Like Lightning, Part 8: Apocrypha

“It’s called the Apeiron.”

Dawn was glad she didn’t have to write it down. She had enough jokes about the word being written as ‘ape iron’.

“It’s a...vault, in the simplest of terms. Stuff gathers there. Getting in is nigh impossible. That’s why THIS-” The rod of blue metal. “Was literally scattered across dimensions. And the door? Or rather, doors? Equally hard to find. But it’s worth it.

“The items said to be in there...are absolutes. And considering the utter mess the attempts to find Neeko’s people are becoming, there’s an item in there that will cut through all the nonsense.”

“You may want to tell them why we need to jump through more hoops.” Vent said.

“...perhaps the rarest item there was called the Fate Locus. It was literally a book that knew everything. Mother...kind of stole it. For a time. Whatever forces are around the place, they don’t like my family. Or anyone connected to them. So we kind of have to...sneak in through a back door with a key. But it’s all right. I’ll just find what I need and use it and get the data and put it back and we’ll leave and EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE…”

“But first, we need to find a door. And as you may have guessed, these aren’t remotely normal doors. They might be here and then gone again when you look away. So we have to split up and look for a few...strong chances, you could say.” Vent said. “There’s likely to be danger, nothing like this ever manifests in a peaceful place.”

---

"I'll ride down the road and call the guard. It won't take long."

The villagers, huddled together, watched the blacksmith, who had lost weight and looked pale, ride into the fields for about ten seconds. They watched as something pulled him into the rows.

They watched until one of them stepped forwards.

"...are you alright?" He had the tone of voice of someone who didn’t want to know.

"I'll rrrride down the rrrooAD AND caaallll the GUARD. IT won't take Loooong."

The voice wasn't the blacksmith's. It wasn't going to be. It was the voice that people had been hearing in their fields for the past week. And then in their barns for the past four days. And now it was outside town.

Dumbly, they went home. They hung garlic over the windows and tucked their children in, and got old weapons from forgotten wars down from above the fireplace.

It didn't help.

---

“Joy, Neeko, you’ll be going here.”

You couldn’t have made the dark forest any more spooky or menacing if you’d tried.

“Neeko, you’re going because you’re attuned with nature, and if a door shows up there, it’ll intermingle. Joy, you’re going to make sure anything that bothers you or her goes away.”

Neeko nodded. “Neeko find door. No worry.”

“...There is ONE strong possibility that needs to be brought up, up front. In theory the worst thing in that forest is an aggressive animal. In story, well…”

---

~Blackbriar Forest~

Neeko was wishing she hadn’t been so gung-ho.

It was all very well saying you’d find a door before you’d actually started searching. As mentioned before, Blackbriar seemed to have been deliberately designed to be spooky. All of the trees were dark, twisted, skeletal things with nary a leaf on them. The effect wasn’t helped by the thick cloud that obscured what should have been a full moon, giving only faint glimpses of the forest floor. Dead leaves rustled underfoot, a mist hung in the air and distant crows cawed.

It was the kind of place where, if you stood still and spun a complete circle once, you were lost. That meant Neeko had to rely on what little her Oovi-Kat senses could tell her… which wasn’t much. Rotten leaves, wet earth, the odd mushroom. It was no good trying to climb the trees for a vantage point - too thin. So she kept to the earth, crawling on all fours to lower her profile.

She hoped Joy was behind her - wIth all the mist around, it was hard to see properly. And there was something else obscuring her spiritual senses. Something heavy and dark, like an old, moth-eaten blanket…

There was a light. It swung from something with the squeaking, back-and-forth swing of old lanterns. Had it been there before? She’d have noticed if something was trying to light this place, surely.

The wind whistled.

Neeko flattened herself to the forest floor, fins erect. She squinted through the mist. Why was that there? Some kind of landmark? But if that had been the case, she’d have seen signs that people walked through here. Traces both physical and otherwise. And… there wasn’t. None that she could pick up, anyway.

This didn’t sit right.

Her instincts were hissing, telling her danger was close. She altered her course slightly, trying her best to skirt around the figure, keeping her eyes on it.

It was a scarecrow. It was made out of rusted parts, with sackcloth draped over it. It was standing behind the tree, leaning out as if someone had put it there for a prank. The lantern hung from one outstretched hand - a rusty farming scythe dragged the other down. Whoever had made it had also cut a single eye and a jaunty, toothy smile into the “head” of the dummy. Howdy, stranger! Weird place to be on a night like this, huh?

The light swung.

Just a scarecrow.

Neeko relaxed slightly. The scarecrow looked odd, but harmless. But then again, what if that was the intention? You didn’t get scarecrows in the middle of the forest, after all. Maybe someone put it there for a trap? There wasn’t enough of anything to go on here, and it was tough to make a decision when all there was to inform you was a scarecrow.

The stifling sho’ma-sense darkness seemed to grow heavier. Best not to linger.

She turned and began to crawl away.

