In a bustling office far beyond the realms, several robed figures huddled around low desks and monitors as they worked away at lines of alien code.

"Come on, come on!" Dahlia hissed.

Her cries fell on deaf ears as her monitor flickered, then blanked. With an exasperated roar, she slapped at it, only for it to dissipate beneath her green palm. Stiffening, she stared for a moment, her hand hovering where the screen had just been. A long sigh left her before she shook her head, fixed her glasses, and focused on her remaining three screens.

Behind her, a massive dark-robed figure took up half the office. Hunched over, many hands flew across a vast collection of monitors as they tamed the endless stream of information. 

Even to a well-versed System Administrator, this amount of data would be incomprehensible. But for the Director, it was child's play as they reduced it to lists and data points for their subordinates to finish.

For the moment, the Director juggled two objectives. Technically, the most important task was the stabilization of the Agency's systems. Though maintenance had managed to put out the major fires, things were far from fixed. But they only paid little mind to this main issue and instead worked towards their secondary objective.  

Next to Dahlia, her siblings also worked, though their efforts focused on a different project. Instead of search and rescue, they provided support to the fragment their co-workers left. Honestly, only Dandelion worked as he furiously untangled and rearranged the damage until it formed a pattern more suitable for a functional world. As for Daffodil, she slumbered on her desk. With her monitors gathered around her, only her siblings could see her napping. Neither said anything as they knew the trouble she would make for them if they snitched.

At least it was not just Dahlia and Dandelion on their own as their other co-workers were also fast at work. Well, at least one of them. Sandwiched between two curio-filled shelves at an oddly modern cubicle office desk, a red-headed woman tapped away at her screen. Really, she stuck out when compared to others in the room as she favored a practical black suit and tie over the elaborate robes the others wore.

A black jacket swayed on the back of her chair as Leona unconsciously rocked. Though she did not have many monitors, she made good use of the one she had, reading and rewriting the code as soon as the Director or Dandelion sent it to her. Over her shoulder, Boss helped to direct and review any mistakes.

A small, winged cupid watched from her desk, however unlike everyone else, he did not have a single screen. Though that was for the best, administrative work was not Sun's strong point. But he could at least provide moral support.

"I found them," The Director said quietly. "Goodfellow," they commanded, motioning at the goat man with one of their free hand. The goat man turned to look at them.

"What is it?"

"I am opening a breach."

Without further warning, the Director cut right through the air, tearing apart the rather sturdy fabric of reality that held up the Overworld. Naturally, the realm tried to close breach as any rift into the Chaos was dangerous. But the Director kept it open and reached in.

However, while the Overseer was unaffected by the inherent chaos that emanated from the breach, the rest of the office was not so resilient.

Furniture flew as the triplet grabbed for each other. Dahlia's desk knocked into her as it flipped and went flying, nearly taking her with it. Dandelion attempted to remain sturdy, bracing himself to the ground, but he was hardly better off than his sister, who was getting tossed around. Daffodil remained the most stable, but that was only because she pushed her other siblings in front of her. If they were going to get spaced, she planned to be the last. Luckily, the Boss was quick, as he grabbed the three and pulled them back.

Meanwhile, the pressure shift swept Sun away as he found his wings pitifully ineffective in the atmosphere. To his luck, Leona caught hold of him and anchored them both to her desk, which refused to move. However, it was not the same for the curio shelves that spilled their various contents everywhere.

Freed from the shelves, a small round sproutling jumped at the chance to cause havoc, only for it to get sucked towards the Chaos. If not for a quick vine from Dahlia, it would have been a goner.

As the room held on for dear life, the Director wrestled around in the breach. When the first few hands did not work, they threw in more until they dragged out the beginning of a shadow. The moment it entered the office, a hand rose from it only to be replaced by a horned man.

"Protect yourselves!" Alexander yelled before the trickle of black turned into a deluge. Shadows flooded the room as traces of red flickered across their dark surface.

The Director was the first to move as they formed a barrier to block the brunt of the outpour. Behind them, Boss dragged the triplets and took cover behind their bigger superior.

Finding herself out of position, Leona casually hunkered down. Her hair caught fire as she tucked the cupid into her shirt before slamming her flaming forearms together to form a fiery shield. This caused the shadows to pull back and instead flood the remaining office. All the while, Alexander floated above, unaffected.

Really, he was just letting the shadows run rampant until the last bit of that damned intruder dissipated inside Michael.

It was only when a crude humanoid form rose from the undulating mess that he acted.

"My dearest, are you feeling any better?" He cooed as he took hold of his husband.

