Henry stared intensely at the panoramic screens surrounding the computer terminal as he processed the situation. Part of him wanted to feel responsible for Cecil's current predicament, or find some way to blame himself. But, the more rational side of him realized that this was destined to happen no matter what he did. If anything, his actions had bought precious time for the Palatial Remnant to hold out, what with his frequent raids into Westminster having only ceased very recently.

His gaze wandered across the live video feeding in from the external camera, eventually settling on one of the feral vampires who was seemingly ensnared more recently than the rest. Its neck thrashed left and right as it struggled to break free, the look in its beady black eyes betraying the helplessness in its struggle. The rest of the creature's body could barely twitch, it was so tightly enmeshed.

No amount of analysis paralysis would fix any of this. If he didn't come up with a plan of action, Cecil and the last vestiges of the British military he commanded would be just as trapped as that vampire there.

"You're the most experienced out of any of us when it comes to this asshole," Grace commented as if predicting his train of thought. "Any suggestions as to how to go about handling this would be more than welcome."

He wracked his brain for a solution. Carve a path through? Laughable. Even one strand of that silk had been able to stop mundane tools and gunfire in their tracks, and even the enchanted counterparts he'd had the chance to test hadn't fared much better. Add on the millions of other near-invisible strings, and the fact that the slightest disturbances in a bare handful of those could attract the personal attention of the Mad Prince himself made that route essentially a death sentence.

Go around, then? Grace did mention there had been a runner from the Remnant that had… almost made it. With a bit of scouting and preparation, maybe they could pull off a successful circumvention?

…No… we'd have to repeat that success, too. Either as one big group or 30 separate attempts, it would be too noticeable. Even if the overgrown spider doesn't care about a move like that, the vampires in the area certainly would.

The vampires… hmmm…

"How have the other camps reacted to this intrusion?" he asked Grace. "Have they been having any luck pushing him away from anywhere?"

"It's... oddly quiet. Kind of. They've responded a bit better than what we've managed, but... nowhere near enough to be significant. Must recognize going toe to toe is a losing proposition from the outset, so outside of a few skirmishes that probably were just excuses to thin their numbers of weaker kin... practically no reaction. For the most part, they're just fighting each other around the webbed-off areas, like nothing's ever happened."

"Well, that's… disappointing. I was hoping they'd be more up in arms over the loss of hunting grounds."

"Oh, believe me, they are. They just understand the pecking order."

He grunted his displeasure. Playing monsters off of each other had always been an effective trick when the opportunity arose, so losing that card right out of the gates stung. His tried and true options were disappearing steadily, one by one.

Guess that means we have to look for new ones, then…

"What about other power players? Any Devils, mages, or sufficiently powerful artifact handlers around that might be willing to send aid?"

"Against the Prince?" Grace hummed in consideration. "...Give me a moment to take a look around. Might turn up a few crazies, though I doubt there's anything truly groundbreaking that I don't know about yet. But, at this point... I'd probably be willing to hug a werewolf if you'd think it'd help somehow."

She clacked away at the keyboard once more, and the grisly sight of the web and its victims disappeared. A flurry of activity consumed the monitors piecemeal, flashes of locations blinking in and out of existence one after another. Her blood-red eyes followed each new sight as they appeared, flitting back and forth between screens far faster than Henry would have thought possible.

Enrico supplied an answer to her frantic pace. "Mistress, perhaps you should put the drink away," he mumbled. "I fear your intake might be too high..."

If she heard his comment, she didn't make any indication of it. She just kept cycling through screens, one after another after another. Every so often, one of the frantically flickering monitors would turn static on a particular camera, where someone or the odd small group could be found wandering. Once they were spotted, that particular monitor would keep track of their movements wherever they went. Seeing the surveillance system in action like this suddenly made him very conscious of how those who installed this network in the first place might have used it before London went to the wolves.

Guess it paid more than I thought to be a loser nobody back then…

Abruptly, the flickering stopped, and the unused monitors turned off once more. Grace turned around to face them again, spinning in the swivel chair while snatching up the beverage she'd left momentarily unattended.

"That's everyone brave enough to move about freely on the surface right now," she explained. "See anyone worth mentioning?"

He took a good look for himself. More than half of them he discarded immediately. The way they were moving was too wary, too overly cautious to be anything but a runner. Nothing wrong with that survival tactic, just not what they needed in this very moment.

Another good chunk were actually just part of the group he'd brought along with him. He'd have plenty of opportunity to discuss the situation with them, so for now he tabled that for something to do later. As for the remaining screens…

Now this is what I'm looking for.

He was in luck. There actually were a few particularly powerful individuals in the area. Getting close enough to talk to them might prove a bit of a challenge, but… nothing a few clones wouldn't be able to address.

Though, his eyes were glued to two screens in particular.

One of them, amusingly enough, belonged to his own copy. The one that had wandered off with Comet. As it turned out, they were still walking side by side, at least as well as the wounded duplicate could manage. Inexplicably, the copy was persisting, despite his three days having expired not long ago. Neither of them appeared to have a specific direction in mind, simply wandering wherever their hearts took them.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

That's... an interesting turn of events... maybe I should've let the little guy stay, after all...

If no other option presented itself, herding cats might not actually be as bad an option as he thought. Hopefully, the second candidate provided something equally valuabl-

"Hey, wasn't there a guy on this screen a second ago?"

Henry could have sworn someone had been there. Grace frowned, too, because normally if the target had gone off screen the feed would have followed them to the next camera with a line of sight.

