Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mono stood in front of the looming figure of the Signal Tower, the pulse coming from it was stronger than ever. It hurt his head slightly, but not in the same way she had done. He couldn’t get the image out of his head, her claws, her teeth, her eyes-

He shook his head, looking down at the tattered bag in his hands. She had fetched it and given it back to him, he scowled. He glanced back down the street, there was nothing but the tilted apartments and pounding rain. He didn’t know why he even bothered to look back, he wasn’t going to go back. 

Not for her.

He needed to clear his head, he wasn’t exactly sure why he had decided to come to the Signal Tower, but he did it anyway. He reasoned that it would be safer than anywhere in a house, if she didn’t heed his request she most likely wouldn’t be able to follow him inside. Their last conversation flooded back into his mind. He gripped the paper bag tightly, it was all fake. She was fake, she was a monster. His thoughts were halted when he heard a creak, he glanced up to see the doors to the Signal Tower slowly swing open. Purplish-violet light spilled out like cool mist and curled around his feet, he took in a deep breath. He would be safe here, she couldn’t hurt him anymore. He gave one last look to the paperbag, then dropped it to the floor.

He wouldn’t need it anymore.

He stepped inside.

He was amazed by the sight that was in front of him, there were doors haphazardly lining the room and a spiraling staircase reached up into nothingness, toys were strewn about and floating in the air. He was in awe, momentarily forgetting all his worries and problems. The door slammed shut behind him, giving him a fright. 

He didn’t like it, why had it closed? Who could have closed it? Was someone in here? He gulped and turned back around, the place suddenly feeling all the more creepier. Should he have..? No, he needed to come here. He couldn’t explain why but he just knew he had to come here. He just..needed a break. He walked towards a teddy bear that was floating near the ground and crouched down in front of it, eyeing it curiously. It was an odd colour, and slightly transparent. He thought he could..see something move-

No it must have just been a trick of the eye. 

He sat down in front of it and glanced over the room again, it felt off. It felt very off. He thought he saw a flash of yellow and nearly panicked, no there was nothing. It was just the dull gray rooms with a blinding violet light in the corners. 

...

He couldn’t avoid it any longer.

Why? Why had she led him on this goose chase? He really thought she was his friend, but she had worn a mask the whole time. Then she dared to say she actually cared. She was lying through her teeth the whole time, using him, bringing him down, destroying him mentally. He couldn’t believe it, she was a monster, a Siren. She made him kill, turned him into something he was not. He ground his teeth and a tear rolled down his cheek. 

Fake.

Fake. 

Fake. 

The first time he found a friend, the first time he believed he wouldn’t be lonely anymore, it turned out to be a monster. He screamed, loud and raw. It echoed in the vast emptiness of the Tower, he screamed until he couldn’t anymore. His screams died down into a sad whimper, he looked at the bear, then grabbed it and hugged it tightly. He squeezed the dear life out of the thing, breaking into a sob. He cried into it, he was so distraught that he did not notice the walls begin to move. The floor beneath him shifted, it changed from dusty stone to a fleshy texture. The walls changed in colouration from gray to pinkish red, bulbous growths formed around him from which eyes popped up and focused on the crying child.

‘ ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₦Ø₮ ₴łӾ ’

Mono jumped to his feet and spun around, only to be met with an ocean of flesh and eyes. He yelped when he noticed he was standing on it, it was everywhere! What the hell, just what the hell was this thing?! The flesh thing moved closer to him and he stumbled backwards, the eyes looked him over curiously.

“What- What are you- What the hell-”, he squeaked.

‘ ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ⱧɆⱤɆ Ɇ₳ⱤⱠɎ, Ⱨ₥₥. ’, the thing murmured, some eyes looked at the door then back at him. ‘ ₴Ø₥Ɇ ₮Ⱨł₦₲₴ Ⱨ₳VɆ ₵Ⱨ₳₦₲ɆĐ, ₲Ø₦Ɇ Ø₣₣ ₮Ɽ₳₵₭, ฿Ʉ₮ ₩Ɇ ₵₳₦ ₩ØⱤ₭ ₩ł₮Ⱨ ł₮. ’, he didn’t know what it was talking about, but he did not like it one bit. He needed to get out of here NOW!

He sprinted out the nearest open door, the eyes followed him but made no move to pursue. Why weren’t they following? His question was answered when he passed the door frame, straight back into the room he was just in moments ago. He skidded to a halt before he ran straight into a blob of flesh, no no no why was he back in the same room?! He tried another door, then another, and another and another and ano-

He crashed into the fleshy ground face first after he tripped over an eyeball that had formed right in front of him.

‘ ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ĐØ₦Ɇ Ⱨ₳Vł₦₲ ɎØɄⱤ ₣Ʉ₦? ’, the thing rumbled, Mono scrambled back to his feet but he was grabbed by a tendril of flesh and hung upside down in the air. Fear coursed through his veins as the thing brought him closer to a large cluster of eyes, he felt like he was going to pass out from how much he was panicking. Millions of fates flashed in his mind of what the thing could do to him, it was making him sick. ‘ ɎØɄ Ⱨ₳VɆ ₲Ø₮₮Ɇ₦ ⱤłĐ Ø₣ ØɄⱤ ฿ⱤØ₳Đ₵₳₴₮ɆⱤ, ₩Ɇ ₦ɆɆĐ ₳ ₦Ɇ₩ Ø₦Ɇ. ɎØɄ ₩łⱠⱠ ĐØ. ’, he didn’t like where this was going, he needed to get out of here! He had walked straight into a trap and now he was going to pay for it, why was he always so stupid! He always repeated the mistakes he made, first Six and now this.

“Let me go!”, he wriggled in the thing’s grasp but it was no use, the flesh was firmly wrapped around him. He tried to summon his powers but a painful shock went through him, deterring him from attempting that again. He snarled at them furiously, he swore he saw a hint of amusement in the cluster of eyes. 

‘ ₩Ɇ ₵₳₦₦Ø₮ ĐØ ₮Ⱨ₳₮, ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ FAR ₮ØØ ł₥₱ØⱤ₮₳₦₮ ₮Ø ⱠØ₴Ɇ. ’

His vision went dark. 

‘ ฿Ʉ₮ ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₮ØØ ₴₥₳ⱠⱠ, ₩Ɇ ₩łⱠⱠ Ⱨ₳VɆ ₮Ø ₵Ⱨ₳₦₲Ɇ ₮Ⱨ₳₮. ’

-

Six sat huddled up against a wall inside an alleyway, tears still streaming down her face and mixing with the rain. She felt distraught, broken, hurt, guilty and regretful. She had lost him, she had lost her first and only real friend. She had messed up so so badly, she would never be able to take it back and rectify it. She stared down at her shaky hands, letting the rain and her teardrops fall onto them. Then she hugged herself tightly and shut her eyes as many demeaning thoughts raced through her head. 

You should have killed him from the start.

No, she didn’t agree with that anymore. She was thankful she hadn’t killed him, she was happy for the small moment of friendship she had with him. She smiled briefly before it quickly went away again. She missed him, a lot. She had made herself vulnerable and paid for it, she had shown her true self but he still ran away. His last few words rang painfully loud in her mind. 

“DID IT EVER MATTER TO YOU? THAT WHOLE ‘BEST FRIEND’ THING, WAS IT EVER TRUE? HOW MUCH OF IT WAS A LIE, SIX? HOW MUCH?”

“You...what is wrong with you?”

“If you’re really my friend, you’ll stay away from me.”

She chewed on her lip as new waves of guilt washed over her, she was alone, and she didn’t want to be. She figured out she hated to be alone now, she had had the sweet taste of friendship and now she didn’t want to let go. She couldn’t. Her arms trembled and her tiny body shook, she felt so weak, so defeated. It felt like poison, the soft whispers and promises of not having to be alone anymore had been too good to be true, and she paid for it. She had brought on her own downfall, and she couldn’t handle it. She corrupted him, he would never be the same.

But..maybe she could fix this?

No, she couldn’t follow him. Who knows how he will react? She might make the situation worse than what it was now..not that it couldn’t get any worse. She furrowed her brows and raised her head, yes she had made many, many terrible mistakes. Yes she was a monster that corrupted an innocent being into doing her bidding, but she was determined to change, she was determined to fix this. 

If there was one thing that wasn’t going to change about her, it was her stubbornness and determination. She stood up and walked out of the alley, then faced the Signal Tower. She looked up at it with a stern expression, but her look quickly morphed into confusion when the light at its top flickered. Then suddenly it blared a brilliant white causing her to cover her eyes, a loud whine permeated in the air and the ground and buildings around it shook violently. Just as suddenly that it happened, it stopped. All that the Signal Tower did now was send out those familiar pulses of power, though you could feel a different air about them. Six uncovered her eyes and stared at the Tower was concern, something didn’t sit right with her.

...

Something bad had happened, something had happened to Mono, she just knew it. She needed to go there right now. She gritted her teeth and sprinted towards the Tower at full speed, buildings and lampposts sped past her. She ran and ran, her legs burned and she felt out of breath. Was she getting any closer? The Signal Tower appeared to still be the same distance it had been since she started running. She felt as if the road and apartments were stretching away from her, that the Signal Tower was moving further and further way from her. No! She couldn’t let it take him away from her! She was going to get him-

She smacked right into the doors of the Tower, stunning herself. 

‘ What? How- ’, she stumbled backwards nearly falling down the chipped stairs that led up to the doors, how had she gotten here? She swore she was..she looked behind her, seeing that everything was normal again. Well, as normal as the Pale City could be. She turned back towards the door, she needed to get inside, but how? She was slightly beginning to panic when she couldn’t see a handle, maybe she had to push on it? She pushed against the door with all her might but it didn’t budge, at all. She grunted in frustration, how was she supposed to get inside?! It’s like it knew what she was doing and was preventing her, she slammed her fist against it.

“Let me in!!”, nothing, she punched the door again and again. “Stupid doors why won’t you open!”, she was growing hysterical, she needed to get inside! She tried to punch it again, but as expected, it provided nothing. She let out an animalistic screech and scratched at the door, desperate to get inside. “LET ME IN! LET ME IN!”, she screamed. 

“LET ME-”

The doors shifted and dust fell to the ground, the doors slowly slid open with a loud creak. She stepped back and her eyes went wide, the inside of the Signal Tower..was nothing? A void of darkness spilled out, for some reason she felt like it wasn’t supposed to look like this. She took a tepid step inside and the doors slammed shut behind her, making her yelp. The inside lightened up, though was still largely covered in shadows. It looked like there hadn’t been a living thing in here in ages. She took another hesitant step forward, a chill ran down her spine.

“..Mono?”, she said barely above a whisper, where was he? Was he ok? Was he hurt? Was he..no, he is more resilient than that, she knew it. She tried to listen for any signs of him, stopping and quieting her breathing. Then, she heard it, the soft crackling of static hissing in the air. Something passed in the corner of her eye, something big. “Are you..there?”, she whispered slightly louder this time, she heard the static hiss grow louder. She stepped into the middle of the room and squinted, trying to make out anything in the darkness. 

“ₛᵢₓ..”, she had almost missed it. Her head snapped around, but there was nothing. A low rumble echoed through the empty space, followed by a growl. “ᵢ ₜₕₒᵤgₕₜ ᵢ ₜₒₗd yₒᵤ..”, static hung heavy in the air, something heavy thumped behind her and she felt a presence there. “ₜₕₐₜ ᵢf yₒᵤ wₑᵣₑ ᵣₑₐₗₗy ₘy fᵣᵢₑₙd..”, she felt concerned and afraid, what had happened to him? His voice was all distorted and glitchy, was he ok? Something wasn’t right. “Yₒᵤ wₒᵤₗd ₛₜₐy ₐwₐy fᵣₒₘ ₘₑ..”, she slowly turned around to meet a horrific sight. 

A large single glowing eye stared down at her, serrated jaws were wide open in a snarl and staticky liquid dripped from the jagged edges, limbs stretched disproportionally and feet and hands were formed into claws, clothes were torn and ripped from how the body was stretched and increased in size, smaller static filled eyes covered his arms and neck, but the thing that stood out most was all the wires spreading all over the body. What had happened to him? 

“What happened to you?”, she said in a hushed tone, his pupil narrowed and he lumbered closer to her. He towered over her and there was hostility to his movements, she took a step back. 

“ Get out. ”, electricity arched over him scaring her, she frowned.

“Who did this to you? How did this happen?”, whoever laid a finger on him and did this to him, she would find them and tear them to shreds. He needed help and she has to find a way to turn him back, a large clawed hand slammed down next to her snapping her out of her inner thoughts. 

“ GET OUT!” , he roared, his face was right in hers. She almost shrank away but stopped herself, then looked up at him defiantly. 

“No. You’re my friend and I want to help you. I want to fix-”, Mono pulled back from her and screeched, electricity and static sparked around him. He pulled his arm back then slammed it right where she was standing, she saw this coming and quickly rolled out of the way. Her head perked up once she was out of the way and spotted some wires coming from his neck and traveling down his back, all the wires scattered around his body were leading there. A TV sat atop his back where all the wires lead to, an eye was on the screen staring down at her. She didn’t get much time to think about what she saw when Mono twisted around and slammed his hands down on the ground in front of him, the floor rippled and cracked as a wave of static spiraled through it straight towards her. 

She didn’t react fast enough.

The energy collided into her, sending her flying backwards and into a wall. She let out a small noise of pain, it felt like she was burned with the fire of a thousand suns. She heard him trudge after her, his heavy footsteps echoing in the empty walls. She tried to get up, tried to run away, but her limbs were not listening to her. Each time she tried to move another painful jolt of electricity would travel through her. Her breathing became rapid the closer his hulking figure got, she was beginning to panic. “Mono wait, please-”, his form flickered and he teleported right next to her, snapping his jaws to tell her to shut up. He had warned her, and she didn’t listen.