"Yes… and no…" Michael's words came out slowly. Their form shook before sliding back into the defined appearance they preferred in the Overworld. With that, the remaining shadows retreated until they were manageable pool at Michael's feet. Though this did nothing to help the office, which was a complete mess.

"Are you safe?" Michael asked.

"All parts mostly accounted for. Though I would not mind some help checking," Alexander chuckled.

"Good," Michael gave a nod before leaning into their husband. Though they had control, regaining it had taken a lot out of them, and, well, there had been no time for rest since the fragment.

Despite his thinner frame, Alexander supported his partner. Small tendrils of shadows slithered about and caressed him as he hummed, "We should head home, shouldn't we? It's been a long trip."

"By the Mother!" Dahlia sprang from Boss' hold at her recovered co-workers.

"You're alive!" Sun flew forth from Leona's blouse, "Thank the Heart Maker, you're alive!" He soon joined Dahlia in her movement.

Instinctually, Alexander sidestepped, but Michael remained as they caught the two and hugged. It was somewhat awkward as their form squished beneath them.

"Sorry for the trouble," Michael said before making a slight 'oh' sound. "I'm indecent." Though they had no distinct features, it was still inappropriate to run around without clothes on, especially in front of their co-workers.

"It doesn't matter, kid," Boss laughed and joined the hug. He patted Michael's shoulder while also kicking Alexander in the shin. "Good to have you back."

The other siblings were not the hugging type but expressed their relief at the couple's recovery.

Fixing her burnt shirt cuff, Leona gave Alexander a nod before leveling an unflinching look at Michael. They did their best to stare back before she rushed forward. Low to the ground, the others moved out of the way as she tackled the shade and landed a solid head butt on them. Michael returned the gesture, this time firmer than before as the two remained ominously quiet. This did not last long as laughter erupted from them.

"Did I pass?" Michael asked.

"Seems you're the right person," Leona answered before wrapping around them and squeezing tight.

To the side, Director waited for the group to finish. Dahlia and Sun continued to interrogate about what had gone down. Now it was Alexander's turn to slide in as he held Michael's waist and rested his chin on their shoulder. From there, he fielded the questions.

Off to the side, Dandelion complained about the mess as he worked to organize the desks while Daffodil supervised.

Time quickly passed, and Director found their subordinates were not slowing down, so they finally stepped in.

"Help Dandelion straighten."

The command made Dahlia and Sun jump. They did not argue as they flew over to aid Dandelion in his solo clean-up. Leona was slower, giving Michael one last slap on the shoulder and a nod before helping. With her, the work was a breeze as she lifted the heavy furniture with ease.

"Director," Michael bowed as Alexander nodded. "Thank you for rescuing us. Sorry, we caused so much trouble."

"We did not cause anything, love," Alexander said, leveling a glare at the Overseer. "It is hardly our fault that an Aspect's reject harassed us."

"The creature you found in the realm?" Director asked.

"It was a minion of the Aspect of Bloodlust. A small remnant that took advantage of my confusion to attempt a poorly planned invasion of the Overworld. He has since been dealt with," Michael reported but then pondered. "It is strange, however. I do not know how he found us. Let alone was still alive. Perhaps I was incorrect in my thought that I was the last of that group."

"That's because his master broke free," Boss interrupted as he turned his entire body around to scowl at the Director. Even though they were his boss and his in-law, he could not help but judge.

"What?" Michael's tone pitched. They had seen their former master's death at the hands of the Director and had been told all the other Aspects had received the same fate.

"I know," Boss continued, "Apparently some Aspects were spared execution. Apparently," he leaned forward, "someone thought they could rehabilitate them. So, they locked them away in the Agency and didn’t have the foresight to keep their bindings separate from the Agency's primary system."

"Goat," the piece of white cloth that covered the Director's face fluttered at the word, "watch your tongue."

"Watch my tongue? You stored three psychopaths of destructions on the Overworld! If Council knew—"

"Council is not important," they waved one of their hands, "The issue has been resolved."

"Resolved?" Boss wanted to say more but bite their proverbial tongue. He would never win that fight, and he had already lost his head once. He did not need to lose anything else.

Michael watched the two bicker and only felt more exhausted. Even though they had dealt with Blood, their form was still unstable. Also, they were tired. Really tired. "Pardon me, Director, but I need rest. Please allow Alexander to explain the situation and inform him of what has occurred in our absence." With that, their form vibrated then gave way, sliding into the floor and directly into the demon's shadow.

A slight frown pulled at Alexander's lips before vanishing as he looked up at the Director through his favorite glasses, "So what trouble did we miss?"

It was a relatively short debriefing. Initially, the Director remained vague about the details surrounding the release of the other Aspects. But, with a bit of prodding from Alexander and additional commentary from Boss, the demon found out the full incident.