"You're not going crazy, I saw him too," she confirmed. "And he's still somewhere around the area, otherwise-"

She never got to finish the sentence. Because the person in question very quickly made his presence known once more.

Somebody knocked the camera to the ground. Immediately as it hit the ground, warning lights started flashing on the terminal and a hairline crack blossomed on the camera lens. A pair of legs could be made out giddily approaching the downed camera, body language seemingly ecstatic at the needless vandalism.

Well, that absolutely sealed it, then. Henry only knew of one individual who acted so carefree in this blasted hellscape.

The angle shifted jerkily, and just before the Tech Domain mana inside the fish-eye lens died out entirely, it managed to capture a rather close up snapshot of the face of the man who'd knocked it down.

Well, more like the top half of his face, but close enough.

The camera cut on a still frame of everything nose and above. Creases below a pair of squinting eyes indicated the hooligan was grinning impishly from ear to ear. And, from the look of his attire, he wasn't shying away from that descriptor any, either. Clad in all the most ostentatious accessories the emo and punk scenes had to offer and sporting a spiky, bleach-white hairdo Henry couldn't hope to forget even if he tried, was Death Junior.

"Well, that answers the question of what he's been up to…" Grace grumbled. "Can't he find someone else's intranet to demolish?" With a huff, she shut off the goofy-looking freeze frame that had taken front and center on the monitor.

Oddly fortuitous that he would be here now, of all times. Henry considered himself a rather prolific wanderer, but he knew for a fact that he couldn't hold a candle to this guy in particular. Sure, he might have visited all the major locations to be found at least once by now, but Death Jr. could go through all of those in a week, for multiple weeks on end at times. All thanks to his powers allowing him to ignore the problems of the world around him and walk around like he owned the place.

So, by pure chance, he just so happened to be in the right place at the right time. The beginnings of an idea were beginning to form for Henry…

"We need him," Henry immediately decided. "Where is he right now?"

"That camera was outside of a church, roughly northwest of here. Within a kilometer of one of our exits, about a 10 minute walk without interruptions."

"So about 20 minutes away, then. Any chance he'll be convinced to stay there for that long?"

"The church has become something of a favored venue for him, I think. Should still be there if you hurry, but would you care to fill me in on what you have in mind before you run off?"

"Nothing concrete just yet. But in order to pull anything off, we're going to need one extremely loud and obnoxious distraction. I'm thinking him and his Exotic Domain will fit that bill perfectly. I'll see where he stands on the idea, and after I figure that part out, we can go from there."

He turned to Robb. "Sorry about the sudden change in plans, but it looks like I'll have to leave you here for a bit. Take my cell phone, and get in touch with Martin and the rest. Fill them in on the situation while I take care of this. Sound alright?"

Robb nodded back. "Works for me. Should I head back myself?"

"I wouldn't advise it, since going alone typically means death here and I'm already going to need Enrico to show me the way to the church, which, also, sorry for volunteering you."

"Not a problem," the vampire confirmed.

"Great. The sooner we get the chance to convince him, the better."

"Good luck with that," Grace snorted. "He seems to have everything he wants already."

"Trust me. I know how to talk to the likes of him."

< -|- -|- >

Elsewhere in Walworth, the wounded duplicate looked down at his watch. More than 72 hours had elapsed, but not quite a full day more. The initial surprise of ekeing out past the time limit had worn off, leaving only the phantom pain of his soul trying to shut down. Trying, but being unable to as some intangible force kept pulling it back from the brink at the last moment. It was miraculous, but that didn't make it any less excruciating. Henry had given the phenomena much thought, and finally arrived at the conclusion he'd been wanting to dismiss every hour longer that he persisted.

It was time.

He sat down next to Comet, petting him mindlessly as he prepared for the final moments.

"Hey, buddy," he said in a soft voice as the cat began to purr. "I appreciate everything you've done for me, but…"

His words fell short. How do you explain something like this to an animal? Why would you in the first place? Would he even understand any of this?

He continued to scratch him behind the ears, something he discovered Comet liked very much. Never in his wildest imaginations would he have considered being a cat person, honestly. They'd always seemed too aloof and haughty, whenever he'd considered getting a pet before. Though, financial troubles usually silenced that idea before it even got half-formed. Back when money mattered, he'd have been hard pressed to afford a fish.

No way he could have taken care of something even that low maintenance, either. He'd barely been able to take care of himself.

Another twinge of phantom pain fluttered in his chest, signalling the beginning of the end for him. Without the good fortune given to him constantly, he would be nothing more than a memory in the heads of his fellow duplicates in a few short moments. That, and perhaps the memories of one oddly powerful feline in front of him.

He needed to finish his sentence before he departed. Nothing profound came to mind, but that was okay.

"…Well, I want you to take care when I'm gone, okay?" He eventually settled on.

Comet mewled quietly, nuzzling him one last time before the final hour ticked over.

Scraps of his soul began to tear each other apart, as he willingly accelerated his demise. He tensed, then relaxed, then tensed again. Not quite spasming as his own paradoxical existence self-corrected, but as close as one could feasibly get to that descriptor. He could not move. The pain ratcheted up several notches, his limbs unresponsive. The torture lingered long after his soul was reduced to nothing, until there was nothing left but a vegetable.

The crystal vaporized into a cloud of ammonia. Comet kept watch over him as his body slowly began to deteriorate, too.

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