“ YOU ARE NOT MY FRIEND!” , he screeched, she flinched. He hovered over ready to cast her out of the Tower, she took the chance and pushed herself to move. She shoved the pain to the back of her mind and jumped up and grabbed onto his hair, he made a surprised gurgling noise and stumbled backwards as she scrambled up atop his head. “ GET OFF!” , he howled and tried reaching for her, but she just ducked and scampered further down from his head to his neck. She walked over a few of the eyes accidentally and he hissed, he continued to try and reach around to get her off. She crawled over to the tv and grabbed onto one of the wires, the eye on the screen watched her carefully but did nothing. 

“I want to help you!”, she attempted to say over his enraged screams, then pulled hard on the wire, the wire tore loose. A scream rocked the room and the walls shook, a blinding light filled her vision and it felt like she was ripped off his back and now falling through air. She crashed into the floor and stars bloomed across her vision, the room rumbled and some dust fell down on her. She got back up on her feet, she did not recognize where she was. She spotted Mono on the other side huddling in the corner, all the eyes were trained on her. Electricity and static was sparking around him and small particles flitted near him, the wire she had pulled out hang limply by his side and produced more dangerous sparks of electricity. His form seemed to glitch and some horrific features would turn back to normal, she had the right idea of pulling the wires out. She walked towards him with a determined look on her face, he growled and narrowed his eyes. 

“ I don’t NEED your HELP. ”, she ignored him. “ I don’t WANT your HELP” , the comment stung and it made her falter, she felt the hurt she had caused rise back up. “ STAY AWAY! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” , she gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists, she had messed up a lot but she was willing to change it, she had to fix this. She took another step and he flexed his hand, the air rippled and chunks of the roof came crashing down towards her. Her breath hitched and she jumped and ran out of the way of the falling debris that Mono was throwing at her. She slowly made her way towards him but did not look where she was going, Mono snatched her up and brought her towards his face. 

“Please- I’m sorry-”, the single eye on his face blinked slowly, his face was filled with rage. He began to squeeze, she gasped when she felt something crack followed by a stabbing pain in her ribs. “I’m sorry to do this-”, she reached out and poked him in the eye, he yelled and dropped her to the floor then covered his eye, giving her a chance to run away and climb up his back. She glared down at the TV that had corrupted her friend, it would take too long for her to pull out every single wire. Another idea popped up in her head, this was going to hurt him so much. “I’m sorry-”, she whimpered again, then pulled her hand back and punched the screen with all her strength. He let out a pained, distorted cry and crumbled to the floor. The screen had a crack on it that spiderwebbed in random directions, yet it did not break, not yet. The eye on it stared calmly, while Mono was in utter pain and attempted throwing her off. She clung to his jacket as he spun around and tried to grab her, his body shrank and grew and all the monstrous details glitched away and returned. She drew her hand back again, then smashed it against the screen one last time.

The world seemed to crack, the TV evaporated from existence and Mono shrank back down to his normal self. She fell on top of him and he let out a pained groan, she twisted her head around and shot him a wide toothy smile. 

“You’re ok!”, he shoved her off and stood up, giving her a nasty glare. Her smile faltered and she shrank under his gaze, he looked so.. mad. The room suddenly shuddered and the walls seemed to pulse, her gaze snapped from him to the walls. The walls cracked and the floor bubbled, a pinkish gray-red substance oozed through the cracks and large chunks broke off to expose. To her horror, the walls were alive. Of course they were! Mono glanced at her, then sprinted away from her and down the breathing halls. “Hey! Wait please! Don’t leave me alone!”, she got up and ran after him, eyes rose up and opened to observe them. She suppressed the urge to scream, never in her life had she witnessed horrors like this. They tried to trip her up and get her to fall into the fleshy substance, breaking apart the floor and chasing after her. She didn’t look, she shouldn’t look too long, lest she wanted to go mad. She kept her eyes trained on the back of Mono’s head, he was way ahead of her.

 She jumped over a crack in the path and ran through a doorway, coming in a large open room with a long winding bridge and a glowing exit on the other side. An inhuman cry echoed behind her and she felt something shove into her back, making her trip and fall onto her face. She could see Mono was getting close to the exit, he was going to leave her here! She forced herself to get back up and run after him, her limbs were tired, but she didn’t care. He jumped across a rapidly forming gap in the bridge, she was not going to make it. 

“MONO!”, he turned, and she jumped. 

-

Out of pure instinct, Mono kneeled down and reached for Six's hand, catching her just before she would have fallen. The next second, he glanced down at her, with no illusions covering her. 

Why would I save her?

He looked directly into her face, and he could see her relief. She obviously wanted him to pull her up.

He didn't know if he wanted to. 

She did nothing but lie to me.

I told her to stay away, but she didn't listen!

His eyes narrowed. Why had she followed him after he had told her not to? He remembered the Tower showing its true self, and then she was there. 

Had she really followed him so soon after he had warned her?

Something in Six's face changed, and now he saw a hint of fear.

Mono's mind was only full of memories, of everything that she had done to him. 

She made me into a murderer.

He loosened his grip. 

You want me to save you?

Be your friend? 

Maybe you should have thought of that before you lied to me.

***

Six let out a sigh of relief when Mono bent down and grabbed her hand. He would help her, he was still sane-

She felt a chill when she looked up directly into his eyes. He wasn't nearly as terrifying as when he had been shouting at her, but he seemed cold and angry. 

His grip loosened slightly. 

All coherent thoughts were erased from her mind, replaced by panic. He wouldn't drop her, not after she had just saved him-

Would he?

A small part of her whispered, Can you blame him?

Of course he wouldn't trust her. Why would he? But still, he wouldn't just leave her to die, knowing what he was condemning her to. 

He still wasn't moving. Six clung to his hand for dear life, and tried to speak through the sharp pains in her chest. 

“Hey, can we get out of here, please?”

His expression didn't change, but Six could see a flash of hurt in his eyes. 

Of course, still pretending like nothing's wrong.

She tried to let Mono see her real self, what she needed. 

“Please, Mono.”

Mono's eyes tightened, and he actually looked like he was going to pull her up, but didn't. 

“Mono?”

His grip slackened, and Six suddenly felt a sharp pang of terror. He was going to drop her, leave her to die in the Tower-

She had to survive. 

“Mono, please pull me up. Now.”

The last word was laced with the tiniest bit of power she dared to use, without damaging his mind further. 

This close, she could actually see the spell take effect, his eyes first widening in shock, then anger, and finally a blank glassiness.

He tightened his grip and yanked Six over the edge, then led her into the screen directly behind them. 

***

Mono's mind cleared of the haze it was in, and he was slowly able to see the room they were in, a simple building with posters scattered around on the floor. 

He looked to his left, and saw her, sitting on the ground, checking cuts and scrapes on her legs. 

She looked up at him and stood up immediately. “Are you okay?”

Mono stared at her for a moment, wondering how she was here, and then it clicked.

He hadn't wanted to save her, but he had anyways. 

“You..”

Six stumbled backwards and he felt a momentary satisfaction at the fear that crossed her face. 

“Did you make me pull you up?”

Six bit her lip and kicked the ground, then looked directly at him. “Yes.”

Mono's brain filled with a black anger. She had twisted him again, forcing him to do things even though she knew what it would do to him-

Six must have seen that anger in his face, because she took another step back. “Mono, wait, please just-”

“I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU ANYMORE!” he roared, she jumped backwards. “I'VE HAD ENOUGH! I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND, SIX! I DON'T NEED YOU!”

Her eyes widened, and he felt a savage pleasure at watching her flounder. Before she could say anything else, he cut her off. “I told you to stay away from me, and you didn't listen. You forced me to do something, again, even though you told me what it does.”

His anger was almost blinding him, he could barely see Six anymore. “I don't want you anywhere near me ever again. You have shown me that you are nothing but selfish.”

Six looked as if she had been slapped in the face, but her eyes narrowed and she glared back at him. “Are you serious? I just saved your life, and this is what you repay me with?”

Mono hissed in outrage. “You have done nothing but lie and twist. That's the card you're pulling right now?”

She took a step towards him. “I'm not leaving you. You're my friend-”

His rage finally boiled to the surface, and he screamed loudly, then launched himself at Six. She didn't have time to react before he crashed into her, his every intent focused on hurting her. 

Mono pinned her arms to the ground and began to punch Six in the face, over and over again, every hurt she had placed on him spilling out onto her. 

“You.”

“Are.”

“Not.”

“My.”

“Friend!”

Breathing heavily, every word he spoke was punctuated by a blow. He brought his arm up again, then stopped dead. Six wasn't struggling, instead taking the hits silently. She gazed up at him, one eye completely swollen shut, blood leaking from the side of her mouth and from her nose. 

Mono's arm dropped limply to his side, and he scrambled away from Six in horror. 

What am I doing?

Eyes wide, he took one more glance at the bloodied Six, then simply ran. 

He didn't know where he was going anymore, but he knew he wanted to get away. He was doing it again, becoming something he hated. 

Tears leaked from his eyes as he ran, but he didn't want to stop running, he wanted to get as far away from what he had done to Six as possible. 

Images of her battered face chased his thoughts until he couldn't think of anything else. If he hadn't stopped, he might have seriously injured her, or even-

He ran face-first into a wall. 

Before he could think, he was flat on his back, staring up into the sky. He shook his head to clear the stars out of his vision, then froze.

He hadn't run into a wall.

He had run headfirst into a monster. 

It looked down at him in what he could only call confusion. 

“You are not her. And you're early.”

Mono tried to focus on the shape of the monster. It was large, and hulking. It wore a hat on top of its grotesque face, which almost looked melted. 

Mono couldn't think straight. He tried to stand up, but his head swam, and he wobbled unsteadily on his legs. 

The Ferryman sighed. “I'm getting too old for this.”

As Mono slipped into unconsciousness, he could hear the monster grumbling, “Now I have two of them to keep track of. They never tell you these things.”

Mono finally gave into the blackness, and passed out.

***

Everything hurt. 

Six could barely even sit up without her entire body screaming in pain. Her ribs still ached from inside the Tower, and her face was badly beaten up. 

Luckily, she would heal faster than most humans would, but the scars on the inside would remain forever. This was what she had done to him. Now she had seen it for herself. 

His words stung her deeper than she could think about for too long. He was right, she had been selfish, she had used her powers again. 

That was going to change. 

She would never touch her powers again if she could help it. 

A shadow passed over her, and she looked over to see the hulking figure of a monster looming over her. 

“There you are!” the thing said brightly. “Thank goodness, I was actually getting concerned.”

Six frowned. What?

The Ferryman reached out and plucked her off the ground. “Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm just your driver.”

Six couldn't fight even if she had wanted to. Right now, she didn't much care what the monster did to her. 

The Ferryman hummed a familiar-sounding tune while placing her in his coat pocket. “At least, I think you drive a boat. What else would you call it? Hmm.”

Little did Six know that in the pocket on the opposite side was her former best friend. 

Both of them were headed into the unknown together.

***

The Ferryman sank down onto the front seat of the boat, the seat creaked and the boat slightly tilted with his added weight. He sighed and grabbed the pair of oars at the bottom of the boat, then used them to push off the shore and onto the vast open waters. The air was cold and misty and you could taste the salt in the air, he continued rowing to his required destination while whistling a cheery tune.

It would take a while to reach the Maw, but he had plenty of time. One of the children had passed out, the other lulled to sleep by the comfort and safety of his pocket. He had also used a little bit of his magic to keep them asleep, can’t have them waking up too soon and creating a ruckus. He hadn’t expected to pick up two children today, he hoped the Lady wouldn’t mind the extra baggage. He was getting too old for this, maybe this change would finally mean the end of the Cycle.

In the distance a low but loud noise roared, the telltale horn of the Maw. He glanced behind him, the bronze giant glimmered in the distance. It sounded another horn, he let out another sigh. He focused back on his rowing, soon he could drop them off and get this done with. He looked in his pocket where he had placed the unfamiliar face, something was different about the boy. He observed them more closely when it clicked, this was the Tower’s pet. He had taken the Broadcaster. A shiver ran down his spine, this was not good. If the Lady found out he had brought the Broadcaster on her ship, she might just kill him. He couldn’t keep the boy, so he would have to devise a plan to drop him off somewhere safely on the ship. 

Soon enough he reached the Maw and boarded near a back door where he normally drops off ‘cargo’, he knocked against the rusty door and waited. He heard shuffling behind it and a bunch of internal mechanisms clicking and moving, then the door opened and he was met with a familiar face. 

“Hey Rodger”, the blind man’s face tilted in his direction, he gnashed his teeth and nodded at him.

“Got the girl?”

“Yes”, he reached inside his pocket and plucked her out, then tapped Rodger on the shoulder so he would open his hand.

“Bring her ‘ere”, he opened his palm and waited for the Ferryman to drop her, but he hesitated. 

“Hey, bring her to the Prison yes? I’ve got something I need to take care of”, he put her into Rodger’s hands, the man snorted and shuffled out of the way so he could get past. 

“Make it quick. Lady doesn’t like when you stay too long.”, he hummed in acknowledgement and tipped his hat, even though he knew the other adult couldn’t see it. He walked down a bunch of hallways until he got to lower areas, where a suitcase sat propped open. He promptly reached in his other pocket and pulled out the boy, giving him a lookover then gently placing him down. 

“So long, Broadcaster.”, he tipped his hat again, and left. 