It all started back when the Director dealt with the Aspects. Perhaps it was sentimentality or guilt, but they believed a few could be rehabilitated.  So, they imprisoned the spared Aspects in the foundation of the Agency. Originally this confinement was only supposed to last a short while. Things would not go as planned as the Agency's growth left the Director too busy to continue.

A loud baaing laugh interrupted the explanation as the ol' goat held his sides. He was about to say something when a sharp look from the Director quieted him, and they continued.

After the breakout, the Director had taken it upon themselves to recapture them from across the realms. Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, only one willingly returned. The others… well, they were dealt with.

"But how did they escape in the first place?" Alexander asked. "Though I would find it deeply amusing if they dug their way out, I doubt that would ever be an option. So, did someone break them out?"

Now it was Boss' turn to talk as he crossed his arms, "Unapproved system update," he said. "The new lead over the Stabilization Department decided to push through an equipment update without getting proper approvals. It blew the system. Which shouldn't have released the Aspects normally, but after investigation, Monir, along with others from System Maintenance, found that the programmers in the department had crafted a bypass to get around the approvals. This happened to involve streaming right through the older building blocks of the system that were directly tied to binds holding the Aspects. So, when the update fried the system, everything from development to cafeteria went down."

Alexander nodded appreciatively, "Impressive. And that is why we were tossed to the first stable fragment as well?"

"Not exactly," Dahlia chirped in as she rearranged her scattered shelves. "According to what the other Development Teams have reported, most lost developers were mid-return. Sun really got lucky that he was still on fragment, or else we might have lost him to the in-between as well. We don't know why you two landed on a fragment."

Alexander paused before turning towards the Director, who gave no response. Though he doubted they knew the answer, and as he pondered, a cool shadow curled up his leg and around his wrist. At that, he gave a chuckle.

"We are fortunate then that everything turned out well."

"Turned out well for us," Daffodil added. "For the other developer teams," she cackled, "I might be able to make something off of them since they’re so short-staffed."

"Short staffed?"

"Yes," The Director spoke, "the event crippled several teams, and we unfortunately are running at half power. We have much work to complete before operations return to normal. This was why your recovery was so important…"

At that, Michael flew out of the shadows and stiffly stared down their boss.

"No," Michael said, "No. I'm retired. We're retired."

"We need senior developers to help stabilize the fragments and collect energy."

"We agreed on this before everything went down. I already finished my last mission and an extra. I'm done. I'm going on vacation."

"Michael, understand," The Director, for all their size and limbs, always had a soft spot for the shade. But even as they asked with an air of desperation, Michael did not budge.

"No more," they swiped their hand, "If you need help, then here." With a flick of their wrist, a red dot appeared before they flung it. The dot took on a 3d form as the Director caught it.

"This is…" The Director recognized it instantly as a small red creature took a roughly bipedal form in their palm.

"My next adoptive brother or maybe an actual brother. I don't know. I don't care. I've given him the basic empathy training. He's competent enough with supervision."

"I taught him not to bite," Alexander smiled, "if you want, I can give you a copy of the contract he signed."

 "I'm sure Boss can rear him into a new developer in no time." With that, Michael slithered around Alexander's shoulders like a black cloak. "Husband, let us go."

"Ah, I'm sorry, gentlefolk, I cannot argue with my husband. After all," he rested a hand against Michael's cheek, "they own my soul."

The Director and Boss looked between tiny Blood and the couple. Both their expressions were impossible to read, but Boss was the first to move as he shook his head and wished them a pleasant holiday before returning to help the rest of the team clean up. The Director continued to look at the bloodling before prodding him with a finger. He squished and hissed, which only made them laugh. They then nodded.

"You're right. I had agreed to such a thing. I cannot hold you. And I would be committing a great injustice if I did not acknowledge your previous accomplishments. You have well-earned your respite. Go, enjoy yourself."

The couple nodded and headed towards the door.

"But," they stopped the Director's continued speech, "don't forget to visit. Even if you are not working, I'm sure Goodfellow would be sad to not see you often."

"Of course, Director," Michael chimed, "See you later."

With that, the husbands' left the office and finally began their long-awaited vacation.

A/N

Thank you for reading!ヾ(≧▽≦*)o 

I don't fully know how to wrap up this final author's note really. I know I started with with the intention of doing a QT story with all sorts of arcs and such, but I honestly couldn't handle the work load. `(*>﹏<*)′ I hope that even though the direction changed, the story was still engaging.   

Also, just wanted to say thank you for sticking it through to the end! It really motivated me to work on the story knowing people were reading and liking it! I hope it was an enjoyable read!