Cat

 

The usual assault on the eyes I expected from the Radiant World is instead replaced with a writhing darkness, Azathoth itself gazing back at me as it…chews? On Janus? More importantly, however, is what emerges from that darkness…a figure just as cast in shadow. Her Shadow. Not the smaller wolf that I remember last seeing, rather, the WHOLE wolf, all…what, eight feet of her? She steps out through the portal, looming over me, only for a smaller girl to step out of her, a trail of shadow from this other girl’s feet paws connecting the two still…

“...F-Fox?!”

A rush of emotions seize me as she appears in full…a form I’d only seen in our dreams for the past month. Tears bubble and boil down my cheeks as I scoop her up before she can utter a single damn silly thing.

“Wh-whoa, hey to you too, kitty!”

“You just HAD to make a dramatic entrance after all I’d just gone through, didn’t you?! You stupid dummy…!”

Unfortunately, our reunion and her Shadow’s petting of Azathoth is interrupted as Janus’ realm quakes and rumbles, the chunks of ice making up the floor and ceiling splitting apart violently.

“You’re lucky I didn’t have to grab your attention myself,” her Shadow grumbles, crossing her arms. “Let’s go.”

I give the wolf a nod and put down Fox, pointing to Vivian and Liz out cold on the floor, earning another groan from her Shadow who takes Fox by the shoulders and pulls her back into her body before stomping over and picking up both women with incredible ease. With the others in good claws, I zip back to the doors and pry them open only to watch them crumble into many smaller gears, an open passage now leading to the misty void where the scrap no longer falls endlessly, instead all piling up into mountains of trash. From here…shit, where do we go now? Well, if the gate fell apart like that, then maybe…

Spinning my spear overhead, I draw a ring of flames before unfurling it with a mighty swing of my weapon, slamming it onto the misty floor and watching the fire split the fog in two, the entire void continuing to open and make way for the now right-side-up clocktower.

“This is gonna be a pretty nasty fall!” I warn, only for her Shadow to shove Liz into my arms and hoist ME up instead!

“UHM?”

“Just let me do my damn thing.”

 Her darkness quickly begins creeping over my fur as she leaps down, crashing through every railing on the way before falling into the very first room, a MASSIVE shadowy explosion pulsing over the floor the moment her Shadow lands, blowing apart the remaining walls of the icy realm before storming out.

“Didn’t that hurt?”

“Yes.”

Though she’s strong, her legs don’t take her as fast as mine and Fox’s do, prompting me to pull myself out of her grip and hand her Liz before picking up the wolf herself, the others she’s carrying coming with.

“Do you fucking mind?!”

“Learn to run faster, then we’ll talk!”

It’s a good thing I did take over, because soon enough the crumbling of the floor just barely doesn’t catch up to us, allowing me to leap out of the icy zone once and for all as the entrance collapses onto itself, leaving all of us scattered across the subway platform.

“Your landings need some work, feline,” her Shadow jeers, pulling herself up and rubbing the back of her head.

“Yeah yeah, we’re not stranded in some clockwork void because of me, but whatever…”

 

Before we can heckle each other any more, the familiar sound of a skateboard rolling through a subway tunnel pries our attention away from one another, both of us looking over at the figure pulling up to the crap mobile and catching their breath while leaning on its hood.

“Poison…?”

Well, not Poison, but…I figure I should be respectful and wait to bring that up in private. The freelancer pulls themselves up and over the boarding platform, looking worse off than even any of us here, just utterly exhausted…

“Hah…I…I know it’s unprofessional…” they begin, speaking without their voice modulator on, “...but would it have killed you to check your phone in at least one of those time loops…?”

“Eh?”

I roll over and sit up, still catching my breath as I pull out my phone to see just what they’re talking about…

 

10:24 - ??? - [ Loop 48 please text back ]

 

Loop 48…wait but…

“...Sue-Zee, how…”

Ah, shit. Well, they don’t seem too upset that I let that slip, at least only Fox, her Shadow, and I are here to hear it. Regardless, they shake their head and motion to the crap car…only to stop and wander closer to me, taking my…newly mechanical arm in their hand, its metal still cold to the touch.

“Cat…”

No one seems all too happy about the subject, so I shake my head and gently take my arm back.

“I-it’s…it’s fine. It’s not like it’s missing or anything…just…different.”

Painful, but fine, I tell myself. The duo frowns, their stress piling up on their shoulders as they turn around and hop off the platform with an exhausted grunt, opening the door and taking the driver’s seat.

“It’s…it’s a long story. A really long story. I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

Her Shadow and I look at one another before standing up and making our way to Liz’s Laughable Lamborghini, laying the still unconscious underworld dwellers in the back seats and taking shotgun for myself…though, her Shadow seems to have trouble fitting in just about any of the seats, sighing and switching to Fox so she can hop in for them.