-

Seven walked down the wooden halls of the Maw, flashlight in hand and lighting up the way to go. An eerie feeling crept up his spine, it felt as if he was being watched. He didn’t like it. Something flashed in the corner of his eye, dull brown. He spun around but his vision just swam with a blur of colours, as if reality itself was collapsing around him. One thing stood out the most out of all of them.

Yellow, burning as bright as the sun.

A warning.

A feeling like needles sank into his throat, he let out a blood curdling scream-

Seven awoke with a quiet gasp and shot up in his bed, beads of sweat ran down his forehead. He glanced around the room, but it was just the same as it always was. He had no flashlight, there was no flash of brown, there was no burning sun, and there was no needles sinking into his throat. He was fine, it was all a dream. Slowly the adrenaline rush from the nightmare died down and his form slumped over, he rubbed his tired eyes slowly. He doubted he would be able to go back to sleep, so he pushed himself to the edge of the bed and quietly dropped down to the floor. His ankle cuff clanked against the wooden surface and he had to still momentarily lest any of the other children woke up, he wanted to get out of here unheard.

He couldn’t stand this place anymore, he had already escaped before and the cuff around his ankle proved that. Though this time, he had a feeling he would succeed. He was about to slink away when the door handle suddenly rattled, he quickly dove beneath the bed and stared as the Janitor entered the room. Why was he here so early? He shouldn’t have been here for another hour, it wasn’t waking time yet. He observed carefully as the adult mumbled something under his breath and shuffled over to an empty bed, dropping something small on top and then promptly leaving and closing the door quietly behind him. 

Curious, Seven crawled back out from under the bed and stalked over to the one that the Janitor had just dropped a kid into. He didn’t normally care if kids were dropped off, but he wondered why he had come so early and only brought one. He grabbed the sides and hauled himself over, then looked at where the new kid lay. 

They wore a bright yellow raincoat, and had messy black hair. A girl, he surmised. He couldn’t see them clearly in the darkness. Suddenly the kid stirred and he crouched down as they pushed themselves up and looked around, before their eyes landed on him.

Y'all wanna see the design for Monster Mono? 

This is what he looked like somewhat :) 

Chapter Text

Six blearily opened her eyes to darkness. She glanced around, letting herself adjust, able to see the shadowy outlines of beds. She had no idea where the monster had taken her, but she wasn't staying here. She had already nearly healed fully again, and wanted to know where she had been brought to.

Her eyes fell under the bed next to her, and she nearly panicked, the only thought in her head being about Mono-

But it wasn't him. At first glance, he looked very similar, but this child had on a blue sweater and had a chain clamped around one of his legs. His hair was lighter than Mono's, and it covered his eyes. 

Six's next thought was another one of panic, and, praying that it was dark enough that he couldn't see as well as she could as a Siren, she hastily wove her illusions back into place, making sure this child couldn't see her for what she really was. 

She felt a fresh twinge of guilt, she was already doing it again. But she didn't want the child to run away on her, not when he could give her information on where she was.

She lowered her voice and whispered to him. “Hey, where am I?”

The kid slowly crept out from under the bed. “You're in the Maw. This is where they keep us.”

Six sucked a quiet breath in. The Maw. The only other place she had feared to go because of a power that lay there. 

And now she was here. Accidentally.

Mono. 

Her heart twisted. He was somewhere out there, completely alone, he could be anywhere by now-

The kid spoke. “You're not like them. You're different. You haven't given up.”

Six whipped her head back to him. He grinned. “Want to get out of here?”

She slowly nodded. “Yeah.”

The kid gestured. “Come on, then. I know the way out of here.”

Six swung her legs off the bed and dropped down to his level. “What's your name?”

“Seven,” the boy responded, holding out his hand. “You?”

“Six,” she said softly. This was all too familiar, everything this boy did was too close to what he had been like.

“So,” Seven continued, gesturing for her to follow him under the beds, “How did you get caught?”

“Some weird monster with a trench coat and hat,” Six said, crouching behind him.

“Oh, the Ferryman? Yeah, he brought me here as well. What else happened? Where did you come from?”

Six blinked. Did he ever stop talking? 

Neither did Mono.

“I…I came from the Pale City. I was trying to escape there.”

“All by yourself? That's a tough place, or so I've heard.” 

“...no,” Six quietly whispered. “I had a friend.”

Seven turned to face her, and for once he didn't say anything immediately. She could see that he knew when someone was hurting.

“Are they…still alive?”

Six nodded. “Yeah, but he's out there somewhere, and I don't know where he is.”

Seven crept over to her, and took her hand in his. She stiffened, every memory creeping back to haunt her. He squeezed her hand. “I'll help you find him.” 

Six looked up into his face. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he responded. “Maybe we can all be friends if we get out of here. What's his name?”

“Mono.”

She gritted her teeth, tears threatening to spill, but she kept them at bay. She decided, right then and there, that she would never use her powers on this boy. 

She was not going to ruin another life. Not again.

***

Mono stirred, his eyes opening to completely unfamiliar surroundings. He sat up sharply, taking in the metal walls of the room he was in. A small glint caught his eyes next to him, glancing down, he could see a small lighter near his feet. Picking it up, he swung his legs out of the case he had been lying in, and stood up fully. 

He regretted it instantly, as a wave of nausea swept over him. Probably hadn't been wise to stand up so quickly. Plus, he felt absolutely awful, as if every bone in his body had been stretched out and then rearranged. The floor seemed to tilt under him, and he clutched his stomach and waited for it to pass. 

Eventually it did, although he still felt terrible. Where in the world was he?

Making his way out of the room, a set of stairs over a massive pit caught his eye, and he trudged over to them. 

Mono glanced over to his left, and his breath was almost taken away. A gargantuan chain joined the two segments bridged by the stairs, making him feel exceptionally small. 

What is this place?

The next set of rooms only increased his feeling of uneasiness. An adult was hanging from the ceiling by a rope, an extremely tall one. 

It was an almost uncanny resemblance to the tall man that had chased him in the Pale City, just before he had…

Mono shivered. He didn't like this place at all. 

He hurried onwards, eager to get out of that room. The next few rooms were dark, so he pulled out the lighter and held it up to try and figure out anything he could about where he was. It cast an eerie yellow glow to everything around him, only adding to his growing fear. 

A shape in the darkness slowly appeared, taking the form of a fridge. 

This was a little too familiar for him. 

Something scuttled away in the darkness next to him, and he almost jumped out of his skin.

“Hello?” he called out.

Nothing answered him except the faint sounds of clicking. Cautiously, he followed the sound to a hatch on the wall, he crouched to get inside. 

A tiny creature stood next to a lantern, with a cone-shaped head and no discernible face that he could see. He felt almost embarrassed. He had been scared of this tiny thing?

It looked so small and sad, kicking its tiny feet on the metal ground. Without really realizing what he was doing, he reached out and hugged the small thing, closing his eyes. 

Memories came bubbling up to the surface, unbidden. Hugging his best friend, her saying she wouldn't leave him-

He opened his eyes to try and banish the memories.

An eye stared right back at him from his arm.

Mono yelped and dropped the small creature, staring hard at his arm. Nothing stared back. 

Mono took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He was seeing things. Six hadn't been lying about that. 

She did this to me.

Mono moved on to the next room.

He glanced upwards, grimacing as he noticed a black ooze dripping from the pipes above him.

Then the ooze dropped to the floor and began to crawl towards him. 

Mono stifled a scream and ran, not daring to look behind him.

Why can't the world just leave me alone?

***

“Follow me, the Janitor always forgets to lock the door.”, Seven whispered and trotted over to the door, Six followed behind him at a hesitant pace. She didn’t like having to rely on this boy so much already, but he seemed to know the place pretty decently. The door creaked as they pushed it open and stepped through, the sound of jingling keys made them freeze. They stared down at the floor below where an adult with freakishly long arms shuffled about, checking all the doors then moving on. 

“Who’s that?”, Six whispered, eyes never leaving the adult. 

“Oh, that’s the Janitor I was speaking about. He’s nice, as long as you don’t get in his way and try to escape, like I did.”, he chuckled, Six doubted his words but nodded anyway. He motioned that it was ok to keep moving and they silently ran down the wooden walkway until they reached a room with a hole in the floor, a few papers were scattered around with drawings on them but the two ignored them and opted to dropping down the hole. They landed on a bed, Six got off before Seven did. She saw a large eye symbol scribbled on the wall and some smaller ones drawn on papers, a big puddle of ink(?) was beneath the bed. She didn’t like the feeling she got from this room, Seven got off the bed and she followed him outside. They ran across the lower walkway where the Janitor had been moments before, she head something mechanical moving below them, she didn’t want to find out what that was. Seven led her to a bunch of cages that they could climb down from, she heard the mechanical noise grow louder and slowed down in her climbing. She reached the bottom and was about to run across the room when a strange feeling over took her, she heard the mechanical noise again and a bright light shone down on her. Her limbs became heavy and her mind became cloudy, she was finding it hard to breathe and a stinging itching feeling crept up her legs and arms. She was feeling very very sleepy, what was happening to her? Suddenly she was yanked back into the darkness and fell to the floor, her senses returned to her and she gasped loudly. She blinked rapidly and stared straight ahead of her, Seven’s face appeared over her and he looked slightly concerned. 

“You are ok?”, he held out a hand towards her, a wave of uneasiness washed over her as she grabbed it and he pulled her back up to her feet. She nodded silently and he turned to look out into the room, she could now see that the light was produced by a metal eye that sat above on the ledge. It moved periodically, there was a lot of dust and broken rocks littered around the room. 

Was that a hand?

She shivered and elected not to think about it too much. 

“What- what happened? What was that.”, she whispered to Seven, he looked back at her then back at the eye.

“I don’t know, I just know it keeps watch for any escapees and that if you get caught in its gaze you turn to stone. Keep behind me, I don’t know how dangerous the Pale City was but the Maw is a very dangerous place, if you don’t know your way around it you can end up like you almost did just now.”, he scolded her slightly, it did not ease her worries in any sense. A shadow moved in the distance and a flashlight clicked on, Seven perked up. “Hey wait!”, he called out in a hushed tone. The other kid moved and ran away when the light left their spot, Seven grabbed Six by the arm and dragged her after the kid as soon as the light moved out of the way. She was startled but didn’t want to get left behind so she let him pull him after the kid, she narrowed their eyes as they ran past other rooms following the flashlight kid. Could they trust this person? 

“What are you doing?”, she hissed, yanking her hand out of his grip but not slowing down in her pace as she ran beside him. 

“I know them, I’ve seen them trying to escape before”, they squeezed between bars and rand through a dark playroom, this place was becoming more cryptic by the second. She tried to ask him something again but the words died on her throat, how come he trusts this person he doesn’t even know yet?

...

It was too similar of a situation she had been in once.

They shimmied through another set of bars and found the kid tugging at a makeshift piece of rope atop a stack of cages, dragging it over to an open window. 

“Hey!”, he called out again, the kid flinched and glanced down at them. Then they started dragging the rope faster, they dropped it through the window as Seven began pulling a box over to the kid. 

She could use her powers, she could get the kid to stop running and help Seven.

No-

No she was not doing that.

The kid dropped through the window just as she rushed over to help Seven and got to the stack of cages, he muttered a few unsavory words under his breath and climbed up and jumped through the window. She hurried after him, not looking to be alone so soon again. She climbed down the rope and ran after Seven while he chased after the flashlight kid through a bridge of sorts, she glanced to her side to see just how huge the chasm was beside her. It made her feel small, she didn’t like that. Seven vaulted on top of a box and clambered through another window after the kid, she soon followed and found herself in an empty room with a single lightbulb and a hole leading to who knows what. Seven was heading straight for the hole.

“Seven-”, too late, he disappeared into the hole. She let out a strangled noise and rushed over then peered down into it, she heard a lot of clattering but couldn’t see him. Was he trying to get himself killed?! She groaned and dropped down after him, she hit the sides and bashed her head multiple times before she dropped out onto an open space and splashed into freezing water. She quickly got up and coughed, a pungent taste was in her mouth from swallowing a small bit of the water. 

Yuck. 

“Hey come help me over here!”, Seven called to her from across the room, he was by a boarded up wall and attempting to pull off a loose plank, she spat out some more water and waded over to him before hoisting herself up the platform and rushing over to him. She feels like the pungent water taste is never going to leave her mouth. She helped him pull on the boards and it came off, making them stumble backwards and fall over. Seven quickly got up and squeezed underneath the open space, she got up and followed after him. When she got through the barrier she heard him gasp, in front of them lay the flashlight.

Where was the kid?

Seven walked over slowly and picked it up, clicking it off and giving it a look over. He didn’t say anything and couldn’t read his expression, but she felt an aura of sadness coming from him. 

“What happened to her? Why did she leave that here?”, she asked hesitantly, he glanced at her then back forward and sighed. 

“Like I said, kids that don’t know their way around the Maw..you don’t end up seeing them again.”, he muttered, clicking on the flashlight and walking forward under pipes and passing through another wooden wall. 

She didn’t fail to notice the bloody handprint on it. 

They walked slowly through the next room until they passed another wooden wall and entered a flooded hallway, oh great more water. She heard a creaking noise and something plopping down into the water behind them, Seven tensed up then spun around to face her and grabbed her arm. 

“ Run. ”, she saw a few more dark shapes drop into the water and head straight towards them, she didn’t argue with him and they burst into a sprint. Seven slid beneath a pipe and she did the same, she hated as the muck smeared against her face and hair but she preferred living over vanity. 

