Never have I felt more at peace than I do sitting here with Cat, feeling the sun setting upon us and watching the moon rise up. Just us two and the gentle world caressing our souls in its soft sounds and movements.

“We’re really going to live here, huh…” I muse, arms wrapped around Cat.

“Mhm,” Cat hums. “Finally, a place we belong. A place that’s ours.”

I look up at my partner before resting my head against her shoulder,

“God, I’ve spent so long wanting to get to this moment, I hadn’t even thought about what I’m going to do now that we’re here!”

Cat chuckles and pulls me closer, resting her head atop mine.

“Whatever we want, hun. Maybe I’ll pick up art again. Maybe I’ll keep dancing. Heck, I’ll start playing the piano again and we can start a band with Sue-Zee and Niamh!”

We both laugh at the idea, but honestly…

“...That doesn’t sound half bad. As an option, anyways.”

“Ugh, god, you’re gonna make me work with Niamh professionally?”

I stick my tongue out at Cat playfully, and she does the same, the two of us giggling at each other as our tails twist around one another. I fought the feeling at first, but honestly, the fox features feel right. I hadn’t realized how much I felt I was missing without them until I started accepting all this, even more so thinking back to my dreams as a fox. It all feels right. The fox, the cat, the beach, the night… Everything feels right for once.

“So?” Cat begins, looking down to me. “You gonna pick up any old passions of your own? You’ve only gotten better at singing and playing, if you ask me.”

“Hmm… Honestly, it’s hard to think of things beyond those two. I never gave myself much time to actually explore what made me happy.” I keep one arm held around Cat’s hip, placing the other in her lap where I hold her paw tightly. “...I think I’ll take the time to start doing that now.”

Cat gives me a big ‘ol smile, that smile I know and love, then leaning down to leave a kiss on my cheek.

“I’ll walk every step of the way with you, hun. Be they dancing steps or not.”

I give her a nod and a smile right back, the both of us leaning in closer and tilting our heads as we let the moon spectate our love, kissing in its glow.

 

We only realize we probably should have left earlier once we’re walking through the moonlight parted by the canopy of the aspen forest, picking up the pace at that moment. Finding our way back to Bunny’s place, we inform her of where we’re interested in saying, and she lets us know that it’ll be done. After that, it’s a nighttime walk through the new Dingeton streets.

“...Dingeton is not a good name.”

“It’s really not,” Cat agrees, the both of us snickering at each other. “I’ll ask mom about changing the name. It’s basically an entirely new town from what it once was, it’s only fitting it gets a name change as well.”

“Did we just give a town a deadname?”

My partner laughs and shoves me with her hip.

Only after our bit of banter, I realize the path we’re currently walking, and I begin to slow down, Cat looking behind her at me and doing much the same.

“Something the matter, Fox?”

“...Are we really about to go back to Railsent?”

Her face starts as if she’s about to say ‘obviously’, but that contorts into worried contemplation.

“...Right… Not gonna lie, I’m kind of scared to go back too,” Cat says in agreement, “but Sue and Zee are still back there. We need to make sure they’re okay.”

“I know, that’s basically the only reason we have to go back, besides picking stuff up and finding Yombroila more easily…?”

I trail off and stare ahead of Cat, the girl tilting her head at me before her gaze follows mine to the group approaching...from above.

“He-lloooooo girls~!”

Niamh flaps her wings harder as she comes down to land, sighing as she lets Sue-Zee off of her back, the duo skating over to us the moment they hit the ground and hugging us both.

“Girls! Ugh, god, today was hell!” they exclaim, the two of us pulling our arms around them to return their hug. “Harold was on our case most of the day, which made packing hellish! You two definitely owe us for keeping him off your backs!”

We all pull away from the embrace, Cat and I looking at one another, then back to Sue-Zee.

“Packing?” I ask, the duo nodding affirmatively in response.

“Well, duh. I’m not staying in a town like that any more, are you kidding me? Figured I’d just join y’all wherever you guys ended up. And hey, this place looks pretty neat! What’s it called?”

“We’re working on that,” Cat answers, to which Zee answers with a pair of finger guns as opposed to the confusion anyone else would have reacted with.

