the metabolic version to hasten his recovery. All the while, Rex kept his paws constantly on his brother's chest, channelling the power of the cosmos to heal the severe wounds he had suffered.

"We've got massive internal bleeding!"

"Left lung is punctured! Get him to the ER!"

"I need another IV here! Stat!"

A paw suddenly pushed Rex back, keeping him from passing through the double doors into the ER.

"I'm sorry, sir. We can't let you in."

"What!?" Rex demanded, staring at the doctor fiercely. "I've got the ability to heal him!"

"Perhaps but do you have the ability to extract his ribs from his lungs and reset it?"

Rex balked and the doctor placed a gentle paw on his shoulder and turned him towards the waiting room. There were dozens of people there, all of them staring wide-eyed at Rex and Gale. A nearby screen showed the battle from a long ranged camera. An official press release from the Black Ring was playing over imagery of the entire battle. They were already calling Jacob the hero of the century.

"Just rest up, sir," the doctor said. "We'll take good care of your brother."

Rex gave the doctor a fierce, threatening stare. "He better make it out of there alive. Or so help me..."

He turned with a huff but not before glancing through the windows of the doors and watching the surgeons already inside prepping his brother. A feeling of helplessness fell upon him. It was just like how he felt when he had heard that his mother had been killed in action. Already an Elemental Lord and he couldn't even save his own parent. Now his brother...

He shut the tears away and immediately stepped through a portal, leaving the hospital. A second later, he was back in the desolated park where the battle had occurred. Medical tents had been hastily erected to treat all the people that had been injured by the Puritan. He raced to the one he knew contained Silas and charged in. Relief washed over him when he saw the hunky, older wolf seated upright on one of the beds, watching the reports. Cal was with there with him but Rex ignored Silas' younger partner and raced towards his boyfriend.

No one else was in the tent, giving Rex no reason not to wrap his arms around the older wolf, sobbing quietly into his bare chest.

"Is Jake going to be okay?" Cal asked softly.

Rex shook his head. "I'm not sure... He's pretty beat up... They're performing surgery on him now."

"He was pretty awesome, though." Cal gave him a reassuring smile. "He really kicked ass. Save mine too..." Cal wrung his paws together. His legs were heavily bandaged but thanks to modern medicine, they would heal up within an hour or so. In theory, Jacob would be up and running in that time as well... but Cal had just been crushed beneath fifty tonnes of ice. Jacob used a weapon of unimaginable power to the limits of his body. What that could've done to him

"I should never have let him fight..." Rex muttered. "We could've stopped that thing without him..."

"Dorthiel," said Silas softly. "They're calling the Puritan 'Dorthiel' now." He let out a long sigh. "First Puritan in hundreds of years and your brother defeated it all by himself." His big paw gently ran circles around Rex's back. "You should be proud."

Rex sniffled softly, wiping his nose and nodding. "I am." He managed a shaky smile. "I really am."

"You want to sit here a while with me?"

He glanced over to Cal who lifted his paws and indicated that he didn't mind being the third wheel in the tender moment. Rex then slipped into the bed beside Silas. Initially, he was over the covers then Silas rolled his eyes, yanked the sheets out from beneath him and then draped it over him. The bigger wolf wrapped his arms around Rex's shoulders, pulling them closer together as they watched the news.

"Scientists all over the world have already begun analysing the battle, claiming that Dorthiel was certainly on the precipice of being classified as a two-winged Puritan. They are praising MODD's fast response to the event. However, anti-MODD activists claim that the appearance of the Puritan is to be blamed on MODD's practices and is demanding the corporation release all that they know about the event.

"MODD representatives, however, have reminded everyone that they are still dealing with a devastating plague that is ravaging Pollenburn. Their focus has shifted to the evacuation of Pollenburn and any questions have been put on hold until the entire crisis has been dealt with. Over 40% of the city has been overrun and thus far, quarantine efforts have failed. Evacuation procedures are still under way. We go now to our correspondent on the ground..."

The image shifted to that of a local police officer who was overseeing the evacuation of a district. With significant time now bought, the threat of a particle cannon strike had been abated. The fact that Jacob, a killer of Puritans, was still within the city and under high care meant that MODD nor Rillotia was about to nuke the city. Jacob was an incredibly valuable asset now. As more news spread, Rex only feared what other powers in the world would want to influence him. Death tolls were skyrocketing as more and more of the city fell to the plague. A purging of Pollenburn was still not out of the equation but at least now, the board of directors and the president were given pause.

The tent flaps suddenly sprang open. Sherry stepped in and froze the moment she saw Rex and Silas cuddling. Rex didn't care and maybe just to spite her a little, he nuzzled Silas all the more. It comforted him greatly when his big daddy wolf held him all the tighter even under the gaze of his commanding officer.

Sherry opened her beak to speak but then quickly shut her eyes and winced as Max stepped in beside her. The dragon's eyebrows rose when they settled on Rex. To that, Rex did feel worry.

"Huh..." Max said. "That's cute."

Sherry opened one eye at him, clearly surprised that the dragon didn't start mouthing off at Rex. "You're... okay with this?"

"What people do in their down time is entirely their business," answered Max. "If Rex likes to cheat on his football player boyfriend with another wolf to fulfil his daddy complex, that's his business." He shrugged absently. "I like to masturbate to the nude pictures Jake sent me as progress shots while he was building his body."

An inferno suddenly exploded in Rex and he was instantly on his feet. "You what!?"

Max snickered and held out his hand towards Sherry. "Too easy."

The hawk grimaced and dug into her coat, fishing out fifty credits in notes which she handed to Max. "It really isn't fair that the two of them were cuddling."

"Please," Max answered, counting off the notes smugly. "Either he was boning the older one because he secretly yearns to please his dad or he was doing the smaller one because he's replacing the kid with Jake and wants to get that close with his brother."

Rex's cheeks turned bright red and even Cal looked horrified. "I do not want to bone my brother! Shut up!"

Max winced loudly. "Damn. I should've gone double or nothing." He fanned himself with the bills. "You really are too easy to wind up, Rex. Chill."

"Chill? Chill!?" Rex bellowed. "My brother is in the ER!"

"And you're here cuddling with your surrogate father," Max countered. "If you didn't believe Jake could make it through this one, you wouldn't be here. Or you really are more of a coward than I first suspected."

His face feeling red hot, Rex bared his fangs at the dragon. "You -"

"I know Jake better than you, Rex. He'll put through this one. I have no doubt." He reached into the small satchel bag he carried and patted it lightly. "I already got him his waking up present. I figure with his new attire, he'd like to be reminded of his Worldrider roots. A courier bag would fit, don't you think."

Sherry jabbed the dragon in the ribs with her elbow. "Stop being such an ass."

Max rolled his eyes. "Fine." He broke up the bills and handed half to Rex. "Here. Technically it's yours."

"I don't want it," grunted Rex, crossing his arms. "And shouldn't you two being managing the plague or something?"

The two officers exchanged glances, all their mirth fading.

"Our efforts to contain the plague aren't working," Sherry said grimly. "I've ordered anyone capable of using a wind-based Seal to try and stall the winds around the city to keep the pollen from spreading but I can't say anything about any that have already been carried away. We've decided to pull out once evacuation procedures are nearly ready."

"But there's a lot of data still in the Tower that we need to retrieve," Max chimed in. "Including stats on Jake that could help us keep him from knocking himself unconscious again. Sherry was going to take a group including Gale there to pick it up. If you're itching to do something instead of sitting around on your permed ass all day, why don't you go with her?" Max's gaze swept to the other two SWORD soldiers in the tent. "That goes for all of you."

Silas and Cal immediately saluted and barked off a 'Yes, sir!"

"And what are you going to do?" Rex snarled as Max returned the salute.

"Make sure Jake is ok." Max's wings ruffled slightly. "Then I'm going to personally oversee his evacuation. We're going to take him to the best hospital up in Atlas. The President is itching to meet the wolf who defeated a Puritan and MODD is equally eager to patch up their relationship with this great country of ours. You can meet us there once you're done."

Rex's first instinct was to protest why Max got to look after his brother and escort him to the President. But he held back and quickly assessed the situation. He was on thin ice with the dragon as is. This outbreak was his fault and he needed to do what he could to make up for that mistake. Though it hurt him to be apart from Jacob, at least Max was willing to let him stay beside Silas.

"Fine," he said. "But I still owe Jake a party. For all the birthdays I've missed." He murmured the last sentence. "Don't schedule the meeting until after I've made some calls."

Though Max hid it well, there was a small smile on his lips. "He doesn't like sponge cake or marzipan. Says they're a waste of space. Simple, filling cakes are what he likes. If you're going to get him anything, you might want to get him the latest VBSim campaign. He prefers the fantasy settings. Hell, buy him a VBSim arena and he'll squeal."

Rex wasn't sure what to make of the gesture but still uttered his thanks.

Max turned and ducked out of the tent.

Sherry watched him go, a smile on her beak. After moment, she turned back towards Rex. "You two really do care about Jacob. It's possibly the only thing you have in common."

"I know." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting the fury that Max had incited in him to fade away. "So when do we leave?"

******

It did not feel right to be amongst the group when Jacob woke. Caroline felt the guilt of what her father had done weigh down on her primarily because on some level, she had helped him. To think that her father's legacy was to unleash a Puritan upon the world just made her skin crawl. Just bearing the name 'Boswin' made her feel sick and more than anything, she wished she could go back in time and prevent her own conception.

At that moment, she opened her eyes and glanced about the hospital roof almost wishing for that angel to come down show her what the world would be without her. But it she was alone save for the sounds of evacuation reaching even this far away from the epicentres of the outbreak.

Over and over, she could not help but think that if her father hadn't been so ambitious this plague wouldn't even be an issue. If the people of Pollenburn hadn't been divided by politics, those lives that had been snuffed out either by the Puritan or the plague would still be around to breathe the fresh air, laugh on the streets or watch the sun set.

She wasn't sure if she should consider herself lucky as she watched the sun dip behind the mountains in the distance, bringing the horrific day to a close with promises of things only getting worse once the city fell into complete and utter darkness. Her guilt focused entirely on Alicia... the poor mole maid who had only sought to help only to be nearly raped twice only for her neck to be snapped by Langley.

"Langley..." she growled.

Her butler's confession still burned in her mind. For so long, she had blamed Reggie's death entirely on fate but to know that the slimy weasel had a part to play in it and that he had ruined their family...

All over some ideal on what the Boswins should have been...

It infuriated her. She wanted to wring that bastard's neck and feel the life leave his body. It killed her that he had escaped like the coward that he truly was. She was also equally worried that Langley mentioned that he had been conspiring with someone else. Somehow she doubted it was whoever gave her father Dietrich and considering how Khan Sho had betrayed them, she doubted it was the criminal mastermind.

So it was someone else... someone with influence...

"I heard you were up here."

She turned at the voice she had thought long lost. "Darren," she whispered, her eyes wide. "You're alive."

Darren, Reggie's best friend, gave her a faint smile. "Yeah. I've got that crazy wolf that somehow saved us from a _Tor_and then beat the shit out a Puritan to thank for that. Him and your sister."

Caroline's features softened and all the rage she had been fuelling began to ebb away. Tears began to well in her eyes again. "Dorothy?"

"She kept us safe, you know. Inside the Tor. She defended us for years against the Puritan. She brought us food. Weird stuff. Black fruit or something. Tasted awful but somehow, we survived on it."

"She always was the stronger out of us..." Caroline said sorrowfully. "I only wish I could've done more..."

"I don't think she would've wanted you to mope around for her," Darren responded. "She told me all about how your father practically shackled you two to him." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "The way I see it, since your sister was the only one keeping you bound to your father, now that she's dead, you're a free woman. You can do whatever you want."

Caroline balled her fists, her entire figure shaking with rage. "I want to find my father and kill him..."

Darren lifted his hands. "Whoa there. Slow down, girl. Do you think Reggie will want that?"

Her features softened for the second time and she dropped her fists. "No... He's always been one to follow the old 'forgive and forget' ideal... But I don't think that really applies here..."

The young bull was silent for a very long time and the sun had set entirely before he spoke again. "Look, I've been in a hopeless situation before. When I was in that hellhole, all I could think of was revenge against you, your family and especially Dorothy for what she did. It was the only thing keeping me alive."

"What changed?"

A faint smile touched the young man's face. "I guess... you could say I had an epiphany. I could sit there, in the darkness, seething with my hatred or I could let it go. I fully intended of getting out of there. One way or another, I was going to leave that place. I just wanted to make sure that when I came back, I had something going for me apart from the urge to kill you."

