I'd finally finished my tale.

"Well," Pel said, "I guess all that gaming finally paid off." She smiled, and it broke me.

"Whatcha gonna do now?" Rayph craned his neck to look up at me through the windshield.

I looked up. The theaters of the &alon-Vyxit conflict played out in whirlpools of movement, rivened by laser beams and spores, and so much fire. Detritus fell out of the sky like snow, but quickly.

Shattered ships. Wyrms, wounded, or dead. They plummeted down, crashing into the arms of the sea or the cruel, unyielding land.

I had to tell my family what I was planning to do.

"I need to find another ship that's turning into a wyrm," I said. "I need to access the Vyx Network again, and not just because I need to rescue Suisei."

"Do you really think you'll find a way to make a difference?" Jules asked. She coughed.

I twisted my neck, tilting my head to the side. "I have to believe I can, sweetheart. The Treefathers were confident that not all of the Vyxit were keen on fighting us. If I can find a way to communicate with them—best of all, if we can find this EUe guy—then, maybe, I can get them to see reason."

"They're going to try to kill you," Pel said, weakly. She looked tired. Tired of the pain. Tired of life.

"I know," I said. "But… I don't blame them for how they feel. I can't. Honestly, I agree with them. I dunno, maybe that will help me persuade them. They don't need to abandon their grudge, they just need to leave the wyrms out of it—and to not use the Lodestars."

"What if the Vyxit don't want to play frisbee?" Jules asked.

"I really hope it won't come to that."

"But Dad, if it does… wouldn't it be easier to just find a way to destroy them from within? That would stop the weapon."

"I've already gone over that with my spirits," I explained. "I'm not going to do that."

"Why not?"

"Because they're victims too! And, like I said, I agree with them! &alon needs to be stopped, even if that means she has to be destroyed! This tragedy has gone on for too long. We're all victims. I don't want to add more suffering to the pile."

Speaking of which…

I shook my head out and tensed my coils.

My hunger pains had come a-knocking.

"Genneth, what's wr—"

—But Pel's words were cut off as she doubled over in a coughing fit. She held tight to the steering wheel, shuddering in pain as the seatbelt cut into her aching stomach.

And I shuddered with her, my body tensing with her every movement.

By the time she was finished, she was panting for breath, and the dashboard was speckled with black ooze.

She struggled to raise her head, but when she did…

Beast and Queen…

Pel was crying. Her face twitched in pain. "Holy Angel, Genneth… it hurts so much. I'm scared. I'm so scared."

Rayph lunged forward. "Mommy!"

He tried to hug her, but Pel shrieked. "No! No! Don't touch me! Don't…" she coughed again, sobbing in agony, before slumping onto the steering wheel. "I don't… I don't want you to get sicker. I… I…"

I couldn't take it anymore, and I told them as much.

"Dad?" Jules asked, in between coughs.

I was slithering around to the back of the car, preparing to wrap myself around it like before.

"I need to eat," I said.

Rayph pressed his palm on the window. "There's lots of fungus to eat right here."

"I know," I said, "but… first, I'm gonna go look for a pharmacy."

"What?" Jules asked. "Why?"

"I can't bear to see you and your mother like this. It's already bad, and it's only going to get worse. You have no idea. The things this disease does… it's evil. &alon is evil. It's going to hurt so much, you're gonna want to die. I don't want to scare you, but… you have to understand… by the time your bodies become ripe for harvest, you'll have lost your memories. At that point, you won't even know why you're in agony. The pain will feel new every second, because you won't remember what it was like to feel it, just moments before. Nearly all of the spirits I've tended to go through this. It's going to make you want to die, and you might just try it. And, I'm sorry, but…" I shook my head, "…honey, I can't take that. I'm worried I won't be able to wait till you're ripe for absorption, and I'm terrified of what might happen to you if I tried to do it too early or if anything went wrong. Angel, Ani—Dr. Lokanok—she didn't get uploaded properly and… I don't think her consciousness will ever be the same. I blame myself for not having done more to prevent it. I'm not going to let the same thing happen to you, you understand me? Both of you, do you understand me?"