“Quite the unique situation Yom set up, I must say…” Niamh adds, slithering close by and observing the floral architecture with a hand to her chin.

“I’m just as surprised as you are, sort of anyways,” I begin. “I knew Ascended folk are capable of some wild stuff, but this town has been completely transformed.”

“Well, your kind has always been quite strong in the structural design department. Just look at the Egyptians and their gods~”

All of us turn to the snake at this point.

“Yo, the Egyptian gods were trans?!”

“Indeed, Sue-Zee, indeed~”

 

Our group chats for a time, but the more that time passes, the more a growing anxiety makes itself known inside me.

“...Hey, shouldn’t…shouldn’t Yombroila have shown up by now?” I ask, looking around at everybody as their faces become varying degrees of confused and concerned, the most concern coming from Niamh of all folks.

“...That is partially why I took Sue-Zee into my own hands and brought them here,” the snake woman begins, holding her hands together in front of her. “I couldn’t find her.”

Oh shit.

Sue-Zee looks between Cat’s face of complete bewilderment, and mine reflective of my heart sinking deep inside me.

“Wh-what do you mean you couldn’t find her?!” I exclaim as I throw my arms open, a bit more aggressively than I mean to.

“Calm down, foxy, I’m doing my best to assess the situation,” Niamh adds, helping me to catch my frustration as I clear my throat and collect myself. “She’s not in her forest, that I made sure to check. I took a flight over the city, wondering if she’d gotten to business earlier, but alas, not a trace of her, no Ascended walking the streets or anything. I would have checked this place too, were there any way of tracking her here, but considering it’s all Ascended, I can’t imagine I’d find her here unless she wanted me to.”

The serpent shakes her head, clearly wracked with worry.

“I couldn’t find her…”

Sue-Zee walks up to Niamh, patting her back and receiving a hug in return. Meanwhile, my mind begins to wander…

Could this have to do with the dream with Penny? Something about learning to trust… But trust who? Trust us? Does she not trust our group? She clearly has some issues to sort out with Niamh, and she only just met Sue-Zee. Cat, on the other hand, she’s known for a bit now, and they’ve not been on the best of terms for most of it from what I can tell. But what about me?

Have I done anything to earn her mistrust? With the way she was with me in the forest during the day, I’d be hard pressed to say she dislikes me to an extent that would warrant distrust, but at the same time, she’s been hiding a lot… Could that be an act too? Does she doubt us? If the goddess of truth doesn’t trust us, then could this all be wrong? Oh, god, it’s all a lie isn’t it. She’s left us at last to learn the consequences of trying to be something we’re not. But… This is what I am. No! No, it can’t be… No, it can. We have to trust ourselves and everything else others are seeing too. But what if it’s just some kind of… No no no. Shh. You don’t need to worry about those kinds of things. This isn’t even about us, it’s about our mother gone missing. Please, focus on that with me. Maybe… We can do this tog--

“Fox!”

As she’s prone to do, Cat snaps me out of whatever just had its grip on me, her voice sounding as though this is far from the first use of my name in the last few moments. I shake my head and take a deep...breath…?

“...Are you okay Fox?”

Cat’s voice rings through my ears once again, and I look to her, her confusion turned to concern as she stares at me. I breathe, but there’s no need to. I still can, it still feels natural to, yet I can tell it means nothing to this body, that I need not worry about such things. I give my partner a nod and open my mouth, about to ask her if something had just happened, but no voice comes out. Reaching up to grab at my throat, I find out why: I’m plush again.

“My my, the Puppet Maker Reborn certainly has some interesting tricks…” Niamh mumbles to herself.

I look over myself. I hadn’t had a chance to do so last time this’d happened, and...honestly, it’s kinda cute. I feel soft. Everything feels soft. It’s comforting, all the sensations of the world suddenly being filtered through a body that processes it all the same, comfortable way. I feel calm, despite having suddenly changed back to this form.

“But are you alright?” Cat reiterates, to which I nod, the girl sighing and leaning down to hug me. 

And keeps hugging me. My plush tail begins to swish as she keeps her face buried in my shoulder until I give her a tap on hers.