He shrugged absently. "And that opened up my mind to the fact that you and Dorothy were just as much victims as I was. I forgave your girls a long time ago. I still hate your father for what he's done and I would shoot him until he was dead and then shoot him again until it stopped being funny if I got the chance but I'm not going to hunt him down."

"Why not?" Caroline demanded. "He wronged you!"

"And like I said, given the chance, I'd kill him in the most gruesome way possible. But... well..." He nodded towards the distant fires. "There are a lot more important things in the world than revenge, you know. There's a killer plague out there, after all. And I want to live. I want to have my old life again. Hell, I want a better life." A smile on his face, he shook his head. "I'm not going to get that if I go hunting for the guy that screwed me over."

Caroline just had to laugh. "Most people wouldn't have adjusted so well..."

"Most people weren't stuck in a version of hell for years." He spread his arms wide. "I've got a new lease on life, Caroline! I'm not going to waste it." He smiled at her as he lowered his arms. "You shouldn't either."

******

A thousand voices rang in Jacob's head, talking at once. Amongst them, he caught Gale's.

"Everyone in the Rattlesnake Stronghold is dead."

"There was a breach in the quarantine. They didn't last."

"...something tells me that this plague is more than it seems..."

"...like there's someone controlling it..."

He saw nothing but blinding white occasionally broken by what appeared to be doctors wearing surgical masks and splattered with blood. They looked panicked and began shouting at one another.

"How the hell is he awake!?"

"More anaesthesia! Now!"

"Crap! Crap!"

A mask fell on his muzzle and the blissful white engulfed him once more but the voices just grew even louder.

"... Dimensional Immunity Response."

"When something foreign enters the body, the automatic response of any body is to immediately fight against it, right?"

"The same can be said about the Valkyrie's Kiss."

His head began to hurt and he grimaced. He wanted to block out the voices but couldn't. His arms were not responding so he couldn't clamp them over his ears. Every word uttered was like someone was swinging a heavy sledgehammer against the walls of his skull from the inside.

"The Boswins are ambitious."

"They expand and conquer everything that comes their way."

"But your father was the direct opposite to this! So I needed to light a fire beneath him!"

He wanted to scream for the voices to stop but he didn't find the strength. He wasn't even sure if he had a muzzle left to shout with. The voices only grew louder and louder, bashing against his will and drowning out his own thoughts.

But then... he found a familiar voice.

Marcus.

"No, I'm over him. I'm with Jake now."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"What do you want me to say!?"

That... wasn't what he wanted to hear. Those words just didn't... seem convincing to him and some part of him knew exactly what it meant. The white emptiness broke. Jacob felt a strong hand seize his own. Weak as he was, he managed to pry his eyes open... and found himself staring straight into a pair of soft, brown eyes surrounded by soft, bronze scales.

Max smiled at him, relief on his features. "Yes, we won."

Jacob couldn't help but grin in response and rolled his eyes. In the process, he caught sight of Marcus slumped on a couch on the other side of his hospital bed, slumbering softly.

"What time is it?" he croaked.

"About six in the evening," Max responded, patting his paw gently. "Visiting hours are over but I pulled a few strings. I figured you'd be waking up about now. You really can't sleep past six, after all."

Jacob snorted. "That's only in the mornings."

"Yeah but I thought it applied here too." Max reached underneath the hospital bed and brought out a big, brown courier bag, settling it on Jacob's lap gently. "Here, I got you this. Just a waking up present."

The bag felt a little heavy and he weakly reached into it. A wooden frame pressed up against his fingertips and as he pulled it free, he couldn't help but laugh. "I had forgotten about this..."

It was an old fashioned digital photograph printed on glossy photo paper. Most pictures were Seal infused these days to prevent fading due to time and light but this one was made the 'traditional way'; with a digital printer and an camera that still needed a physical memory attachment instead of having two Image Seals that were synchronised so that when an image was taken by the camera, the second Seal within the databanks of a computer console would instantly update. Something akin to quantum entanglement.

On the photograph, Jacob was just seven years old and it was his birthday. He was crouched on the carpet opening his presents with a great look of glee on his features and a shred of wrapping paper from where he tore into the gifts with his fangs. Rex was peering over the gift, tail lifted in excitement. Jacob could've made a joke about how Rex was a tail raiser even then but decided to keep it to himself. Amidst the multitude of guests, Rebecca and Isaac Reaper stood proudly over their sons.

"You're not in this one..." Jacob said.

"I know," Max said with a shrug. "But you know I'll always be your best friend. You only have one brother though, Jake. I thought I'd remind you that, yes, Rex is a complete and utter asshole and he's caused more grief than glee but..." He gently took the picture from Jacob and regarded it fondly. "What I wouldn't give to have at least some contact with my brothers and sisters. You're lucky to at least be within punching distance of Rex. And he really does care about you, you know."

Jacob sighed heavily and leaned back into the bed. "Yeah. I know. I thought I had let go of that. But... I guess I haven't. It's going to take some time before I completely forgive him."

Max gave him a soft laugh and returned the photograph. "To be perfectly honest, if you met up with Rex again and just shrugged it off, I would've considered you insane or in severe depression. Hearing you punch out your brother like that..." He snickered. "Well, suffice to say I am glad you're angry at him."

They both shared a laugh loud enough to get Marcus to snort awake. The roo's eyes peeled open slowly but the moment he caught sight of Jacob, his eyes widened. He immediately rushed over, seizing Jacob's paws and squeezing them tightly.

"Jake! You're awake!"

"What? You think a little old Puritan can keep me down?" Jacob chuckled. He cocked his head to the side slightly. "You know, you look really cute with some facial hair."

Marcus rubbed his chin where a light tuft of brown hair matching the crew cut he bore between his ears had started to grow. "Shit... It's been a couple of days since I've last trimmed down..."

"Keep it. I think it makes you look less like the gruff military sergeant that'll just as soon bite my ass off as fuck it."

Marcus' fur bristled slightly and his eyes darted towards Max.

Jacob laughed softly and gestured between the two. "Sorry. I haven't introduced you two. Max, this is Marcus, the guy I've grown quite fond of." He added a smile to his introduction, trying to sound very fancy to glaze over the fact that the two of them fucked like wild animals. "Marcus, this is Max, my best friend and secret confidant."

The two shook paws and Max let out an approving grunt. "Good strong grip. Powerful built. Blushes in a cute way. Yeah, definite improvement over the last guy Jacob slept with."

"Last guy?" Marcus repeated.

"His dad."

Jacob knew Max expected Marcus to flinch but to his credit, the buff roo just rolled his eyes and gave the snarky dragon a smirk.

"Nice try. But he's already told me about that. Repeatedly."

"Damn," Max laughed, finally letting go of Marcus' paw. He gave Jacob a mockingly fierce stare. "You ruin all my fun."

Shrugging, Jacob said, "Tell you what, how about I invite you to the threesome with Marcus and my dad that my open minded boyfriend has already agreed to?"

Marcus' tail struck the floor hard. "What!? I did no such thing!"

Being Max, the dragon caught Jacob's angle very quickly and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm... Tempting. One condition. I'm a top and I get to double stuff you."

"No!" cried Marcus, waving his paws wildly but he was ignored by both Jacob and Max.

"That's two conditions," Jacob answered. "You only get one."

Max sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Double stuffing it is. I don't mind getting a cock up my ass." He winked slyly at Marcus. "So long as it's from a certain hunky marsupial."

Marcus backed away from the two of them. "You two are insane!"

Jacob burst out into laughter, his chorus of hilarity accompanied by Max. Their laughter even reached the point of tears and Max collapsed against the bed, slamming his fist against the railings. As the moment died away, Jacob couldn't stop the smile that remained plastered on his face. Perhaps laughter really was the best medicine.

"Max is bi," he explained to Marcus. "But he and I have never done anything. It'd be like if I were to fuck a kinder, more dependable, more brotherly Rex."

"Hey, I'm a top," reminded Max, jabbing his side lightly. "And you're already part way there, daddy's boy."

He gave Max a light shove. "Awww, shaddap!"

Marcus let out a faint, nervous laugh and pulled his chair up next to Jacob's bed. "Wow... I sort of feel like the third wheel here..."

Gripping the roo's paws, Jacob said, "Sorry. Max and I have a lot of history together. But I get to have a future with you so that's going to count for at least double points." There was something... worrying about Marcus' shaky smile. "Is something wrong?"

When Max and Marcus exchanged glances, he knew something was seriously wrong. There was a brief pause before Marcus' ears flicked backwards. The way Max's ears remained raised, planted the suspicion that whatever was said was not what was truly bothering Marcus.

"We're going to move you out of here," Max said. "Up to Atlas where you can heal up with the best medical care. Doctors here have given you the clean bill of health but we want to make sure. Also, the President of Rillotia wants to meet you."

Jacob balked. "W-w-wait... Really!? Me!? Why!?"

"You did just defeat a Puritan, you know," Marcus said after a second. "After all that's happened here, defeating a Puritan is like winning the lottery. It's the only one ray of sunshine we've had for days. The fact that the city has gone to shit and we have to evacuate..."

At the word 'evacuate', Jacob immediately sat up. "We have to evacuate? Why?"

"The plague, remember?" said Max. "It's spread to over 40% of the city in the past few hours. It's currently unstoppable and any forms of quarantine aren't helping. We've got reports that the vines are using the sewerage systems to spread the virus. Even ferals are being infected now. It doesn't help that most of the buildings in this damn city is covered in plants that it hides the infectious ones...

"I don't suppose burning things will solve the problem?"

"That's the plan." Max stood up and rolled his broad shoulders. "Once the evacuation is complete, MODD is going to fire its particle cannon on this place. Wipe the slate clean and prevent it from spreading."

Jacob refused to accept that. "What happened to preserving the lives of all the people that lived here? All their history? All that shit you told me so I'd risk my life and limb to fight a goddamn Puritan!?"

"That still applies, Jake." Max gripped his shoulder tightly. "We've giving people time to pick up their lives. We've done all we can. There's just no stopping this plague. We could do something to stop the Puritan, however slim the chances were. But here..." He glanced up at Marcus who only gave him a grim nod. "We can't do anything more than help people get out of here."

Jacob shook his head in defeat. "Great. Just when you want to run, I don't..." He sighed heavily, running a paw down his face. In the moment when his eyes were forced to close, he recalled the words that had blared in his mind. The familiar voices... they said things that when pieced together...

"Something is controlling it..." he murmured softly. "It has to keep spreading... or it'll die..." His mind began to race. He quickly recalled the Puritan... how it greedily consumed the world around it, corrupting and twisting it into the likeness of its home. But he also recalled how when the creature dissipated, its remains did not stay long.

"Rex..." he murmured softly.

"Your brother is going with a small team back to the Tower," Marcus said. "He's going to retrieve some important, sensitive data. Things like the names and statistics of the criminals that escaped, all we know about the six families and information about Realmbreaker."

Jacob shook his head furiously. "That's not it." He looked towards Max. "Can you get me a line to Rex?"

His best friend shrugged. "Erm... Yeah, sure." Max plucked a phone from his coat and quickly dialled Rex's number. It was an incredibly long number and Jacob guessed he had to put in a few authorisation codes to get a direct line to an Elemental Lord. It said a lot that Max had those codes.

Jacob took the phone with thanks and pressed it up against his ear.

Rex picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Rex, it's me."

He heard his brother sigh in relief. "Jake! Thank God! How are you feeling?"

"Better but listen, did you suspect that the plague is being controlled by someone? Did... Did Gale plant the idea in your head?"

Max and Marcus exchanged confused glances. Only Max had been present when Rex had made that announcement but that had become a common suspicion once the Puritan had been defeated. Jacob, however, had been unconscious the entire time. Rex seemed to share their confusion and was silent for a short while.

"Um... yeah. He mentioned that he felt like the plague was acting a little strangely. And... well, we know that the Boswin and the five families were infected several hours before the outbreak in Pollenburn started. If it were just a normal virus, it would've activated straight away..."

Jacob's heart began racing and he pursed his lips. "And... I know this sounds crazy but... Do you know what a 'Dimensional Immunity Response' is?"

Again, there was silence on Rex's side.

_"How did you know about that?"_his brother asked at length.

"I don't know. _Realmbreaker,_maybe. What is it?"

"Um... a theory. It postulates that every dimension is like living body. When something foreign enters it, it attacks it. The only way the virus could win is if it were to mutate or..."

