Invictus was still piloting Ace’s body and was overwhelmed, because he killed Levi, forgetting that people broke so much easier than gods, they were so soft.

“I’m so sorry,” Invictus cried. “ I didn’t mean it!”

He crouched, and inspected Levi’s body, whispering, and mumbling to himself, pleading for forgiveness.

“ Please don’t put me in the attic,” Invictus wailed. "Please don't, Ace!"

He tried his hardest to put Levi back together, but there was not a lot of Levi left.

“He’s barely alive, his aura is there. It’s fading and-”

“Shut up,” Invictus roared.

Fenton flinched and nodded, and said nothing, afraid to move because he would be next. Invictus next inspected The Rock which was hollow on the inside filled with various gems. There was a large, singular sparkling gem, and Invictus smiled.

“ You gotta come out now. You can’t keep hiding, ” Invictus chided The Rock.

The Rock said nothing, and he sighed. Invictus was now bored, his attention span short, and started playing with the gemstones that fell out of it. He picked one up and crushed it with his bare fists, shocking Fenton.

It let out a soft, glittering powder, and Invictus giggled.

“Let’s make more!”

He picked up a few more, and crushed them, sprinkling the dust all over Levi’s body, mumbling to Fenton not to cry, it’s okay, he will be pretty when he takes a very long nap.

“ You know, I think he’s faking it,” Invictus said to no one in particular. “ He’s just taking a nap. ”

Fenton cried harder.

“I’m going to come back with more decorations. Stay right here, ” Invictus told Fenton.

He blinked away, off to find more arts and crafts supplies, thinking everything was a game and would be gone for a while, unable to decide between the red or blue glitter, being upset when he was held up at the exit, not understanding the concept of money and accused of stealing.

Crawling on the ground, Fenton went over to Levi and knew that no one would make it in time to save him, his light very dim. He called the emergency services anyway, unable to explain what happened without sounding insane, and they said they would be there immediately.

Immediately would be fifteen minutes because many of them were spread thin the past few days.

While waiting for them to arrive, Fenton wiped the strange dust off of his body, the blood off his face, and apologized quietly. He told Levi that he would try to save Ace from whatever possessed him and would try harder to be braver, believing if he was, that he would not have died.

He cried harder once the light died out, and for a moment, he saw the color, the specific color that was only seen when someone died, the color he hated the most. Fenton panicked, wiped his bloody, glittery hands on the carpet, hyperventilated, and screamed.

He ran out the door, slammed it shut, and sat in front of the door, waiting for the paramedics to arrive, and they did, which would be another ten minutes. It took them some time to arrive, as accidents were cropping all over town, and Fenton’s was near the bottom of the list, with Triangle Corp on fire, dead bodies piling nearby.

Fenton was not relieved to see them, he was furious.

He stood up, covered in blood, and laid into them.

“This town has failed everyone,” Fenton sobbed. “You’re useless! You’re all—”

The door opened behind him and Fenton saw Levi, alive and well. Blood was smeared over his body, but nothing was amiss, except for one thing.

“You died, and now your hair is brown, your eyes are green,” Fenton said.

Levi tentatively touched his head, confused, slightly delirious from his massive headache, and whispered a soft oh .

“I felt like I took a nap,” Levi mumbled.

Fenton fainted, and the paramedics quickly lunged to grab him, because they were on the top floor, and he almost fell over the railing. Two accidents were not needed that day.

Inspecting his apartment, the officer on the scene was confused, because there was no dead body as the caller described, the man who was purported to be dead was fine. His vitals were clear, he was given a towel to clean the blood off of his head, and the paramedics thought Fenton was having a mental crisis.

They took Fenton to the hospital, but Levi was not allowed to ride with him, he was not a relative, and he was left at his apartment, bloody, cold, and confused. He went inside, wiped the blood off of his body at the kitchen sink, and tried to piece together what happened before he took a nap.

“I wish I knew where Ace was,” Levi sighed.