Rayph and Jules nodded.

I raised my head and surveyed our surroundings. Unfortunately, the hills blocked most of my view.

"So…" I said, "I'm going to try to kill two birds with one stone: find both painkillers for you and my next meal."

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I trembled as I tightened myself around the car.

"Also… I… I think this is it."

"What?" Pel moaned.

"I think this next change is going to be my last. Afterwards, I won't be able to talk to you anymore, not like this. I won't have a—"

But I couldn't bring myself to say it.

"—But, no matter what happens," I said, "I'm still going to be me, you hear? As long as my eyes are gold, I'm still the same Daddy you've always known. But if my eyes go silver, it means &alon has taken control of me."

"Daddy…" Rayph said.

I clenched my claws.

"I'm scared, guys. I know I should still be me when I'm fully transformed, but I'm scared that &alon might try to do something to me. If anything happens to me… oh God…" My rich, polyphonic voice caught in my throat. "Jules, Rayph, I love you forever. I love your mother forever. You have to be brave, okay? Please, do it for me."

"We love you, too," Jules said.

"Love…" Pel said, in a hoarse whisper.

I stuck my head over the edge of the roof high enough to peer into the window and watch as my kids nodded and wept.

Their seat-belts weren't on.

"Please, put on your seat-belts. This…" I gulped. "This might be a bumpy ride."

Then, I called on my power and engulfed the L85 in a psychokinetic warp. The chassis trembled as we rose. The ascent was unsteady at first, but smoothed out and quickened once I tightened up the levitation weave.

I strained my second pair of eyes to keep watch on the battle playing out overhead. Though I needed to stay airborne, both to transport the car and to get a decent view of the region, at the same time, every foot we rose into the sky increased the likelihood of making myself into a target for a passing Vyx module.

We passed over a hill studded with stumbling fungal shamblers. Somehow, just by looking at them, I knew they existed solely to provide me with sustenance. Closer inspection, however, revealed something more.

The congregated shamblers were pressing their bodies into one another, fusing into a massive blob that, even as I passed by, was slowly reshaping itself into—

—Me?

Fudge.

It was a statue of me, bowtie and all.

I flew past it with a shudder. But that was only the beginning.

It was far from the only one.

Once I saw the first statue, I realized the darn things were everywhere. And it wasn't just statues of me. The fungus-blighted earth was dotted with different bits and pieces of my 'adventures' with &alon, many—if not most—of which roved around, on the prowl. I saw sea-urchins, my anthro-pangolin avatar, Catamander Brave, and so much more.

From within her afterlife, Lark's spirit furrowed her eyebrows. "What the hell is all this?"

She's trying to sway my emotions, I thought-said. Begrudgingly, I turned my thoughts toward the little monster.

&alon, stop this. It's not going to work. And it's creepy!

&alon's reply whispered in the back of my mind: "Mr. Genneth… please…"

How can I ever forgive you, &alon? You've caused unimaginable suffering. Yet you feel no remorse.

"What's… remorse?"

Remorse is when you feel bad about something you did, I answered, explaining it to the world-ending fungus like the petulant child that it was. It's when you wish you could undo what you did, because you understand that what you did was wrong, and that it hurt others.

Yes, yes, I was doing a terrible job of 'not talking to her anymore'. So sue me.

Cold shoulders were never my strong suit.

"Feel bad? I feel awful!" &alon sobbed. "Everyone hates me, and I'm always alone and it's so cold and scary and—"

—ENOUGH!

She retreated, and I felt her pain. It was like a knife to the heart, one that wiggled back and forth, scrimshandering agony on your ribs while tearing through your flesh. Knowing that she really did feel awful made it hurt only that much more. My interactions with her sent existential misery radiating through every fold of my mind.