"Spread faster than the body can deal with," Jacob finished. "Just like a Puritan..."

"Say that again?"

There were murmurings behind Rex and Jacob waited until his brother silenced them before he continued. It gave him a moment to collect his thoughts.

"A Puritan is technically from another world... It came from the world beyond a Tor. Everywhere it went, it corrupted whatever it touched. Like it was spreading its influence. When I fought it, every time I hit it with Realmbreaker_it recovered slower because I think, _somehowRealmbreaker reacts to it and just takes away its ability to spread."

"Jake... what are you saying?"

"I think Realmbreaker is our definitive cure." He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Look, if what you theorise is correct, if this plague is being controlled by something then if we destroy that something, the plague might just stop. We could save this city!"

He looked up at Max and Marcus, both of them staring at him in disbelief.

"Okay, fine. I grant that but where do you think we can find this thing?"

"The place where it started," Jacob responded grimly. "The Rattlesnake Stronghold."

Rex was silent for a good, long minute. Then...

"Alright. After we collect the data here, we'll head over there and -"

"No," Jacob said firmly. "Too many people will die by then." He slipped out of the hospital bed. His legs felt a little shaky but with the support of Max, he was able to keep himself upright. "I'm going to head there right now. Realmbreaker is the only thing that can beat it especially if I'm right and it really is from another reality."

"You just got up from killing a Puritan! I admire your eagerness to get back into the fight but, you need your rest!"

One glance at Max and Marcus told him that while the two shared Rex's concern, they were just as determined to stop the plague if they had an option. Now that they did, that fire in their eyes was reignited. "Rex?"

"Yeah?"

"Suck it." He hung up and handed the phone back to Max. "We're going to the Rattlesnake Stronghold. You drive."

******

"Shit! Fuck! Shitty fucking shit!"

Rex threw his phone at the ground, smashing it into a million pieces. Just to add further injury to the devastated machine, he crushed the fragments into a tight, compressed ball with the immeasurable force of a localised black hole's gravity. That still didn't seem enough though so he opened a portal and hurled it through into outer space.

"What happened?" Sherry demanded from where she drove the small APC through the streets of Pollenburn. The area around the Tower had been abandoned since that had been where the Puritan had struck. The blackened grounds and buildings that the Puritan had caused were still dissolving into a cloud of dark dust. It was something that recorded history mentioned constantly happened after a Puritan attack.

"Jake got it into his head that the plague is being controlled by something in the Rattlesnake Stronghold_and now he's heading over there to destroy it! He thinks the plague is like a Puritan and that _Realmbreaker is the only thing that can beat it!" Opposite to him Gale sat. Silas and Cal were beside him and they all looed worried. "I need to go and stop him."

"But what if he's right?" Cal chimed in. "Realmbreaker lets him see things, right?"

"That's not the point!" Rex barked. "He's fresh off a fight with a Puritan and now he's rushing off to another fight!" Gale chuckle softly and that just fuelled the fire in Rex's gut. "You think this is funny!? His life could be at stake!"

"It's very serious," answered Gale grimly despite the smile on his lips. "But that just sounds like your brother being a typical Worldrider. Do the job and move on to the next one. Little to no breaks in between. Constantly learning and getting better. Considering how he is normally a person who prefers routine and returning to his roots, I think this is a definite improvement, don't you?"

It hurt that Gale was right. He also felt like the bad guy - again - for trying to restrain his brother when it had always been his dream to travel and experience different adventures. The guilt of forcing Jacob to sit still and take care of their ailing father compounded on the pain.

"I need to go after him..."

"After we get the data here," Gale insisted. "It'll only take half an hour tops. It'll take that long for your brother to fly up to the _Stronghold_anyway. You can teleport us there instantly and we can head him off."

Rex took a series of deep breaths. "Right... Right. You're right. Let's get this done."

Sherry drove them up to Tower. Entire holes had been made in the ground where the Puritan had stood and its decaying presence had eaten away at the concrete. She drove around the craters as much as possible but eventually had to come to a stop near the base of the tower where the nightmare had landed. The crater had to be at least fifteen feet deep.

Rex stepped out of the APC and quickly opened a portal with its twin appearing just in front of the double doors to the Tower, still blown open after Dorothy's explosive entrance. He allowed the others to step through first before entering the portal himself and emerging from the opposite end.

Sherry led the way, knowing full well where the databanks were kept.

Seeing the devastation that Jacob and Dorothy's battle had caused made him shake his head in surprise. He almost wished he had been there to seen it. Enormous gashes cut through the walls and floors. Scorch marks marked where Cal likely threw balls of fire. The air still sizzled with the myriad of energies that had been thrown around. He saw bullet holes from Snakebite and pillars of rock that were likely caused by Joanna. It was hard to tell where Realmbreaker had struck but he did see a few grid-like patterns in the walls that filled him with pride.

They took an elevator silently up to the Tower. There was a chilling silence in the air. It was hard to think that a few short days ago, the Tower was filled with laughter and joviality at the gala he had thrown. Days before that, MODD personnel filled the hallways. Now, it was completely abandoned.

"We've all come so far..." Sherry said suddenly. "I like to think we've all grown a little." She glanced over at Rex. "You know, it wasn't so long ago that I was in this very elevator talking to your brother about his ability to see his own faults and fail to do anything with it. Now, he's out there facing insurmountable odds because he can."

"Really?" Rex said with a soft smile. "What did he point out about you?"

"Oh that I am a stone cold bitch that keeps people at arm's length but secretly yearns to be the prettiest girl at the ball."

Rex's eyes widened. "Oh... erm... I'm sorry. I..."

She shook her head. "No need to apologise. He was right. I do prefer to keep people at arm's length. Even further at times. Even people who get close are eventually pushed away because I end up using that closeness to guide their thoughts to what I want them to believe."

Something strange hung about her words. It was starting to sound a lot less like a sentimental exchange... and more like a confession.

Sherry continued. "Your brother truly did surprise me with his observational skills, you know. His eyes see more things that anyone else could. We're lucky to have him on our side. But he isn't the only ally we have."

"Sherry..." Gale began gravely. "What are you leading to?"

Her eyes turned to him, a benevolent sheen to them. "I'm really proud of you too, Gale. You've proven that you're really stepped out of your shell and become a true leader. The way you've handled this situation, told Jacob dead on what was happening, you found the perfect balance between compassion and control." Then her features became sad as the elevator dinged. "But there is still one test before you both."

"What are you talking about?" Rex demanded. His eyes were torn from the hawk as the doors pulled open and he found himself back in the atrium where he had accused Boswin of treachery.

Sherry stepped forward, her strides suddenly taking her off the ground until she was no longer touching the floor, just hovering forward with her hands behind her back. Gale instantly reached for his Wind Wakizashi and even Rex recognised Sherry's typical battle stance. Though the two Elemental Lords and their escorts followed the hawk into the hall, they were not prepared for the doors at the top of the grand staircase swinging open and revealing the figure of a weasel that they had completely forgotten about.

"Langley!" Rex shouted.

Boswin's butler stepped up to the top of the stairs while Sherry glided up to him. She spun in place, looking down at the group with cold, unfeeling eyes. The smile on her beak sent chills down Rex's spine.

"Sherry...?" Gale asked.

"You're still too_compassionate, Gale," she responded. "It never occurred to you that it was _I who orchestrated Winston's rebellion." She lifted her head, staring down her beak at them. "Who did you send to 'monitor' the Boswins after their procurement of Seals was banned? Who else could have been in correspondence with Khan Sho when Winston has never been in the Tower?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously at Gale. "Who else could've started the outbreak in your bunker?"

Rex's eyes widened as he began piecing together the details of Sherry's betrayal. "You organised the coup... You're the one that killed all those people in the bunker!"

"Yes," she said darkly. "I was."

"Why!?" Gale demanded. "Was this all just to force me to seize more control? To be more assertive!?"

"It was to teach you that you can't be soft as a leader!" Sherry shouted. She quickly calmed and her voice returned to normalcy. "You, both of you..." She glanced both at Rex and Gale. "... You take such a fickle approach to your responsibilities. Instead of ruling, you bask in the glory of being an Elemental Lord and ride minimal achievements without truly changing a thing. You could go by your entire rule without revolutionising a single aspect of how furs live, content to keep things as they are. You have no direction or the path you have chosen to take is selfish and self-serving."

She pointed an accusing finger at Gale. "You've known about the coup for ages. I fed them to you and yet you did nothing with it. You've known the names of Unsealed agents all over the city but never did anything to arrest or stop them because you considered them 'peaceful protestors'. The locations of three other Clan strongholds are within our databanks and you sit on it, waiting for the day when you need to remind people that you are the dominant force."

Her gaze and her finger fell on Rex. "And you spend all your resources on a fool's errand to avenge your mother who is long dead. You whore out your image just for extra funding, never truly making any world changing endeavours unless it is highly publicised."

She dropped her hand back behind her back. "I needed to light a fire beneath both of you. I needed to sever the sentimental ties you still held that was keeping you from finding your true potential. This coup was exactly what was needed to show you both that complacency leads to resentment."

Her words made no sense to Rex. Complacency? True potential? Maybe he was being defensive but looking at himself and Gale's achievements, he couldn't imagine either of them being defined as 'complacent'. He turned away from her and straight to Langley. "Why are you backing her? She used you!"

The butler chuckled softly. "Oh no she did not, Monsieur." He grinned viciously at them. "We both had people that we saw were not meeting their full potential and were held down by sentimentality. Monsieur Boswin had his wife and even Madame Caroline, was tied to that filthy Reginald. We both had a desire to see them grow stronger. To be the best that they could be. And now we have almost achieved that. Assuming you win here."

"Win...?" He took a step back. "You want us to fight!?"

Sherry's eyes narrowed. "Compassion breeds complacency. Complacency begets resentment. Resentment leads to rebellion." She made a claw with her hand. "We always intended for Winston to lose his daughters one way or another. Having taken Dorothy's will and binding Caroline to her was his first step. We were going to assassinate the two but events transpired far better than we had ever anticipated. With Caroline alive, Winston has an enemy and he will be driven to defeat her."

She made a sweeping gesture towards them. "All that remains are you two. Let go of your compassion. I am your enemy!" She spread her arms wide, a great blast of wind erupting from her and blasting against both Gale and Rex. "Face us and learn the true meaning of leadership!"

Rex shook his head. "This is bullshit! You did all this to teach us a lesson!?"

"No," she answered, lowering her hands. "This was a true coup. If Winston succeeded, he would've been exactly the leader we needed to spearhead a revolution across the world. Change is needed in the world. It doesn't matter what. Ideals change and opinions are always in flux but what we aspired to bring was true leaders who were capable of bringing this change!"

Her eyes were afire with passion, her voice once more rising. "You think that he's failed, don't you?" A dark smile crossed her features. "Well, he still lives. He still has _Dietrich_and he now has the drive to bring about great change to Mortaelis. As we speak, he is prepping a transport to take him out of the city. If you want to stop him, you will have to go through us!"

"That's insane!" Gale shouted. "Sherry, I can't do this! You can't expect me to! It's a pointless battle! I'm not going to kill you!"

"Death means nothing to me," answered the hawk. "I would die knowing that the impact I have made will at least_open your minds to making changes in the world instead of just sitting on your thrones _rotting!" She flicked out her Seal Weapon, the Tower of Whispering Winds. "Know this, Gale, I killed your adoptive family. I was the one that spread the plague to them. Your Order is dead because of me."

Gale's fists tightened and he was clearly shaking in anger. An angry shout sprang from his lips and he flicked out his blade. He did not attack. His head was bowed, tears welling up in his eyes as he stared angrily at the floor.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you either, Rex," Sherry said darkly. "You were an unknown, just like your brother. But in both of you, I saw the potential to change the face of the world. Jacob is still on the fence but you..." She chuckled softly. "After this fight, you will possibly be the greatest instrument of change this world has ever seen."

"Says you!" Rex barked. A flash of light erupted from his paw as he summoned Shimmering Hope. However, instead of wielding it entirely, he stabbed the blade into the floor. The sound of the enchanted metal striking the marble brought Gale out of his tearful anger. "I'm not going to indulge you, Sherry! You've done nothing to hurt me! Fine, you may have let me take the blame for your own plots and things went to shit because of your plots but I'm stronger for all of this! I _will_bring change to the world but I'm not going to forget the people I love!"

Sherry's eyes narrowed at him, her lips curled cruelly. "Even if those people were planted there by me?"