Clatter clang crash. Neeko spun around. 

The scarecrow had fallen… over? Apart? Parts seemed to be missing. The light had gone out, leaving her in darkness again.

The light hadn’t gone out. It was behind her. A new scarecrow? This one was in the same pose. The grin seemed a little bigger. Peekaboo! Just kidding.

The wind whistled…?

Neeko realised that it wasn’t the wind, and ducked just as a blade swept over her head, flashing white in the moonlight.

“IT’s in the HOUSE!”

The Oovi-kat hissed and scrambled, turning just in time to see a gangly figure vanish behind another tree. That voice had been horrible - a rusting whisper, forced out.

Now every instinct was screaming at Neeko. Every bad-wrong sense was yelling, and the heaviness in the air made sense. But what was she supposed to do? Fight? Run? Hide? Whatever this was, it clearly didn’t play by the rules of a living thing. Even if she could fight or flee from something that moved that fast, what over tricks did it have?

The scarecrows, she realized.

The scarecrows were the thing. Either they were a lure of some kind, to draw her towards it, or they were some indication of where the thing was. She’d have to take care to destroy each one. That might lure it out in turn, and she could get a clear shot at it.

In the meantime…

“Green Father preserve me,” she muttered, under her breath. But there was nothing green here but herself.

She crawled on.

Something clicked behind her. She kept crawling. Was it following her? Of course it was.

“Open the dooOOOOR, martha, opennn the doooor…”

What was it even saying? Neeko darted through a huddle of low-lying foliage, trying to fake the thing out. She caught a glimpse of red, and a long metal limb scraping against a trunk.

A scarecrow…? Again?

“Neeko…”

Neeko’s back arched, on reflex. Her tail curled over like a scorpion’s stinger. A crocodile hiss escaped from between her bared teeth. Her eyes widened in animal panic-fear.

How the hell did it know her name?

“M-Mirree?” she whispered, as low as she could manage. Where was she?

A scraping noise to her right.

“Neeeko help me Neeeeeko, I can’t hear yooouuu, there’s too MANY.”

A crack to her left, of something stepping on a branch. The air grew thicker.

“I can’t Get oooout, Neekoooo I can’t find my Wayyy Hoooome! You left meeee!”

Another shriek of metal, right behind her. She span.

Another scarecrow.

No. Not this time.

“MAI’YEI!” Neeko screamed and threw the hardest Blooming Burst she could muster. She didn’t stop to see if she’d hit anything - she turned and bolted on all fours, as hard as she could force her limbs to go. All thoughts of finding the door had left her head by this time - she had bigger problems to deal with.

Especially with what the thing had been saying…

“HELP ME”

The clatter of metal, something was chasing her. Something with too many limbs and a ragged breath, knocking and scraping against the foliage as it chased the Oovi-Kat. There was the noise of crows, but it wasn’t crows, it was something else -

Something loomed before her.

Covering her. Sheer terror exploded through her…

The scent. Familiar. Comforting. Joy’s coat. She’d run right into it, hung on a tree. And a few seconds later, she ran into the arm, grabbing her and stopping her, Neeko hearing a low curse before the roar of Joy’s handgun shattered the world.

By the time Neeko had gotten out of the coat and her sight back, Joy was reloading, her eyes flicking everywhere.

“Mirree!” Joy DID know her well: she was lifting her arm for the hug even before Neeko was close enough to do it. And she did it with her gun still at the ready, its barrel lighting up with crackling electrical arcs.

“I shot it to pieces, but I don’t think that did much good.” Joy said.

“How you find Neeko? Neeko lose…”

“Remember’d we had this.” Joy held up her right hand, a ring on her index finger. The Jailer’s Ring, of the Jailer and Prisoner’s Ring set, given to Joy and Neeko by DeMonde to aid with the fears of another nightmare horror. Though at the time, Neeko had been wearing the ring, with Joy wearing the other one. The Jailer Ring let the wearer feel the state of the Prisoner’s Ring. And while Neeko had taken it off between the demise of Ghidorah and now, she’d kept it on her person. It was good enough. “Let me see you like a beacon through these stinkin’ woods. And once again I think Dawn undersold us on the issues here-”

Joy snapped her gun to the side and fired several more times. All she did was set a pair of trees on fire.

Fire that sputtered out like it had tried to burn in a vacuum.

“...Poisoned this whole damn place. Give me some Horrorsworn any damn day.” Joy dumped the expended brass  from her gun and slapped in a fresh circle, though by doing so she accidentally briefly squeezed Neeko’s head in a headlock. “Oops, sorry.”

“It okay.”

“Keep m’coat on.”

“MOMmmmyyyyyyy…” Came the wail.

“...It is remarkably good at that.” Joy said.

“Mirree...how are you not scared?”

“Oh, I’m a mass o’ chatter, Neeko. I just keep the stone on m’face better. And fear with me, well...I hate it, so I take what it’s doin’ so I can make it go away.”

