Night had fallen on the resort and the usual silence of the dead of night was instead filled by the cheering of the vacationers. The sky was lit up with fireworks as the staff were busy celebrating and partying for the final night of their vacation.
With the night turning into a fantastical celebration, René and Jaina watched from the rooftop at the party below. "You gotta admit, this is a pretty good birthday." The blue haired woman said with a playful smirk, leaning against the railing with her partner.
"I suppose it was. I wouldn't want anything else." Jaina responded, and with a content sigh, she stared up into the star filled night sky. She just wanted to stay in the moment a little longer, but as she turned to look at René one more time, her eyes looked down to see her partner on one knee.
As fireworks soared into the sky and exploded into a dazzling display, René asked the ultimate question. "Jaina Ellis... You mean more than anything in the multiverse to me, so uh, would you marry me?"
The receptionist froze up. It wasn't like she hadn't thought about this moment, after all they had been dating for years. But the words that left her mouth were the simple truth.
"...No."
"No? Y-You're kidding, right?" René asked with a nervous bit of laughter as she stood up. "I just think... We don't need to get married. I always thought you hated marriage anyway?"
"I never said that." She grumbled. René was never good at accepting rejection. After everything she had done in her life, she thought this was her one shot at living a normal life. Jaina, on the other hand, felt awkward. She just wanted to run away and ignore her problems.
"W-Well... Why don't we go inside and talk, huh?" Jaina smiled, trying her best to reassure René. Yet the other woman didn't really want the reassurance right now. Perhaps their relationship would survive this, perhaps not.
But the two knew they would have to talk about it... But not right now, since who they thought was Mollia, suddenly appeared on the roof with Ave and Eva next to her. "Hey, Hey, Heya," The rodent greeted the two with a playful tone as she approached. "What ya up to up here? Getting freaky and creepy?"
"Oh... We're just talking about nothing important." Jaina remarked, trying to keep an air of professionalism. Yet the simple words were like an overdramatic dagger to her partner's heart. As 'Mollia' continued on and on in an uncharacteristically cheery tone about her mission, René was a bit confused about one thing.
"Where's Markeeth?"
"Huh? Oh right, him. He's dead. Some cruel demon took his life."
The four standing on the roof looked at 'Mollia' in confusion. Ave and Eva weren't filled in on this, since they left so quickly. But the rodent casually began weaving a new truth about the situation. The Anomalous Dæmonic Warden of another star had struck down the Witch Doctor in an effort to escape.
Almost instantly, the four had suspicions, especially Jaina. But something about her words felt true, like they couldn't be anything but the absolute truth of the situation. Maybe it was Rat's charisma or maybe it was something deeper.
But the doctor's receptionist knew they couldn't reveal the doctor's death yet. It would cause a panic, grief and unending sadness... A slight exaggeration on that last part, but you get the point. Another question was soon raised. Who would get the staff back to the office.
After all, Zanir had the power to travel between worlds almost as easily as it was for him to make coffee. No known mortal being was close to him in travel. But 'Mollia' knew someone of a more... Void bound lifestyle.
"Well, you guys are gonna be huntin' Iris peeps anyway, right? If ya want a way into the void, just find Penumbra Vincula." She explained, looking at the siblings with a creeping grin. "By the way, did you two find the thing we were looking for?"
Ave felt a bit reluctant to tell the truth, holding his camera closer to his chest. "Nope. We found a statue saying she died."
'Mollia' almost seemed disappointed, but she quickly moved on to the next topic at hand. "Right, well you go tell your little buddies to find anyone going by 'Ami' or 'Penumbra'. Oh, and if you wanna get home quicker, get it done by the morning... I don't like having to repeat myself."
With that, Verum casually walked away with little explanation. René and Jaina both left as well, deciding to spend the night apart and take their mind off finding out their boss had died.
"This is bad! Holy fuck!" Once the twins were alone, their true feelings began to show as they rushed to their team. They were in a panic, after all, the guy who payed them was dead. But that was the second top priority on the panic list.
The first was protocol.
You see, as stated in the "Business Book for interdimensional travel that has always existed since the beginning of time, no I'm not making this up it is real and not a plot device" handbook, if a powerful being, man or not, the world would have to be put up for review.
That review was to decide if the world was actually worth keeping around.
And Ennuiara wasn't exactly pleased right now. The world and the stories woven would slowly fall apart. They probably had another second or a month before the world would be visited by The amalgam. The two once heard a rumour about it from Zhil.
He mentioned how the thing, as he called it, was summoned to deal with a rogue world that was probably going to wipe out another star. So, Ennuiara, not wanting to bother wiping out a star in her laziness, sent the amalgan. The star was wiped out in less than an hour, its history erased and absorbed.
"So, that's the gist of what happened ." Eva had just finished her explanation of the previous hour's events to everyone else of team R.A.A.T as they gathered on the beach. Most were already rushing to gather their weapons and strike as one, but Zhil ordered them to cease an attack with an aged squawk.
"Alright. We are all a bit upset, I know. But our first priority is our coworkers," He explained as he waddled around the members. "we are going after Penumbra Vincula first. If the rat girl is to be belived, then she's our best bet. But here's where things get fun..." He grinned, pointing to the open sea where Giyugi was casually swimming in circles.
"Do we go loud or subtle?"
It wasn't like this world was really going to last anyway, so the members unanimously agreed to go as loud as they wanted. With the simple vote coming to a close, Zhil reached into a small leather bag he kept around his waist before pulling out a new black and blue breathing mask.
Shaki, despite his rough exterior, looked the most concerned out of all of them. "Don't be an idiot! We want to capture our target alive, right? Guppy ain't the safest bet."
"What choice do we have? If my tracking is correct, which it most likely is, I detect our void friend is somewhere involving water... So, who better than the one alien navy?" The penguin explained with a condescending tone. Before Shaki could get another word out, Zhil tossed the mask to Giyugi.
The fish looked ecstatic as she finally got to walk on land again and not worry about suffocating. She took a deep, watery breathe while giving a blank stare with her big blue eyes. "You two are like, so gonna pay for breaking my mask." The mask translated every word the alien said, making it sound like a bored teenager.
If the end of a world wasn't bad enough for the two, they had to now worry about Giyugi, who was surely going to get her revenge at some point... Like right now.
With a simple raise of her webbed hand, an explosive clam shell shaped shot was launched directly at the duo. Ave, thinking on the fly, pulled out his video camera and just barely managed to capture it on film.
The explosive clam was nowhere to be seen, but that was the duo's ability after all. To literally capture anything on film. Quite a nifty ability really. Though Giyugi seemed less than pleased. "Like, whatever... Pen-thing, can you just like, quickly tell me where I gotta raid? Don't keep a captain waiting, ya'know?"
With a quick tap on his beak to look more smug, Zhil pointed out to the ocean. "I sense our target is on an island in the distance. Not a long travel, really."
With a target in sight and suspicion in tow, Team R.A.A.T were going after the woman of The Stars and Void Herself, Penumbra Vincula.