Ace and Levi had the best nap of their lives interrupted by the sound of another phone call, and Levi was starting to hate his own ringtone. He thought it was giving him anxiety, every time a call came in, sometimes his heart would race or he would start to sweat.

Ace sat up, and regretted it, his neck and back screaming, hello, you’ve survived a car accident, you should call your insurance provider. His strange sleeping positions were starting to catch up with him but he was grateful that he didn’t get another strange visitor in his dream.

He mumbled something incoherently and latched onto Levi when he answered the phone. It was Rikka, and he shot up, causing Ace to let out more groans and complaints.

Sulking, he blinked into the bathroom.

The room was dark and a bit of light was coming out from the bathroom door. The moon was almost full, light coming in through the sliding doors to the balcony, and the slight red hue was still visible from inside, another fire roaring in the distance, filtering through the drapes.

Rikka was on the other end of the line, loud noises in the background, upset about something, talking so fast that Levi wasn’t sure if it was him that was still half-asleep or her that was confused.

“Rikka what’s wrong,” Levi groaned.

“Levi we need to leave Atlaan and— ”

“Oh I already know,” he said dismissively.

Rikka listened over the phone as her cousin told her that he was perfectly fine with the horrible events that would occur because it had already happened anyway. Nothing mattered, and at the end of the day, it would all work out, because that’s how it worked!

The good guys always win!

“Levi, this has repeated thousands of times but this time it hasn’t. This is the first time it hasn't been repeated. People will die. ”

“How do you know,” Levi scoffed.

“Levi, I remember everything. I remember each and every time it’s repeated….”

The toilet in the bathroom flushed, Levi’s sanity along with it, and he once again understood that he had been tricked.

Bamboozled.

Schmeckledorfed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.

“I’m not lying! There’s a video!”

“What video,” he mumbled.

“There’s a crazy guy who claims that he knows stuff about your life and that a man with glowing blood is going to kill us all!”

Levi knew that they were trapped, on a wet rock, spinning in space, that would soon be filled with corpses because he wanted to impress his boyfriend.

He could have come to city hall in person, he could have told Ace that he was being ridiculous, been more assertive, but the fear of being single was bigger than the fear of death.

Levi sat up in the bed and fiddled with the comforter while listening to Rikka scream about how there were no more tickets, no way to escape, and that the only way out was using Maximillian’s key.

“We should just stay and fight. I have a plan,” she said.

“ You have one arm.”

“It’s fine. I stole some blood so I’m fine!”

“ Pardon?”

“You heard me. And besides, you were tricked by that filthy Ionadian. Just follow my advice.”

Ace emerged from the bathroom and Levi quickly ended the call, nervous, as if he had been caught stealing. The mood became sour once Levi admitted that he knew the truth but Ace refused to leave.

“I’m killing her. If she’s my mom or not, I don’t care. She killed my family.”

“You’re going to die. Don’t—”

“We almost die at work every day. This isn’t different!”

“ Yes, it is!”

Ace refused to initiate another argument, and went to the closet on the left side of the bed, reaching up top to get his clothes, from the times he had been there before, and changed his clothes.

He wanted to look his best when he would finally feel whole.

He wore speedos underneath a pair of jeans, black and red Mordans, and a simple black shirt, ignoring Levi, trying not to argue with him because everything was getting bette r, at least it seemed it was for a short time today.

“I can’t leave you here to die,” Levi pleaded.

“So stay.”

“Ace, you’re coming with me.”

“Make me,” he scoffed.

Levi ripped another cheap grounder off his wrist and did so.

Ace looked at him, he looked at Ace, and then he looked at the floor, the ceiling, anything else because he was now the one that was caught in the middle of a crime. He grabbed a new disposable grounder from the plastic bag on the ground and mumbled a quick apology.

“I want things to be different with us, so I'm going to stop lying. I told people that they’re coming,” Levi said.

Ace shook his head, faster and faster while Levi spoke but he refused to listen to reason.