"Feeeaaarrrr…" The voice came again, another ragged whisper. Joy pointed the gun into the dark, then pulled it back as she realised she had no idea where it was coming from.

"Don't worrrry, Tom, I'm comiiing to help. I've HUUUURT my leg. I'll carry yoooou. It hurtsss, Jimmm, it hurtsss… what's that NOISE?"

Quiet. 

“HELPMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee-!”

Joy whipped her gun around and began firing. Who cared if she couldn’t find a target? BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGclickclick.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck-” Joy slapped open the barrel, hot shells spiraling down as she fumbled for a pocket.

“MIRREE!”

That was NOT Neeko. It was a horrible tumbling mass that came in like a bullet itself, all burning eyes and cold metal…

Joy blew its face off. HER GUN DIDN’T NEED BULLETS, ASSHOLE! She, however, promptly heated it into (temporary) disability shooting the scarecrow to pieces again, and then shooting the pieces down on the ground. She turned her eyes to check on Neeko; she WAS still there, but who knew what that damn thing…

When she looked back, it was gone. The moment her and Neeko weren’t watching it, it vanished. Yeah, better reload and hope the gun cooled off in time.

“...I really hope that gave it some pause. That trick isn’t going to work twice.”

A whispering sigh.

“Iiiit’s not deeeaaadd…”

And then more scraping. But it faded away, into the darkness. It had left. Maybe. All that was left was the darkness of the forest.

Neeko remained crouched on all fours in a defensive posture. She was licking her lips like a cat that had seen something that disgusted it. Her golden eyes were so wide the whites were visible.

“...Neeko know what this is,” she choked out at last.

“How do you mean?”

“What is… human word? For bad spirit?”

“Demon?”

“Yes. But to Oovi-Kat, word mean something different. To us, demon is bad emotion given shape. Sho'ma not easy to destroy. Especially old sho’ma from before First Sapling. That always linger, like bad smell. And if enough remain, it make new body.”

“From what?”

Neeko’s tail switched as she tried to think of the answer.

“Your people, you have... boogey-man?”

“Sounds general, so probably yes.”

“But boogey-man is fairy story to scare children. Behave or monster come get you. Same story here. Story of scarecrow-man with scythe who steal children. But if enough people believe, is like being real, yes? So this sho’ma, it feed on belief, on fear of scarecrow. Belief becomes strong enough, fear becomes alive. Demon. Then children vanish, for real. Maybe not the scarecrow. But when enough people believe, what difference?”

The wind rustled, somewhere, sounding too close to the flapping of wings to be comfortable. Neeko crouched a little lower, looking around, her voice a whisper.

“But it still need story to be told. It still need fear and belief to keep strong. If story dies, then it grow hungry. But sho'ma is made strong. It not just blow away. So it takes up scythe. It goes hunting.

“It kills.”

Faint now, on the very edge of hearing.

“Fiddle… Stiiiiiicks…”

“...Neeko, cover me.” Joy handed her gun over as she reached down to her main side bag, opening it with frantic, barely controlled intensity. She pulled out a vial, looking at it, before she reached in, shoved around in the contents of the bag, and pulled out what appeared to be a short black stick, about the size of the average cigarette.

“...mother fucking...Neeko, I have a very crazy idea so if you have any of your own for trying to deal with this, now’s the time.”

Neeko shook her head. “This demon old. Powerful. Take very great magic to put down.”

“Well then, we’re over-called for.” Joy knelt down, yanking out her drinking skin and ripping it open, the water spilling out as she laid it out on the ground. “Cover me.”

She broke the end of the vial open and dumped it onto the skin. Then she crushed the stick in her hand, dropping the pieces into the dark liquid.

"Fiddlesticks is just a faaable. A story to ssscare childrennn."

Next a small red lump. Some sort of clay. Joy squashed it in her hand, growling for a moment before said hand flared with electrical heat, rendering the material dry and burned as she dumped the fresh crumble into her alchemist mix. Next, a small grey lump. Joy stared for a few seconds at it.

“...Dawn, you’re an absolute bastard.”

More electrical fire, melting the metal into the morass. Drawing her sword, Joy began grinding it all together via the end of her hilt.

“Neeko. I need your blood.”

Joy sliced open the back of her hand, turning it over and letting the red drip down.

“Both our blood.”

Neeko stared for a moment.

Then she held out her hand.

“Neeko hopes you know what you do,” she hissed. “Blood magic dangerous. Neeko hear stories. Not sure if true, not want to find out.”

“That’s the point. We’re not fucking in that sort of story. We’re pointing it at THAT.”

“...fair.”

Joy made the same cut, Neeko wincing a bit as she added her blood.

A rattling noise.

"It's hunting us it knows wwwhaat we're afraid of…"

“I hate it when they do that. I can never tell if they’re too busy savoring the moment or plotting something.” Joy was grinding the mess all together as best she could. “But then again these stories are never about how smartly the thing used people.”