More and more of those slimy slugs dropped down and swam after them, they were surprisingly fast! Another pipe blocked their path and she jumped over it, Seven was behind her but suddenly his foot slipped from the wet surface and he fell back down with a yelp and light splash. She stopped in her tracks and whipped back around then stuck out her hand to him, he struggled to get onto his feet.

“C’mon!”, the creatures were gaining on them, their screeching were becoming more eager and louder. Seven managed to get back onto his feet and grabbed onto her hand tightly, a memory flashed in her eyes but she shoved it away and heaved him up to the pipe-

“AH!”, one of the creatures bit into his unshackled leg and yanked him back down into the water, she screeched. NO! She was not going to let someone get taken again! Red filled her vision. Her teeth sharpened into her fangs, her nails turned into claws and her eyes glowed a brilliant bright red, with his flashlight it would be impossible to see her shed her disguise. She pounced down onto the slimy thing and it let go of him with a dissatisfied screech, giving Seven ample time to scramble away and up onto the pipe. 

She snarled and threw it against the wall, then stomped on it over and over until it was nothing more than a pile of sludge and black goo. More came swimming over to attempt to defy her, oh did they want a taste of her wrath too? She grabbed the ones that came too close and tore them in half, stomping and clawing at the rest until there was no more left. 

She breathed, her senses returning to her and she looked at the massacre she had wrecked on the pests. 

“Wow, you sure showed them”, she jumped and quickly reapplied her disguise, turning to Seven who was crouching on top of the pipe. “Thank you..for saving me, normally other kids here would just leave you for dead.”, he smiled warmly at her even though a normal person wouldn’t have been able to see it in this darkness, she felt uncomfortable so she just nodded. How did he think what she just did was normal? “Come on, let's get out of here before more arrive”, he jumped down the other end of the pipe, she looked back at the dead pests then followed after him. 

She was already protecting him, she didn’t know how to feel about that. 

-

Mono cautiously tread along the wooden floors of the eerily quiet hallways. He absolutely hated this place, everything was terrifying and awful, it was even worse than the City had been. 

At least there had been televisions there to provide something to listen to while waiting for monsters to pass by. 

Here, it was simply dead silent. 

That quiet was broken by a soft mechanical whirring ahead of him. Carefully, he walked up to the next room and froze when he saw the eyeball on the wall. It wasn't actually alive, thank goodness, but it still moved in a way that reminded him of the Tower…

He stepped into the shadows of a box that protected him, noting the statues around him that looked like perfect sculptures of children.

Mono crept out of the shadow when the eye moved away, trying to get to another one close by, but the eye snapped back to him almost instantly. Mono threw his arms over his face in terror-

And nothing happened.

The light actually felt pleasantly cool. He stared straight at the eye on the wall, and it stared back. Then, just as quickly as it had turned, it slammed shut. 

Mono shivered. Just because it hadn't hurt him didn't make it any less terrifying. 

Eventually he came to what seemed like a sheer wall of cages stacked higher than he could count. Gripping the bars, he began to climb. After he scaled it for a brief moment, he was able to reach the top, panting at the edge of the drop. 

The room ahead of him was incredibly dark, darker than any room he had seen before. Silently, he walked through the door and let his eyes adjust. 

It looked like a bedroom, with beds lining the walls. Children were sleeping in some of them, and for some reason Mono didn't feel inclined to wake them. 

This place just keeps getting weirder. 

A door he hadn't seen on the far side of the wall creaked, then slowly began to open. 

Mono dove under the closest bed and shut off his lighter, praying that whatever monster came through wouldn't see him.

A pair of freakishly long arms felt their way around the door, then the squat shape of their owner appeared, framed by the light. Mono suppressed the urge to whimper. This was much harder without someone to share the horrors with. 

I don't need her. 

His mind left the subject, and he watched the creature snuffling and padding around the room. Eventually, the thing snatched one of the kids and felt around for the door. Mono wondered why he didn't just leave immediately, then it clicked. 

He's blind!

Okay, that wasn't so bad. 

The door clicked, and the monster vanished. 

Mono let his breath go, he hadn't even realized he'd been holding it. 

He crept under the beds towards the other end of the room, grateful to still be alive. 

After a while, he noticed that the wall on his left ended up ahead, forming what looked like prison bars. He hurried closer to them, peeking through the gap to see what was inside. 

There was nothing but tables and chairs, almost like a lunchroom, with one solitary occupant.

A child, a little bigger than him, with a small piece of bread on the plate in front of him.

Mono whispered through the bars. “Psst. Hey!”

The kid's head slowly turned to face him. Mono couldn't make out his face properly through the dim lighting, but he could tell it was still a child. 

“Where am I?” Mono asked.

The kid's voice was low and surprisingly soft. “This is the Maw.”

“I have absolutely no idea what that is,” Mono responded.

“It's a place where they keep kids. I don't know why.”

Mono frowned. “I could help you get out of here.” 

The kid shook his head. “I've been here for years. They say I was brought here too old.” 

“What does that mean?”

“It means I'm safe, for now.” The kid stood up and walked over to the bars. “ You need to get out as fast as you can.”

“How?”

The kid pointed to the way Mono had been heading. “Find the way out of the prison, it's where the Janitor takes some of the kids. I think that's a way out of this place.”

“Thank you,” Mono said quietly. 

“My advice?” the kid said. “Don't do this alone. Friends go a long way here.” He looked down. “That was my mistake.”

Mono froze, but forced himself to not show any sign of discomfort. “Thanks again.” 

The kid only waved to him. 

Mono felt as if he was starting to grow at least familiar with the Maw. Internally, he sneered. See that, Six? I can survive without you.

Her crying in the rain came back to him, then her bruised, bloody face. 

“I won't leave you.”

Mono hissed and tried to drive the memories away, but they kept flying at him. 

SHUT UP! he screamed mentally, but he couldn't stop hearing the words of his former best friend. 

“I'm not leaving you.”

“You're my best friend.”

“LIAR!” he shouted, static bursting from him again. “SHUT UP, STOP LYING!”

I'm talking to myself. It's happening already.

Mono clutched his head and staggered over to an empty cage in the room he was in.

Maybe he should sit here for a moment to clear his head.

He didn't notice the long arm reaching down to snap the cage door shut. 

***

The Lady sat at her dresser, humming a haunting melody as she gently brushed her hair. She had her eyes closed as she brushed, already having done this task so many times she didn’t need to look into the shattered mirror in front of her anymore.

Her movements were elegant, graceful. They had to be otherwise she could not have been the Lady. Then, something caught her attention. A spark, as you could describe it. It did not belong to her, no this felt different. This spark, it was dangerous, like it would consume all near it if it was given the chance. She had felt it once a long time, when she had lived in the Pale City for a short amount of time. 

The Broadcaster is on the Maw.

She clutched the brush tightly in her hand, until it snapped and she let the pieces fall to the ground. Her shoulders tensed and she ground her sharp teeth, whoever had dared to bring him onboard would soon face her wrath.

Was probably that damned Ferryman.

She elegantly stood up and opened her eyes, the lights above flickered and a storm of shadows swirled around her. She hated creating a mess, but this was a situation she needed to take care of herself. 

-

Six and Seven swam through the hallway they had flooded themselves until they reached a ladder, Seven pulled himself up onto the rungs and she followed after him. She had been quiet for most of their journey for a while, the reason? Her mind was dragging her to other places. Some of those thoughts were on her relationship with this boy, friend or not? Others were lingering thoughts about her and Mono, where was he, was he ok? Though most of her thoughts blended in together into one thing, she felt off. She had caught herself chewing on her lip or the inside cheek a couple times unprompted, and staring intently at the back of Seven’s head. There was a certain emptiness to her middle, then it hit her. 

When was the last time she had a meal? 

This was not good, though she did not seem really panicked about the situation as she should have been. 

“Do you hear that?”, Seven snapped her out of her thoughts, she looked over at him. They had ended up on a ledge yet she does not remember how they got here, in front of them was another flooded area. A few notable objects floated in the water, a few boxes and barrels and a large sofa. She narrowed her eyes, she couldn’t hear anything except the soft plip-plops of water droplets leaking out of the worn pipes above them. 

“Hear what?”, she replied mutely, Seven got to his knees and leaned over the edge and stared into the water. 

“Sounds like..humming?”, she frowned, humming? “It sounds..nice”, he said with a smile, she didn’t like that look on his face, it looked wrong. 

“Ignore it. Can’t be good”, she grabbed his arm and dove into the water, they swam over to the rotting, soggy couch and pulled themselves up onto it. They didn’t notice the bubbles that trailed after them. They took the moment to have a rest, they had been swimming a lot and it was exhausting. Though she did not need rest nearly as much as she guessed Seven did. He leaned back against the broken headrest, then looked at her. He gave her a look like he wanted to ask her something with the twitch she saw at the corner of his mouth, but then he looked away again. She didn’t prod him.

“Hey Six?”, he finally asked after a minute of silence, she hummed in acknowledgement. “What does ‘Mono’ look like, so y’know if we ever get separated and I find him I can find you again and tell you?”, she tensed up, her heart rate rose dramatically but the neutral look on her face remained. 

“I’ll know when I see him”, she brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, staring into the murky waters with indifference. 

“ Okay.. ”, he murmured, then shifted around so he was sitting cross-legged and facing her. “Can you tell me what he is like?”, she felt a twinge of hurt pull at her chest, she did not want to talk about this.

“He is..”

Was.

“Funny, kind, loud”

Not anymore.

“A great friend.”

Until you broke him.

She smiled at the memories, but her expression quickly turned sour.

“Wow, sounds like a really nice friend. I wish I had people like that while I was alone here”, Seven commented, she didn’t say anything. “I am glad you became my friend!”, he suddenly enveloped her in a hug, she strongly had to suppress the urge to jump away. She didn’t know what to do so she just sat there awkwardly, tears formed in the corner of her eyes. Slowly she hugged him back, this was not the greatest place for this but she didn’t care.

Maybe this was her second chance? She had failed with Mono, but maybe with Seven she could have a real friend. 

-

They stood upon a stack of boxes, Seven pulled on a wheel to pull up a suspiciously shaped bag that was in the water when suddenly, something heavy tugged at the bottom of the bag. Seven gasped as he was nearly pulled of his feet and into the water, if it wasn’t for Six rushing over and pulling on the metal wheel along with him. The bag jolted and whatever had been pulling on it released it, allowing them to pull it up fully into the air. Seven stood there catching his breath while Six leaned over the edge and peered into the water, something had been following them in the water and they hadn’t noticed it. She stared at it with intense focus, spotting small bubbles that floated up the surface. She felt something pull at her, it was familiar yet not. Then it all made sense, the humming. 

She snarled, she had to keep Seven AWAY from the water. 

“Don’t go near the water, there is something bad in it”, she said with a growl, he walked past her then jumped on the bag. 

“That will be hard since this place is filled to the brim of it”, she jumped on after them and they swung onto a platform that had a bunch of fish heads scattered around. On the side was a bathtub filled with more fish heads and a pipe positioned over it, every few minutes something new would drop into it. 

“Just try to be careful, you don’t know what is in there”, she said, although she was somewhat distracted. She walked over to the bathtub and looked over the edge, a pang of hunger shot through her. She could eat the fish, but that would definitely unsettle Seven, and it wouldn’t satiate her anyways. In fact, it would most likely just worsen her hunger if she decided to eat it.

Only human flesh could keep her under control. 

“Do you think if we threw these in the water, it would distract whatever is underneath?”, she didn’t notice he was talking to her, still too busy staring at the meat. “Six?”, she tore her gaze away from the meat and looked at him. 

“What?”, he pulled his lips into a thin line, then picked up a fish head and pointed at the water.

“Think we can distract whatever is underneath with this”, he shook the fish head and wiggled his finger at the water, she shrugged. “Grab one so we can have more time when we swim through”, she did so and then he threw the first fish head into the water, immediately it was plucked into the water and a crunching sound followed soon after. Her suspicions were confirmed. They dropped into the water and began swimming to the ledge when the fish head that the thing in the water had been chewing on was abandoned and the thing chased after them, they swam quicker to try and escape it but it was quickly gaining ground on them. Six let go of the other fish head, momentarily distracting the monster. 

It didn’t stay distracted for long.

It began chasing after them again, but luckily they had reached the ledge and quickly rushed out of the water. Six heard the thing make a disgruntled growl and the bubbles disappeared, she let out a snort. 

“Whatever that was, I hope we don’t meet it again.”, Seven panted.

“Yeah.”, she grumbled. 

-

They hopped through a window with moss growing on the sides, exhausted, hungry, and having many near death experiences, mostly Seven. He had been strangely distracted, she knew the reason why. That is why she wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. He was about to get back into the water when she saw a head sink below the water, and grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards. She bared her teeth and glared down into the water, it was relentlessly chasing them. 

“ You, girl.. ”, her eyes widened, it spoke in a language only her kind could understand and speak. No, no this wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all. It is going to try to steal him, she couldn’t let it! Sirens were solitary, and they didn’t like other sirens. And Six, Six was small. 

She yanked Seven along her and jumped into the water, he let out a startled noise but quickly recovered and swam after her. A gurgling noise rose up behind them, followed by a low growl.

“ Interesting to see another of you..give the boy to me and I’ll let you go. ”

She jumped and swam from object to object, the other siren attempted to throw them off on each thing they climbed on giving them very little to no break in between. 

“ You are small, you are no match to me youngling. ”

They couldn’t stop, they ran across a few loose planks bobbing in the slimy water. Seven was starting to slow down, whether that was due to fatigue or..she hoped it wasn’t trying to enchant him, she didn’t want to do something she swore to never do again. 

“ Get back here, you shouldn’t care about this boy! You will regret not handing him over!”