Rex's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open.

"That's right," said the hawk darkly. "You and your brother were the unknowns in the equation. I could never have planned for your brother to bond with Realmbreaker or for you to make an appearance. So I sent two of my most trusted agents to spy on Jacob while I personally kept an eye on you. When things began to turn south, I kept in contact with Cal who was watching your brother closely. That Silas became intimate with you just made things much sweeter because now..."

She reached out with a hand towards the two SWORD members standing behind Rex. "I can take him away from you."

A crack crossed Rex's heart and the wolf spun, his eyes unable to meet Silas'. The older wolf's gaze was cast down, his shoulders slumped in shame. The moment that Cal began to move towards Sherry, he just knew that everything the hawk said was true. Blood seeped out of the crack, bringing with it a stinging pain that made him weak in his knees. He couldn't believe that his nights with Silas, the time they spent together, had all been orchestrated. It had all been culminating to this point when Sherry would tear a big portion of his heart from him just so that he would have the drive to change the world.

He wasn't sure if he could after having lost his mother... This heartbreak would... it would break him beyond repair...

Cal stopped a few steps up the grand staircase, turning back towards his partner. "Silas, come on. This is our job."

The older wolf lifted his foot... then brought it back down in the same place. "What would Jacob say if he saw you turning your back on him?"

The younger of the two SWORD wolves looked like he had just been slapped. Then a strange look crossed his features, like he was remembering something fondly. "He'd probably say that I'm playing God again and then he'd pull the Hope card."

Rex had no idea what that meant and clearly Silas didn't either. But Cal just turned his back to them and began striding back up the steps until he was standing just behind Sherry. He a gave Langley a baleful stare for the briefest moments before setting his jaw and staring straight forward like a good soldier.

"Silas," Sherry commanded. "I asked for your loyalty in this. You knew you would have to die for your job. Now is the time to make good on that promise."

Hope sparked up in Rex's chest as Silas suddenly shook his head.

The older wolf lifted his head, staring defiantly at Sherry. "I'm sorry. I can't."

Sherry lowered her hand. "I see. No matter. We are still evenly matched." A sad smile crossed her features. "At least in numbers."

It struck Rex that Sherry, Langley and Cal did not expect to live through this encounter. Their conviction to their cause completely filled him with mixed feelings. On the one paw, he was impressed and admired them. On the other, he couldn't understand why they had taken such an underhanded route.

"Couldn't you just have told us?" he asked, reaching for Shimmering Hope. "Just talked us through it? Did people have to die?"

"How often have people tried to talk you into changing?" countered Langley. "I have advised Winston for years since he was a child and nothing I ever said got through his thick skull. For people like you and him, the only way a message will ever get through is with the death of someone you hold dear."

"I too have told you, Gale," Sherry said, "of how the city has grown restless with your inactivity. The other Elemental Lords are continental even global presences. Sierra is known all over the world as a leading fashion mogul and she practically owns_Crescenta. Valentine is everywhere. Rocky is _conquering Welensha. Even Rex_does more than you. You confine yourself to Pollenburn. You have _no control beyond this city and even then, it is a loose grip."

Silas stepped forward, positioning himself right next to Rex with his shield up. "Not all of us have to be revolutionists. Sometimes, we're just happy to be who we are." He finally met Rex's gaze, sincerity in his brown eyes. "And to be with those that we care for..."

Sherry chuckled softly. "Yes, I suspected as much. Those we care for can both give us strength and, at the same time, hinder us greatly." She lifted her shattered blade, its tip levelled straight at Rex. "But no matter what, I do believe we will all change. The only question that remains..."

On some unspoken cue, Cal unsheathed his Seal Sword. Langley drew both his gloved paws from behind his back, one engulfed in flame and the other clutching a sphere of water. Sherry swung her shattered blade back, holding it at her hip with her left hand while the other was stretched out in front of her, her feet hovering off the floor.

"... is who will survive the revolution."

******

Max had aspired to be a pilot before he joined SWORD. In reality, he never wanted to join SWORD originally but when MODD learned he was compatible with a Forbidden Seal, they rushed him for training. Of course he had his conditions. As long as he got to fly, he wasn't going to argue. After being promoted to lieutenant-commander, Max was supposed to have his own frigate but if Jacob remembered correctly, it was still being retrofitted as it was somewhat old... and when it had been assigned, Max had taken it on a 'road trip' around the world and that burned out its engines.

The dragon always had a thing for old clunky machines with character.

With that background, it was no surprise that the dragon was piloting the transport himself while Marcus, Snakebite, Joanna and Caroline all waited in the hold. Jacob entered the cockpit silently and when he sat down next to his friend, Max's ear flicked.

"There's that Worldrider stealth," the chunky dragon said. "Or is that Realmbreaker somehow making you undetectable?"

"At this point, I don't know," he answered. He peered out the windows of the small ship, watching as the night was broken by the sounds of explosions, fires and crumbling buildings. "MODD is trying to keep the plague back by any means possible, huh?"

"Fire helps. But the damn things are persistent. We lost too many to the Puritan and reinforcements are still a long way away. We got some troops and ships from Sierra but the Rillotian military isn't willing to send any help knowing that an orbital strike is about to come."

"Politics..." Jacob grumbled, running a paw down his face. "I really can't stand all this bullshit. The thing with Boswin was about... what? Seal control? Seal prohibition? The lack of reinforcements is because MODD is really just 'visiting' in Rillotia? God..."

"Sad to say you're probably going to get a lot more of that kind of attention from now on," Max said with a soft chuckle. "After this, you're going to be a superstar, Jake. A bona fide superhero. You beat a Puritan and stopped this plague. People are going to want to know you. They're going to want to have you support them. You'll need to keep your head on straight so you don't end up backing the wrong side."

Jacob slumped into his seat, defeated. "Can't I just... I dunno... not do any of that? I don't want any of that publicity. I don't want to have to make those choices..."

"You could always do what I do," Max laughed. "Just pick another fight and fire. People can't catch you for a quote if you're rushing off into another battlefield."

He gave his friend a lopsided smile. "If I did that, I'd never get time to spend with my dad."

On any one else and if that had come from anyone else, Max probably would've shot the speaker there and then. But since it was Jacob, the portly dragon just laughed. "You mean _sleep_with your dad, right?"

"That's only on holidays." Then, on a more serious note, Jacob said, "Have you heard from your family?"

"Nope," Max responded, popping his jaw at the last two letters just like Jacob. "I keep sending them letters and I dropped by while I was still in Shellington but you can imagine how well that turned out." He scratched his mane. "I'm still finding pieces of glass everywhere..."

Jacob gently patted his friend's thigh. "I'm sorry, bud..."

"Eh, they'll get over it," Max responded with a shrug. "If I've learned anything from you, it's that people can't hold grudges forever. Eventually, they're going to have to let it go. I know I have." He beamed at Jacob, taking a moment to turn his gaze away from the swarm of other transports and drones filling the skies over Pollenburn. "I guess you're a good influence on me."

"And you've always had my back," he responded with a big grin. "Thanks from rushing all the way from Welensha, by the way. Not every day your best bud abandons the 'fight against terrorism' to come to your rescue."

"Are you kidding me?" laughed Max. "I was barely doing anything out there! Rocky is such a control freak!_She gives us no room for our own inventiveness. We have to be in position at _exactly the right time and we're not allowed to move if it kills us." He grinned broadly. "I imagine I'm going to get a few calls once this is all over."

"Calls?"

"Desertion. Insubordination. Blah-blah-blah." Max flapped his hand like it was a mouth.

Guilt began seeping into Jacob's heart. "Max... that's pretty serious..."

The dragon rolled his eyes. "I'm exaggerating. Remember, I was sent there originally to transport that empty container to Welensha. I just stuck around because... well... You know." He voice grew softer. "That reminds me, I've got a few house calls to make after this."

"What do you mean?"

"A lot of good men died against the Puritan. The guys I brought are still manning the evacuation points but I feel responsible for those that Gale threw at... what are they calling her now? Darth-something?"

"Dorthiel," Jacob supplied, smiling at his soft hearted friend. Even though he was not their direct commanding officer, Max still felt responsible for the men that had been part of the same operation he was involved in. An operation headed by Gale. He hoped that Gale would at least appreciate the gesture.

"Think I could come with?" Jacob asked. "I owe them as much as anyone else."

"That'd be one hell of an angle," Max said with a grin. "A wolf of the people!" He waved a paw through the air as if he was gesturing towards the a big, floating title. "Not too popular. Not too rich. Not too good looking. Always has time to thank those that helped him and always humble enough to know he's ugly as shit."

"Hey!"

The dragon nudged. "Come on. You know the moment Rex gets his claws in you, you're going to get a manicure, a pedicure, facial, haircuts, your fur trimmed and dyed and God knows what else. You'll finally be able to do all the stereotypical gay things you've missed out on!"

"Like you would know."

Max flashed his perfectly manicured claws at him. "Of course! I swing both ways and that has its advantages. I can look good and still get me some sweet girl in one arm and a hot guy in the other!"

Jacob rolled his eyes again and slouched in the seat. Max had to guide the transport through a few carriers and cruisers that Sierra had sent over and that required his concentration. He needed to be in contact with the crewmen of the ships so Jacob remained silent until they started flying over the farmlands of Pollenburn.

It was quite amazing the differences between the Pollenburn and Angelsea ships. Pollenburn emphasised numbers and always had hangers and drone fabricators. They were also more 'traditional' in design in that they had wings. Angelsea placed its focus on troop deployments making them the perfect ships for the evacuation. Only a few had hangers but that didn't matter as the low-flying streamlined, smaller ships could easily land in parks and parking lots to get their teams to hurry people into the massive hulks. They also possessed short fins revealing their amphibious nature. Even their fighters and transports were fully capable of dipping in and out of the sea.

"Think you'll ever settle down?" Jacob said at length.

"Probably. Probably when I can take that special someone to my parents without said parents grabbing whatever is nearby and hurling it at me with the intent to kill." He glanced over at Jacob. "You? Don't tell me you're thinking of proposing to Marcus?"

A sense of unease crawled beneath Jacob's skin and he shuffled uncomfortably in the seat. He glanced over his shoulder just to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them. The cockpit door remained firmly shut, ensuring that it was soundproof. "Can I confess something?"

"Oh boy," Max said, only half-jokingly. "Marital troubles already?"

"No. Just..." His eyes closed for the briefest of moments and when he opened it again, he caught Max glancing at him from the corner of his eye. "I know this sounds crazy... but through Realmbreaker, I can see things. Hear things. And I hear Marcus... He was telling someone something. I didn't get the whole thing but when he was telling the person that he was over Eric, his ex-boyfriend, and was with me now."

"What's the problem?" Max responded. "I know I had my doubts initially and I was worried considering his last boyfriend but he's not a bad guy. When he's shitfaced drunk, he's really funny."

"You got him drunk?" Jacob asked.

"Oh yeah." Max waved a hand at him absently. "How do you think he had fallen asleep at six o'clock in the evening by your bed? He was all mopey and saying that he should've done more to protect you. So I took him to a nearby bar and shared a few drinks with him. By the way, he really likes cucumber martinis."

"Good to know but should you really be flying if you've had alcohol in you?"

Max grinned sheepishly. "Well... you know how I have the Seal of Finality and how I can sacrifice anything to give another thing temporary invulnerability?"

Jacob lifted an eyebrow, eyeing his friend suspiciously. "Yeah..."

"Well, I just so happen to have sacrificed the alcohol molecules in the beer I was having so that I wouldn't get drunk. Your boyfriend was so depressed he didn't notice the bottle I was holding was glowing." He nudged Jacob lightly. "And any guy who gets _that_drunk and bleary eyed because he thinks he couldn't do more than his best for you is pretty awesome in my books. Of course he was moping about other things like how his ex ended up becoming his Seal because Langley killed his family..."

"What!?" Jacob exclaimed.

Max blinked at him a few times. "Oh, right. You weren't there. Well it turns out that Langley killed Eric's family and made it look like a suicide. Eric barged in on him and got his ass handed to him, became crippled. Langley left him to die. Not sure why Eric didn't tell Marcus Langley did it though..."

Jacob glanced briefly to the side, looking into the distance. With a goal in mind, he found it easier to find what he was looking for using Realmbreaker. There were still blurs of other possibilities everywhere but Eric's story seemed more... concise somehow. "... He did it because he didn't want Marcus to seek revenge for him... to let Eric's death consume him..."