"III hear crows"

“...I think that’s about the best I can do.” Joy said, as she switched to her dominant hand and ran her sword blade along the mix she’d made. “We need to…”

"FFFFFFEEEEAAAAARRRR!!!"

Fiddlesticks lunged from the bushes, jaws agape, metal teeth glinting. The scythe curved through the air.

Joy would have probably complained about Neeko tackling her aside, had it not saved her life so many times. Even so, as the hooked blade missed both their heads by millimeters, she was starting to notice a running trend in their adventures. But she wasn’t about to complain about that. Nor the fact that Neeko had opened fire on reflex, the shots like cannon blast in the otherwise silent forest.

The bullets punched through the cloth shroud that formed the scarecrow’s upper half. But they hit nothing solid. That came back to bite Neeko as iron talons clamped around her head. She screamed, the claws digging into her scalp, and kicked furiously even as the beast lifted her off her feat. The red eyes bored down at her. Regarding her.

“BASTARD!”

Joy was not much of a raw pugilist. So when the hilt of the sword connected with whatever Fiddlesticks had for a jaw, the pain sang up her own arm more than it hurt the demon. If it did at all. But it got a response - the scarecrow gave a choking groan as it flung Neeko aside, sending her slamming into another tree. Turning on Joy, it swung at her with another arm it didn’t have before - a dark arm made of inky blackness. Joy barely leaped back, the claws a hair’s breadth from her stomach.

But in doing so, she put her heel upon an errant root that stuck out of the earth, throwing her balance off. Her arms windmilled for a moment, but it did nothing to stop her toppling backwards. She hit the earth with a thump, the air knocked out of her as her back hit the soil, and now Fiddlesticks loomed over her, a black tongue flickering snake-fashion from its jaws. She scrambled to get away, trying to reach her other weapon as the scythe came up-

“KEHKETAH!”

A flash of yellow-green light, followed by a screech. As the scarecrow fought against the Tanglebarbs that held it down, a figure rose behind it

Neeko. Clutching the gun in her hand. She hadn’t let go of it.

“Here, Mirree!” she hollered as she threw it. The weapon somersaulted through the air, and Joy leaped to her feet in the same motion that she reached for it. Snatching it, she whipped around to face the struggling Fiddlesticks.

“Gotcha.”

She squeezed the trigger.

A fraction too late before Fiddlesticks ripped free in an explosion of extraneous limbs. One of them caught her in a backhanded slap that, unintentional or not, snapped her head back, and the gun flew up in her hands. The bullet roared forth into the air, no longer aimed at the original target. A hand caught her by the face and pushed her back, slamming her into a tree. She yelled and beat at it with her blade, but it didn’t budge.

“I’mmmmmm looost WON’T ANYBODY help meeeee…”

The cold edge of the scythe touched her neck. She tried to bring the barrel of the gun around. But she couldn’t see what she was aiming at with her face covered. The claws dug in.

“Yoooou’re not REEEAAAL-“

An earsplitting roar filled the air. Fiddlesticks was suddenly jerked back, releasing its grip on Joy. She dropped to her feet, blinking, eyes adjusting to the rush of light. For a moment, she couldn’t understand what she was seeing. Fiddlesticks, whistling and groaning a near-constant death rattle, was struggling against a huge cat-like beast with sabre fangs. Where had that thing-?

A flash of green markings along the furry hide.

Neeko again.

“I owe you so many cheesebreads after this,” Joy muttered.

She brought the gun up, then froze. Classic conundrum. She had to help Neeko, had to hit Fiddlesticks in a vital area - or as close to one as it had. But in the middle of the brawl, she could very well hit Neeko. And the Oovi-Kat had taken on a much larger, easier-to-hit form than the scrawny apparition. It was too big a risk.

Thankfully, things were made easier when cat-Neeko yowled and leaped away suddenly. The scarecrow’s talons had carved grooves in her side, and as she morphed back they remained, oozing red. Fiddlesticks rose to its feet and reared back, jaw flapping loosely, limbs spread like the legs of an angry spider. But Joy’s attention wasn’t on that, it was on the iron cage affixed to its chest where something dark and inky with too many red eyes writhed-

She fired.

Fiddlesticks ducked the first shot as it sprinted towards her, the bullet thudding into the bark of a tree.

“Fuck.”

A blast of green magic shot forth and hit Fiddlesticks square in the face. It screamed and reared back, clawing at the fake eyes, and Joy’s second shot didn’t miss. It splintered the frame, tore a hole in the cloth and crumpled the cage. The demon didn’t even scream before it collapsed into an inert pile of metal and fabric, smoking.

Joy kept her gun trained on it, her hand trembling.

“I think it’s done playin’ around,” she breathed at last.

“Eep!”

The yelp sounded so much like the squeak of rusted metal that Joy nearly jumped out of her skin. She whipped round and barely stopped herself from pulling the trigger.