They jumped from a set of pipes crossing the middle of the room into a hanging boat, it swung unsteady but the ropes were sturdy. The other siren smashed into the bottom of the boat and let out a frustrated growl, but the boat was wide enough that they did not need to worry about falling over. Six could see a ledge that would provide them safely straight ahead, with planks that looked climbable. She gritted her teeth and leapt through the air, then swam as fast as she could for Seven’s sake. Seven yelped when a gangly hand wrapped around his ankle and tore him out of Six’s grip, she let out an enraged scream and spun around. Seven’s head dipped beneath the water and panic rose within her mind, no! She dove beneath the water and chased after Seven, he reached out desperately to her with pleading eyes.

She grabbed his hand with both of hers and pulled him out of the other siren’s hand, then rushed back to the surface. It did not give up and the gangly hand shot after him again, Six whipped around and bit down hard into its flesh. A horrid taste burst into her mouth and the monster screamed, ripping out their hand from her teeth along. In doing so Six tore out a chunk of flesh, she spit it out and pulled her face in disgust, then swam back to the surface and pulled herself up the platform. Seven was already there and sat on the floor catching his breath, his eyes looked glazed over. 

“Are you ok?”, she crouched down next to him, he nodded, albeit slowly. 

“That was- that was close”, she sighed, yeah it was. “I think, I just need a minute..”, she wasn’t going to argue, she sank to the floor and stared into the water. Hopefully the stunt she had just pulled would deter the other siren from following them, and hopefully she did not anger it more.

-

Seven and Six pushed hard on the wooden door in front of them, finally forcing it to give. The panel flipped downwards straight into the water on the other side with a loud splash. Six caught a glimpse of a haggard figure in a chair floating in the water before it slipped under the surface. 

Six whispered to Seven, “We're going to have to be fast. Get across the room to the other side with me. Whatever you do, don't listen to anything it says.”

Seven nodded, then turned to face the dark waters. 

“Ready? Go!”

His hand in hers, the pair leaped off the edge into the water. Almost instantly, Six could see bubbles forming on the surface, quickly she yanked Seven closer to her and pulled them both onto a piece of wood floating in the water. 

They didn't have very long to catch their breath, as the siren below them thumped against their planks. Six looked around, and her eyes fell on a trail of floating objects leading to what looked like a stable area far above the water with a television sitting atop it.

“Seven, come on!” she pulled him closer to her and leaped into the water again. The siren followed close behind, and Six could sense the rage that was driving it. 

I used to be like this once. 

Six jumped to plank after plank, not daring to let go of Seven's hand for anything. Finally, they reached the edge of the platform. Six hoisted Seven out of the water and let him climb, then followed up after him. 

Six panted at the edge, trying to catch her breath. Seven slowly stood up, his legs wobbling underneath him. “That was not fun.”

Six only continued to breathe in response. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Seven walk a little closer to the edge. She turned to watch him carefully. “What are you doing?”

He didn't respond. Six got up and walked in front of him. “Hey. Seven?”

His eyes were glassy, and he walked as if he didn't really know how. “Can you hear that, Six?” 

“What?”

“That music.”

Six's eyes widened. No!

She grabbed Seven by the waist and dragged him back from the water. 

A head broke the surface and glared at her with yellow eyes. “Young one, why are you interfering with me?” 

Six responded in the same language. “Get out, old hag. This is my prey.”

The older Siren's eyes widened slightly. “Is that so? One hears things, when they live so close to power.” a grin spread across its face. “You've gone soft over a child. What was his name? Oh, that's right. Mono.”

Six growled and hissed at the Siren. “You're wrong.”

The Siren cackled. “I do so love seeing the proud ones fall. I know I can't attach to you directly, but…”

Its head turned, and it spoke in a more common dialect. “Push her in.”

Six whipped her head around and saw Seven, already reaching for her.

No no no no-

This was bad. 

There was nothing she could do!-

But there is. 

Her thoughts whispered to her. You could do it. You're stronger than her. Make her pay.

Six fought back against it. I promised!

But there was no other way. 

She reluctantly wove her spells once more and fought for a hold around Seven's mind. She growled softly, “Push the television there.”

Seven stiffened, then let Six go and walked over to the TV. 

Six pulled the lever next to her, and the wires hissed as the TV switched on. 

“What are you doing?” the Siren howled. 

Six let her disguise fall, and flashed her teeth at the older monster. 

Seven pushed the television into the water, and the Siren screamed as it was electrocuted. 

Six let go of Seven's mind immediately, removing all of her spells from him. Never again.

Seven blinked, and his eyes focused in on her. “What…what happened?” 

“We got rid of it,” Six said shortly. “Let's get out of here.”

She had known what it would do. Her stomach was already more painful than ever, and she had realized what was happening. 

She was going to have to sate herself somehow. 

Using her powers had only made it worse. 

They climbed onto the broken TV and made their way up, pulling more planks out of the way of a doorframe. 

Seven was strangely quiet, and Six knew she ought to say something, but oddly, she found herself not really wondering what she had done to him.

Only for survival.

Seven turned to her suddenly, his flashlight shining in her face. She wanted to snarl. Idiot!

Immediately she felt sick. It wasn't his fault. 

He's annoying and I don't need him. 

She shoved those thoughts down. That wasn't her anymore. 

Seven spoke. “Six, where did you come from before here, before the Pale City?”

Six hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say. “To be honest, I don't remember.”

That wasn't a lie. Sirens weren't exactly known for families or anything like that. Six had been on her own from the beginning. 

“Did you have anyone, you know, besides Mono?”

“I've never had a human friend before-”

“I'm not leaving you.”

“YOU ARE NOT MY FRIEND!”

“No,” Six snapped. “No one.”

Seven fell silent, and they reached a ladder leading to a grate in the ceiling above. 

She let him go first, preoccupied with her own thoughts. 

“If you're really my friend, you'll stay away from me.”

“You're a monster.”

“How many were there before me, Six?”

Six gritted her teeth. She was changed. 

She wasn't that anymore. 

Seven yelped above her, and she snapped her head up just in time to see a pair of long arms snatch him right off the grate. 

“Six!” he screamed. 

And then he was gone.

Six scrambled up the ladder and tried vainly to pick out the boy in the darkness. 

Nothing. 

Not again! 

Six growled. Nothing would take her friends away again if she could help it. 

** *

Mono shifted awake, as the sound of scraping permeated his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and tried to look around, only to see bars. 

He was in a cage. 

He panicked for a moment, then spotted a second kid in a cage next to him, also slowly coming to.

“Hey!” Mono whispered. “Where am I?” 

The kid shifted in the cage, then looked all around. “I-I don't know-”

He looked utterly terrified. “I didn't even see him, he came out of nowhere-”

Mono reached his arms through the bars, even though they were far too short to reach. “Hey, it's alright. What happened?”

The kid spoke in short breaths. “I got out of the prison…got stuck under the Maw in the flooded tunnels…my friend..”

His head jerked up towards Mono. “My friend, she's out there somewhere, I need to find her-”

Mono made calming motions with his hands. “It's okay. What does she look like, I might have seen her around.”

The kid looked back up at him, then began to talk again. “Um, she has black hair, brown eyes, this really bright yellow raincoat-”

Mono's insides froze. No.

The kid was still jabbering on, completely out of his mind with fear and saying anything that came to his mind, while Mono simply sat and stared, having stopped listening. 

In a voice that even surprised him at how calm it was, he asked, “What's her name?”

The kid paused, then said the name he had been dreading. 

“Six.”

Mono took a shaky breath. He doesn't know.

And she hasn't changed. 

He almost missed the kid's next words, “...told her I was going to help her find her friend, a kid named Mono-”

He jerked when he heard his name, but the kid didn't stop talking. “I have to find her, she could be anywhere on this ship and she doesn't know what's here.”

A creaking noise made Mono whip to the door, where the Janitor felt his way through. The kid jolted, then turned to Mono, his eyes wide with fear. “If you see her, tell her where I am! Please!”

Mono was rooted to the spot. He couldn't move, couldn't think. She was here. 

Why?

His lips curled into a snarl. 

She hasn't changed in the slightest. 

As soon as he was sure the Janitor was gone, he blasted the lock off his cage in a burst of static. 

He would get to the end of this place. 

And he would escape. 

Six or no Six.

Chapter Text

Six’s fingers drummed against the ladder as she stared up to where Seven had been captured, she was considering chasing after him and tearing him away from the adult’s grip. Yet, she didn’t. She just stood there staring up at the manhole cover, no, it would be stupid to chase after him right now. The adult could still be there and it could grab her too, then they both would be trapped with no hope of escape. She had to find another way, she had to wait.

She had to wait and hope that he would escape from the monster.

She snorted then scowled, tearing her gaze away from the manhole cover. She released the ladder and stepped backwards, she hated waiting. She had to be confident, she had to trust him. He would escape, if he didn’t. 

Well, she would tear this place apart looking for him. 

She turned her head when she heard a rattling sound, spotting something small and gray dart into a hole in the wall. Something instinctual told her to chase after it, she took a step forward when she realized what she was doing. What was she doing? She shook her head and stared back at the hole, it was big enough for her to squeeze through, maybe she could find a way back to Seven through there? 

And not chase after the small gray creature. 

She walked over to the hole in squeezed through, she found herself traveling through a system of tunnels and small corridors. She wondered if the small creatures had made these, they did not look like they could. She didn’t keep that thought long as she eventually saw a light at the end of one of the tunnels, she crawled towards it and she could feel the temperature around her pick up the closer she got. She held the edge of the exit and peered through the hole, a warm glow greeted her with a wave of heat. She scrunched up her nose in discomfort, she never liked heat that much. She spotted piles of chunky black things stored around the room and in the middle of it all stood a large boiler, the size of the thing surprised her. The flames inside weren't nearly as big as she had expected it would be, only sometimes bursting through the boiler’s metal teeth. Something skittered across her vision and she turned her head, seeing multiple of those small gray creatures run about and collect the chunky black blocks then run up a plank towards the boiler's jaws. Its maw would open wide and then the creatures would lob the black object into the fire, causing a burst of flames and heat then settling down a few seconds later. 

The creatures would repeat this one after the other, she didn’t know what they were trying to do but it seemed fruitless. Whatever they were trying to power there was not enough of them to do the job right. Suddenly one of the creatures squeaked, she noticed that she had unconsciously walked over to them and was standing extremely close to the line of them. A smaller one with a chip on the bottom of its cone head had dropped what it was carrying and was pointing at her, yet none of the others noticed what it was doing and one even shoved it out of the way to continue their meaningless task. She crouched down in front of the creature and held out a hand, her gaze was hardened and focused.

“Hey..”, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, the creature ‘stared’ at her but didn’t move. “I won't hurt you”, she didn’t notice as her teeth sharpened into fangs, her pupils narrowed into tiny pinpricks. “Come here”, she said in a sickeningly sweet sing-song voice, her stomach rumbled painfully but she ignored it. The creature clicked softly then took a step forward, her smile grew into a wide grin. The creature came closer to her and her expression grew manic, she hissed and jumped at the tiny thing, swiping at it with her clawed hands. The creature let out a few panicked chirps and backed away, causing her to crash into the floor. It scampered away from her and joined back up with the group, she slammed the floor with her fist and growled.

So close!

...

She blinked, then gasped and flipped around and scrambled away from the group of little gray things. She didn’t know what had come over her, she felt confused on why she had done that. Her back bumped into the piles of those black rocks and she brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, staring cautiously at the things in front of her. Her thoughts lingered on what she had tried to do, but ended up melting back to her hunger.

She could eat one of them, she wouldn’t even feel so bad. 

She got back up to her feet and walked over to them.

-

Seven’s eyes shot open, yet all that greeted him was darkness. Memories of what had transpired before slowly returned to him. Him traveling through the Depths with Six, then he got captured by the Janitor and taken to his cage room where he talked to that strange boy, but the memories after that were fuzzy. He tried to move but found himself to be restrained, something rough was pushing against his whole body. His fingers grazed against what he guessed was fabric, then he began to panic. He remembers now that the Janitor had knocked him out and presumably wrapped him up, the mechanical whirring above him confirmed his suspicions. He thrashed around and struggled to get out of the wrapping, he heard a tearing sound and saw light peaking through. He grabbed at the hole and tore it open, then climbed outside. His breath hitched when he saw a giant hole beneath him, he tried to hold onto the packaging but it kept tearing and soon he was falling through the air.

He smacked into a pipe, then fell further and crashed into wooden boards, breaking them on impact and falling into a pile of coal. His head throbbed and his body ached, he groaned and attempted to get up. That was not fun. His limbs wobbled as he tried to get onto his knees and he fell back onto the coal, his body hurt so much. He just wanted to give up and just lay there for a few minutes, to give his body a little time to recover. He heard a rattling noise and shifted his head so he could see in front of him, a nome cautiously waddled over to him. It hovered over him and let out a few curious clicks, Seven suddenly got up scaring the nome and causing it to scamper away. 

“No wait!”, it was too late, the nome was already gone. “Ugh”, he sighed, then clicked on his flashlight and ran in the direction he saw the nome running in. He ran into a room with a bunch of boxes and papers scattered about, he jumped when a bunch of nomes ran out of their hiding places and away from him. He tried grabbing one as it ran past him, but the thing was too nimble and fast. He sighed in disappointment as they all ran through a crack in a door, but then he heard the rattling of one more somewhere inside the room. He looked around until he saw its cap poking out above a box and he cautiously walked over to it, the nome saw him and scampered out from behind the box and attempted to run through the crack, but got stuck in between the planks. Seven giggled then walked back over to it and pulled it free from the door and placed it down, the nome looked up at him and clicked curiously. “Aren’t you going to run away?”, the nome just kept on staring, then shuffled over to him and held up its arms. He was confused on what it wanted, then it clicked. Did it want a hug? He picked it up and hugged it gently, it seemed to purr happily. He put the nome back on the floor and clicked his flashlight back on. “Do you think you could help me? I need to find someone”, it nodded, and he smiled.