“...Are you gonna be okay?” I ask, gently resting a paw on the navigator’s shoulder. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“Haha, well…yeah. We are,” they admit, starting the vehicle and spinning it around to get us on our way back. “We’ve pulled all-nighters before, but…not as a result of time moving back without you. On top of worrying about you. Like, a lot. We just…we had to find you…we had to make sure you’re okay…”

Oh, this poor duo…

“Well, we’re all here now!” Fox chimes in, leaning over the back of the front seats. “Our job here is done for the day, we can finally go back home together.”

She grins, Sue-Zee glancing back and returning a weak smile.

“God. It’s…it’s been so long since we’ve heard your voice…” they mumble, needing to pull their goggles up to wipe away the tears. “Yeah…yeah…we’ll go home together…”

They try to stay strong, but something clearly breaks besides the car, the duo stopping the vehicle and sobbing into their sleeves, prompting me to offer myself, which they quickly take me up on, pulling me in and clinging dearly.

“We thought we’d finally done it…!” they sob, my warm paw coming up to stroke their hair. “We thought you could finally settle down and leave the rest to us, but more kept falling onto your shoulders…!”

With how well known Poison is down here, I can only imagine how hard these two had been working over the past month…

“And then…and then this happens…Fox is off in another world, Cat’s fighting some time lord asshole I didn’t even know about until now– We thought WE had messed something up after all the times we’ve been through…!”

Fox leans over and rubs their back, her Shadow taking her tail claw and taking the duo’s other shoulder, keeping them nicely bundled up within all three of us until the sobs have passed…

It takes some time but eventually Sue-Zee pries themselves off of me, wiping their eyes one last time before taking a deep breath, and exhaling as they take the wheel once more, though they pause.

“...I’m sorry. We’ve…we’ve been putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to make things work out. I’m sorry…”

Patting their shoulder once more, I smile through my tiredness, as warmly as I can.

“Y’ain’t gotta be sorry for a damn thing. Just take care of yourselves. Trust me…I know how it feels to do everything yourself, just so others might not have to.”

Another deep breath, and a sigh. They start the vehicle up again and nod.

“...Thank you, Cat. And Fox. All of you, for…for surviving.”

 

It’s not long before we arrive at the Stellar Stowaway, where I carry Vivian back in to be taken care of by her crew, thanking Legion face-to-face for their help, as well as asking them to be real nice to Vivian after what she’s been through today. It seems like they anticipated as much beforehand, taking her off my paws…err, paw, and carrying her off.

Next comes the rat, which…

“...Hey, Shadow? Err, her Shadow?”

The end of Fox’s tail becomes coated in darkness, forming an eyeless maw for her Shadow to speak through.

“My name is Violet.”

“Ah, sorry Violet. I was just wondering if you could, like, hide Liz? Cover her in shadow or something? I doubt it’d look good for her to be hauled back home looking the way she does.”

I can tell she’s judging me somewhat, even through the lack of expression.

“And miss a chance to humble her? Why would you even care, I thought you hated her.”

…She has a good point…

“...Sure, she is shitty, and she sucks, and she’s awful, and cruel, and just an awful person all around.”

Now I’m making a good point against myself, but…

Squeak!

Over my shoulder a little ghostly rat peeks its head, yellow instead of the normal blue of Liz’s ratly crew.

“...But she was helpful enough today to have earned a little bit of respect. It’s clear she went in hurting and came out with a deeper gash than she entered with.”

Violet scoffs, yet takes over their body as she steps out of the cart, hoisting Liz up and spreading her darkness over her, turning her into a silhouette.

“I’ll just humiliate her some other time. There’s no joy in kicking an unconscious rat.”

I smile and roll my eyes, helping Sue-Zee out of the vehicle and allowing them to lean on me, taking their hand in my paw. We wait outside the rat den while Violet delivers the gay baby, quietly, but together at least.

“Here I was hoping we’d all have some…triumphant victory somewhere along the way,” I muse, rambling away while fiddling with my new downgraded arm. “Take down some asshole with a sudden reversal, Fox returning with a huge attack, and we’d all go home and talk about the lot of us together.”

Our navigators chuckle weakly, leaning their back against the subway tunnel, awake only by virtue of their remaining anxiety, all too evident with how extra withdrawn and shaky they are.

“This is kind of what we were worried about after Metatron…” Sue mumbles wearily, prompting me to take their side and stay close, the duo nudging closer as I do. “Everything finally played out as perfectly as it could. For once, we didn’t know what would come next…”

A deep breath fills the silence, inhale, then exhale, my breath petering out as the quiet washes over us for a moment more.

“I know what’cha mean. Even if things kept escalating, it felt like there was a steady climb in our understanding of how all this works, and in our strength.”

Reaching up to play with my hair, I frown at the distinct lack of feeling as I curl a lock around my finger.