Neeko looked up at her from her crouching position. The torn skin where the gunslinger had been doing her alchemy was at her… hands? Forefeet? Forepaws? With how close Neeko was to animal, Joy often got them confused. The fingers of one hand dripped the same black slurry the sword had been coated in.

Neeko gave a sheepish grin and stood up. “Sorry.”

Joy lowered her gun, heart hammering. “Jeez, don’t put a-”

Suddenly, crows filled the air. Cawing and flapping and stabbing with their pointed beaks and ripping with their talons. Neeko and Joy backed, shielding their eyes, swiping and swatting, trying to get the birds away. Blinded by feathers and beaks, they stumbled away until they were under the tree, barely able to hear or see anything through the ruckus.

Which meant that they didn’t hear the rustling in the trees until another scarecrow dropped out of it right above them. A clawed hand each grabbed them by the throats, slamming them to the earth and winding them once again. The grip tightened, crushing their windpipes, and both women gasped and choked for breath, kicking with both feet and clawing frantically at the appendages holding them. The stench of fungus, rust and dried blood filled their noses.

Fiddlesticks - the real Fiddlesticks - leered down at them from the shadow cast by the tree. Its jaw wasn’t hanging down now. It seemed to be twisted in some kind of grin, but perhaps that was the lighting. Above, the crows whirled and shrieked as if in sadistic anticipation.

“THE SCARECROW took them aaaall,” Fiddlesticks croaked. “Nobody left…”

The scythe caught the moonlight as a spare arm raised it up.

“...but meeeeeee.”

In stories, million-to-one chances happen so much more often than in reality. And they almost always succeed. The prince always slays the dragon. The washed-up athlete always proves he still has it. The underdog always beats the champion. The only time they don’t is when one wants to teach a harsh but uplifting lesson about life, or when the audience is so sick of seeing these things happen that they demand something different. And if any of the latter two had been in play, then Neeko and Joy would have died right here.

But when Joy swung her sword, it did not break against Fiddlesticks, or get stuck in the metallic ribs, or pass harmlessly through the cloth shroud. It cut through, sliced off the arm pinning her down like butter. The edges glowed as if white hot, the grip loosening, and Fiddlesticks leaped back with a howl, releasing a grateful Neeko as well.

It had been a million-to-one shot. And the shot had worked.

And then more kept coming. Neeko got to her feet and charged at Fiddlesticks. It swung the scythe, but she ducked under and caught a two-footed blow to his ribs that staggered the scarecrow. Joy vaulted over her and brought the sword down onto the head, and metal teeth flew out with a crunch. It collapsed, and another scarecrow came rushing out, only for Joy to catch it a backhand in the face.

Neeko slid between her partner’s legs and fired a Blooming Burst. The pulsing magic halted Fiddlesticks before it could retaliate, and a shot from Joy caught it dead centre. With a screech, it scuttled forward, but the swing of the scythe missed as the duo backflipped over the blade and landed behind Fiddlesticks. When the crows came swooping down again, Neeko took to all fours and fired a burst of Tanglebarbs that sent them flapping away in fright.

This wasn’t a game of survival anymore. This was toe-to-toe matching the demon for everything it had. And it didn’t go unnoticed.

“How we doing this?” asked Neeko as she ducked under another scythe swing.

“Don’t jinx it now!” hollered Joy as she swung the sword again. This time, she carved off the scythe arm, and Fiddlesticks rounded on her, snarling. More inky arms of darkness sprouted, firing blobs of searing shadow in her direction, and a few of them hit Joy - one in the shoulder and two in the midsection. But those were mild punches compared to the smashing and strangling the scarecrow had been dishing out so far.

“MOOnnnstEEER!” it screamed, raising the scythe again.

“GOT YOU!” Neeko leaped onto its back and grabbed it around the neck. Green magic surged through her hands, and the demon hissed and snarled as the cloth and metal in her grasp burned and blackened. Distracted, it allowed another slash and two more shots from Joy to puncture it before it managed to grasp the Oovi-Kat and pry her off, throwing her over its head.

Thankfully for Neeko, she hit no trees. Joy was able to catch her, and the two quickly turned their fall into a tumble that brought them back to their feet. And just in time. For a moment, they didn’t realize the thing scurrying towards them on legions of limbs and brandishing too many scythes. Then they had to leap back once again as Fiddlesticks, a ball of bladed death, rushed past them and into the bushes.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” hissed Joy, lifting sword and gun at the same time. “We’re not lettin’ you pull that trick again.”

“We know you, demon!” added Neeko, body glowing. “We beat you now!”

The crows had retreated out of reach, circling the battlefield like expectant sentries. The duo stood back to back, looking this way and that. Neeko’s fins were rattling, her tail switching. Joy was shaking, but kept her grasp on sword and gun firm. Nothing happened, and aside from the flapping of the wings, all was quiet.

Then Neeko whispered.

“Neeko has idea.”

Joy didn’t look around. “Yes?”