“Mmph-- Hmm? Oh! Oh, e-ehehe, sorry. You’re uhh. You’re really comfy.”

“Ooo! Can we try next?”

I’d snicker if I could, turning to Sue-Zee once Cat lets go of me and I open my arms, the duo leaping into them and hugging me tight. Man, their hugs are strong, but in a nice, tight way.

“Ahem.”

 

We all perk up and turn to Niamh, Sue-Zee still holding onto me.

“Apologies for interrupting, but we do have a situation at hand, and if I had to guess, the stress of it is what brought about the return of Geppette’s magics.”

Niamh slithers over to me and lowers herself to my eye level, placing a hand gently on my shoulder.

“Are you going to be okay tonight, Fox? If you need to sit this one out, we’ll understand.”

But I shake my head. It’s true, the dark voice in my head has made itself known-- Themselves known, but at least like this, I feel I have more control. I just need some time to calm ourselves down, and I’ll be good. I hope to express my readiness and need to continue through my determined look alone, and from Niamh’s nod, I’d imagine it worked.

The snake moves back and pulls up a cloudy seat, as well as one for everyone else. We all sit down, Sue-Zee finally letting go of me.

Cat begins by addressing the night. “So, what do we do? There should only be one general left, right? Should we just go in and attack?”

But Niamh shakes her head. “Do you recall the thralls of which you’ve not met the general of?”

Cat barely has to think before her eyes go wide, a shudder running through her as she grimaces. “...Seraphim…”

The serpent nods.

“Indeed. Now, I’ve not been able to find any base of sorts within the city, I have no idea where their general may rest. But if we can figure out who leads these Seraphim, we may just be able to pinpoint a location. So, who might command the highest of holy angels as mere thralls?”

Sue-Zee takes the question as an opportunity to research, pulling down their visor and beginning their search online.

“Just how strong was this thrall, if you don’t mind us asking…?”

The duo looks to me, then realizes I can’t exactly offer input at the moment and sheepishly looks to Cat.

“It’s just as Niamh said, one alone took all Fox had along with my best effort--”

“And you even had a shocking gift from me to help~”

Cat rolls her eyes at Niamh.

“So yeah, it took all three of us giving it our all to take down one.”

Sue-Zee hums to themselves, tapping their chin before delving deeper online.

“Well, there are Archangels, like Gabriel, Michael, Raphael…”

“No, those three wouldn’t involve themselves with such things, nor do they command thralls of their own,” Niamh says, leaning further forward in her seat as she thinks.

“Alriiiight, we’re seeing lots of names and titles… Face of God… Thunder of God?”

“I doubt they’d have taken much damage from Niamh’s lightning if that were the case,” Cat adds, chin in her hand and her tail wagging back and forth antsily.

“Okay, so are we looking at God? Like, capital G-O-D, GOD?”

Niamh shakes her head at our navigators. “They wouldn’t bother themselves with ever interacting with humans, even mages as powerful as the Inktons. No, that would be left to…”

The serpent begins to trail off, eyes slowly growing wider as she turns to stare at Sue-Zee, the duo now staring back with equal amounts of fear in their eyes.

“Metatron,” they all say simultaneously, much to Cat and I’s confusion.

“Who?” my partner asks, tilting her head at everyone else.

 

“Highest of all archangels, the voice of God,” Sue explains. “Basically, if you wanna get through to the big G, you’re speaking to Metatron first.”

We all look to Niamh, who appears to be trying to collect herself despite her clear distress at the situation, her wings and tail twitching while she locks her fingers around one another.

“...Yom, if you went and got yourself caught up with fucking Metatron of all people, I’m going to kick your ass so hard once we get you back…”

“You don’t really think she’d just go and approach Metatron though, do you?” Cat asks, leaning back on her cloud seat. “Considering how mindless the Seraphim themselves are, I can’t imagine their leader being all that receptive to talk.”

Niamh closes her eyes and sighs, nodding and putting her hands in her lap.

“You’re right. Yom might do stupid things now and then, but that would be completely out there. Still, where the hell could that girl have gone…?!”

“I dunno about you…” Sue begins, “but...she does seem like the type to reveal these things when she needs to, doesn’t she? Maybe we should continue about our business, and eventually she’ll show up and explain everything.”

