Ethan shook himself – trying to make sure he was really in the real world again.

Fauna's worried face mere inches from his certainly did a lot to convince him of that.

"Eh – Faun?"

"Thank Sanctum," the Hopla mage said. "You're ok…"

Behind her, Klax and Tara were interrogating Lamphrey. Both looked about ready to chop her head clean off…

"W-wait!" Ethan shouted. "Guys, it's all good. I –"

"Like hell!" Tara shouted. "Miss Lamphrey here's been sending us all kinds of hell while we were asleep!"

"My intention was to heal you, Minxit Tara," Lamphrey responded in her cool, calm voice. "And I have done so. Now, would you like me to cast a calm –"

"You ain't gonna cast anything else near me!" Tara screamed in her face. "Lift those fingers and you'll lose em!"

She made to draw her dagger, and found that Ethan's vines stayed her hand.

"Honestly," he said. "After all this time, you still can't trust eachother?"

The Minxit looked to Klax, who gave a huff of relief. It seemed he was just glad to be awake again.

"We appreciate the healing," he said. "But Oneiromancy restoration is a taxing process on us…"

"But more so to her," Fauna murmured, coming between them all. "Her mana is all but depleted. Isn't that right, Lamphrey?"

The Tialax stiffened but nodded.

"Look, I told her to do it," Ethan said. "If you're looking to blame anyone for the side effects, blame your Archon."

"And did you also tell her to enter your mind, Ethan?" Tara asked.

"It's quite the opposite. I entered hers."

The Hybrids stood stunned by the very notion.

"And I saw the other Archons. More than that…I saw who they once were back on Earth. I felt their emotions. It was like I was connected to them."

Tara almost fell over. "That's even worse! Ethan, you have no idea if what she showed you was the tru-"

"No," Fauna stated. "No, Tara. Lamphrey did something that even she didn't want to do."

The Hopla moved to touch the arm of the Tialax gingerly, as though tending to a wounded patient.

"You're hurting, aren't you?"

Ethan's questioning gaze wondered over the lizardwoman who tried to avoid him.

"The Archon is strong willed," she whispered. "He pushes through the waves of the mind with a strength I have not felt in…an age. Perhaps, at my age, my talents are finally beginning to wither."

"Lamphrey…" Ethan began. "I didn't mean –"

The Tialax held up a scaled hand. "There is no time for apologies, nor are they useful. Save your words for your followers, Archon Ethan. For the time of confrontation approaches."

Ethan nodded as everyone simply stared towards the glowing red door at the end of the chamber. Since their awakening, it had swung open, revealing a rusted elevator that led into the lower depths of Griffon's Watch.

It hadn't budged since it had arrived. Nor had the Doctor's voice or any of his servants come to hinder their healing session.

"We can talk about these memories after," said Klax. "Right now, we have a fight to finish."

Tara nodded. Klax huffed, and Fauna and Lamphrey said nothing at all.

But all of them shared the same steely look of determination. Even the tired Lamphrey.

"We'll take five to let Lamphrey restore her mana," Ethan said. "In the meantime, take point. The Doctor knows we're coming. He wants us to come to him."

"Archon Ethan," Lamphrey protested. "I do not need –"

"I want my team at full strength. That's an order."

The lizardwoman looked like she wanted to argue with him. But she bowed her head respectfully before sitting down cross legged and beginning her meditations.

"Everyone else," Ethan said. "Let's get properly prepared with a plan of action here. Fauna, I understand you and Lamphrey were separated together. What's this place's defenses against magic like?"

"The Duskmetal walls are strong, but not unbreakable," Fauna replied. "At this level, the seem to be virtually devoid of power. Maybe because of all the destruction you caused when you made that hole above…"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She pointed a white paw at the place where Ethan had emerged and decimated the Hoplax abomination.

"You really gotta stop with these dramatic entrances," Tara snickered.

"I'm a showman at heart. Klax? You and Tara went up against some abominations yourself. I'm guessing the Doctor had some choice words he used to taunt you about Jun'Ei."

Klax stiffened at the mention of her name. "That he did, Ethan."

Ethan raised an oaken eyebrow.

"I saw them for what they were," the wolfman explained. "Just tricks. He has her down there, that I'm sure of. But he is…keeping her alive. He is doing this because he thinks it will anger me. He thinks it will lead me to make mistakes."

Ethan sensed nothing but pure focus in Klax's words. But Tara shifted nervously, giving him a strange side-eye.

"You can count on me," Klax declared. "I came all this way to see my beloved again, and it was her wish that she pass the torch of her knowledge on to you, Ethan. Whatever that takes, I am willing to see that her wish is granted. Even if it may be her last."

The sorrow that tinged the Lycae's voice was clear for anyone to hear. Above them all, he had the most personal stake in this.

And yet the Doctor had seen fit to torture the rest of them, too. Ethan had only learned second-hand from Lamphrey about what they'd been through. With Klax and Tara, he got the impression they didn't even want to talk about it. The fact he'd sent these grisly conglomerations of their own kind to face them – these twisted experiments he'd conducted on prisoners of war here over at least the century since Gyko's death…the very thought of it made Ethan's oaken blood boil even more than it already was.

