A/N: Hello everyone! My name is Natalie and I create chapters. This is one of the chapters! You get to read it now. Isn't that nice? Shoutout to all the Emily fans btw, this one is for you.

Wh-where did Julietta just go? Did she teleport away? No, that's impossible. I've spread my domain out way beyond the range she kept hers at. Why can't I feel her anymore?

Why does my death date feel closer?

No, wait. Come on, I know better. These are the wrong kinds of questions. I pull my domain back around myself, the shroud of Failure heavy on my shoulders, and think.

Do I call out? No change. Do I run somewhere? Down. Do I run north? Up. East? Up. South? Up. West? Down. West it is, then. Slow? Up. Fast? Down. I start to sprint.

Down is good, up is bad. Down is good, up is bad. The more I lower my chance of death, the longer I will live. And I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die!

"Concern. Confusion. Omen of Final Mistakes, Please Report Status."

Omen of Final Mistakes. I'm not sure if I like the name or not, but it's certainly a fitting one. At least more fitting than 'Emily,' anyway. I do like that name, but it's just too… normal for something like me.

"Status unknown. Twisting Scars Reshape Fate departed via unforeseen means, utilizing some ability I was not aware of."

"We Cannot Find Her Anywhere in Our Domain," my Queen corroborates. "Perhaps She Has Chosen to Take a Partial Victory Over a Total Failure?"

"Unconditional denial. She would not. She would never," I insist. "She is either somehow still here, or plans to return."

"Then Let the Culling Commence."

I feel bad. I do. I know it's wrong, I just… it just has to be this way. We can't win in the end if Julietta doesn't lose now. And I know that no matter how much this will hurt her, losing the entire damn world would hurt her more. She has to become the Grand Queen. We'll die if she doesn't.

Those are always the stakes. To everything I do, to every decision I make. My mistakes create death. It's a mercy that I can't feel guilt like other people, honestly. I'd be even less functional if I could.

I can watch people die and feel next to nothing. I know this. I've done it… far too many times. Lia was the first time I murdered someone with my own two hands, but I've been an accomplice to… god, I don't even know how many. It was that or get killed myself. I could never say no to my brother. The consequences of that were always clear. Especially after he became… that.

So I know I'm not a good person. You don't need a conscience to understand something that obvious. A good person, in my position, would be dead. They would have sacrificed themselves to do the right thing. Or maybe, just maybe, they would have found a way through that something like me couldn't even conceive of.

I do hope, despite everything, that Julietta has somehow found that way.

I guess we'll see.

A whisper passes, and I'm suddenly somewhere else. Where… oh. I remember this place. This is where Julietta and I visited. The people with the greenhouses.

"The Others Are Occupied," my Queen tells me. "Go. Kill Them All."

…Ah. Of course. Of course it would be my job. Out of everyone in my council, I'm the only one who doesn't want to come here. Therefore, I'm the only one she can teleport to the humans. Can she not just kill the humans herself, though…?

"Amusement. I Could, Yes. But This Will Be Your Task Regardless, Omen of Final Mistakes. You Know It Must Be Done."

Hah… man, my council is so awful. Making me do it just to hurt me? I feel so at home. Whatever. I should put my new body through some proper testing anyway. 

"Reluctant Admittance: It is Not Just to Hurt You, This Time," my Queen says. "A Blossom of Wilted Chances is Being… A Problem."

Boy, is she. I can feel it. She's been taunting and hissing at our whole council ever since she got here, really laying it on thick with the subtle, under-the-radar passive-aggression throughout the network. Gotta say, I never expected aliens to be this sassy. Or this creative about it! Of course, that meant that when Julietta kicked all of this off, Blossom was with nearly our entire council. Desire Consumed Gleefully died instantly. Averter of Fortunes is barely protecting most of the others. Manifestation of Past Regrets and I are the only ones free to act other than the Queen herself… and even her attention is being occupied.

"Yeah," I say. "Blossom does that."

"I am Admittedly Somewhat Surprised That You Survived The Journey to Us With Her Alongside You."

"Surviving is literally the only thing I'm good at," I remind my Queen.

"Not Anymore, Beloved of My Council."