These things were friendlier than he thought. 

-

Turns out the nomes were very useful, he had gathered three of them and they had helped him with a couple of puzzles. He felt heat wash over his face and bursts of fire as he approached the metal archway in front of him, he passed through with the nomes in tow. Something yellow flashed in front of him and he froze.

“ Six?” , the girl in question froze, then slowly turned her head to face him. Her expression was a mix in between surprise and a blank look, as if she wasn’t all there. She stood slightly hunched over and had a squeaking nome in her grasp, a grin broke out on Seven’s face. “I’m so glad you are ok!”, he rushed over and enveloped her in a hug and making the nome fall back to the ground. 

“Nice to see you too.”, she wriggled in his grasp then lightly shoved him away, then dusting herself off. “You are covered in that black rock stuff dust”, he gave her a confused look and she pointed to his hands and face, oh.

“Do you mean coal?”, she looked at him blankly.

“Yeah, whatever it is called.”, she huffed, her eye twitched.

“Sorry-”, he dusted himself off then looked back at her, noticing that she was still standing with a slightly hunched over position, holding her stomach. “Are you ok?”, he took a step closer to her, she growled softly and took a step back, then turned around and walked away. “Hey wait-”, he ran after her and grabbed her shoulder, she whipped around and glared at him. 

“I’m fine, just feeling seasick.”, her expression quickly softened and she brushed him off, he could tell something was wrong but didn’t want to push it. 

“Well..”, he glanced around the boiler room, noticing a lift going up to the roof and carrying coal. Could that be their ticket out of here? It wasn’t moving so they would have to power it, but how? He looked at the boiler and the nomes throwing coal into the fire burning in its belly, then at the inactive ‘elevator’. “Maybe we can get out of here if we get that to work”, he pointed to the coal lift, Six looked at it and frowned.

“How?”, he let his hand fall back to his side and walked up to the nomes, grabbed one of them and turned back to Six with a grin on his face. “With these guys! If we get enough nomes, then we can get that elevator thing to work. I’m guessing we have to feed the boiler enough coal”, he let go of the nome and it returned to the others lobbing coal into the boiler. 

“Ok.”, she motioned for him to lead the way, his smile faltered slightly. 

Is she really ok? She seems, cold.

He shrugged it off and walked through a door to an adjoining room, a large pile of coal was stashed away here. A box was lying in the coal and he heard a trapped nome clicking anxiously by it, he walked over and pulled the nome out from it and let it join the others. Another nome dashed out from behind the coal and got itself trapped in a trapdoor, Six went over to help it but it let out a high pitched screech when she got closer. She backed away from it and looked back at him.

“They don’t like me I guess.”, clearly..he went over and dislodged it from the trapdoor, gave it a hug and then chased the nomes off to go join the others. The two climbed up a wooden ladder and dropped down onto a pile of coal, there was a fusebox on the wall and a lever next to it. A gurney and a door was shut, Seven trotted over to the lever and pulled it down. The fuses popped out when the gurney opened but the door only slightly shifted open, he frowned and put one of them back in but the other had stopped glowing. They would need a new one. He ducked below the door and entered a very dark room, so he clicked on his flashlight when he saw the light graze over the form of the Janitor.

“The Janitor is here, we have to be quiet. He can’t see us but he can hear us”, he whispered to Six once she entered the room, he couldn’t see her expression in the darkness but he did see the way her shoulders tensed up after spotting the adult. 

“Stupid monster..”, she mumbled under her breath, they sneaked around the adult as its arms snaked around to feel its surroundings. They were careful not to step on any pieces of coal and alert the Janitor, until they reached the door and ran towards a set of stairs. Six stepped on some coal that was right in front of the stairs and hissed as they heard the Janitor grunt, followed by rapid footsteps closing in behind them. Seven tugged on Six’s arm and pulled her up the stairs as they ran to the top, but halted when the adult started feeling around on the top platform where they needed to go next. They waited until it gave up and returned to whatever it was doing before, then jumped across two containers to reach the platform on the other side.

They ran into a storage room with tall closets and a bunch of supplies that they didn’t recognize, Seven saw a vent above the closet at the far back of the room, maybe he would find a working fuse through there. He opened all the closets, one of them had some papers he could climb but couldn’t reach, the other had a chair he could use to reach the papers. He started pulling on the chair and Six soon joined him and they pulled it over to the first closet, then they climbed it and got into the vent. They crawled until they got to the end, Seven stopped and looked down into a large hole.

“That’s a big drop..”, he whispered, Six tried to look around him.

“Yeah, be careful.”, she said dully and he jumped across and grabbed onto iron bars, then started to climb down. The bars rattled as Six followed above him, he climbed until he reached another open vent. He would have to jump again, he prepared himself then launched himself towards the vent. He landed inside and rolled into it, Six knocked into him as she jumped into it. He grunted and she got up to her knees, he pulled his flashlight back out and switched it on. They walked through the vent until they dropped down into a pile of unlit fuses, he looked up and saw that there was a working one sat atop a shelf. 

“We can use those cabinets to get to it.”, Six suggested, he nodded and they jumped to the floor then pulled out the cabinets until it formed a pseudo staircase. Then he climbed up them and ran across the top and jumped onto the shelf, he grabbed the fuse and stood near the edge.

“Catch!”, Six scrambled below him as he dropped the fuse and caught it in her arms, then he dropped back to the floor. “Now we just need to get it back to the fuse box”, he walked over and grabbed an empty fuse, then tossed it at a button on the wall. The door jolted and creaked open a tiny, they ducked underneath. They heard the familiar wheezing of the Janitor and were prompted to keep quiet, they snuck through the room around him. Six carried the fuse which lit up their surroundings, they ducked beneath the door leading to their exit and then popped the fuse back into the empty fuse slot. The gurney’s lights flickered on, it was working! “We are a great team! High Five?”, he held up his hand to her, she shot him a strange look. “Nevermind”, he brought his hand back down and climbed into the gurney.

-

Six and Seven led the last three nomes they managed to find to the boiler room, immediately they got to work and grabbed pieces of coal. With all the nomes at work throwing the coal into the boiler, the room shook as it roared and produced jets of steam. The coal lift shifted and began to move slowly upwards, yes! 

“C’mon, we did it!”, Seven cheered, Six had to contain herself to not roll her eyes. She was feeling agitated at his cheeriness and the hunger gnawing at her insides was not helping. They jumped onto a container and let the lift do the rest of the work. She sat down and hung her legs over the edge, swinging them idly back and forth. “Six?”, Seven shifted around on his feet, she hummed lazily in response. “Are you..sure you’re ok? I can see something is wrong, and you have been..acting different”, her eye twitched again and her jaw tensed, why does he have to be so insistent.  

“I’m fine, I’ve just been feeling seasick and a lot is on my mind right now.”, she snapped, maybe a bit too harshly because he flinched. 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but just remember I am your friend. I will help you if you need it”, he sat down next to her, she clenched her hands.

She didn’t need help.

She..she would figure it out, maybe she can eat the monster or a nome when his back is turned. It wouldn’t solve her hunger but it should stave it off for a little. An unsettling thought popped into her head, what if.. what if she couldn’t find anything? 

She looked at Seven, he was staring down at the nomes with a small smile on his face. 

Her stomach growled again and stabbed at her insides, she bit her lip as waves of pain rolled through her. She doesn’t know how long she would be able to keep this up. 

They jumped off the container before they were thrown into a small incinerator and followed a stray nome through a door, then climbed up a container filled with nothing but trash and squeezed through a crack in the wall. Seven switched on his flashlight and they walked to a hole in the wall opposite them, then dropping onto the wooden floor. She felt the room was slightly warmer when they got closer to the wall, Seven inspected a crack in the wall. 

“Could you help me push the box? I think there is something behind there”, she nodded and positioned herself next to him, then together they pushed the box out of the way and revealing another hole in the wall. Then they ducked down and crawled through, what was on the other side surprised her.

There was a furnace in the middle of the room glowing calmly and tons of nomes were sitting around the room.

“Wow, so many”, Seven walked to the corner and sat down, watching the nomes in awe. She silently followed and sat down next to him, there were too many. This was not good.

-

Mono resisted the urge to scream as the Janitor dropped from the dark shadows of the ceiling just above him. He ran flat out towards the light he could see at the end, all the while hearing the padding footsteps of the monster behind him, along with its snuffling breaths. 

He saw the door ahead of him slowly begin to close, a cage standing directly in front of him and freedom. Ducking around the cage, he sprinted into the room and froze. Dead end.

The door slammed shut behind him. Or at least tried to. 

It was stuck on the cage. 

The Janitor's long arms snaked through the gap and began searching for him. Quickly, he evaded the grasping hands and pulled on the cage desperately, trying to get it to pull free. 

Something on the already straining metal snapped, and Mono fell backwards, a bar having come loose. 

Dimly, from the other side of the door, he heard a loud screech, that soon turned into pained howling. Mono rubbed his eyes and sat up, glancing around at the room in front of him. 

Two snake-like arms sat on the ground, still twitching after having been violently separated from their owner. 

Mono's stomach twisted, and he almost threw up right then and there. He was still hurting people.

This time it was worse. The Janitor was already blind. Without his only method of getting around, he would slowly starve or get eaten by leeches. 

Mono felt twisted, inhuman. What had he done?

I'm just like her. 

A squeaking interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to see a hatch on the wall swing open. Almost like he was in a dream, Mono moved towards it, climbing up the stacked boxes nearby. 

Enough is enough. 

Six knew what she had done to him. 

She would help him change. 

If she didn't, he didn't know what he would do with himself. 

He tapped into his powers, looking through the Signal and the TVs on the Maw to try and find his former friend. 

A kitchen with fat chefs. 

A dining area with gluttonous monsters. 

Flooded. 

Broken. 

Small wooden alcove in a library.

Creatures in front of a fire, with two larger figures next to them, one wearing blue, the other wearing yellow-

Ah.

Gotcha.

Mono shut his powers off. He would get to the nearest television, which seemed to be just ahead. 

Then he would find her.

***

Seven stared at his friend, who didn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings, simply holding her stomach and glancing around at the nomes occasionally. 

Something was wrong, he could tell. Six wasn't as engaging as she had been, she was colder, more sullen, snapping at him and scaring the nomes every time she got close to them. 

Had something happened to her while he had been captured, something that made her scared? He didn't know much about her, maybe she just didn't like being alone. 

He finally got up the courage to speak. “Six, I know something's wrong. Can you tell me? We're friends, you can trust me.”

Six slowly swung her head around to stare at him blankly. “I told you already. Twice.”

She looked back at her toes. Seven shook his head. “Sorry, not buying it. Something is going on, tell me please.”

“No,” Six snapped. “ I can't tell you.”

Her eyes widened slightly, as if that wasn't what she had meant to say at all. 

“Then there is something!” Seven smiled triumphantly. “I knew it. Now, you have to tell me.” He smirked at her. 

Six looked extremely annoyed all of a sudden. She jerked her head away from him. “No.”

“Come on Six, you can say it, it's just me. Come on, tell me. Whatever it is, I could help-”

“You can't help, Seven,” Six snarled. “Please stop asking me.”

Seven flinched and turned away. She had almost looked angry. 

They sat in silence for a moment, letting the crackling of the flames fill the room.

And a soft set of footsteps slowly growing louder behind him. 

Seven frowned and turned around. 

The boy from the cages!

He was alright, he had managed to escape. Seven grinned at Six and stood up. “Six, hey look! Another kid escaped!”

Six stood up almost lazily, yawning and turning around. As soon as her eyes fell on the kid, her demeanor changed. She still looked slightly annoyed, but her entire body was as tense as a coiled spring. 

“Oh. You're here.”

Seven looked from Six to the other kid, confused. “Wait, do you know each other? Are you guys friends too?”

“No,” the other kid bit out. “She's not yours, either.” 

Seven frowned. “What?” 

Six rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here, Mono? I don't need you around anymore, or didn’t you forget?” 

The other kid's eyes widened, as if her words were a physical blow. Slowly they narrowed again. “I knew it. You haven't changed a bit.”

Seven's head whipped back to Six. “Wait, Mono? This is your friend?” 

If he was her friend, why was she acting this way?

Mono raised his hand towards Seven. “Kid, I don't know what she's told you, but she is not who you think she is. Get out of there.”

Seven shifted closer to Six. “Why? Isn't she your friend?”

***

Six glared at Mono from across the room. He was seriously here, now? He would ruin everything. 

She spoke in a mocking tone. “I thought you were done with me. Last time I saw you, you made that pretty clear. Friend.” The last word turned into a sneer. 

Mono looked as if he had been slapped. “I don't believe it. I was right. So it was all an act.” 

Six smirked. “I don't know what you mean. I've always been…”

Her eyes widened as a strong pang of hunger, greater than any one before it, came over her. She clutched her stomach and groaned in pain. Seven was instantly at her side. “Six, are you alright?” 

What was she doing? Snapping at Seven, hurting Mono with her words, considering eating another innocent creature. 

She was drawing on instincts, her hunger getting the better of her. Seven needed to get away. 

She tried to crawl away from him. “Please, no…stay away!” 

Seven, kind as he was, tried to follow her. “Six! Hey, you're alright! Come on, you're okay.” 

Her hunger clawed at the inside of her chest, roaring to be let out. “Seven, get away!” 