In this moment, he needed to say something inspiring. Even in this place of deepest darkness, he had to come up with something that could –

"We can do this."

The words weren't his, but Fauna's.

"Maybe not alone, but with Ethan? We'll tear that Blood Mage apart for Sanctum."

Klax and Fauna didn't seem at all surprised to hear this from Fauna. Ethan was – for once – the most surprised of the group.

Did I miss something here?

Apparently quite a lot. Looks like our once meek little Hopla teacher has been reforged in war.

"Sys makes a good point," Klax smiled. "Fauna, you showed great leadership back there. Far better than my own. I know that the children of Sanctum would be proud to see their teacher here, leading us to the darkest pit of this earth."

Fauna blushed as Klax bowed before her. She tried to look away from his gaze.

Now that's the Fauna I remember…

"I – I just did what I had to," Fauna mumbled. "More than anything else, I won't watch you all die. I know who I am. And I know what I'm here on this world to do – and its not what Kaedmon wants."

"Damn right!" Klax chuckled – and his genuine laughter, though utterly incongruous with their surroundings – was enough to restore the smile to Ethan's own face.

She's grown. And she didn't need me for it…

Tara came forward slowly, her eyes drifting off to the dark walls of the chamber as she came within a few inches of Fauna.

"…look, what you did back there was pretty cool, yeah? You saved our asses."

"…Ethan was the one who –"

"Hey, the big Hat gets enough praise. You were the one who bought him the time he needed to get here. So…"

She turned away and mumbled, "thanks, Sis. For everything."

Fauna blinked up at the Minxit, who tail was currently cureled between her legs.

"You're talking like this is the last time we'll see each other, Tara."

The Minxit rogue sighed softly, not eyeing any of them as she spoke.

"Well…shit. Remember back in the City of Illusions when I was debating whether to cut this whole thing loose and never look back? That was…a different me. Now that I'm in this deep, seen the same shit we've all seen…it's tough to look at the world the same way, y'know?"

Fauna looked up to Ethan, who was slowly starting to approach her.

"…I'm – we're all part of something so much bigger than ourselves now, huh?" Tara went on. "I just never saw it before but – hell – maybe we can change up this shitty world."

She turned back when Ethan lay a comforting hand on her shoulder and smiled at Fauna.

Not the smirk of a rogue, but the smile of a sister.

"After all, if our resident cute little Hopla can stand up to an evil ball of shit like that guy, why the fuck can't we all?"

Ethan watched Fauna come forward and embrace the Minxit in a hug that was probably far stronger than Tara thought she was capable of. As they wriggled against each other, with Klax chuckling in the background, Ethan almost thought he was still dreaming…

Hey, don't rule that out, y'know. That Oneiromancer of ours if pretty good at what she does.

Nah. You'd be way more obnoxious in my dreams, Sys. Besides, not even I could have predicted how much these guys would change since this whole weird journey began.

Change they had – and not in the way the Doctor had intended. He'd wanted to break them in body and spirit, and he'd failed – spectacularly. He must have seen that when Fauna stood up against his creation and showed that Hybrids would never submit to his will. That alone was almost enough of a victory.

But he was still going to die. And Ethan was going to learn exactly how to prevent people like him from ever polluting this world with their filth again.

So focused was he on this thought that he didn't even notice Lamphrey appear beside him.

"I have strength enough to go on," she told him. "There is no more time to be wasted, Ethan."

He nodded at her and then signaled the team.

"Then its time," he told them. "Let's end this."

…

In the heart of his inner sanctum, Doctor Haylock was dancing to his favorite tune.

He had saved it for special occasions like this – pivotal moments that would soon be carved into the very fabric of Argwyll with the precision and force of a knife cutting into a cancerous growth.

His Flesh Organ bleated out a tune of pain – of a thousand decapitated heads all chained together and pleading for a mercy that they'd never receive.

There was no one left to torture. No one left to dance with. All that remained now were him, his final little pet upstairs, and his star patient.

He jumped, twirled, and leapt through the debris that was scattered all over his experiment tables, joyfully cutting his naked limbs on stray shards of glass as he did so.

"Do you remember this one, Jun?" he asked the only active vat in the room. "I played it for you during our first session together. I thought you'd recognize the tune – it matched the exact pitch of all your dying friends in that dismal little battlefield where you creatures made your lovely last stand."

No response came from the vat. A few bubbles frothing to the surface was all the Doctor got by way of reply.

"I can feel them, don't you know?" he laughed. "I can feel their forms scuttling through my corridors, panting and sweating like dogs in heat. Oh, they want to see me dead so, so much! Especially that disgusting little Hopla specimen."

A few more bubbles this time – faster than before.

"Oh! You don't like that, do you?"

The Doctor stopped before the glass jar containing what remained of the prophet of Sanctum.

As he drew near, the whole vat seemed to vibrate with power.

"Is it fate or chance," Haylock whispered. "Your strength fails you, Jun'Ei. Now, at this critical moment, is it possible that you're finally letting go? Because – hah! – you think your old friends will save you?"

No response. The bubbles were still.

"No, Jun," Haylock whispered. "No. Tonight, the dance is finally over. Tonight, we all fall down."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.