True enough. I flex my fingers, letting them spill apart so I can stretch my bunched-up tendrils, teasing them out between the gaps in my skin. My new body was never designed to be able to pass as human in the first place. It's built exclusively for fear and death. What could be more fitting? That's all I am.

Maybe I SHOULD see a therapist. Maybe we should all see a therapist…

This part of town is exactly as we left it. It's chilly this morning, though, so I don't immediately see anyone out and about. I wonder which unlucky bastard will be first? I remember crushing Julietta's skull between my tendrils, after popping her head clean off… yeah, it'll be quick, at least. People who care about this sort of thing appreciate it when it's quick, right?

"Hey! You again. Where's the other one?"

Ah. And so the unlucky bastard makes his debut. It's the man leading the little pack of hunters that Julietta and I chatted with yesterday. That sucks. He was kinda fun.

"Great question," I answer, turning and unfurling all the tentacles in my arm at once, launching my hand at him for a long-range grab. 

It's fast. I'm fast. I have him by the neck almost immediately, and I yank him back to me so quickly his neck snaps on the spot. So much for being fast; he's paralyzed, and his heart has stopped, but the fifteen or so seconds it'll take for him to pass out are more than enough to be terrified enough to shit himself. Y'know, if the paralysis doesn't cause that to happen first. 

He's doomed, if it isn't clear. He's a dead man. My power says his fate is sealed mere seconds from now, if that. Julietta loses. She can't save him now. It really is a shame. I'd better pulp his brain so he doesn't have to suffer in terror for any—huh?

He… implodes. All at once. His body devours itself whole, twisting and vanishing into nothing. His empty clothes flutter to the ground. What… the hell was that? I-I mean that was obviously her, but… what!?

"Omen of Final Mistakes, are You Alright? We Felt Your Shock," my Queen asks.

"Twisting Scars Reshape Fate is still interfering, somehow," is what I attempt to answer.

"That was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. May I take the entirety of this duty on myself?" is what I actually leak into the network.

"Of Course! As Our Newest, It Seems Only Fair! Additionally, I Don't Want To. Go Kill Them All!"

Hah. Haaah. Okay. Alright. Julietta is… inside me, or something? 

Or something.

She is, isn't she? I don't know how else she'd be doing this. Ohhh, fuck, fuck, fuck. It's fine. This is fine. This is what I wanted, right? But why is she murdering everyone!? There's no way she'd do that, but my power insists that… ugh. No. I'll trust her. I'll trust her over my damn power. She's never lost a bet with it yet.

And, well… I guess I get to go 'kill' all the humans now. So that'll be fun.

It's a surprisingly sound plan. The way my Queen's power works is that, because it can only take people to places they don't want to go, she's always intimately aware of all the people in it. She knows where I am, she knows where all the humans are, and when she feels the humans vanish after I get near them, she'll know I 'killed' them. Julietta is using our own plan against us. Because of course she is, the absurd fucking bitch that she is. I know I want this to happen, but… I'm still honestly a little pissed.

I don't like losing, even when I know I should.

Let's double-check, though. No matter how clever Julietta is, she might still need to lose in order for us to win in the end. That was the whole point of this, right? What happens if I fight her here and side with my colony? Down. We live. And if I go along with whatever this is? What happens then? Up. We die. There isn't really any choice then, is there? I don't know what she's doing, but I have to find some way to—

My thoughts are cut off as my own hand reaches up and slaps me in the face. Ow! What the hell!? Are you reading my mind!? I give myself a thumbs-up. Great. Look, bitch, if you're just going to puppet my body around, why don't you just do this all yourself?

My hand reaches up and makes a slashing motion across my neck. What, because it will kill me? My hand makes a thumbs-down. Okay, so… some other reason. Maybe you just can't? Well I don't know, Julietta, that's never fucking stopped you before. Stupid broken-ass powers bitch. Well I'm not walking to my own death just because you asked nicely!

I flick myself in the nose.

"Requesting continuous updates toward closest target," I am forced to say to my Queen.

"Affirmative. Relaying Instructions. May Your Prayers be Swift and Lethal."