“Neeko think maybe scarecrow not want to fight us both at once. Maybe it want to fight one at a time. Neeko vanish. Wait for scarecrow, make special magic. You be ready for when Neeko appear again.”

“Roger. Unless the fucking thing cuts me down before-”

A hand on hers. She looked back, and caught those wide, golden eyes.

“You trust Neeko, yes?” 

Joy hesitated. Then nodded.

And then, little by little, Neeko faded. She seemed to melt away into the shadows, her scales fading and becoming transparent. Soon, there was nothing there. Only, as it seemed, Joy, on her own. Holding sword and gun, waiting for something awful to happen.

Any moment now. Any moment, and then-

A snap of a twig made Joy turn her head.

The wrong way.

“HAAARRVEEEEEST!!!!!!!”

Fiddlesticks leaped from the bushes like a lunging panther. Every single one of its arms had a scythe, and dark claws and tendrils fountained from beneath the cloak.

But he leaped too late.

“ZUMAT!”

When Neeko slammed down, the ground exploded in a shower of light and petals. Fiddlesticks was flung into the air before it even landed, limbs waving frantically. As ir came down, Joy’s sword found its chest, followed by two gunshots that knocked off the majority of the extraneous limbs. It screamed and writhed like a stuck pig.

“NOW!”

Neeko’s hands, on her shoulders. Channeling the magic, surging through Joy and into her blade.

And the energy that poured forth ripped Fiddlesticks apart. The remaining limbs crumbled to ash. The scythes rusted and fell apart. Deprived of its best attack, it flew through the air, trailing smoke and darkness. The crows departed in a mad whirl, cawing in audible distress and shock.

But Fiddlesticks didn’t go down.

The scythe lashed out and dug into a tree branch. Spinning around it, it landed on all fours with a heavy thud, leaf litter flying everywhere. It kept the crouching position for a moment, as if recovering from the shock of the attack, embers trailing from its ragged and rusted form. Then, slowly, like a marionette returning to life, it rose to its full height, towering over the two women who stood, defiant yet still terrified, in front of it.

Joy gritted her teeth. “Damn it, why won’t it die…?!” She reached for her gun again, and jumped as Neeko caught her wrist.

“Look,” the Oovi-Kat whispered.

Fiddlesticks continued to stand there, as static as the scarecrow it imitated. But it wasn’t advancing upon them anymore. It looked from one to the other. From Joy, trembling and panting, to Neeko, glowing many colours. It seemed to be coming to a decision about something.

Then, as if it had suddenly lost interest, it turned and shuffled away. Still in their fighting stances, hyperventilating and pale-faced, the two watched it limp away, dragging the scythe behind it, until it faded away into the mist.

“Once upon a Tiiiiiime... Onccccce… uponnnn a tiiiiime...”

The wind consumed the voice, and that was gone too.

Joy wondered if she would ever stop breathing hard. If her heart would ever calm down.

“I...think...think…” There didn’t seem to be enough words for the air she was gulping. “It’s gone.”

Neeko, shivering still, leaned over and gave her a hug.

“You do good,” was all she could say.

Joy just lay on her knees, trying to stop breathing so hard.

----

Neeko felt her whole body tense up when she heard the trademark VROP.

“It’s me. No trickery here. Hiding away, Neeko, read my sho’ma. That can’t be faked.” Dawn’s voice came from the mist between the trees.

Neeko reached out and felt the aura. After a moment, she nodded and pulled her sho’ma back.

“Is Dawn,” she confirmed.

Dawn walked out, carrying what appeared to be a butcher’s cleaver.

“Excellent work, Miss Mars-”

Dawn’s head banged against the nearest tree as Joy surged up, grabbed the woman by the front of her clothing, and smashed her back first against the rough bark.

“YOU SAID A MONSTER! A! MONSTER! NOT FUCKING THAT! YOU KNEW! YOU FUCKING KNEW!”

“I...theorized a possibility-” Joy’s gun flew into her hand as she pressed it against Dawn’s head.

“I CAN LIVE WITH BEING FUCKED WITH. NOT NEEKO. GIVE ME A VERY GOOD REASON NOT TO BLOW YOUR COLD METAL BRAINS OUT.”

A hand, on her shoulder.

“Because if you do that, then we can’t go home.”

It was very rare for Neeko to speak in complete sentences. She’d been trying, but the intricacies of human language seemed to be either too tricky for her tongue or an annoyance. Most likely the latter. The Oovi-Kat had communicated with colours, emotions and memories. The spoken word, to them, was clumsy and limiting in the same way trying to carry stacked dishes while wearing a straightjacket was. The only time Neeko ever seemed to accomplish it...

“Mirree. It’s okay. It’s gone. We’re safe. I’m safe. You can be angry at Dawn later, when we get out of here. As angry as you want. I won’t stop you. You can do whatever you like. But not right now. Not right now, when you might get us stuck here.”

...was when she really needed to.