***

Seven kneeled over his friend, trying to figure out what was wrong with her. “Six, hey, it's me!” 

He heard a growl, and at first he thought it was Six, but then it happened again, and figured out it was her stomach. 

“Six, are you okay? Talk to me!” 

Dimly he heard a scream from the other end of the room. “Kid! Kid!” 

He turned, his vision slightly blurring, all he saw was a splotch of brown on the far wall. He guessed it was Mono. 

The scream came again. “HEY, KID, GET OUT OF THERE!” 

Seven turned to yell back, “I'm not leaving my friend!” 

“SHE'S NOT YOUR FRIEND, SHE'S A SIREN! GET OUT OF THERE!” 

A flash of yellow crossed his vision. He focused on the figure in front of him. 

Six, her head down. 

Softly, he whispered, “Six?” 

She looked up, and bared her teeth. 

Her sharp teeth. 

Seven tried to back away, but found himself being forced to the ground. 

Needles sank into his throat. 

He screamed. 

It ended. 

***

Mono watched, absolutely horrified, as his former best friend tore out another child's throat. He screamed, his throat already raw, and launched a blast of static at Six. 

It missed, but her head perked up and stared at him, almost like instinct. She glared at him, her red eyes burning into him. 

Mono took a step back, but Six was already launching herself at him. She howled, an inhuman sound, and tore at his jacket with her claws. Mono punched her in the chest, and she hissed and got off of him, scrambling to the side and standing back up. He quickly got back to his feet, static glowing around his hands. 

“I was right Six. I was right about you. You're a monster.”

In response, Six growled and latched onto his arm. He yelled in surprise and tried to shake her off, but she wriggled away from his hands and clamped her jaws on his shoulder. Mono screamed in pain and let his powers flow there, scorching Six with electricity.

She didn't stay down, bringing him to the ground and tearing at his chest. She slashed his previous wounds open, and blood seeped through his shirt. 

Mono shouted and tried everything he could to get the crazed Siren off of him, she had never done this before, she was acting almost feral-

She bit down on his hand, almost causing him to lose a finger, then put her claws at his throat. 

Six froze there, and her eyes suddenly stopped glowing. “Mono?” 

At that moment, the far wall blew open. The few nomes that were remaining in the area fled in absolute terror. 

Black smoke billowed from the gap, and a towering figure appeared in it. 

The Lady of the Maw, the Geisha.

Her blank mask stared down at the two children. “Pathetic. You brats really thought you could hide from me?” 

Six and Mono struggled to their feet. A common enemy. 

Mono let static gather around his hands again. “Please leave us be. I don't want to hurt you.” 

The Lady laughed, which was both a terrifying and haunting sound. “Then you are weak.”

He felt something tug at his coat, and turned to see a tiny gray creature holding something in its hands. It looked like some kind of mirror.

Worth a shot. 

The room darkened, and the Lady vanished. 

Mono held up the mirror. “Six, are you there?” 

Out of nowhere, the Lady reappeared, her shadows reaching for him. Mono blasted them with his powers, but they reformed over it and returned to the Lady. She looked down at him. “You are not meant to be here, little Broadcaster. This cycle is broken. I will have to fix this.”

Mono held up the mirror, not really sure what it would do, but it turned out to be the right move. The Lady hissed and screeched, “You insolent brat!” 

She bore down on him, her poise and dignity gone, determined to catch him. 

He heard a voice from his left. “Mono! Toss it to me!” 

Six.

On instinct, he turned and found her in the darkness, and threw the mirror to her. She turned to the Lady and grinned. “Bet you can't catch me!” 

The Lady growled and chased after Six instead. She held up the mirror like a shield, and the Lady screeched again. Six threw the mirror over the Lady's head, and Mono caught it again. It was a deadly game of keep-away. 

Mono held up the mirror directly to the Lady, and a loud bang sounded. He was blasted back into a wall, and in his blurry vision he could see the tall figure crumple and fall to the ground. 

Six jumped down from the boxes she was on, and laughed. “Take that, idiot!” 

She turned to the furnace. “Hey, Seven, did you see that? You can come out now, it's okay!” 

Mono stared at her disbelievingly. An ice cold horror washed over him. “S-Six…”

She turned to face him. “Huh?” 

He could only shakily point to the general direction of the fallen child. 

***

Six followed Mono's finger to the figure on the ground, and her heart rate beat faster than it ever had. Had the Lady gotten to him somehow-

She reached Seven and instantly scrambled back. Teeth marks were on his neck and blood was everywhere. 

Six stared in shock at the dead child, horror creeping into her brain. No, I didn't, I couldn't-

She was shaking. She softly pushed Seven's hair out of the way to see the look of terror frozen on his face. “Seven? Hey, wake up.” 

It didn't happen. It didn't. 

Tears formed in her eyes, and a sob escaped her. “Seven, please wake up. Please don't leave me.” 

She grabbed the corpse to her, and began rocking back and forth, crying hard. “Please, no! Seven, wake up! You're okay. You're okay!” 

I did this. 

Six screamed, her heart breaking into a thousand pieces. “ Seven, please! Please don't be-”

Dead.

She couldn't stop sobbing. She had done it again, ruined an innocent life. 

“Seven, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't leave me Seven.”

“Please wake up.”

“I'm sorry.”

Eventually, she ran out of tears. Six gently laid Seven back down and closed his eyes. 

A quiet noise caught her ears, and she slowly turned to see Mono hugging his knees to himself and burying his face in his chest. He looked like he was crying. 

Six started walking over to him. She didn't know what to say. “Mono, are you-” 

She stopped, listening carefully. It sounded a lot like sobbing, but-

He wasn't crying. 

He was laughing. 

Mono brought his face up, and she took a step back. Tears were indeed streaming down his face, but he was grinning widely and laughing. 

His eyes didn't match his face. 

“Are you…okay, Mono?” she asked cautiously. 

Mono stopped laughing, his face switching so quickly to anger it was unnerving. “How could I be okay? I just watched my best friend murder another child, while also making me into a killer, what do you think?” 

Six's eyes widened. This was bad, he was closer to the edge than ever before. What had happened to him, on the Maw? 

Mono stood up. Six suddenly felt very small as he stared down at her. 

“Want to know what I think, Six?” 

A glow surrounded Mono, and static hissed in the air. “I think, if you weren't around, I wouldn't be a killer. I'd be happy. I'd be safe.” 

He's not wrong. 

“Yeah, you're right.” Six lowered her head. “I don't know what to do-” 

Mono began to laugh again. It was an inhuman, almost deranged sound, and she didn't like that it was coming from him. “Oh, can you just shut up!” 

Six snapped her mouth closed. 

Mono glared at her. “You're the cause of all of this, Six. You made me what I am. You made people die.” 

Six wanted to say something, but her voice died in her throat as she watched Mono grow angrier with every passing second. 

“I actually thought you might have changed, you know? Maybe tried to make a real friend? Throw me aside?”

Mono stepped towards her, and Six suddenly felt very afraid. He might actually hurt her really badly. 

“Six, you were never my friend. So take it from me.” 

Static swirled around him, and he laughed. “This is very, very personal.” 

Six wasn't sure she wanted to stop him. He was right. 

She brought nothing but pain. 

She closed her eyes. 

A sound from her right made her open them, and she turned her head to see the Lady stirring. She glared at the two kids, and through the cracked mask Six could see a single eye, black as night. 

“GET OFF MY SHIP!” the Lady howled, and her shadows grabbed Six and Mono and blasted them out through the wall and onto the shore close by. The Lady fell back and hissed through her teeth. She would deal with those brats later, when she was healed and strong. 

Right now, she had a ship to run. 

***

Six blinked slowly then cringed and began to cough as a bright light shined into her eyes, a heavy taste of iron and copper was in her mouth, along with giblets of flesh. She got up to her knees then spat out the blood in her mouth, it wasn’t hers. Her body was in so much pain, it's as if she had been thrown through a wall and crashed into rocks.

Wait.

She quickly scanned her surroundings, she was on a beach of sorts and waves lapped at the sand in front of her, she turned her head behind her and was shocked. The land they had gotten thrown to by the Lady was decimated, nothing but sand and desolate buildings lay scattered in her view. Her gaze snapped down to an unconscious body next to her, Mono. She scrambled away from him in fear, in case he woke up at that exact moment and decided to attack her, but nothing happened. She released a breath of relief, then glanced towards the open ocean. The Maw’s horn blared loudly and she watched as it sank beneath the waves, a painful memory struck her. 

Seven.

She slapped a hand over her mouth as a wave of nausea went through her, she had- she had- oh god..she heaved and slowly her eyes looked at her reflection in the water. 

Covered from head to toe in blood.

Her shoulders trembled and her other hand clenched, grabbing a fistful of sand. No matter how sick or disgusting she felt, she wouldn’t throw up, her instincts don’t allow her to. She glanced back at Mono who was still unconscious, a pang of hurt went through her.

She needed to get away, to run and leave him behind.

It would be better for the both of them, the longer he stays around her the more deranged he becomes. She didn’t want to hurt him more than she already did, all she did was break things and hurt people. 

Nothing more than a little monster.

She couldn’t live with this guilt, she had hurt the only two people she cared about far beyond repair. One is dead, the other with a shattered mind. All by her hands, Mono was right. She took a step away from him, then another, and another and another until she was a good meter away from him. She turned around and was about to run off, when she heard the ruffling of fabric followed by a soft groan. She tensed up and looked over her shoulder, Mono rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up to his hands and knees. Their eyes connected, a beat passed, then-

Six turned and ran.

“SIX! ”, Mono hollered and she heard the hiss of electricity being charged up behind her, something fizzled and popped right next to her and the next moment she was yanked by the hood of her raincoat and fell onto her back in the sand. She gasped and her eyes widened from the shock. Mono hovered over her making him appear upside down with an expression mixed between rage and glee. “You didn’t think you could run did you? I am not done with you.”, he said in a dangerously low voice, instinctually she snarled and flashed her fangs at him. Earning herself a pair of narrowed eyes and a kick to the ribs. “Don’t get an attitude with me now-”, she shot up and headbutted him in the nose, causing him to exclaim out in pain and stumble backwards. She scrambled away from him and stood back up, then went into a defensive posture and eyed him warily. “You little-”, energy arched across his body, he was absolutely seething. “You are going to listen to me, and you are going to listen very carefully.”, she was frozen in place as he got closer, she didn’t want to dare to move. “You did this to me, you made me a killer and you are going to fix it. Or, I kill you right now.”, her eyes widened slightly, first he wanted her gone and now he is asking for her help again? It was a bit ironic, but..she didn’t know how to reverse the effects.

“I- I don’t know how..”, she croaked softly, the words felt vile coming out. He narrowed his eyes, then began to smile again.

“Say that again? I didn’t hear you.”, he took another step closer, her arms began to tremble and she couldn’t look anywhere except into his static filled eyes.

“I can’t help you. I don’t know how, I never learned how to reverse the effects.”, her words came out meek, this did not help her case in any way. 

“I couldn’t quite hear that, you are speaking too softly.”, he growled, his shoulders went tense and he clenched his hands into fists. She bit the inside of her cheek. 

“I can’t help you Mono.”, his eye twitched and he pulled his mouth into a smirk, it did not look right. “I don’t know how.”, she risked glancing away when she noticed a large black crow settling down onto a dead tree branch behind them, then when she looked back she was startled when Mono was mere centimeters away from her. The smile was wiped from his face.

“You’re lying.”, his face was blank, but she did not miss the twitch of his eye.

“I’m-”, she started but he interrupted her.

“You’re lying again.”, she thought she could hear a hiss of white noise on the edges of his voice, she tried to take a step back but he grabbed her by the collar of the raincoat and yanked her back. “You’re lying!”, his expression became more enraged and his voice raised by the second. “Can’t you tell the truth for once!”, he started to shake her back and forth, Six’s instincts took over and she bit his hand. “GAH!”, he let her go and she stepped away from him, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“I’m sorry-”, static gathered in his hands and he shot the spot right next to her.

“You know what, I shouldn’t have spared you when we left the Signal Tower.”, he chuckled. “You manipulated me to do whatever you wanted, pretended to be my friend, then dared to lie and say you actually started caring.”, he began walking circles around her and listed off all the crimes she committed. “Followed me when I said you shouldn’t, manipulated me to pull you up again, then thought I owed you something after you ‘rescued’ me even though you knew it would mess with my head.”, each sentence sent a pang of hurt through her heart, she lowered her head in defeat. “Then repeated the same with that other kid, and murdered him after leading him on, then pretended to care again.”, that reminder made her growl, she didn’t manipulate Seven and he was spouting lies, but she felt that if she spoke up he would kill her right then and there. “And now, you refuse to help me? ”, he stopped in front of her again, she glanced up at him through blood stained strands of hair. “Wow, you really are the worst kind of monster there is.”,  his voice lowered to a whisper and he leaned in with an insane smile on his face. 

“Stop doing this, do you not see what you are doing?”, she tried to reason, he was dangerously close to the edge of tipping into insanity. He needed to calm down right now, she was scared of him. 

“I need to stop? I need to stop?!”, he laughed. “YOU DID THIS! IT WAS ALL YOU! YOU MADE ME LIKE THIS!”, he seethed and shoved her to the ground harshly. “AND YOU ARE TELLING ME TO STOP?”, his eyes glowed and static gathered around his arms and hands. “I’m done negotiating. I’m ending this nightmare right now!”, she stared up at him in horror as static gathered over him like thunderclouds.

“You aren’t much better than me!”, he had finally gotten on her nerves, he paused and narrowed his eyes. “You killed many monsters without me prompting you to! You tried killing me, you hurt me too! Without any remorse!”, she shot back, he snarled. “Yes, I may have started the spiral but you continued it! You. are. just. like. me!”, he started to scream.