Charming as always, my hand points itself in the direction my Queen gave to me. Are you serious? I just said I wasn't going to—ow! Fine, Jesus! I'll go singlehandedly murder the entire population of Lincoln, Nebraska if that's what you want so much. May as well have some fun before your idiocy gets us all killed. I stomp over to a nearby house in a huff, kicking open the door and punching through the ribcage of the person who screams in response. Just like the last one, her body implodes in the same way as Julietta's does whenever she teleports somewhere with her janky, gross strategy of 'simply making an entirely new body in an entirely different location.' I genuinely can't tell if she actually doesn't understand that her powers are the most ridiculous thing in the world, or if she's always going out of her way to downplay them just because she has a pathological need for modesty. Probably the last one. Girl has more neuroses than I do, and I'm the one with the fucking cluster B personality disorder.

My hand reaches up and drags both corners of my mouth down. Aww, did that make you sad? Did that make you sad, little baby sister? Too bad. Let's go murder some more people.

It only takes three more horrific deaths for someone outside of my immediate kill radius to hear all the screaming. The prey has officially been alerted to the presence of the hunter, but it doesn't really matter. Up, up, up go all of their death chances! Today? A near certainty. Within the hour? There's hardly a doubt. Within the next minute? Oh, at least five more of them. Within the next second? Certainly this man in my grasp here, yes. I squeeze, enjoying the satisfaction of shattering through bone in the brief moment before Julietta steals my prize. If these people actually are all dead, and she's just eating them for biomass, I'm gonna be so mad. She'll owe me sooo many skull-crushings after that. Actually, she's going to owe me skull-crushings either way. I am going to break her until I get bored of it. 

My Julietta-possessed hand gives me another thumbs-up. At least my sister is as much of a freak as I am. I'd feel so left out, otherwise. Besides, I'm not a sadist! Not really. The fact that she can't actually feel pain the way everybody else does doesn't make it any less fun for me.

In the end, there isn't much the humans can do. Any of them who try to fight me just make themselves easier to find. Any of them who try to run from me just make it easier for my Queen to bring them exactly where they don't want to go. I'm faster than a human. Stronger, tougher, infinitely more dangerous. It's no wonder Julietta was so quick to go complete freak mode after getting her powers. This is so god-damned addicting. And hey! Maybe I'm secretly saving all these people's lives instead of personally ending them! All this slaughter, and in the end it's a good deed! No wonder there have been so many wars. There are a lot more people like my family and me than most humans realize, and most of them are a lot less self-aware than I am. I at least try to do the right thing. It's not like I have to.

"Hey, Sam!" I say cheerfully, kicking open the door to her office. "Are you here?"

I already know that someone is in here, and sure enough, it appears to be Samantha. The old gardener woman in charge of the greenhouse-fed section of the city is sitting in exactly the same chair she was when Julietta and I first talked to her. I really liked the cut of her jib, so I decided to save her for last. At least, last in this part of the city.

"…You're back early," Sam comments. "I thought we had three days?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, my bleeding heart of a sister pulled the trigger early. It's like she thinks we have you all living in squalor! Oh, well. I'm impressed you haven't run, by the way."

"I'm old," she grunts. "Besides, I've seen friends of mine run. I never see them again."

"You are smart," I praise her. "It's a shame I couldn't take more time to get to know you."

"You'll forgive me if I don't consider the feeling mutual," she snarks back.

"Oh absolutely, ma'am," I smile brightly at her. "But it's not my forgiveness you need to worry about right now. Word of advice, though. When you get to the afterlife, make sure to steel your stomach. I have it on good authority that it's made of meat."

I lash out and tear her head off as quickly as I can, humming to myself as she dissolves like all the others. My Queen has already directed me to the next group of humans, and I honestly do not want to go anymore, so at least it only takes a single step to get there. This was nice for a while, but after the first one hundred kills it just starts to get a little tedious. At least I know I'm not too much like my brother. Killing is fun, sure, but it's like… that one super-fancy steak place Lia took me to. It was great, I had a good time, but I'm not chomping at the bit to go back there as soon as possible. I'd go again if the opportunity presented itself, but if you put the choice in my hands, I am always going to the fondue place instead. God, I love fondue. I better get all this murdering done quick, or else Julietta might make me lactose intolerant.

I move my head to the side on a whim, and a bullet whizzes past my ear. Ooh, I'm getting better at that! It wouldn't have killed me, but technically every small bit of damage I take increases my chance of death very slightly, and that means all the little optimizations I'm trying to make with asking my power where I should move let me look like a total badass. 

