Delving into the second room of the clock tower, we find it to be a much taller space. Upside down metal steps and guard rails twist and turn about the walls, splitting off and reconvening further in, which will be nice considering how cramped this all feels already. Less nice is the greater count of mechanical bodies strewn about the room, some collapsed onto the platforms, others hanging off the rails, dangling upwards. Worst of all are the ones that appear frozen both fully and partially in the icy walls, looking as though they’re clawing their way out, metal faces contorted into wailing screams, forever frozen in time…

“...What the fuck is wrong with this Janus person…?”

Oddly enough, Liz is silent, not even offering a quip, a jest, or a fun fact regarding the twisted time keeper. Instead, her eyes are glued to the machines littered about the clock tower, squinting and sneering at each, almost as though she’s looking for something.

“Something you wanna tell us, miss rat?”

“Hmm~?” she hums, turning back to me and walking backwards, her composure returning at frightening speeds. “I told ya, didn’t I? My rats ain’t seen no motion down here~”

My eyes dart about the room as we continue downwards, seeing all her ratlings scurrying about with magnifying glasses and other instruments of investigation, each very keen on inspecting the defunct robots as Liz does.

“What about your goons that aren’t rats?

Hahaha.

“...”

Yikes. It’s not often I see her face twist into such a pained puzzle, but the question seems to strike somewhere painful, stinging enough for Liz to simply turn around and ignore it. She keeps to herself from then on, which doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with the lack of resistance we receive in delving deeper. It’s just a long way down, one I’d be tempted to skip with a few hops down, but seeing as we’re in no rush, I stick to the stairs, our group eventually being met with a sea of mist. The steps go straight down into it, and with no other path ahead, we enter the fog…

Continuing on, the steps into the murky mist seem to all but disappear, each step feeling as though a whirling chill moves to make a path, creating an incredibly disorienting sense of gravity as each few steps feels to be moving us from one side, upwards, then downwards, lost in an obscured ocean until…

…We rise out of it, finding ourselves in a completely wide open expanse, mist as far as the eye can see. The sky is pale and boundless, and the shallow yet endless puddle of fog we seemingly walk up and out of ripples with each step. The only thing that can be seen besides white and grey is a churning gate of gears and ice up ahead.

“Sheesh…” Vivian sighs, her bubbly voice mired by exhaustion from the assault to our senses all around. “Here I thought the Stellar Stowaway took some time getting used to…do all Radiants have homes this odd?”

“Well…all the ones I’ve met, yeah,” I answer, crossing my arms and rubbing them for warmth. “But not quite this odd, I’d say.”

Wading through the cold, the double doors stand just before us, cogs chugging on either side, fighting against a constant freezing that crunches and cracks with each turn. The door doesn’t seem to have any handle of sorts, so I pry my claws between the slit in the middle and pull them apart, the gears on both sides seizing up at the first pull, then moving in reverse as I get the doors to actually split. With one last effort, I throw wide the gates.

“Gosh, I forgot just how strong you are…!”

Though I try to shrug off Vivian’s gay admiration, it does feel nice to have my work appreciated, so I let that feeling fuel me as we embark into what appears to be the final room…

KA-SHUNK.

The door slams shut behind us, something which we all turn around to see…only to be met with nothing. There are no walls in this room. The void that once was contained behind ice now has no reservations in sharing with us its vast emptiness. At least there’s still ceiling and floor here, but the encroaching nothingness instills a constant feeling of pre-falling, like when you sit at the edge of a cliff, knowing a single wrong move could send you tumbling to your untimely demise.

Keeping that in the back of my mind as best I can, I turn back to the rest of the room ahead, which…has nothing. Nothing but an overly large hourglass sitting in its center, though instead of sand, there is still water pooled up at the bottom, somehow not yet frozen over. Just as I’m about to begin approaching with hesitation, Liz steps up with a furious stride, tail swishing with agitation, breaking out her bat and moving to kick the hourglass right over.

Such folly.

“Where da FUCK ARE YOU, YA ICY CUNT?!”