"If you say so." Max shrugged. "Marcus is a good guy, Jake. If you're worried about him or worried about your relationship with him, you should ask him about it instead of going behind his back and talking to me about it."

"I guess..." he murmured softly. "I just get this sick feeling in my stomach that something bad is about to happen. I mean, after Dorothy... I kind of feel like the cold grasp of death is slowly closing in around my throat and..." For emphasis, he clasped his paws around his throat.

"Oh... Uh... this is probably not the best time to tell you that Langley also killed Alicia... is it?"

Jacob's eyes widened and he spun towards Max. "What!? He... he killed...?"

In his moment of panic, he reached through the vast realities, searching of Alicia_._ He saw her death, saw Langley, that sick bastard, snapping her neck like it had been a twig and then tossing her body down the grand staircase like it was nothing to him. Max draped his coat over her, apologising while shutting her eyes gently, Marcus and Caroline standing over the brave maid.

But... he couldn't see more. The threads of her tale were just as concise as Eric's but... Everyone else had threads spraying out in different directions, each to a different course of their life and it was impossible to tell which was the truth and what were just possibilities. But with Alicia... those threads just converged onto that one point... and then nothing. He tried to peer further...

There was a door...

... and a flower shop.

Jacob grimaced and fell back into his chair, clutching his head in one paw.

"I'm sorry, Jake," Max said softly. "Langley snapped her neck. He gave her one hell of a fight though." He let out a chuckle. "She pounded his balls twice. Can't tell you how satisfying it was to see that smug prick on his knees clutching his junk like that..."

"She did great," Jacob murmured, a proud smile on his features. Somehow, he got the sense that she was alright... somewhere. He only wished he had gotten to know her a little better.

"She did," agreed Max. "Don't let it pull you down, Jake."

"I'm not." He responded, shaking his head. "It hurts but..." He forced a smile. "I'm okay. Really." His smile dropped immediately. "Okay, maybe not." His claws dug into the armrests of the chair. "I'm a Worldrider, Max. We get the job done. We don't kill unless it's necessary. I've... I've never killed anyone directly. I know I've caused explosions that probably did kill people but..."

Max nodded sagely. "I get it. Those people deserved it. It's part of the job. That's the rationale for it. You don't think about it again because, in some way, you were justified. But when someone close to you dies for no other reason than 'just because'... it feels pointless and makes you question all those people you've killed before."

Jacob snarled and shook his head. "Fuck, I hate this book..."

"Book? What book?"

"This book!" Jacob shouted, jabbing a finger at the armrest. "We're in a book, Max! A fucked up, gritty reboot that's so much more goddamn real than the previous incarnations because people are actually dying! People the audience have invested in!" He slammed his fist into the armrest. "I mean for fuck's sake, Alicia got her own training montage and her own villain and then just like that... Dorothy... She was like a guardian angel to dozens of people, she had a tragic story and... and..."

He couldn't hold back the tears and he fell forward into his waiting paws. Heavy sobs left him and his body shook with the agony of loss. Max quickly turned the ship on autopilot, ordering it to do just circle around a large farm so that he could wrap his arms around Jacob's shoulders tightly.

"Jake," the dragon whispered softly. "I know... Trust me, I know. It's bullshit. I can't tell you that 'death happens' because we have all the power in the world to stop it. This isn't something you can just let go of either. I know that's what you'd prefer to do but there's no running from this." He cupped Jacob's cheeks so that the teary eyes were turned to him. "Don't run, Jake. Just let it out."

Whether it was the pain of losing Alicia, someone he was just getting to know, or Dorothy, a strong woman who he had to admire, or all the past agonies he had suffered but never truly vented, Jacob just threw his arms around Max's broad shoulders and wept. Max hugged him in return, holding him tight, his big, broad wings wrapping around the big wolf comfortingly.

He tried to keep himself from bawling completely but the sorrow and loss he had experienced in his young life just came rushing out in an unstoppable downpour. He tipped his head back and let out a long, mournful howl. Some part of him hoped that in the vast distances of time and space, Dorothy and Alicia could hear him, hear that he was sorry he couldn't have saved them. He almost felt them resting their hands on his shoulders, running the same circles that Max's hands were as his best friend tried to comfort him.

He apologised profusely, kept saying 'I'm sorry' over and over again to no one in particular until his voice grew hoarse. The stream of tears eventually began to ebb and Jacob ended with a soft sniffle.

"Zxrplnmrd."

Max gently pried him away and gave him a strange look. "What?"

"Zxrplnmrd." Jacob wiped the last few tears from his cheeks and sat back into his seat. "It's phonetically impossible to say and I just said it. Ergo, we're in a book."

His best friend gave him a soft smile. "You'll be okay?"

"I will be," Jacob responded with a nod but found it hard to return the smile. "I will be."

******

The atrium had been turned into a complete and utter battlefield. Flames licked at the seats, burning off the plush felt linings and eating away at the polished oak legs. Sharp metal shards were embedded into the walls while cuts from beams of light raked across the ground. On the highest level of the atrium, Gale and Sherry clashed, their mastery of the winds giving them the most manoeuvrability, even going so far as fighting in mid-air. Down on the ground floor, Cal and Silas were evenly matched, sword versus shield, offense against defence. Rex faced off against Boswin's butler finding himself utterly surprised at just how skilled the weasel was.

It did not help that Sherry and her group worked perfectly in synch.

Having studied how he wanted to be displayed in the mini VBSims and how he wanted to be portrayed to the public, he knew that perfect team coordination was key to any success. It didn't matter if you had a 90% synch rate or a Forbidden Seal, if you coordinated your movements with the rest of your team, you would win the day.

Sadly, Rex knew all of Gale's moves and some of Silas from the brief times he had seen the older wolf in combat but they had no sense of teamwork.

Langley threw his paws forward, fire and water shooting out of his gloves and colliding halfway towards Rex to become a scalding hot jet of steam. Rex immediately opened a portal behind him and leapt into it before he could be caught in the blinding mess. However, the moment he emerged several feet away, pain exploded across his back as Sherry's extending broken sword lashed across his back on its way to collide with Gale's Wind Wakizashi.

A short distance away, Cal threw a fireball straight at Silas who ducked behind his shield to take the full brunt of the blow. From his crouching position, he made the perfect tool for Langley to vault over on his way to Rex. The move threw the wolf off balance, giving Cal an opening to cross the distance between them and send a powerful kick into Silas' chest.

Rex, desperate not to have the weasel anywhere close to him, shouted, 'Cosmic Cutter' and sent the spinning shuriken of light at the charging weasel. Langley leapt deftly into the air, pressing his arms against his body with a cocky smirk on his features and spinning madly. The blades missed him entirely but went hurtling instead towards Gale who Rex had not seen beyond the weasel.

"Gale! Look out!"

The chimp's eyes widened and he quickly vanished in a flurry of flowers before the blades could slice into him. Rex's moment of relief was cut short when he found Langley's gloved paw hovering right between his eyes.

"Au revoir."

"That is so fake."

For a moment, Langley's eyes flashed with anger. In the moment of distraction, Rex opened a portal beneath himself and slipped through. He emerged from the wall just in front of Langley, legs first. His feet slammed right into the butler's face, sending the weasel crashing to the ground. It was a sloppy move, Rex knew, because he came out at an odd angle and slammed into the ground right next to Langley. As he scrambled to his feet, his sixth sense of danger screamed and he brought up Shimmering Hope just in time to catch a Seal Sword slamming into it.

There was that perfect teamwork again. Langley immediately disengaged from Rex and threw a blast of steam straight at Silas before bolting into the cloud to attack the older wolf. Rex growled at the traitor SWORD and pushed the younger of wolf away. He leapt to his feet, blade ready. The circled one another, Cal holding his sword in both paws while Rex gripped his only in one.

Cal shook his head at Rex. "Your brother is twice the wolf you are." Then he rushed straight at Rex, swinging his sword in a broad horizontal slash. Flames engulfed the blade and Rex immediately ducked as a lash of fire soared overhead. Cal followed up the strike with an upward slash. Rex felt the ground shudder beneath him and rolled to his right as a spire of rock shot from the marble floor, threatening to skewer him. As Cal brought his sword back down, an enormous torrent of water slammed down on Rex with enough force to drive him to the ground. To finish off, Cal spun, sword extended as whipping winds carried a downed Rex slamming into a nearby wall.

Rex slumped down onto the marble. He slammed his fist into the ground in frustration.

Losing to this kid was not an option.

They needed a second to collect their thoughts, regroup. Someone had to take control of the battlefield.

"Gale! Wind Sire's Sonata! Ten metres to your right! Now!"

Gale threw him a confused stare but quickly dove to the ground, leaving Sherry somewhat stunned. The chimp seized several kunai from his bandolier and tossed them straight at the ground where they formed a perfect circle. The moment he landed within the circle, the long, thin garrotte wires attached to each blade suddenly became possessed with his Seal's power. The sprang up straight, covering almost the entire height of the stage.

"Silas! Hold on!" Rex opened a portal right beneath the crouching wolf and he immediately dropped through, reappearing right beside Gale.

Cal came rushing at Rex a second later but he was ready.

"Desolation Grid!" A grid of lasers sprang up directly in front of him and launched itself at Cal. The young wolf froze his charge. His entire body became encased in a blue light as he held out a paw against the encroaching beams. The grid slammed into him but could not hold up against the Seal of Finality, only fizzling out. But Cal was too focused on defence to catch Rex as he swept right behind the grid and launch himself through the air, sliding into a portal and sliding in right next to Gale.

As soon as he appeared, Gale swung his Wind Wakizashi through the air, striking one of the erect strings. An enchanting, musical sound erupted from the contact followed by a blast of whipping wind right in Langley's direction. The weasel bolted away before the winds smashed the stairs, uprooting tiles and shattering three entire steps. Gale spun, striking the strings, using his blade like a piano's hammer. A haunting song played as he created a flurry of winds capable of shredding anything in their path. Even hovering in the air as she was, Sherry was not safe and she as forced into the defensive.

"We're getting creamed out there!" Silas growled. "This'll only buy us some time!"

Rex agreed. "I know. But you guys need to trust me. Follow my orders exactly. Got it?"

Gale gave him a glance over his shoulder as he drew his sword across three strings at once, almost catching Cal entirely in the winds. But the wolf just used the Seal of Finality again, rendering him immune to the strike. "Okay Rex, we're in your paws."

Somewhat relieved, Rex made some quick plans. "Silas, how's your reserves for your Seal of Finality?"

Silas checked the small pouch he had hanging by his hip filled with ball bearings. Each one was worth about three seconds of invulnerability provided that he wasn't under significant strain. "I've got about half a bag full. Maybe five minutes?"

"Great. Keep Cal occupied. Gale, we need to take them out one by one. Sherry will be the toughest and then Cal because he can make himself immune to damage. That only leaves Langley." Rex narrowed his gaze and watched the butler race across the atrium, seemingly never tiring as he moved. "We're going to take out Sherry and Cal at the same time but after that, we'll only have about a minute before they're free. Gale, when the steam hits Sherry, blow her straight towards Cal. Silas, make sure Cal isn't looking up. Got it?"

He got a confirmation and immediately ducked. Gale did a full spin, sending one last final trill and blast of wind all around him. Rex immediately leapt through a portal, reappearing right next to Langley. He swung his blade, aiming to cut the weasel's head clear off. But the slimy butler was too fast and immediately spun around, grinning straight at Rex. Langley clapped his paws together, sending a jet of scalding steam straight into Rex's face... just as Rex had planned.

A portal immediately opened right in front of Rex, drawing all the steam inside. High above them, Gale had engaged Sherry again. The twin portal opened right behind Sherry. The hawk's eyes widened in agony as she was suddenly bathed in the burning vapour. Gale saw his opportunity and closed the gap between them. He swung his sword at her, slicing her arm and sending a spurt of blood into the nearby wall. He spun in place and brought a crushing kick against her side, sending her hurtling to the ground... straight at Cal.

The young wolf was too busy defending himself from Silas to notice the slightly steamed hawk hurtling straight at him. Sword met shield but Silas was in the right position to see Sherry falling towards them. He gave Cal a shove but then immediately seized the younger wolf's collar and bashed his shield into Cal's muzzle. Dazed, Cal had no way to defend himself save to encase himself in the Seal of Finality. That mattered little as Silas immediately backed away and -

SMASH!

Sherry crashed right into Cal, sending the two crumbling to the ground.

"Gravi Gate," Rex uttered ominously.