That's the other best thing about my new body: ninety percent of the brainpower I used to dedicate to constantly asking my power random bullshit is now a lot more automatic. I'm still asking all the questions, I just have more brain in my brain, and that gives me a lot more room to think about other things, like whether or not Julietta is planning to use me as some kind of hidden bomb to murder my own Queen. I'm a little surprised how much I care about that. My council is awful, but I am too. They care about me, in their own fucked-up way, and I care about them in mine. A Web of Squirming Hopes and I chatted for a long time, making sure to get my body just right. She had a ton of great ideas. It was a blast. I'm honestly going to miss her if she dies.

Julietta hasn't stolen part of my body in a while—except for a few meaningful edits regarding what I am and am not putting into the network—but she steals my arm now and raises it up to pat me on the head before giving me a thumbs-up. Oh, good. I guess it seems her plan is working. Because like, if it wasn't working, she'd probably just slaughter my entire colony.

Yeah, probably. I'm starting to suspect I have somewhat of a temper.

Fortunately, she's right. So far, everything is going to what someone might generously call 'my plan.' I might have jumped the gun a little and needed to improvise, but we got there. Legion's blessing made me capable of deciding other people count as me without rendering those people functionally braindead as I take them over. Combined with Silhouette's blessing to hide my domain, I'm basically borrowing Emily's body as my earthly domain anchor, letting it follow her around as if she was me. But since she's not just me, and she's also her, the way my power is interacting with her brain is way different than anything else I've experienced before. It's super trippy.

My original brain is here, inside my meatspace. My power lets it pilot other brains remotely by changing the structure of other brains to be… receptive to that, I guess, a process which destroys any and all ego the brain may have originally had. In return, the bodies I use on Earth just feel like they're my body. It feels completely natural for me to use them however I want.

That is not the case right now. Emily is controlling her body, and I'm just along for the ride. When I mess with her arm or her pheromone organ, I'm doing it with direct shapeshifting, not by sending electrical signals to her muscles or whatever. Although I guess I could probably use shapeshifting to send signals to her muscles and move her body that way, but that… well, that just seems like way too much work for exactly the same result.

The even more fortunate side effect of all this is that it means I can eat people without killing them, though it does inaugurate their membership into the Discontinuity of Consciousness Club. Which is to say, they do die, but like, only for a little bit. It's probably fine.

I maybe should have waited to reform all of them until after they were outside my meatspace, though. It has been a little bit challenging convincing them to not panic.

Initially, I thought the problem was the pitch darkness. But when I made myself glow, everyone immediately got even more concerned. There was a whole bunch of screaming. I made some eyes and mouths on the walls so I could see what was going on, and I did my best to explain the situation, but most people were too busy panicking. I had to tie a few people down so nobody did anything too stupid. This obviously didn't improve anyone's mood or personal trust in me, but at a certain point I just figured I wasn't going to be winning this particular battle anyway.

A lot of people are also really mad that everyone is naked. I made a divider in the room I'm keeping them in so they could sort themselves between sexes if they really felt like it, and I also offered to make them some clothes out of skin if they felt that strongly about it, but nobody wanted any. One guy did try to harass one of the women, though, so I dissolved his limbs. I promised to give them back after all of this is done, but I don't think anyone believed me.

All in all, I'm… obviously not dealing with this situation as well as I maybe could be, but I'm very distracted, okay? I need to keep most of my attention on Emily, but it's getting way too crowded in here! I need more biomass that isn't currently being used to embody a living human person.

Speaking of…

…Wow. I think that's actually the last of them. I think I just successfully depopulated an, admittedly, already mostly depopulated town. Still, that only took like, an hour? Being able to teleport around and have perfect knowledge of where everyone is sure makes things more efficient. Welp! Time to head back to my Queen and suffer whatever unfathomable eldritch hissy fit she's inevitably going to have about my betrayal.

Or we could just… leave? I have everyone safe and sound.

Ready, Queenie? Hup-hup! 

Oh, right, Emily can't hear me. Her brain is mine, but my brain isn't hers…

Riiight, she can't take me to places I want to go. Or even places I don't want to go but am asking to go. A shame. I guess I'll have to just… walk. I guess that's fine.