Surprisingly, Liz’s heel does connect, sending the hourglass toppling over…and bouncing around, off the walls, up and down, every which way, only flying faster, forcing all three of us to weave out of its way until it stops, frozen midair. It turns upside down, allowing the water to flow down to its new bottom half, revealing the face of a clock had been lying underneath.

“Allow me to introduce myself, heroes.”

The face of which you see, one of two sides, a third missing from each, yet three faces whole. From this part of the clock which is missing, water flows, calm and still where it trickles, and opposite of the chunk missing from the clock’s face, sits one eye, and below, a little grin, unmoving in speech.

The very base of my domain shudders, from it rising two pillars of ice, mist flowing from the top of each and crystalizing into shards of ice, floating around the hourglass, mimicking the form one’s hand would make.

Lastly, a skirt, of ice and air, spiking out from the base of the hourglass before it detaches, and yet not a drop spills from the glass.

“This is me, heroes. I am Janus. He, she, and they bound to the depths for my treachery.” I introduce myself, bowing, standing before my audience, towering over them. “The one, the two, the three. The she who waits, watches, and knows. The he who is, who can, who will. They who you will ever meet. Time. And time. Again.”

Her voice is both monotone and singsong, filtered behind some kind of booming, warping sound, many voices coming as one. I become all too aware of the depth we’ve found ourselves in, bracing myself by Liz’s side, a paw on her shoulder.

“I have…too many questions. Questions none of us have the time for before getting to the crux of this meeting.”

How right you are, yet you know not your truth.

“I am Cat Kitten. We’ve already corralled two additional leaders under Monorise. The situation above ground is becoming dire, and we need all leaders to join together so we can convince those ruling the city to stand down.”

“By what means would you convince this governing force, one Cat Kitten?”

My gaze traces down to Liz, whose glare has not left the time keeper for even a moment.

“That’s…not up for me to decide. I ain’t much of a public speaker, or a private speaker for that matter, but I know what’s happening is unjust, and that there are people who are willing to fight with me who can speak my cause more eloquently. Ideally, none will die…hopefully as that is”

The pillars of ice that make up Janu’s legs break off from the ground, floating up and bending illogically to give the impression they’re sitting cross legged while remaining in the air.

“Folly. You waste time on hollow wishes, such as those your Goddess promised me. Death is inevitable, and you are inviting it swiftly.”

The void around us seems to shimmer, blurry memories fading in and out…within, Yombroila and Janus, though a much younger seeming Janus, however that works.

“So is that a no…?” I ask, the tips of my fur warming up, everyone else seeming very on edge and ready to leap into action at the slightest provocation.

“There is no answer. You are out of time. But there is plenty to spare.”

All present make their move, me pulling out my spear and being engulfed in an attire of flames, Vivian grabbing a plant-like grenade from her holster, and Liz…screaming and aiming straight for Janus’ head.

“FUCK YOU, SHITHEAD, YA BLEEDIN’ OUT YA ASS WITH THIS BULLSHIT, SITTIN’ DOWN HERE DOIN’ JACK SHIT ‘N SAYIN’ WE’RE ‘OUTTA TIME’, AN’ WHAT TIME’VE YOU USED, FUCKER?”

Our goo girl hurls her bomb behind Janus and aims for it, Liz firing again and again, and yet all our projectiles stop before even touching the Radiant, frozen in time.

“I have made good time of the gifts you have sent me. But I grow bored, and unsatisfied. You three will make for fun toys.”

“LISTEN TA YOURESELF!! ARROGANT ENTITLED PIECE ‘A SHIT, WHAT’D DA GODDESS EVEN PROMISE YA, THE HUGS ‘N KISSES YA NEVER GOT AS A SNOT-NOSED BRAT? NO WONDER SHE NEVER CAME BACK, JUST LOOK AT YA UGLY MUG, FUCK YOU!!”

I notice the frozen projectiles twitch, Janus looking slightly agitated despite her lack of a changing expression…I would say, until the water ceases to flow in their hourglass, the liquid moving in reverse motion and filling the top half of the glass, and completely frozen over, all that can be seen through the ice being a wide, evil grin of black teeth.

Click.