A black field suddenly appeared beneath Cal and Sherry. They both grunted as immense gravitational forces forced them straight into the ground, preventing any sort of movement but also making sure that they would not get completely crushed.

Pain suddenly exploded from Rex's chest and he doubled over Langley's leg. The butler spun in place, bringing the same leg crashing against Rex's back. The floor slammed hard against the wolf's chin, sending stars flashing before his eyes. No doubt the butler had hoped that with him downed, the technique would fade.

But it did not.

Rex said Langley's frown and laughed softly. "One of my self-sustaining attacks. It'll stay there even if I were unconscious."

The butler sneered at him. Gale dropped from the air and Silas closed in. "Ingénieux."

"Still fake," Rex growled, rising to his feet and putting some distance between himself and Langley. "You're all alone now, murderer." Langley's eyes sparked up again. "You know if we don't kill you right now, you'll be executed by Rillotian law for multiple counts of murder."

The butler composed himself, straightening his back and looking haughtily down his nose at Rex. He plucked the monocle from his eye and absently cleaned. When he placed it back, he was smirking at Rex. "So you wish to kill me, yes? Tell me, Monsieur Reaper_,_ have you ever killed before?"

Rex was about to snap that he had but then he froze. There was no blood on his paws. As the face of MODD, most of his time was spent in front of cameras and making movies. The few detachments that he had been on had all been peacekeeping missions and the even fewer engagements always let to capturing the enemy. He was always praised for his efforts to minimise death.

He had never actually _killed_anyone.

Jacob had. Many times but only when necessary.

Suddenly, he felt the weight of Cal's words on his heart.

"Do you think you have the _bravoure_to kill me?"

Did he? Could he kill another man?

"Rex!" Silas suddenly shouted.

Langley was suddenly right in front of him, their noses practically pressing against one another. "Kill me if you dare, Rex Reaper. For I will most certainly try to kill you."

The butler suddenly danced away and swung his paws around him. A chilling mist erupted from his left paw, draping the area around them. The moment it touched Rex, he felt his body temperature drop. His breath condensed in front of him. Though much thinner than the scalding mist, he was still having trouble seeing through it. He could just make out the butler's silhouette.

"Can you kill me before your body freezes?"

Rex lifted his paw in front of his face and his eyes widened when he found a thin layer of ice had covered it. He shook it off in panic. The mist was not only cold but it offered the needed moisture for the freezing temperatures to form ice around his body.

"Gale! Blow this mist away!"

A series of wailing winds whipped around them and though the freezing cold mist was pushed away briefly, Rex came to the horrifying realisation that the mist had covered the entire atrium. Gale's attacks were just moving it around. The mist quickly encroached back upon the small circle of clear area Gale had made. The three combatants stood back to back while Langley lurked within the shroud.

"I hate butlers," Silas grumbled, desperately searching for the weasel. He stole a glance at Rex. "Please tell me you don't have a butler at your place."

"He is so fired after this," Rex rumbled. A faint roar hit his ears and he straightened when several tongues of flame rose from the mist, forming a tight circle around them. The wisps danced around them, taunting them.

One of the balls suddenly surged towards them. Silas immediately jumped in front of Gale, his shield up. The fireball dissipated on contact with the weapon. "Can't you just blow all of this mist away?"

Rex held up a paw. "No! I've got a better idea." With his paw in the air, he said, "Solar Flare."

A scintillating, miniature star erupted high above his head, its heat outstripping the chilling mist. As the temperature rose, the mist condensed, sinking to the ground and forming a thin film of water on the ground. The fiery wisps under Langley's control launched at him but Silas immediately jumped to his rescue, keeping his shield up from the blasts.

His eyes settled towards the elevator door opposite the grand staircase where Langley stood.

The coward was trying to escape.

Using his control over gravity, Rex pulled the doors shut, trapping the weasel with them. Langley, back straight, turned towards them, a frown on his lips.

"Game over," Rex growled.

Flames erupted from the star's surface and launched straight at Langley. The weasel immediately dodged to the right... but immediately lost his footing on the slippery marble floor. The butler's eyes went wide in horror as he slammed into the ground. A scream cut through the air as the flare struck his side, burning that smug look off his features. Over half of his body was consumed by the flames.

Rex pulled the flames back.

The right side of Langley's body had been scorched to the muscles beneath his flesh, charred and blackened. One eye was sealed completely shut, the flesh having welded the flesh over his eye. The other stared at Rex defiantly. He was twitching in agony but still alive... barely.

Rex strode over to the weasel, looking down at the murdered with contempt. As tempted as he was to avenge the people who had died at the psychopath's paws... He instead knelt down and seized the male's collar.

"I don't kill," he growled.

A twisted smile crossed the butler's lips. "That... will be... your downfall..."

"So says that bastard that's been fried," Silas responded, resting a reassuring paw on Rex's shoulder. "We'll let the courts decide your fate."

Langley strangely found the strength to tilt his mutilated head back and let out a bitter, hoarse laugh. "So we shall! But I don't think any mortal court will preside!" His one good eye widened maddeningly. "I'll see you all in hell!"

He suddenly clapped his paws together one last time.

A deafening blast erupted from the collision. The powerful burst of wind and sound sent Rex, Gale and Silas flying halfway across the room and sent them crashing hard into the ground. Their ears rang, causing all pain to be secondary.

Rex felt sick to his stomach...

... and everything just went black.

******

"Was that really necessary?"

Langley threw his head back and continued to laugh. "I was dead anyway. I am dead now! Why should I not fill my last few moments of this life with their suffering?"

R3 the Writer of Reality tilted his head slightly to the side. "Do you enjoy people's suffering so much that you'd go to extreme lengths just to experience it?"

The butler, still burned, spun towards the entity, one eye wide. "Why not? The only proof of one's existence is -"

"... how one affects others," R3 finished. "I remember, Naru, I remember."

The butler's one good eye widened a little more... then he began laughing again. "Ah! Now you return my memories to me once again, R3! It has felt like such a lifetime since we last spoke!" He threw his head back, laughing gleefully as the scene of the atrium and his dead, scorched body on the floor vanished into the endless white of Naught. "I admit, being a butler was not exactly what I had thought I would do in this latest reincarnation but you _did_mention last time that I might do well learning what it is to be in servitude to another! And I did!"

He grinned broadly at R3. "I lived up to the Boswin name. More so than that fat imbecile."

"You most certainly did."

Though he had gone through this ritual a thousand times already, something felt odd about this time. Usually, R3 went on a long speech about some lesson that was to be learned. Langley, formerly thousands of others in thousands of other realities, was starting to feel a little bit of worry. The deity had reincarnated him over and over again, each time with a different lesson and criticisms of what he had failed to do in his life. Most of those lessons always revolved around Langley's penchant for murder, pain and the suffering of others and 'sacrifice'.

"What is wrong, Oh Great Author?" joked the butler. "Did I not meet your expectations? Did I fail you once again?"

"Yes and no," came the short reply.

Langley frowned at him. "You aren't being clear. Speak!"

"Long story short, Naru, I knew exactly how this story would end. There were still many paths for you take, however. In one instance, you played no part in Boswin's betrayal and the death of his wife. It was Sherry who killed Martha Boswin and you were constantly trying to convince Winston to break off the alliance with her. You were hit by Dietrich_and helped Caroline break free, even going so far as to steal her _Crux for her. You were forced to throw your life away in the very same battle regretfully under Sherry's command but you were a kind, noble soul who finally learned the value of sacrifice.

"In another, you betrayed Winston and assassinated him when he grew power hungry all because you hoped that he would be who he was instead of the puppet that Sherry wanted him to be. It was extreme but it was necessary. You were victimised as a result and blame fell on you for the death. The truth would never come out and you'd forever be a villain in the eyes of Mortaelis but again, you learned sacrifice.

"Sadly, you took the route that I knew you would. I was proven right. And for that, I am sorry."

"You're sorry?" Langley demanded. "Why are you apologising?" He laughed, spreading his arms wide. "For once, I did exactly as you wanted! Why is that not a cause for celebration?"

The entity's strange blue eyes looked at him sorrowfully. "Because the lesson you were always meant to learn was that of sacrifice. You could never understand why people would willingly throw themselves in front of your sword to save someone else. You couldn't understand why heroes would throw their lives away for the sake of others. You couldn't comprehend why even mad villains would toss themselves into a writhing vortex to unleash some greater evil. I would grant you your reality even if you were undeniably demonic so long as you learned this lesson."

Langley rolled his eyes. "So I've heard. Fine. Reincarnate me again and let's see if I can slaughter someone and then ponder at their sacrifice." He eyed R3 warily. "You know things would go _so_much easier if you just allowed me to retain my memories."

R3 shook his head sadly. "That would defeat the purpose of learning the lesson. Regardless, your soul never changes and that has always been your guiding force."

The butler was really starting to grow worried. "So what now? Am I to be trapped in limbo? Forever without people to slaughter?"

"No. That would be cruel."

"Then what!?" Langley demanded. "Tell me!"

R3 reached into his coat and pulled out a familiar, thick, beige book with blood splatters all over its cover, always looking fresh. "I'm sorry, Langley. But the only thing left... is annihilation."

The man's eye widened. "What...?"

"My colleagues all voted for your destruction countless reincarnations ago. This is your twenty-seven thousand, eight hundred and forty-third try. They all told me to destroy you fifteen thousand tries ago. I kept hope for you. I could still see so many bright futures for you. I've tried to help, every way I can without completely interfering. But sadly..."

The edges of the book began to dissolve into a faint, black dust.

"No..." Langley whispered. Then louder, he screamed, "No! Give me another chance! I swear! I will learn the meaning of sacrifice!"

"You've had ample opportunity. We've had this conversation over and over again. You said you'd learn. But you haven't. I see no other possibilities for you. All futures lead to the same story being played over and over again in a different setting."

R3 dropped the book from his hands, the pages drifting into nothingness while Langley fell to his knees. The butler stared at his paws as they were slowly encased in a brilliant white light, nearly vanishing into the environment of Naught. His fingertips began dissolving into a shower of tiny, twinkling stars.

"Any reality I give you will be based entirely on your own selfish needs," R3 continued. "You will endanger _other_realities."

"This is not fair..." Langley murmured. "This is not fair! You've granted far worse people their own worlds! Why not me!?"

"Because they know well enough to keep their own dark ambitions to themselves. They are civil to the owners of their own worlds. You would go on forever incapable of understanding why these very same people, good or evil, would willingly throw their lives away for the worlds they've created." R3's voice grew harsh. "Yes they've created worlds just for the explicit purpose to cause it's people to suffer but if it were ever threatened, they'd defend it. You would create entire realities and destroy it without feeling a thing. Should one of the more valiant owners rush to rescue your plagued people, you'd just give it to them and create another."

R3 leaned down towards the fading butler. "What I give is not some toy to be tossed aside when you're done playing with it, Naru. It is your story. If that is not worth anything to you, then you don't deserve to exist." The entity's eyes narrowed. "And don't bother denying it."

The weasel's paws tightened into fists... then he grinned darkly. "You are the great Writer of Reality... and yet even you cannot save everyone!" He flashed his dark smile at R3. "You are nothing! You are powerless! You can't grant everyone their happy ending!"

The deity was silent for a short moment and Langley thought he had hit a nerve.

Then... He removed his helmet.

Langley's eyes went wide in horror and his fading jaw dropped.

"Yes I can. But it's always up to them to take it."

******

Rex groaned. Even in unconsciousness, he was constantly fighting to returning to the world of the waking. He _knew_what had happened and he was constantly urging his body to move. His consciousness railed against the bars of his closed eyes, willing them to open. At last, a beam of light cut through the darkness and he managed to pry open his eyes.

His vision was blurred for a few moments and all he could see was the black and white of the marble floor. It took him a whole minute to remember where he was and what he had been doing before Langley had delivered that final blow. He grimaced as he sat up. Gale lay a short distance away and Silas was slumped against the stairs. They were both breathing much to his relief.

Rex grimaced and staggered to his feet. A sharp pain erupted from his ribs and he gently pressed a paw against it. Nothing broken. Just bruised. His eyes scanned the atrium. Langley's dead body rested where the weasel had fallen. Some part of him couldn't help but fear the weasel was just playing dead and would rise up a moment later, cackling madly. He watched the body for any signs of life... but when it didn't move, he moved on.

His heart froze, however, when he didn't see Sherry or Cal.

"Fuck!" he hissed.