"Hey, all the humans are dead now," I say through the network, and WOW, my sister actually lets me. Praise fucking Failure. "You can all stop trying to kill my colony now."

"I refuse!" Blossom says.

"Yeah, understandable," I sigh. 

Who am I to deny a girl her revenge? Especially a girl that hot. I definitely want some alone time with the Angel, but alone time is hard to come by on our little road trip, and, if I'm being real, she also really scares me. Even if I survive the hate sex, I'm not sure I'll come out of it with all my tendrils intact. Alas, I am nothing if not a coward. At least I can probably seduce Christine. She'll be so cute and awkward…

I should not be listening to this. I certainly don't want to be listening to this, anyway.

Oh yeah! Julietta can read my mind! Hah, I bet she's feeling awkward as hell right now, the prude. Serves you right!

…I'm pretty sure she can't hear me, anyway.

Well, I'm getting a little bored, so I pick up the pace and start to jog. Maybe I'll go meet Manifestation of Past Regrets in person along the way, since I never had a proper opportunity to say hi and it'd be a shame if I have to leave before meeting someone with such a delightful-sounding name. I bet they're the life of the party, truly.

"Where's Manifestation of Past Regrets at, my Queen?" I ask.

"Location Data Sent. Please Make Haste."

Oh, you know me. Haste is my middle name. I slow down out of spite.

I recognize the area when I get there. It's one of the sections of town that was carved out by the more, let's say, Darwinistically inclined members of our little human colony project. Which is to say that they believed in the survival of the fittest for as long as they remained 'the fittest,' and also that they were kind of stupid. The house I'm led into, conversely, isn't one that I got close to before. When I get inside, I find a seemingly-human woman lying face-down on the floor, with Peter sitting on top of her. Well… kind of sitting on top of her. He's not actually touching her at all: his butt is on the ground and his legs are kind of arched over her back and he has one arm planted on the ground near her head. If his powers are on, and they probably are, this poor woman would probably end up killing herself the instant she tried to get up.

"Hey, Em!" Peter grins at me.

"Help," the woman who I assume is probably my council member squeaks at me.

"Hey Peter," I nod to him. "Hey, Regrets."

"Yes, hello Omen," she responds. "Please help."

"Ooooh, you have a lot of practice with that human disguise if you're saying 'please,'" I comment. "But no. This is too funny. How'd you find her, Peter?"

"Dumb luck!" he reports happily. "I just kinda brushed into her domain with my own and let myself into her house. I've been using my powers to stop pheromones from getting in or out ever since. How are things going?"

Wait, Peter can do that? I mean, I guess he obviously can, it explains why he's been so quiet. Is he making parts of the air invincible, or something…? No, he'd suffocate, right? Whatever.

"I dunno, I guess that depends on who you ask," I shrug.

"I'm asking you, drama queen," Peter says.

"Well, I don't know," I insist. "I murdered everybody, but it was waaaay too easy so I think Julietta has something up her gross, fleshy sleeves."

"I mean, it's Jules. Of course she does."

"Well you might not want to call her by a nickname, then. You never know when she could be listening," I smirk at him.

He shudders.

"Oogh… oh shit, I think you might be right…!" Peter says, suddenly clutching his stomach.

"Haha, for real?" I ask.

"I think she made me lactose intolerant…!"

Wh-what!? No way. No, I was… I was kidding about that! She wouldn't—!

"Pfft," Peter snorts, breaking character immediately. I… he…! Agh, damn it!

"I'll get you for that one," I threaten him.

"What kind of brother would I be if I didn't give you several good reasons to attack me?" Peter asks shamelessly.

"Still better than my last one," I deadpan in response.

"Oh huh, you're right. I've been trying way too hard."

"You've been trying?"

He smirks at me. I smirk back.

I roll my many eyes, scaring several of my occupants.

"I really thought saying please would work," the Angel under Peter sighs. "This is all very touching, but I was being quite serious with my request for assistance."

Man, she talks fancy. Blossom is clearly not trying hard enough.

"That is correct," Blossom agrees. "I could master your language in an instant if I cared to, but I simply do not."

"Are you still trying to kill my new council?" I ask.

"Yes, which means I am unfortunately not succeeding! Did you know that they are all very annoying?"

"I think they like to tell themselves it's part of their way of worship," I admit.