Like magic, a text message came in on his phone. Ace was lost, confused, didn’t know how he ended up at the store, Easels and More! on 17th and West street, and needed someone to reassure him he wasn’t going crazy.

It was not far from Fenton’s apartment, and Levi told him he would walk to him, telling him everything would be fine.

The short walk was arduous, his mouth dry, head spinning, stumbling, and Levi realized he had no shoes, but with the number of drunk tourists he didn’t stick out. He had arrived at Easels and More! , and Ace stood at the front entrance, under a palm tree, clutching his phone.

His arms and hair were covered in glitter, and he had no idea how he arrived and was too afraid to leave.

Levi found him, and Ace shrunk inside himself, because it was Levi, yet it was not. He hugged Ace, told him everything would be different, and unashamedly kissed him at the front entrance, getting glitter all over his face as well.

Ace looked uncomfortable once he pulled away, and Levi was upset, trying his hardest to be honest, angry that he immediately wasn’t given a golden star sticker for it.

“Why do you have that look on your face,” Levi asked.

“Your albinism is gone, but your face is the same. I’m scared. ”

Levi did not believe him until Ace took a picture with his phone, and then Levi threw it on the ground, disgusted as if the very image were cursed.

“My phone!”

“I can get you a new one…”

“That’s not the point,” Ace complained. “Something is wrong! I can’t find Invictus! I think security pulled him off my wrist.”

“That doesn’t sound like a problem to me. He took your body from you!”

Ace was told the very strange and horrible news that Invictus had been using his body without his consent and that was how he had ended up at the arts and crafts store without his knowledge.

“What if I burned down the town because Invictus was doing it ,” Ace asked.

“Ace, he’s obsessed with you, not malicious. Let’s get out of here. Can you take us to the Union Base’s hospital? Fenton is there.”

Ace nodded, and they disappeared.

A few seconds later, the automatic opening front doors slid open, and a bracelet rolled out the front door, clattered on the sidewalk, and cried.

The Galactic Union had a base in Atlaan since Paradis was the planet closest to entering the eighth realm, and there was a secondary base as well, run by the Slaters and their mercenaries for hire.

The hospital at the Union Base was one of the best, with the most recent technology surrounding health, most of it stolen from other planets, but the information couldn’t be returned once received.

The outside was white and red, and it was called Ahana Medical Institute , the front doors with posters of fish-people, and various other alien races holding hands, smiling, we are all diverse and inclusive here!

Levi and Ace went to the hospital and they found Fenton, who had already checked himself out. He was sitting in the lobby, eating trail mix on a faux leather plastic seat, afraid to leave and face the world because he didn’t want to see more dead people rising from the grave.

Sometimes he would look over his shoulder, expecting Candice to be nearby, chewing on fingers, spitting out fingernails, complaining about something that made no sense, and wearing clothes that made her look like a lost exotic dancer.

He gripped the plastic armrests when Ace and Levi arrived, looked them both up and down, and refused to leave.

“I saw him die,” Fenton whispered. “I had to lie or else they were going to put me in some padded room!”

“I...kind of believe you,” Levi said. “Nothing is ever normal around here, and for some reason, I woke up with pigment in my skin and hair.”

He said the word normal in disgust, upset that his body was no longer his, worried who had stolen it from him, and yet, he wasn’t that angry. His anger was less than usual, and he was a little more at ease, something inside of him changed.

“I need to sit down,” Levi grumbled.

Levi sat down next to Fenton who immediately got up and stood next to Ace, pleading that they needed to go, but Ace refused to leave. Levi ignored him, and took out his contacts, wondering what was wrong, his vision blurry.

Once he removed them, everything was easier to see, his prescription no longer needed, all the ill side-effects of his albinism gone, and he smiled, taking in a deep breath, flexing his hands, rubbing his arms, and chest, everything so much better .

“Levi, don’t touch yourself, people are staring, ” Ace whispered.