His priority was Gale and Silas. He hobbled over to Silas first and gently slapped the older wolf's cheeks. Silas mumbled and slowly pulled his eyes open. When he saw Rex, he immediately turned away. Rex refused to take that greeting and pressed his lips against Silas'. What tension remained between them instantly eased as their tongues brushed against one another's and they shared the same breath one more time.

As soon as they broke the kiss, Silas could meet his gaze. "You're not mad?"

"Mad that you were assigned to spy on me and end up falling in love with me instead?" Rex laughed softly. "That's right out of a cheesy movie I probably sold my image to. I'm sure it wasn't homosexual in nature but I think I can spin it that way."

Silas' eyebrows lifted. "So this is my punishment? You're going to publish our story?"

"Daddy issues, steamy sex scenes and all," Rex laughed, not sure why there were tears in his eyes.

The older wolf smiled brightly at him. "You know, you've grown, son. There would've been a time that you'd be a vindictive bastard and get back at me in the stupidest, reckless way possible."

Rex stood and offered his paw to Silas, helping the older wolf up. "I can't be mad at the man I love especially if they threw aside their mission for me."

Silas' eyes widened in surprise. "You love me?"

"After all this? How can I not?" Rex's features softened. "Do you love me?"

To answer him, Silas gripped the back of Rex's head and brought their lips together in a passionate kiss. Neither of them could breathe, they just took one another's breath away. Time seemed to stop in that one brilliant moment. Rex wished that the moment wouldn't end and even when his lungs begun to burn for air, it only felt like his passion for Silas growing. Eventually, he had to break the kiss and it was well worth it.

"Of course I love you," Silas said.

A soft cough caught both their attention. Gale was standing a short distance away, giving them a faint smile. "Come on you two. We've still got Cal and Sherry to catch."

Rex nodded and though his features turned serious, he still gripped Silas' paw tightly. "And Winston. They said that he's prepping a ship at the top of the Tower. We can't let him get away either. We have to at least tell him what they did."

"Somehow I doubt that'll make a difference," Gale responded grimly. "But he does deserve to know."

Gale led the way up the stairs while Rex quickly began using his Touch of the Stars to heal any injuries they had sustained. By the time they were near the armoury, they were almost at full health, just a few minor scraps that they could deal with.

Gale was just crossing the door to the armoury when -

BOOM!

The doors blasted open and the chimp quickly leapt backwards, almost running into Silas.

"What the hell!?" Silas bellowed. Loud clanking of metal filled the air as well as the mechanical humming of wires and gyros rotating. The older wolf's jaw dropped in horror when the light from a red, mechanical eye shone through the smoke from the explosion. "Cal...?"

"The C Project..." Gale gasped. "Cal... what have you done?"

The cyborg wolf stepped out into the hallway in front of them. His arms had been completely replaced with mechanical appendages as had his legs. Though everything from his torso remained flesh, he looked nothing like Snakebite whose mechanical limbs integrated smoothly with his body. There were wires sticking out of his chest and connecting to his limbs. It almost looked... haphazard and sloppy.

"Do you want to know what Khan Sho was really after?" Cal said grimly. "The C Project. It's the technological equivalent of Dietrich. You sacrifice a limb or two and get to use a Seal indiscriminately. Dietrich was just the icing on the cake." Cal regarded his limbs and twisted his paws sadly. "Sherry kept the details of the C Project purely as a means of enticing Khan Sho." His eyes twisted towards them. "And you probably want to know why she'd even trust the guy."

"Because he's already what she wants..." Gale responded grimly. "He's a revolutionist. Unhindered by sentimentality. Willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He's her backup plan. In case none of us will want to accept her premise, she'll always have Khan."

Cal laughed, a bitter humourless laugh. "Yeah... I helped her along the way. And you know what my reward is?" He closed his fist and a long, sharp blade jutted out of his wrist glimmering with a Seal. "To be turned into a freak. I woke up like this! She didn't even have the balls to be there when I woke up! She just left a note! A note!"

He gripped his head, sobbing softly. "I just wanted to make a difference. Too much of a chicken to take any of the risky missions but too much of a dreamer to know what I'm missing..." He tilted his head back, tears freely falling from his one good eye. "God... Jake was the only one that understood. There's always hope. There's always another way to look at things. But you know what?"

He levelled his gaze straight at the group, flicking out another blade from his other arm. "I'm done running! I've fought for what I believe in and I've got to believe that there's hope for me yet!"

"Cal, you don't have to do this!" Silas shouted. "Jacob redeemed Snakebite! I'm sure we can find a place for you too!"

"You're not listening!" shouted the cybernetic wolf. "This is my mission! This is what I've committed to! I'm not going to back down! Maybe I'll die here, maybe I won't but I'm going to believe that I can beat you guys no matter the odds!" He shut his eye, letting out a soft sob. "Because I really believe that we can change the world... we just need the courage to do it..."

He lifted his gaze again, tears streaming down his face. "And I've finally found my courage! I'm not going to let it go now!"

******

"There it is..." Max murmured softly. He picked up the microphone, opening a line to the hold where the others were resting. "Hey guys. Rattlesnake Stronghold dead ahead. Still under the Arc Field."

Jacob had been silent for the rest of the trip. His eyes focused on the approaching mountain range while his paws were closed into fists on his lap. He was barely breathing. There was... _something_in the air. It was... off. Like someone was pumping his lungs full of foam and what little air he could get was from the gaps in the substance. It wasn't the plague, that much he knew. It was... something else.

The closer they drew to the Stronghold_the greater the sensation grew and the more and more he felt like something was_off about the place. The feeling definitely hadn't been there the last time he had visited. It made his skin feel like it was being compressed, every strand of fur being tugged from their roots. He tried to peer at it using Realmbreaker... but he only saw... desperation... and denial.

"Jake, you listening?"

He shook his head. "Oh... erm... Yeah. Sorry, what?"

Max gave him a faint smile, still treating him tenderly after his breakdown. "I said the Arc Field has one weakness."

"We dig under it?"

The dragon gave him a surprised look. "Huh?"

"It's a dome, right?" Jacob responded, gesturing at the faint blue dome covering the facility. "It stops at the ground. So if we dig under it and tunnel our way upwards, we'll make it in."

His best friend blinked at him. "Erm... Yeah, I suppose that's true... Why didn't I think of that...?"

Jacob grinned and placed a paw on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry about. Many blockbusters were based around the premise that they were stuck under a dome just like this and somehow forgot that they can dig. The Simpsons Movie would've been much shorter otherwise."

"The what movie?"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it. What were you going to say?"

Max nodded towards the various towers. "The towers. They're the ones keeping up the Arc Field. Shoot them down and -"

A faint sizzling suddenly filled the air. The blue outline of the dome suddenly faded and all the lights around the tower abruptly switched off.

"Um... did you do that?" Jacob asked.

Max began fidgeting with several buttons on the console. "The hell...? Why did it just switch off? And no, I had nothing to do with that. I -"

The transport suddenly shook violently. Max wrestled with the controls but they took on a mind of their own, pulling the transport straight towards the Rattlesnake Stronghold.

"Shit! What the hell is going on!?" Max shouted.

The communicator suddenly buzzed.

"Hello, Wielder of Realmbreaker_. Welcome. Do not be alarmed."_

"Ominous voice over the radio..." Jacob murmured, his claws digging into the armrests. "Check..."

"My name is Hades. I am the Chaos Lord of Manipulation. I possess the Road of Mayhem. That is the Seal of Manipulation."

Jacob exchanged glances with Max. Neither of them had heard of such a Seal.

"In case you are wondering what that means, it effectively allows me to move anything and everything in existence. You might thing mere movement is paltry compared of, say, Destruction or Creation but let me assure you..."

The wall right next to Jacob suddenly ripped clean off the ship, blaring winds whipping into the cockpit. The same happened to the wall beside Max. The ceiling was torn right out from above them. The entire transport just began ripping to shreds but the pieces hovered mere metres away from them.

"With my power, I can change the shape..."

The sheets of metal to Jacob's right suddenly began twisting and melding together like liquid. Right before his eyes, it became a flock of birds that moved so organically and realistically despite having a metallic sheen.

"... composition..."

The metal slabs next to Max warped. The dragon's jaw dropped as the metal turned into wood, then wool and then into water, still flying beside them.

"... and, as you've seen, position of all forms of matter to the point where I can rend the very particles of an object to pieces."

To emphasise his point, the console in front of them began to disintegrate. Jacob gawked in mute shock as the chair he was seated on dissolved with the rest of the ship. One glance over his back and he saw the others equally stunned as they were carried gently by some unknown force through the air and straight towards the Stronghold.

"And I have been wanting to talk to you for a while now."

The voice echoed deep in his ears like it was emanating from his mind. His eyes switched to the courtyard where some sort of chimeric creature stood at the centre the bloodied ground. Bodies and flowering corpses lay all around him.

"Now don't worry, I'll keep the pollen away from you. You are far too valuable to die to a failed experiment."

"Failed experiment...?"

Hades, the bizarre mismatch of various creatures, lowered them down to the courtyard gently. The creature's red eyes regarded them almost benevolently but there was just something... _sinister_in the crocodilian grin.

"Yes," answered the being. "The flower that is causing this was actually forged from the raw matter that was made from the victims of the Rattlesnakes. I had to rearrange it to become the flower that I so fondly remember. Sadly, that went down to the level of redefining the very concept of 'matter' for the plan because what I sought does not exist in this reality."

Jacob's lips moved before he realised what he was saying. "Valkyrie's Kiss..."

Hades' eyes widened and a gleeful smile crossed his features. "Ah and you have proven my theory right. _Realmbreaker_has given you the ability to see through time and space, to all the possibilities and all realities!" Hades crossed his arms and with one clawed paw, rubbed his chin. "But it is unrefined. Inaccurate. I can see you can see much but not all yet. It needs training. I can offer you this training."

Distrust immediately blossomed in Jacob's chest and he took a step back away from Hades. "And what do you want in return?"

Hades let out a soft chuckle, closing his eyes briefly. "I lost my wife and daughter. A very long time ago. I have searched for ways to bring them back. The Valkyrie's Kiss was one such attempt. The flower was my daughter's favourite."

"A parasitic plant that turns people into flower zombies was your daughter's favourite?" Max asked.

"No," answered the Chaos Lord with a flash of irritation on his face. "That was a necessary mutation to ensure that it would survive in this reality. Something from one world cannot exist for long in another. Not without help. Surely you felt it as well when you crossed into the Tor? An overwhelming pressure on your chest like someone was crushing your heart from within? A terrible sensation like someone was holding a hot brand just over your flesh, not quite touching it but gently cooking it nonetheless? Your eyes constantly burning? Your ears ringing and every breath feeling like you were inhaling smoke?"

Jacob glanced towards Joanna who was the only one amongst his group that had fallen into the Tor with him. When she shook her head, he turned back to Hades with a shrug and a similar shake.

"Odd..." murmured the Chaos Lord. He began circling the group, eyeing Jacob in particular. "The rest of you seem normal. But... you, Wielder..."

"My name is Jacob. Jacob Reaper."

"That is unimportant." Hades waved a paw absently at him. "I think I see... Yes, it is faint but I see it. You give off a sort of... radiation that defends you from the Dimensional Immunity Response. Curious."

Jacob though back to his battle with the Puritan and how the Black Mist seemed to avoid him. "You mean..."

"You could pass indiscriminately between realities and not feel its adverse effects. You could take others with you as well..." Hades' eyes widened. "That could very well be my answer. I have long pondered how I could bring my dear Persephone and Aphrodite back to me and ensure that they survived in any world I bring them. I found various solutions but they have all failed. Yet you... and Realmbreaker!"

Hades rushed forward, faster than a creature of his size could possibly move. He seized Jacob's paws almost pleadingly. "You must help me. I miss my family so much..."

Jacob's lips opened to respond, then he recalled how many people died due to this Chaos Lord's experiment. He yanked his paws immediately away, surprising Hades. "You did all of this to bring back your family. But I don't hear you apologising for your mistakes."

"Mistakes?" answered the Chaos Lord. "There was no mistake made. I knew the Valkyrie's Kiss was a failure from its inception purely because of the adjustments I had to make to ensure that it survived in this world."

"Then why unleash it at all!"

Hades was giving him a confused stare like he couldn't understand Jacob's perspective. "Failure or no, I could not simply let my work go to waste. Had you sacrificed hundreds for a project, would you want their deaths to go in vain?" He spread his arms wide, gesturing at the Stronghold as a whole. "All the women and children that the Rattlesnakes_killed went into forging the _Valkyrie's Kiss. I had to make sure their deaths meant something."