"They do. They definitely do that. A lot."

"Omen of Final Mistakes, I am detecting a distinctive absence of camaraderie for the council of which you are now a part!" Tenacity Reaps Ruin whines petulantly.

"Affirmative," I confirm. "It's part of my way of worship."

"It's really nice to see that you're feeling better," Peter hums.

"What was that?" I ask him aloud.

"Something snarky and irreverent, probably," Peter insists.

Heh. He's a good brother. I wonder what I'd be like if I had been raised by a more normal family. Even just my foster family. If we were all real siblings, would I not have turned out to be such a monster? It's probably not worth spending time worrying about, but… still do, sometimes. Is who I am just genetics, or could I have been someone better, if I'd just tried harder as a kid? I'm trying as hard as I can now, but I never seem to get anywhere.

Maybe I'm not the only former human who doesn't let most of themselves reach the network. Or maybe I'm just bad at listening. These don't feel like thoughts I'm supposed to hear, though. I hope Emily gets out of here soon.

"You can go ahead and let Manifestation of Past Regrets up," I say. "She, or… they? They're not our princess, but I guess they're currently a woman. Whatever, either way, they can read your mind and create illusions, but in both cases they can only learn about or, heh, manifest your past regrets. So, y'know, if you suddenly start hallucinating some horrible memory, flail your arms wildly and you might take her head off."

"I'm really going to miss all my little humans here," Regrets sighs, slowly getting up and stretching after Peter scoots away. "I really liked them. Did you make their deaths painful, Omen?"

"No, not particularly," I answer honestly.

"A shame," Regrets says. "I wish I could have done it myself. Oh, well."

"Gosh, your new family is charming," Peter sighs. "You have all the adoption luck. You're making all the other orphans jealous!"

I'm honestly torn on whether this colony or the Blasphemy colony is more self-defeating.

"Welp, I'm gonna go say hi to the Queen in person," I say. "Wanna come with, Regrets?"

"I'll have you know my human name is Tess."

"That's nice," I say, not really listening. "Come on, let's go."

I head out of the house, Manifestation of Past Regrets quick on my heels. Peter follows us too, though from a little further back.

"Are you entirely certain this is the impression you wish to set on our first meeting, sister?" Regrets asks.

"'Sister?' What's this 'sister' stuff? Even my actual siblings still just call me Emily."

"Oh, I just like the feel of the word, truthfully," Regrets admits. "And 'council member' is such a… a mouthful in this language! Everything takes so very long to say."

"Especially if someone talks like you do," I mutter.

"I spent a very long time perusing through human memories with Deficiency Begets Wisdom's help and getting good at this ridiculous language. I am going to utilize every last degree of the skill I have garnered, thank you very much. Now let's get this over with so you can betray us all so soon after our meeting."

Oh yeah, the mind reading.

Oh yeah, the mind reading. …Aw, hell.

"Do I regret it already?" I groan. "I haven't even done it yet! That feels suspiciously close to guilt, which probably means…"

"You're mostly just disappointed with yourself for fumbling our burgeoning relationship," Regrets finishes for me. "Yes, it was quite an impressive failure. You have every possible advantage, yet we're still going to depart on a sour note. Rather pathetic."

"Well, what can I say. Our god chose me wisely," I scowl, not really wanting to fight her on that point. She's right, after all. It is kind of pathetic. But what else was I supposed to do?

"It's fine, dear sister. We've done worse to each other. The only wound you and your friends have dealt that won't heal off is what A Blossom of Wilted Chances did to poor Desire. And frankly, I never liked him. Miserable power to get affected by. I must begrudgingly admit that Blossom chose her first target well."

"I'm kind of lucky you're receive-only on the network right now, aren't I?" I muse. "Otherwise you'd be telling the Queen everything."

"Hmm. I suspect it is I that may be lucky for such a thing, given the easiest method available to you for preventing network communication may be somewhat similar to the methods you employed to vanish the human population away. But no; in the end, I do not think it will come to further violence. Your other sister may reveal herself without consequence, if she wishes."

Nah. Not falling for that.

"I genuinely don't know what her plans are, so I guess we'll see when we see," I shrug.

"I suppose we will, at that."

Hmm. Yeah. Still, I do feel like I should probably get to know Regrets so I don't regret it later. Let's see… what's a good alien icebreaker?