She just couldn't see beyond herself. It was textbook narcissism, and at apocalyptic proportions.

What a fudged-up world…

Flying around with the L85 was making the hunger worse, though—like before—I didn't feel tired. That had to be &alon's doing. Considering she was waging all-out war against the Vyxit, it made perfect sense that she'd ensure that her wyrms had all the juice they needed to fly and fight.

"Why don't you feed on those monsters down there?" Ichigo asked. Like Lark and &alon, he was just a voice in my mind, but I knew what he meant.

The shamblers.

It's too risky, I thought-replied. I'll have to set the car down before I eat. That would give the shamblers a chance to absorb Pel and the kids. No, their souls are staying with me. I—

—But I cut myself off as my eyes were drawn toward the horizon.

There was a decent-sized town a couple miles down the coast, where the terrain flattened out. I could count the number of multi-story buildings it had on my fingers. If there was any place I'd be able to find some medication to ease my family's suffering, it would probably be there. More importantly, I couldn't see or sense any shamblers or other wyrms there, or anywhere in its vicinity, and it wasn't hard to see why.

"What the hell is that?" Ileene said.

Narrow, chasmic rifts pock-marked the flat earth around the town. They were world-ulcers, deep and dark.

Yuta and Mr. Himichi spoke in unison: "Genneth…"

I see it, too, I thought-said.

I'd seen these before, in my bizarre adventure through Mr. Himichi's memories during the insanity in Ward E's lobby. Back in that other Noyoko, when we had been kaiju, terrifying rifts of darkness had opened up across the land and nearly swallowed us whole.

Now, I was looking at those self-same rifts out in the real world.

It made me wonder if the barriers between reality and the imagination might just have been breaking down.

Fear pressed my spines flush along my back.

No.

I had to be brave, for my family's sake. I refused to give in to despair. Surrendering to the situation would be tantamount to surrendering to &alon herself, and that, I refused to do.

There we go: these rifts were far less extensive than the ones from my visions, more like tightened lips than gaping maws. I just wish that insight had been more comforting.

&alon's voice trickled into my head. "Don't go there, Mr. Genneth. The darkness is there. It's growing."

Yes, I'm well-aware that you're destroying the world, I thought-replied. I admit, I'm impressed you're not using the fungus for once.

"But that's not me!" she said. "It's—"

Just shut up already! My family is in pain, &alon! I know that means nothing to you, but it does to me.

"Let me have them!" she said. "I'll save them. I—"

I snarled. My words jumped out of my mind and into what was left of my mouth.

"—If you do anything to them, I'll destroy myself. I'll throw myself into one of the rifts. I swear, I'll do it!"

I wasn't letting that monster anywhere near my loved ones' souls.

"No!" &alon cried. "No!"

You've done enough damage, &alon. Just leave me alone!

I angled downward, beginning my descent toward the dead town.

The car and I landed at the dusty end of the town's Main Street. Up close, I realized that this place was actually a relatively new suburban development, probably no more than a couple years old. A large sign filled in the details:

Welcome to Springfield!

Population: Always growing!

Our Motto: Yesterday's Tomorrow, Today!

Next to the text was a depiction of a happy family happily standing in front of their happy new home—curve-cornered and lipstick-red, like a painted submarine—on a bright green lawn happily thriving beneath a sunny, spotless sky.

I unwound myself from around the L85 and then dropped my forepart down a little and rapped one of my knuckles on the back door, to get the kids' attention.

"I'm going to find some painkillers and get something to eat. I'll try to be back as soon as possible. If anything happens, get out of the car and scream for me as loud as you can."

Jules nodded.

"How will they recognize you if you return fully transformed?" Yuta asked.

That… was a good point.

I glanced down at myself, and then tapped my claw right below my badly stretched bowtie.

"Don't talk to any wyrm who doesn't have this bowtie, okay?"

They nodded.

"I love you guys," I added in a whisper.

And then I slithered off to meet the unknown.

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