Marcus stormed forward but suddenly found himself unable to cross an invisible line about six feet from Hades. He literally stopped in mid-step. "So you let the flower run amok, let it kill_even more people just because you couldn't bear to let the deaths _you caused to 'go to waste'!?"

The Chaos Lord looked towards Marcus, brow furrowed in revulsion. "You cannot possibly understand. Your perspective is far too narrow. You are mortal." He turned back towards Jacob. "You see beyond time and space. Surely you can see that I had to do this."

Jacob tried to understand but he couldn't see past the pointless deaths that the Chaos Lord had brought. Thinking about how Alicia had been killed or Dorothy's sacrifice and how pointless it all was and he couldn't bring himself to understand Hades' need to kill more people just because he had already killed so many.

"I'm sorry," he answered, shaking his head. "I just can't. I can't understand why you'd just keep killing because you already had blood on your paws especially when you knew that the flower wouldn't serve your original purpose. It's just... wrong."

Hades' eyes narrowed. "Ah... I see you are still constrained by mortal concepts and ideals." He nodded sagely. "I am beginning to see what is holding you back from your true potential. Sentimentality clouds your vision and your abilities and weakened by..." He glanced over his shoulder. "... distractions."

Suddenly, Max, Joanna and the others grunted, their eyes wide and their paws against their stomachs. A cry of pain erupted from Caroline's lips before blood came shooting out between her lips.

"Guys!" Jacob shouted. "What are you doing to them!?"

"I do wonder how long a mere mortal can survive without their innards," Hades responded darkly.

Jacob growled and summoned a bolt of Realmbreaker. "Stop!"

Hades eyed the bolt turned back towards him. The others let out one last grunt before falling to their knees, gasping for breath. "You're right. Killing them now, like this, will only make me your enemy. Their deaths will only bind you further to this world and limit your potential all the more. Very well..."

The Chaos Lord suddenly vanished from view.

"You desire to stop the Valkyrie's Kiss, yes?"

The voice came from behind him and Jacob spun around. Hades stood at the entrance to the Stronghold's depths.

"You will find it within the inner chamber of the Stronghold where I will be waiting. Destroy it with _Realmbreaker_and I guarantee the plague will subside. However, I will not make it easy for you." He snapped his fingers ominously. The corpses all over the stronghold were suddenly encased in a dark, maroon glow. Fear gripped Jacob's chest as each body began to rise, their flesh knitting back together and the severe entropy that came from infection began to undo itself. Even the fully bloomed flowers began to shrink back into the bodies of the corpses before those very corpses rose once more as zombies.

"What the hell...?" he whispered, backing away towards the others.

"I am the Chaos Lord of Manipulation," Hades replied ominously. He turned his back to them, vanishing into the darkness of the Stronghold. "I can move all matter through everything be it space... or time."

*******

The VBSim Arena was frighteningly quiet. Sherry was almost invisible in her white coat as she stood at the centre of one of the simulator rooms. At the sound of footsteps, she turned in place, expecting to see Rex and his group coming to finally face off against her. She was not disappointed. The trio looked utterly ragged. She imagined that fighting the noble and wolf that was Cal had drained them both emotionally and physically.

There was a fragment of remorse in her for having to perform the forbidden surgery on Cal but she had deemed it necessary. A quick fight without a challenge would not have had the same impact as a prolonged battle of emotions and firepower. Just by the look of fury in their eyes told her that Cal had done his job.

She hoped the poor, loyal wolf had it good in the next life.

"You bitch!" Rex snarled through bared fangs. "How could you do that to Cal!?"

They were broken down. Nothing but raw anger remained. The hurt from the betrayal, the death of a truly villainous foe and then the emotional battle with someone they cared for... It left nothing but anger. Anger which could be fine-tuned to become a determination to change the world.

All that remained was to direct that anger.

"Because dear Callum always struggled with the use of his Seals. I freed him from this constraint without using the crude Dietrich."

"You cut off his fucking limbs!" Rex roared.

"A necessary sacrifice for greatness and true freedom."

Gale, his anger barely constrained, shook his head at her. "You really believe in Boswin's ideal to give everyone Seals? What about the Great Seal War!?"

She hadn't forgotten and it was exactly for that same purpose that she was backing the losing team. With nothing but anger left, they would grow to revile her and her ideals. If that included free Seals for all, then that would direct them to form firmer controls over Seals. That meant people like Winston would not be able to rebellions, MODD would be the superior power and there would be no conflict over Seals. Maybe the governments would even be more open to allowing MODD into their countries. The Unsealed might even lessen their assaults if they knew MODD was being responsible.

"Freedom of Seals is the only way MODD will be able to expand its influence and grow as a company." The words felt so artificial on her tongue but she spoke them with conviction. It was enough to convince the trio in front of her.

"You're not seeing the big picture!" Rex shouted. "If everyone has Seals, another Great Seal War will just break out!"

"That tired old mantra," Sherry sighed. "You have so little faith in furs that you keep repeating the same fear inducing tale over and over again in an attempt to warn them of a future that will not be. People have learned. They've grown. They will not make the same mistakes."

"I'm not willing to take that risk!" Rex drew his blade and levelled it straight at Sherry. "I'm not going to risk my family because of your ideals! We saw a fucking Puritan today and just how much devastation it caused! I am not going to let more of those things get out and kill more people!"

Sherry closed her eyes.

This was it.

Time to die.

But she wasn't going to make it easy for them.

"It is conservatives like you who fail to revolutionise this world and keeps it stagnant."

She opened her eyes sharply. Upon a silent command, the simulation room instantly sprang to life, cubes of light dancing around them all, changing the world all around them into a hellish landscape with rust-red skies and dark sandy roads. She was suddenly surrounded by a junkyard while Rex and the others remained on the other side of the map within a heavily fortified base.

"Now..." she whispered to herself softly. "It is time to prove yourselves worthy of change."

*******

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Cal looked to his right. He was surprised to find a strange creature taking up the seat beside him. A tall imposing figure wearing white and gold armour and a cloak of the stars. A pair of skeletal wings jutted out of his back. The face the creature wore was familiar though.

"Jake?"

The being let out a soft sound. "I go by R3 the Writer of Reality. I have the ability to make myself appear as whoever the person observing me wants to see the most." On closer inspection, the creature definitely was not the Jacob he knew. His eyes were the same colour but their pupils were oddly shaped. Like eight pointed stars.

Cal slouched against the bar. This being wouldn't be the first strange sight he had seen in this bar since he had arrived. Two bar stools to his right, there was some sort of weird tentacle beast that had a beer mug in each tendril. There was what looked like a hairless monkey who was playing pool with a horned demon dog at the far corner of the bar and there were several guys sitting at a booth, each of them having a different number of limbs though they all looked like wolves. One of them had to sit beside the booth because he actually had four legs like he was a cross between a wolf and a horse but still with paws for legs.

"A drink would be nice," he answered at length. He instinctively ran a paw over his shoulders. At least in death he could have his old body back. He still remembered the pain of moving and even breathing after being turned into a living weapon.

R3 gestured towards the bartender, a really tall and burly wolf. The guy was a giant by Mortaelian standards, past seven feet. He looked normal otherwise. The bartender slid two beers their way and Cal caught it. He had downed seven of the mugs and hadn't yet felt drunk. Maybe it had something to do with being dead.

"Bummed out about how you died?" R3 asked.

Cal chuckled softly. "Not really. I died for what I believed in. But just... Well, how can anyone really be happy that they died?" He glanced around the bar. "All these guys seem happy though..."

"Oh, you think this is heaven?" R3 laughed. "My dear boy, this is just a bar between worlds. The guy who owns it got his own reality but instead of making it a world for himself, he decided to open a bar to welcome everyone of all realities to it. Anyone who passes through those doors..." He gestured at the bar doors. "... leaves all hostility behind. It is impossible to get angry here."

"I guess that explains why I can't get drunk..."

Again, the strange creature laughed. "That's not it. You're just not letting yourself get drunk."

"This is beer, isn't it?" Cal said, lifting his mug and taking a swing from it.

"House special. It's a brew that will give you whatever feeling you want apart from anger. And considering how you're not drunk, you really don't want to be."

Cal sighed into the golden liquid and sighed. "Yeah. I guess I don't. I'm honestly just waiting for whatever comes next."

He shut his eyes, remembering how he had used his new cybernetic body to strike at Rex, Gale and Silas for his beliefs. He felt proud at himself for finally standing up for something he believed in. It just sucked that he lost. Though deep down in his heart, he knew he would lose. They had the numbers and power. No amount of cybernetic enhancements could defeat two Elemental Lords and an elite SWORD member. He gave them a good run though.

R3 suddenly patted the bar. "Well, that's why I'm here."

Cal lifted his eyes towards the creature. "Really?"

"Come on," the being said, gesturing at himself. "I've got the whole Angel of Death going on for me. If that wasn't a hint, I don't know what is."

Considering the wings, Cal had to admit that was pretty convincing. He laughed softly. "Okay, Mr. Angel of Death. Where am I going now? Do I get to burn for my sins? Can I finish my drink first?"

R3 chuckled softly, his eyes shining benevolently. "Let me impart to you some knowledge about divine punishment and justice. Even were you to do something good for someone else, you are likely to cause some form of 'sin' towards someone else. Harming someone has the same effect. It might end up benefitting someone else. It's all a matter of perspective."

Cal chuckled softly. "Reminds me of a game I played once... It taught perspective. There's always someone better than you..."

"Same principle," R3 said with a chuckle. "Because of this, only the truly wicked can be punished but I, personally, am a heavy believer in granting people as many chances as they need to make the right choices in their life provided they're willing to take it."

"Right by whose standards?"

R3 threw back his head and laughed. "Ah, you're catching on." He smiled brightly at Cal. "Here's a little secret, Cal, I exist outside of Time and Space. And when I know there's a happy ending to a story, I will do anything to make it happen. Especially when those at the end of that 'happily ever after' have asked me specifically to make sure their younger selves get there."

Cal shook his head in disbelief. "Oh yeah? And what happens to those people who aren't so lucky to have a happily ever after?"

"I'll still try. Anything is possible. There are an infinite number of possibilities out there and even if it's a _slim_chance that the person will end up writing their own story, I'll take that chance and work with them. I might end up getting disappointed but there are times when even against insurmountable odds, the guy with the blackest of hearts manages grow a conscience and learn something that gives them hope."

Cal looked sorrowfully at his beer. "And what happens to those that just won't learn?"

"I keep tying until I hit a dead end. Then, I'm sad to say, I have to eliminate them. Only if the other members of my team agree, of course."

He was silent for a long while. "Of course..." He felt R3's hand on his shoulder, strangely warm. "So... what's in store for me?"

He blinked when a book with a soft, brown cover and gilded in gold was pushed in front of him. "What's this?"

"That's your story, Cal," answered R3 with a smile. "You've earned the right to write it yourself."

"Huh?"

"It's your reality. Where once it was bound to the world of Mortaelis and the gods that ruled it, it is now yours to do with as you please. Make your own world, populate it with people, govern it or make a place like this..." R3 waved a hand around him, indicating the bar. "It's entirely up to you."

Cal straightened, staring at the book. "Really? But... But I...?"

"Listen," R3 said gently, "a man doesn't earn their reality by being the some living embodiment of peace and justice. They earn their reality by being the best they can be. If there are still nagging questions, doubt and guilt weighing them down, they will never be able to write their own stories. While there is always more to learn, when you are no one else but yourself, you will have the capacity to steer your own destiny."

Cal regarded the book, both shocked and fearful of what was being offered to him. He could create his own world... He was effectively being elevated to the rank of a god...!

His paws shook as he gently fingered the hardcover.

He lifted the cover slightly...

... then set it back down.

He pushed the book back towards R3.

"I'm sorry. Thank you for the offer... but I feel that I can't do that. I think there's still so much I have to learn..." He sighed heavily and regarded his beer sorrowfully. "You must be disappointed in me... huh?"

"Nope."

He lifted his gaze towards the creature who was still wearing Jacob's face and beaming down at him. "You're not?"

"Not at all. I knew that's exactly how you were going to respond."

"You... did...?"

"Yes." R3 let him mull over the implications of his answer. "But you know, there are other things to do before you get your own reality. Not necessarily reincarnation either."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

The being stood up and offered his hand towards Cal. "Why don't you come with me? I've got something to show you."

Cal glanced at his book before picking it up and handing it back to R3.

"Alright. Show me what you've got."