"Did you design that body yourself?" I ask.

"I did!" Regrets confirms cheerfully. "Well, aesthetically, anyway. Our Queen naturally handled the mechanical aspects of bringing my vision to life."

"You both did a good job," I compliment her. "The brown wavy hair is a nice touch. Really emphasizes how unassuming and unthreatening you are, alongside the short height and round face. Is that what made you decide on being female?"

"If I may be honest?" she asks, smirking to herself at the joke. "I mostly think the clothes that the females wear are much more fun."

"Oh my god yes, boy clothes are so boring," I agree wholeheartedly. "I know a lot of girls like them because they get pockets, but like… that's what purses are for? Adding yet another layer of cute options to your outfit? It's awesome."

"Yes, yes! Who needs pockets?" Regrets agrees. "Certainly not I. I barely have any belongings anyway. It's such a funny concept, isn't it? Belongings? Just kind of… saying something is yours, and people will just go along with it? So silly, I love it."

I gotta say, this is not a conversation I expected to hear today. At least they're having fun?

"What about the others? You've all taken turns in various human bodies, right?"

"Oh, yes yes! Tenacity Reaps Ruin really likes the tall, skinny male bodies. Deficiency Begets Wisdom enjoys similar, though he prefers much burlier forms."

"Totally," I agree. "The two most dudebro members of the council. Except for Desire, obviously."

"Obviously," she nods sagely. "May his domain return to Failure ever stronger."

Wait, what? Is that a thing? Is that how it works, or is that just a saying?

"Anyway, Averter just uses everything under the sun. Never used a similar body twice. I think they have a lot of fun with it," Regrets says. "Actually, they're the one that got me hooked on the fairer sex for my disguises. Initially I was put off by the cultural assumption that they're physically weaker, but Averter of Fortunes helped me understand that's actually the best part!"

"Oh? Do tell," I prompt.

"Well the big burly men, you know, everyone just assumes they're strong, but ever since I started using this body I've gotten cornered in alleyways and threatened no less than four times, and the look on the humans' faces when I punch through their ribcage is just so hilarious every single time it happens! They're so surprised, like it never even crossed their mind that a random stranger they don't know could potentially be dangerous! God, their reaction to failure is so delicious, it's almost sad I had to kill all the witnesses and feed them to the Raptors every time. They might have given away my cover, you understand."

"Naturally," I agree.

"Oh, Failure within me, humans are just so much fun. I'm going to miss them ever so much. Do come back to visit before the Grand Queen falls, would you? Since, you know, your friend has probably outsmarted us and thereby doomed the world."

"We'll see," I respond.

"Oh? You don't think so?"

"I think we'll see."

That's what I'm going to keep telling myself, anyway. I'm trusting Julietta over the power of goddamn precognition. Stupid possibility-blessed bastards, fucking up all my easy answers. It's bullshit, is what it is. I'm betting on utter bullshit.

I kind of hate that I have so much faith it'll work.

Manifestation of Past Regrets purses her lips, our conversation fading into silence as we make it to where the main parts of our Queen physically reside. Somewhere along the way my Queen managed to trap Blossom ad the edge of her domain, so the rest of my council is safe, at least. The war Julietta declared just over an hour ago is already over. Peace has been found. For now.

"Have We Still Failed to Find the Fate of the Twisting Scars Which Reshape It?" A Web of Squirming Hopes asks.

"We have no idea where she is," Manifestation of Past Regrets reports. "Twisting Scars Reshape Fate has possessed Omen of Final Mistakes' body through means unknown to them, and is believed to have likely stolen our quarry by forcing her to spread contradictions with reality through the network."

"Have You Betrayed Us, Omen of Final Mistakes?" my Queen asks.

"Only kind of," I say out loud. "Come on, Julietta, can you leave my body now? Or whatever the hell you're doing? At this point I doubt the three of us can stop you, and I wouldn't be trying to stop you if it came to that anyway."

Hmm… I suppose if Emily believes it's safe, it probably is. I start forming myself a body in front of her, and soon enough I have my own brain, pulling my domain back from Emily's and settling entirely into my new form. I can't really feel my meatspace all that well like this, but I'm pretty sure the room I left all the humans in should be relatively safe. I probably won't horrifically digest them. Probably. I should get out of here fast.