“S-sorry. It’s just so much better now. I can see ,” Levi replied.

He could see, and Ace and Fenton looked much different than before, which bothered him, and he wondered if he was ugly and never knew it, his insecurities bubbling to the surface when there were much more important things at stake.

“I’m going to visit Rikka since I’m here. You can come with me, but please stop whatever this is. I’m fine,” Levi said.

“No, you’re not. Nothing about this is normal ,” Fenton replied.

“So what are you going to do about it? Runaway or man up,” Levi barked.

“I’m waiting down here for Ace. You’re another monster and I can’t leave him with you .”

Levi shook his head in disappointment, walked off, and he asked Ace, are you coming or not? Ace looked between the both of them, clear that there was some sort of unspoken argument but left with Levi anyway to visit Rikka on the fifth floor.

On the fifth floor, underneath the bright glaring lights, Levi opened a pale cerulean door and was surprised to see his father.

Rikka and Maximillian were unable to comprehend what they were seeing. A copy-pasted Levi with a different color palette had opened the door, and with him was Ace.

Once they entered the room, Rikka screamed.

She screamed, her necklace still on, her borrowed powers going from zero to a thousand in the blink of an eye, believing Ace to be Nero, back to finish the job.

The white-tiled hospital floor cracked, then jutted out, the medical machines exploded, Maximillian’s summer button-up tore to shreds, his cheeks were sliced, and he collapsed to the floor, a bloody heap.

“ Shut up, ” Levi said.

Rikka stopped, and she cried silently, pointing at Ace, and everything clicked together. Ace quickly left, slamming the door, and Levi rubbed his throat, coughed, and the top of his head tingled, a strange feeling, deep inside, never before felt.

“How could you bring him here,” Maximillian shouted. “You’re so selfish!”

Levi was remorseful, seeing how much he had frightened his cousin, but the cruel, disgusting irony, words coming from a man who had controlled him his entire life, made him dig his heels in further, refusing to back down.

“ One day, I’m going to kill you,” Levi said. “ I hate you so much.”

Maximillian pulled himself up using the bed, sat on it, and used the sheets to wipe off the cuts on his face, letting the heavy words sink in, something inside of him, unnatural , sliding its way inside and he knew, he knew that Levi had changed.

“You have dad’s ability,” Maximillian said in horror. “ You’ve cursed me to die. ”

“ Stop trying to manipulate me.”

“ Rikka can’t speak. You told her to shut up, ” Maximilian said.

Rika rubbed her mouth, still crying, silently, not a single noise coming out, no matter how hard she screamed, her panic rising, water during high tide drowning out her voice.

“Don’t say anything. Don’t say anything until you know what you’re doing, or else your fucking anger management issues are going to kill us all,” Maximillian screamed.

The door slammed open, doctors ran inside, and pushed Levi and Maximillian out, here to help her, worried that she had died. Her vitals weren’t sent to the doctor’s hub downstairs, and they came to see what the problem was, and she was transferred to another room, still screaming without sound.

They restrained her to the bed, off to calm her down, and Levi told himself he would make it right once she was comfortable seeing her again.

“What happened,” Ace asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Levi said. “Everything will work out in time.”

“Okay! Everything works out all the time,” Ace said cheerfully.

Levi cocked his head to the side and laughed nervously, and wasn’t sure if he was doing it subconsciously, not sure how he could turn it off or on, afraid the next words out of his mouth might bend reality to its knees, twisting everyone’s sanity until it breaks.

A new, fresh, horrible idea slid into his brain, and Levi turned, smiled his half-smirk at his father, and knew he had him in the palm of his hand. Maximillian was on his way out, his magical key taking him wherever he pleased.

He inserted it into a custodian closet door during the ruckus and was slinking away like the snake he was, making his grand exit, still needing to get the last word in.

“Don’t think this means anything.”

The door slammed shut.

Levi’s eyes pulsed a dark green, in tune with the beat of his heart, faster and faster as his anger rose.