The hand squeezed Joy’s shoulder. Golden eyes gazed back at her.

“I’m safe. I’m alright. Put the gun down.”

Neeko probably would have stopped the escalation with just her first sentence, but the words and way behind it did help calm Joy down and make her lower her gun.

Before she belted Dawn across the head with the butt of it, knocking her to her own knees.

“Okay. Let’s hear your line of bullshit.” Joy said, sitting down on a nearby rock. Dawn touched the small dent in her head.

“...If I’d told you exactly what you could be dealing with, your tactic might not have worked.”

“...why?”

“That thing. It’s akin to a concept I know, called a tulpa. Something basically believed into existence. A thought form, framed in stories. You can’t really strike, or kill, an idea. Normally that’s balanced by the fact that an idea itself can’t strike or kill you, but, well, you’ve seen our lives. We have no normal.” Dawn said. “So I considered that, and realized that most likely, you’d also need to utilize ‘story’. And I think if the story had been ‘the warriors went in with advance knowledge of the danger’, it wouldn’t have worked. You’d have made it stronger. But not knowing? Thinking up a solution on the fly? That flows better. Let you exploit its nature instead of it turning it back on you. I had faith you’d figure it out, that’s why I gave you the materials.”

“Ink. And that other stuff. Stuff for writing.” Joy said.

“With blood for power. When you got in hits with those, you started...tying it down, basically. Doing more than just damaging it. It couldn’t really be thwarted with DAMAGE. But with what you did? If it kept fighting you with your treated weapons and true belief, hopes, and fears...then its story might get locked. No more vague tales of a hundred stripes. Just one solid story of two women killing a monster. So it backed off. Better to leave prey alive than risk having its hunting ground reduced so much. Its legend made...less. Neeko, I’m not asking you to back me up here, but I think you see where I was coming from. I didn’t WANT to do this, but I told you before we started. I might sometimes treat you like tools. But I do my damndest not to break ‘my tools’, because even if you can be considered as such, you’re irreplaceable. Not a story I want lost.”

“And if you’d guessed wrong?” Joy said.

“...if I really didn’t like the odds, I would have gone myself. And if part of those odds didn’t require a certain ignorance, I would have given you complete information. Beyond what I didn’t know.”

“...all this for a fucking door.” Joy said, looking down.

A long pause.

Then Neeko, who’d been looking between the two, now fixed on Dawn. Her eyes didn’t blink for an uncomfortable amount of time. She breathed in, then let it out in a sigh.

Then she shook her head.

“Neeko… wants to understand. You is metal person. You not think same way as person or animal. You think in numbers and lines. Not with sensations. You take risks based on odds and numbers. Not say things because they might hurt chances. Not really lies, because you not really want to hurt people. You try to do good even when you not howNeeko senses this. Neeko knows your sho’ma, so Neeko see how you think this way.”

She knelt down and looked her dead in the eye. There was something different in her demeanour. Something more mature, something older.

“Neeko has had different life from you. Form different memories and ideas. Perhaps if Neeko have live the way you lived, she think same way as well. Who to say? Who to say you is right and Neeko is wrong? Maybe neither of us right. Neeko not know, and not want to say she know. Everyone has different way of thinking, and that is not wrong, except when it hurt people.”

Her tail swishes.

“It not matter if you right and Neeko wrong. It not matter if you not mean to. It not matter how different we lead lives. It not make what you do right, and you cannot keep making excuse forever. You cannot keep saying ‘I think different’ like it is weapon you hit enemy with. Because there only so many times you do that. So many times before you hurt someone so bad, they can’t accept it.

“You hurt Neeko too many times.”

She stood up.

“Neeko can’t ever agree with you. Even if Neeko could understand. Because you keep tricking Neeko. Not telling her things, letting her do hard work and then talk about how smart you are. Neeko not care if you good person or right. It not let you treat Neeko and Mirree and friends this way. People are not tools. No matter how strong. They are wonderful and beautiful and full of colour and life, and when you treat them like tools it hurts them. No matter how good you try to be, it make them feel like lesser things. And when people break, you not just buy another.”

She hiccuped, and blinked. Were those… tears?

“Neeko had enough. Neeko can’t stand being used. You trick Neeko so many times, I can’t trust what you say anymore. So Neeko do this thing for you. Maybe one more, if needs be. But then Neeko go. Never want to see you again, or do anything you ask again. And take Mirree with me, because Neeko not want to see her hurt anymore either. If Mirree still want shoot you, Neeko not stop her.

“Neeko is not a tool. Neeko is Neeko. And Neeko has had enough.”

She gasped, and wiped her eyes. Her usual vibrant colours had faded to a dull, almost gray hue. Her finds drooped, and her tail dragged. Her eyes were watery - it had hurt her to say what she’d just said. But she stood where she was, still staring at Dawn.

“...seriously Dawn. I ain’t the best judge o’character, but you’re better than this.” Joy said. Dawn, having held her head the whole time, finally took her hand away.