"Let's go, everyone," I report. "We have everything we need. A Web of Squirming Hopes, are you planning on stopping us from doing so?"

"Yes, Probably," they admit.

"Fair enough," I agree. "Get her, Christine."

I reform my best friend (because she is that, isn't she) who shudders in disgust moments before ripping most of the Queen's body in front of us apart, sending it every which way. She's not dead, not really, but I hope the threat is clear.

"Hoh fuck. Jesus. The sun is back. The smell is gone," Christine huffs, breathing deeply. "Please don't put me back in there."

"Is it really that bad?" I ask, and Christine just responds with an utterly helpless look. Fine, geez. 

"Most reverent fecal matter," Manifestation of Past Regrets… swears? Presumably? At the sight of her Queen thrown into the sky in a thousand pieces.

"You said it," Peter agrees quietly.

It's an awe-inspiring sight, to be sure. This Queen was the wall that encompassed an entire city. And now, a giant segment of that is just… gone. Thrown into the sky and locked in place like stars. Christine's power truly is just… breathtaking. 

"Concern. Agreement. Fear. Your Threat is Most Duly Noted. Please Put Me Down."

"You can put her back together, Christine," I translate.

"You sure?" Christine asks. "I could just… y'know. Kch."

She mimes cutting her own throat as she makes the sound.

"Seriously, what the hell did you do to make your god love you so much that you already have the kind of domain that can just kch a Queen whenever you feel like it?" I ask.

"It's not 'whenever I feel like it,'" Christine insists. "I needed your help to get close enough, first."

Emily puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Now you know how the rest of us feel about you," she says. 

I… surely I'm not… oh, who am I kidding. That's… probably fair.

"Seriously though Christine, put my new mom back together," Emily says, and Christine shrugs, going ahead and doing just that. The Queen lets out the network equivalent of a startled squeak. 

"So then, Grand Queen Candidate, what's your plan, here?" Manifestation of Past Regrets asks me, leaning against A Web of Squirming Hopes now that she's been put back together. "You've saved all those people now, or at least stolen them for yourself. But that means you win, and we lose. And that means everyone loses, in the long run. You've denied our god. Scorned Failure itself. You'll never get its blessing now, and that means you'll never become what you need to be to stop the moon."

I sigh. They've said this over and over. No matter what, I have to lose. And honestly? From the very start, I've never been worried about it at all.

"That's complete and utter horseshit," I say, "and I'm going to make sure your god knows that."

"Excuse me?" the Angel glowers.

"Look, Tess, I talk to gods like… semi-regularly at this point," I tell her. "And according to your own colony, it's apparently a perfectly valid method of venerating Failure to make other people fuck up and lose. And guess what I just did to a bunch of idiots who thought it was impossible for them to lose?"

"That's us," Emily says, elbowing her fellow council member in the ribs. "We're the idiots."

"Yep," I confirm. "So… that's it. I beat you, I'm going to get your god's blessing anyway, and now I'm going to leave because I'm tired of this horrible city and I don't like any of you. If you try to stop us, we'll kill you all. Bye!"

"The alliance is still totally on though, right?" Emily asks, though she doesn't wait for anyone to answer. "It is. We're helping her. Talk to you all later, besties, buh-bye!"

"Get the locomotion construct. It's time to go," I report over the network.

"Love. Love. Love. Attraction. Love," Blossom gushes.

"Down, Blossom!" Maria says. "She's mine!"

"Good job, Twisting Scars Reshape Fate!" Anastasia praises me. "You beat all the meanies!"

Yep. I sure did. I mean, probably, we're not out of the woods yet. But things seem to finally be resolved here. Next up, the Division colony. Which, y'know, should be comparatively easy. It's not like I personally killed one of the Angels there while, from the colony's perspective, 'kidnapping' another one of their council members. And I doubt Anastasia will have any more problems with the people who murdered her entire family than she had with the 'meanies' here. And it's not as though I have no plan whatsoever on how we'll ever possibly beat Agnus Dei in time to stop her government coup outside of 'hope all the other people we allied with can handle it, maybe.'  Everything is looking up for Julietta. There's nothing to worry about.

One way or another, I definitely have the blessing from Failure on lock.