The snake woman looks at Sue-Zee and nods as the duo pulls their visor up over the brim of their hat, standing up on their skates.

“Right. Right…” Niamh joins Sue-Zee in standing off their seat, sighing and looking in the direction of the towering skyscrapers of Monorise.

“...Please, everyone,” she begins, “I know we’ve all made it out of some sticky situations before, but Metatron...is more than sticky. I’ve never met the monster face to face, and I’d have hoped to keep it as such, only hearing of their icy cold ruthlessness. If we go out there tonight, please remember: fleeing is an option, and I expect you to act on it should things go awry.”

The rest of us look around at each other and nod with determined faces. Right about now is when I’d say something along the lines of, ‘We’re professionals, we never let things go awry’, but alas, my quips are silenced at the moment. Instead, Zee’s got my back.

“Awry? That’s just how we want things!” they say, punching into their palm. “We’re mischief makers, cat burglars, criminals like no other! If anybody’s making things go awry, it’s gonna be us. C’mon, let’s go sow some seeds of chaos!”

A bit much for someone so new to the job, but that works for me. Niamh shakes her head with a smile, unfurling her wings and giving them a warm up flap.

“Hmhmhm… Ahahaha! Oh, you humans are so entertaining. Come then, we make for the skies tonight. There’s no place for one as pompous as The Voice of God than in the clouds, above all else.”

Niamh turns away and flaps her wings once more, looking back to Cat while Sue-Zee looks to me with a chaotic grin. We exchange a high five, only to find myself swept up in their arms, the duo undoing Navi from their belt and pulling their visor over their eyes. In a swift moment, Navi forms a handle for Sue-Zee to grab onto, while on the other side of things, Cat is mounting Niamh’s back.

“The flight is prepared for take off~” Niamh jests, only for Zee’s wild look to be set upon the snake.

“Take off? More like...LIFT OFF!!”

Just as the duo yells that, Navi constructs rockets on either side of herself before blasting us way up, Niamh soon to catch up with her powerful wings

 

Clinging to Sue-Zee as our altitude rises and rises is a thrilling experience, and less dangerous as a result of the misty aura Niamh sets around their head, keeping their air levels in check. Up and up we rise through the night sky, stars zipping behind us and Monorise and Dingeton shrinking below, our group quickly approaching cloud level. Breaching that, Navi and Niamh take off in search of kingdom come.

“So, what exactly are we looking for?”

“I couldn’t tell you, Sue-Zee,” Niamh answers with a sigh. “If I had to imagine, it’d be something bright, a kingdom of clouds even.”

“Gotcha, keep an eye out for us, Fox, we can only see this stuff once Navi is within the magical perimeter.”

I give the two a nod, looking out ahead for anything suspicious, and, lo and behold, a glimmer of light in the distance leads our way. I point in the direction of the glow, Sue-Zee nodding at me and changing Navi’s trajectory while calling Niamh over to our location.

The light only seems to get stronger the closer we get, even beginning to take over the night sky, filling it with a shimmering, unnatural yellow and white glow. Niamh joins our sides soon enough, our navigators gasping as they enter the magical area and their body becomes distorted, almost translucent, like a mirage.

“The hell, it’s like some unholy amalgam of a mosaic and stained glass…” the duo says, squinting as the five of us land on the clouds with a strange movement to them, moving and shifting like a misty ocean’s surface.

“Then this entire area is their realm, just like how I have mine, Geppette hers, even that worm’s sand. And yet…” Niamh trails off as we move forward, Sue-Zee putting me on my feet and Cat dismounting the snake.

“...There’s nothing here…” Cat adds, staring out into the field of clouds, devoid of any structures or life. Only the glow of an unseen sun accompanies us from all around, creating an uncanny effect where we cast not a single shadow.

“Do you think this is a trap of some kind?” Sue asks with a tilt of their head, to which Niamh closes her eyes in response, an inquisitive face donned.

“Most likely, but a realm can only appear where its creator lays. If we’re to face Metatron--”

“THEN YOU’LL FACE THEM RIGHT HERE AND NOW, FOOLS!!”

 

Oh, of course.