“......am I?” Dawn said, looking at her hand.

Suddenly, Neeko stood at attention like a dog that had smelled a squirrel. Her eyes widened, and she stared into the distance. Her colours returned and her tail began to flicker back and forth.

Then she darted into the trees.

“Neeko!” Joy’s exclamation of surprise fell on deaf ears. She looked at Dawn, who returned an equally confused look. Except Dawn’s wasn’t laced with fear that Fiddlesticks might get the idea to come back.

They followed, not knowing what to expect.

By the time Dawn and Joy had caught up, they saw Neeko emerging from the mossy entrance of an underground passage. It had been well-hidden, with ferns draping over it. Not even Fiddlesticks could have found it. And if he could, he wouldn’t have gotten in - too narrow, even for his skinny body. It had been a bit of a squeeze even for Neeko, and if either of the other two women had tried to follow her, they would have been guaranteed to get stuck.

But she wasn’t alone.

Behind her, another Ooi-Kat emerged. A female, not as lightly-built as Neeko but very similar. Her hair hung down behind her in a matted ponytail, and her chartreuse skin was covered in soil and grime. Behind her, another followed - a young male, and similar enough in the pattern of his scales and the hue of his hair that there was no doubt he was her son. They stared at Joy and Dawn with wide eyes filled with fear, uncertainty and a haggard tiredness.

Neeko, however, looked like she was about to scream with joy.

“Keela and Jarro!” she cried, almost vibrating, bright green swirls flashing along her skin. “They hide from scarecrow! He not find them for days and days! They survive! They survive, Mirree!”

Then, without much prompting, she grabbed Joy by the face and kissed her full on the lips. She did the same to Dawn, apparently forgetting - perhaps only for the moment - what she’d said earlier. Then she went off into something like a war-dance, leaping and twisting and emitting trills and whoops of unbridled jubilation. All while the newcomers huddled together, crouched low, staring at the two as if expecting them to suddenly morph into the scarecrow.

Joy’s expression went through a few phases. First shock and surprise, then elation, and then suddenly fading into a cold stare that she directed at Dawn.

“...did you know?”

“...about this?” Dawn said.

“You wanted to find a door. There’s no door. Did you KNOW? Are you gamblin’ all is gonna be forgiven? I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the truth.”

Dawn blinked, looked back at the sight, and then back at Joy.

“Didn’t have a clue.”

----

She spoke the truth.

Not like it mattered.

The story is what’s heard.

----

“Mother…”

“I don’t want to hear it, Vent.” Dawn was working on the key again.

“The season has begun. After Bernard heard about what happened, he left entirely. Made it very clear to not call him, he’ll call us.”

“I’ll wager he’s still on my funding profile though. Kozue will have seen to that.” Another failure. She began entering the data of it.

“Did you really forget our discussion so quickly?”

“You want to have a discussion, Vent? About how I’m cold and emotionless? Have you SEEN what emotions do recently?” Dawn cut her adopted son off. “Merilee was so angry she would have destroyed me and left themselves stranded on that world, and YES, I KNOW you would have retrieved them, and YES, you are CORRECT that I have backups for such possible disasters, it’s IRRELEVANT. Neeko flip-flopped from wanting nothing to do with me to thinking I was the greatest thing since sliced bread in the space of five minutes, and YES, that was due to raw, incredible luck, I’m not going to squander it, she still did a complete 180 based on one single change, however great it is. And of course, that beast. Existing solely because fear spreads and grows like a natural disaster in the mind, a basic service that so quickly gets overloaded with its own energies that it drives you right off a cliff. Or worse. Then there’s me. Who assesses and attempts to do things that will do as little harm as possible, who works in solid factors as much as possible, who tries to be CONSISTENT as much as possible. I KNOW I’m flawed, I’m WORKING on it, but sometimes I can’t help but think I’m not lacking, I’m AHEAD OF THE CURVE. Now tell me I’m wrong.”

Silence.

“...You’re not RIGHT either.” Vent said.

“Inconsistent. Maddening, isn’t it?” Dawn said, having stood up while talking. “I really do wonder sometimes, Vent. The light side of emotions is wondrous, but the dark side...it makes my innate nature just question the odds of it all. If I’m just one eruption away from complete disaster, well, you were discussing mother’s failings.”

“Going too far the other way is ALSO a failing.”

“Regardless, it’s done. The past is the past and can’t be changed.”

“I think...for now, I should take over mission assignments. I’ve consulted your records and notes.”

“...Probably a very good idea. Familiarity breeds contempt, and all.”

“Not all the time, mother, or we wouldn’t keep repeating this conversation.” With that, Vent left.

“...yeah, funny how the most dangerous stories are the ones that keep going around and around. Like the setting sun and the rising light.”

Dawn returned to work on the Apeiron Key. However this went, she wanted the ending she envisioned. If she had to go off a few cliffs along the way…

Well, wasn’t the best part of stories hanging off such things?