“Then things got complicated. Maybe Yom’s guidance was helping us more than I thought. Maybe we never really were in control, and Fox’s luck had slipped up for just that moment.”

Bleh. All this ruminating is putting a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Ah, sorry. I shouldn’t start spiralling now. We made it, after all!”

Sue-Zee nods, at last looking up, leaning their head on my side.

“Yeah…you didn’t die this time…that’s what matters…”

Hmm? I cock my head at the duo, about to ask them to elaborate, only to find ourselves interrupted by an approaching Geppette of all folks.

 

“Odd seein’ you out in the open, gran.”

The spider snickers, bowing and smiling up at me.

“Odd to hear you address me so formally, young one.”

I roll my eyes, giving the navigator’s palm a squeeze before crossing my arms at the old lady.

“To what do we owe the honour, ma’am?”

Geppette taps a spindly spider leg against her cheek before stepping closer, yanking my cold dead arm out of its crossed position.

“Wh– Hey?! Excuse me?!”

Yet she pays my discomfort no mind, looking over my robotic arm and frowning, seeming to take in all the minute details as she squints at it.

“...My my…you poor little kitten…This may be worse than simply losing it…”

“Oh, wow, thanks,” I groan, yanking it away and looking it over myself, a sad glean to my gaze. “So, what’s the deal, doc?”

She brings her hand up to her mouth and ponders, looking like she’s finding the most gentle way to put my diagnosis.

“It’s not my area of expertise, but having sewn together quite a few limbs for my daughters in the past, and considering who’s magic this looks to be…I would assume this arm is a memory made manifest. Constantly remembering how it once was…”

A dull grimace paints my face as I flex the joints in the arm’s fingers, sighing.

“Couldn’t I just…remember it being gone? Then maybe get an actual, not freezing cold prosthetic or something?”

She shakes her head again, my hope beginning to dwindle quickly.

“Either the memory would play back and it would fall apart again, or your memory of it existing takes you once more, and it becomes this again.”

I hear Sue-Zee curse under their breath as this info is dumped on us, the sound of my icy joints rattling replacing that as I clench my fist.

“So, that’s it then? It’s no arm or cold arm?” I ask, my voice becoming weak and shaky, only for the spider to take my hand once more, more gently this time, shaking her head.

“I sought you out seeing you walk past my store, not to take away your hope, but to offer my own. I can help you, dear. You just need to promise me you won’t push yourself so hard. You don’t have to fight every battle.”

Ugh…man, having people who care about you is a real pain in the ass sometimes. But I nod, just as Violet emerges from the rat’s den, staring at Geppette blankly.

“Ah! You returned!” the spider exclaims, smiling up at the awkward dog.

“...Yes. I have,” she mumbles, only to retreat back into Fox’s shadow the moment after, leaving everyone a bit surprised at the speed that it all happened. 

Regardless, Fox grins seeing Geppette, trotting over and giving the old lady a big hug. “Geppette! Jeez, I didn’t expect to see you down here! And just in time too! I was a bit…smaller, and less talkative before this.”

The spider giggles and pats Fox on the head, pulling back from the hug.

“Tis good to see you hale and healthy, my daughter. It would seem you kept your other voice quite in check.”

The fox gives her a bashful smile, tail wagging as she steps back and looks over at me, then back at Geppette.

“So, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back in the Radiant World?”

The old lady chuckles some more, shaking her head.

“Perhaps for a moment, but seeing Yombroila had disappeared, and the current state of this city, I felt inclined to stay and open up shop, so I may keep a closer eye on everything. However, at the moment, I am here to offer my aid to your partner.”

Fox looks back and forth between us some more as the spider takes my hand and pulls me a step away.

“You can help with that?” she chirps curiously, to which Geppette nods.

“Quite so, my daughter. It is clear you two have only just reunited, however I would ask to take her for a time. I’m sure you would much rather see her in a healthier state”

I can see the disappointment on Fox’s face, giving me my cue to lean down and pull her in for a quick kiss, easily flustering her into compliance as her eyes go wide and tail shoots out before wagging up a storm. Thankfully not literally.

“Buh. Guh. Okay. Alright. Fine. This is fine. Okay. Alright.”

“Thanks, hun,” I say, tail gently swishing with pride and waving my paw at her. “I’ll get back as soon as I can, we’ve got lots to talk about!”

Before I go, though, I take Sue-Zee’s hand in my paw and give it a squeeze, smiling at the duo before pulling them in for a hug, putting less weight into it with my metal arm.

“You take care of yourselves too, alright? I dunno entirely what’s going on in your story, but clearly it’s enough to warrant a well earned rest.”

They squeeze me in return before we pull away, patting their arm as Geppete takes mine.

“...Alright. Just…come back soon. Please.”

I nod,  giving Sue-Zee a wink before I saunter off with Geppette, glancing down at my cold arm with a sigh. Maybe I have been throwing myself into danger a bit too much…