“This is crazy. You can’t hurt other people because someone hurt you,” Levi said. “You’re an adult, act like one.”

Ace opened his mouth, but someone else spoke for him.

“Are you hurting him? I don’t like that.”

Ace clasped his hands over his mouth, took a few steps, and fell to the ground, dry heaving, muttering that he wasn’t hurting his feelings, people just argue sometimes, and then everything was fine.

Everything was fine, nothing was wrong.

Levi helped him up, and Ace was fearful, not knowing what to say, what to do. What would set off his best friend ? He spoke slowly, his head buzzing whenever he chose the wrong words, and he switched over to nicer, friendlier words to not anger his security blanket.

“I am angry... not happy... about what you said but I...will...consider... your opinion, ” Ace said, through a forced smile.

Levi nodded, understood what was going on, and put on the biggest smile he could, putting on a wonderful show for Invictus.

“Don’t be angry, okay?”

“I feel like I’m angry but I’m not,” Ace said, through another forced smile, being held hostage by his own mind.

He was sweaty, his chest hurt, and the back of his head tingled. He was angry, but not angry as if something was stopping him.

Levi hugged him, and Ace’s physical symptoms increased, but he wasn’t angry per se his confusion mounting. They kissed, and Ace grumbled that he needed a shower.

After a few minutes of flirting and then remembering that they might die, Levi took a shower and Ace went downstairs, blinking around the yacht, searching for Fenton and Kalei.

He found them in the salon, a large dining area, playing with the glowing rock, heart, or whatever Paul was, no one wanted to know anymore, except for Fenton. They sat at a small table, with a cream tablecloth, eating crackers and cheese stolen from the kitchen, having a very deep conversation, and Kalei was upset being the third wheel.

Ace blinked over, and they jumped a little, even Paul turned bright orange in surprise.

“We have to leave,” Ace said.

“I thought we were gonna have a party or something,” Fenton asked.

“Nah, we’re leaving to find Sunshine Bitch. ”

“Oh gosh, Levi got to your brain, didn’t he? I knew it would only be a matter of time before he finally mind-controlled us, ” Kalei said.

“No! The Empire is invading, we can kill her, and become heroes, ” Ace claimed.

Fenton, Kalei, and Paul listened to him talk about how he wanted to stay and be a hero . Fenton didn’t know why he lied, he could tell when people were lying, but Kalei believed every bit of it, and Paul was a sentient lie detector that stayed red the entire time.

The odd thing was Fenton felt like he wasn’t lying about it, and understood that maybe Ace had been lying to himself for so long that he was starting to believe it.

Fenton finished chewing his crackers, and whispered something to Paul, and he turned bright orange in surprise. Ace and Kalei gave each other weird glances, agitated by their sudden familiarity.

“I knew you guys were lying about something, but not about an entire planet being in danger because of your ego, ” Fenton chuckled. “You make it hard to be your friend lately.”

“He’s lying,” Kalei asked.

“I can tell if someone’s lying, and yet he still does,” Fenton confirmed.

“This is my chance to get revenge, my chance to be a hero. It’s why we all enlisted isn’t it,” Ace shouted.

“This isn’t the way to go about it,” Kalei said quietly.

The anger started to return, slowly rising from his chest, and Ace swallowed it, not wanting his well-meaning friend to return, piloting his wet meat suit, the bones squishing against each other forcibly.

“I’m going on my own, and you can’t stop me,” Ace mumbled.

“Please don’t. Why do you and Levi always feel like you have something to prove,” Fenton asked.

Ace blinked away, and Paul clattered on the table in surprise. He flashed a multitude of neon colors and left himself, leaving a spot of sparkling something on the table.

Always stubborn, always saying what he was going to do and meaning it, one of the traits about Ace that Fenton found endearing, now he found antagonizing.

Just as he left, Levi ran into the saloon, in a brown turtleneck with a messenger bag, jeans, and brown shoes.

“Where’s Ace?”

Their silence was the answer.