“I’M NOT LIKE YOU! I NEVER WILL BE! YOU ARE A MONSTER!”, static laced his words and a large ball of energy formed in front of him, aimed straight at her.

“ Oh how very interesting, this is quite a show to watch. ”, the wind suddenly picked up and a whispery voice echoed around them, Mono snarled and spun around to try and find the intruder. A heavy gust pushed against him and sent him face first into the sand, then the wind swirled around and more black crows flew around and eventually started forming into a humanoid shape. “ You are quite the specimen, I have not seen one of your kind around in a long time ”, wind howled in her ears and sand was flying everywhere, making it very hard to see. The entity fully took form in front of her, a large yellow eye opened up on its triangular head. 

“ Let’s have a chat, shall we?”

Six screamed as she was ripped away from the ground, a rock smacked into her head and she fell unconscious.

Chapter Text

Mono slowly came to, spitting sand out of his mouth. Had the wind attacked him? Or was that his mind playing tricks on him, what Six had done to him? 

No, it had happened. She was gone. Again.

Mono screamed in rage. She always left, she always escaped. No one would take her from him! She was his to kill! 

Static swirled around him, and he fed on his anger, letting it out all in bursts of death. Already ruined buildings were shattered again, the ground burned with his wrath. He hated it, how everything was too broken. 

Just like me…

Mono found himself giggling, and he wasn't entirely sure why. He let it happen anyway. It felt right. 

I'll find you, Six. 

She was going to help him one way or another. She would reverse whatever she had done to him. 

He might kill her afterwards anyway, if only for his own peace of mind. It would be far easier to sleep at night if he knew she wasn't around to haunt his dreams. 

He called on his powers again, looking for Six's signature presence, the one he had felt on the Maw while looking through the Transmission. The presence of a Siren. A monster. 

But as soon as he reached for it, it fuzzed, then vanished entirely, as if blown away by a wind. 

No. No, no no this isn't right this isn't fair she's mine I need to do it she made me this way it's her fault monster I'm not like her she's a monster I'M NOT A MONSTER I'M ME I'M ME I'M ME

A small pop sounded from him, then he exploded with static. 

All the rage he felt and had kept trapped inside all that time was finally uncorked, and he was letting the destruction happen to feed the emptiness inside him. All the while his mantra kept going, faster and faster every second, his thoughts whipping themselves into a frenzy. 

Not my friend not my friend liar siren monster this is all her fault she was just a monster lies lies lies lies lies lies she's wrong I'm not a monster I can't be 

These thoughts swirled in his head, unceasing, voices whispering all around him saying those same words. 

He just wanted it all to stop. 

Couldn't he have the quiet, the way he used to? He hadn't had actual peace since meeting his former friend. 

Maybe after he killed her, the voices would go away. 

I'm broken. 

He knew it, and accepted it. He had a way out. 

Six, where are you? 

Mono finally let his rage cool, destruction ceasing. He laughed, stumbling across the sand towards the general direction of where he had sensed power. 

“Six, where are youuuuu?”

He listened for a moment, for anything that could help him. 

Only his own mad giggling reached his ears.

***

Sand was swept into Six’s face and she sneezed, waking herself up. She rubbed it out of her face and sat up, then squinted her eyes open. The sun bared down on her and there was a soft breeze in the air, even though there was no ocean nearby. She didn’t know where she was or how she got here, it seemed she was even further from where the Lady had tossed them. She remembered something whispering to them, then the wind dragging them away.

“ You aren’t wrong ”, she twisted around but couldn’t see anything, flinging sand up into the air. Then she stood up and her gaze landed on a dead tree near her, where there sat a large black crow. Its yellow eyes stared holes into her head.

“What..”, she furrowed her brows, the wind picked up and the crow flew from the tree. She covered her eyes as the sand blasted against her, a form took shape in front of her. 

“ Sorry to have taken you so abruptly, well actually I’m not really sorry. I could care less for what happens to you. ”, it eyed her lazily, she didn’t know what to reply to that but she could feel it was trying to get a reaction out of her. “ Maybe I shouldn’t have hit you over the head so hard, then you wouldn’t have been out for so long. Yet on the other hand, I didn’t want you to struggle free ”, she uncovered her face as the wind calmed, but it still swirled softly around her. 

“What do you want, why did you take me here?”, she growled, narrowing her eyes.

“ Like I said earlier, let's have a chat. I’ve been watching you since you went on the Maw, I must say you interest me little Siren ”, she didn’t like how it was looking at her, like it was a child that found a new toy to play with. “ You are different than the ones I have seen, you changed, you became..soft. ”, it chuckled that sounded like whistling, she scowled and hissed. 

“What do you mean? I am not soft.”

“ You started to care, you got attached to humans! I never thought I would see the day a Siren actually cared about its prey, how sweet ”, she clenched her hands into fists, it chuckled at her again. “ Yet, oh no. He found out! And you killed the other out of your stubbornness, tragic truly. Couldn’t have expected a sadder story ”, it taunted, Six was starting to get agitated. 

“I am not soft.”, she repeated, it gave her an amused look.

“ Tell me, why did you do it? What changed that you started to care, your kind isn’t known for that ”, she clenched her teeth, truly she didn’t know why she started to care. She just knew she liked the friendship, she liked the warmth it gave her, the comfort, the feeling of not being lonely anymore. 

“I don’t have to give you a reason.”, she snapped, it didn’t seem to like that answer. 

“ Did you really think it could work out, a friendship between a monster and human? Are you that naive? I shouldn’t have expected less, you are still a child. ”, the wind picked back up again as its agitation became more apparent. “ I am disappointed, this is not how things should have gone. ”, its gaze seemed to snap to somewhere in the distance, and its eye narrowed.

“ Persistent little thing ”, it muttered under its breath.

“What?”, it looked back at her, then the wind pushed against her and shoved her back into the sand roughly. 

“ Take a seat. ”, she growled and attempted to get back up but the gusts of air kept her down in place. “ Lets play a game ”, if it had a mouth it would be grinning right now, Six struggled in its grasp. “ Lets see how long you could hold out, there is no life here for you to feed on. If you can get out of here alive and mind intact, then congrats, but if you don’t? ”, it chuckled again. “ Well I will have a few more bones I can add to my collection ”, a chill ran down her spine, no she couldn’t let this happen. 

“And if I don’t want to play?”, it didn’t like her attitude.

“ Do not test me. ”, she felt an invisible pressure increase on her head and closing off her airways, she tried gasping for air but it was no use. “ Now, I was curious. How long did it take for your corrupted heart to change? How many victims did you go through?”, it asked her yet still prevented her from breathing, she felt her lungs begin screaming for air. “ Ah, why don’t I list it. Ahem .”, bones got pulled out of the sand and flew around in circles around the monster, it pulled out a skull from beside it and presented it in front of her. “ Do you remember her? She was not one of the first but she was my favorite, the only one that managed to escape. Unfortunately, she didn’t get very far. Fallen off a cliff, pity. ”, it twirled the skull around, then it picked up more and more bones. “ Or how about this one, or this one, orrr this one? ”, her head was beginning to hurt and her vision grew blurry, she needed to breathe now-

“ Ah, my bad I hadn’t noticed you still need to breathe ”, the pressure around her throat lessened and she took a large gulp of air. 

“I- I had to kill them..”, she choked out, the entity looked at her curiously. 

“ Why did you have to? Oh right, you need to eat isn’t it? Or you would lose all your humanity and just run off instincts, if you even had humanity back then” , she growled and bared her teeth at it, she didn’t need reminding of all the things she had done wrong. “ Just like you did to that boy back at the Maw ”, she tried to launch herself at the entity, but it just pushed her back into the sand. She struggled again in its grasp, it dared to tell her about what she did to Seven! She already hated herself for it! “ But if you didn’t kill them, they end up just like your friend over there ”, it pointed in a general direction behind it, she growled more.

“What do you mean-”

“ Your ‘friend’ does not seem to be doing so well, another of your doing. In fact he is coming here right now, and I don’t think you would want to see him again. He is..a little cuckoo in the head” , it chuckled, no. Her expression turned to horrified, he had been pushed over the edge. She had broken him, it was her fault, it was all her fault. “ I’ll let you go, I would love to see how this turns out. Lets see how long you can survive with the mad Broadcaster chasing you, toodles ”, and just like that, it vanished. 

The pressure on her chest lifted and she immediately got onto her feet, she scanned her surroundings for any sign of the monster but it was nowhere to be seen. She looked over where it had pointed, surely Mono wouldn’t follow her. He wanted nothing to do with her, she told him she couldn’t help him. A nagging feeling told her otherwise, she couldn’t trust the monster's words, it was deliberately trying to toy with her. She walked over to the dead tree and sank down against the bark, memories of what she had done over the years coming back to haunt her. No longer did she look upon her actions with pride, now she felt horrible. She had taken so many innocent lives, all for her selfish needs. 

Faintly, she could hear a buzzing noise in the distance. She looked over and saw a gathering of clouds hovering above the sand, that..can’t be good. A feeling of dread overtook her, she knew she didn’t want to get caught by whatever that was, of who that was. Slowly she started to move away from the tree, then ran. 

-

The air crackled and hissed around Six as she sprinted towards a large abandoned building nearby. She kept glancing behind her, the storm was moving closer. She didn't seem to be gaining any ground on it, even running as fast as she could, in fact it didn't seem to have any problem keeping the pace.

Six ducked under a rusted support beam and squeezed through a shattered window, glass shards nicking her skin. Breathing heavily, she glanced around at her surroundings. 

Blankets were shoved in corners and the entire room looked as if a sandstorm had blown through it. The only non-dusty area was a small pile of rags in the corner above everything else.

Something hissed from a corner. Six whipped around, but the darkness hid anything that could potentially be a threat. “Hello?” she called out. “M-Mono?” 

A screech sounded from behind her, and something crashed into her back. Six felt a sharp pain near her shoulder, and she rolled over to see a girl about her age, a green cloak covering her, with stringy brown hair. 

Under her hood, Six could see a flash of red eyes and sharp teeth. This wasn't a girl, it was another Siren. 

Six hissed and clawed at the other Siren, speaking in their language. “ Hey, get off me, idiot!” 

The Siren froze, then slowly let go of Six, letting her stand up. Six massaged her shoulder where the girl had tried to claw it, then placed her hands on her hips. She had learned long ago that when dealing with other Sirens, it was best not to show them weakness. “What are you called?” 

The girl hissed back in the same language, “Jade. Who are you, and why are you in this territory?” 

“I am Six.” Best to let that speak for itself. She wasn't that well known among her kind, but there were too few of them already. “ I'm here to escape a…person. Got tossed off the Maw.” 

Jade shifted noticeably when Six mentioned the Maw, but her posture had changed as soon as Six mentioned her name. “You are Six? I'm…honored.” 

The girl took her hood off, looking directly at Six. “I heard about what you did to the Pretender. Well done.” 

Six hadn't done anything to the Pretender. That had all been the work of her other 'friend’ back when she hadn't cared. Best not to let the other Siren in on that particular detail, so she simply smiled in what she hoped was a self-satisfied way. Everything about that time now seemed repulsive to her. 

“ What is the Maw to you?” Six asked. “I can see you know of it.” 

Jade hissed and bared her teeth, suddenly looking wild. “The Maw was my prison. I escaped.”

Six backed off the subject, clearly Jade had painful memories attached to that place. She couldn't exactly blame her, either. 

Jade scowled and started to walk away from Six. “I don't know what to do now. I had hoped you were a meal, but…” she stopped near a wall and growled softly. “I've been here for a month, escaping the wind. If you weren't like me, I would have killed you. I still considered it, but Sirens can't be sated by other Sirens.” 

Six didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, the silence didn't last long, as the girl continued. 

“I was already starving when I came here, and there's nothing left alive in this territory. The North Wind has eaten it all up.” Six could hear Jade's stomach growl from her far-off position on the other side of the room. “I've been so hungry…for so long…”

Six felt a small stab of pity for the young Siren. She badly wanted to help Jade, to be her friend and get her out of there alive, but Jade wasn't like Mono or Seven, innocent and human. This was a Siren, and a starving one at that. She would tear Six apart in seconds if she showed hesitation or tried to be kind to her like a friend. 

Sirens didn't have friends. Her track record reflected that pretty well. 

Jade suddenly turned to her, eyes narrowed. “ You said someone was chasing you. You escaped the Maw to get away from them. Who is it?”

At that exact moment, the howling storm outside shut off instantly, as if there had been an OFF switch to a storm. 

A voice she knew all too well floated from the way she had entered. Except she didn't know it, not anymore. Something had entered this voice, a new tone that terrified her. 

“Siiiiiiixxyyyyyyyy! Come out, I want to talk to you!” 

Six scrambled back in terror, grabbing Jade's hand out of instinct. “Come on, we have to get out of here!”

Jade scowled and ripped her hand free of Six's grasp as the two Sirens scampered away from the direction the voice of Mono had come from. He giggled, and a shiver ran up Six's spine. The creature hadn't been lying. He had finally been pushed over the edge, and he wouldn't have any restraint. He would kill her without a second thought. 

His voice turned angry. “Six, I know you're in there. Come out, come on…” Now it had almost become taunting. “You wouldn't leave your best friend, would you?”

The laughter returned. Jade's head turned to her, surprise in her eyes. “Your victim snapped?” 

So she recognized that at least. Six couldn't answer, she made a shushing gesture and waited. 

Mono's voice trailed away, speaking softer. “Sixy, it's okay. You trust your friend, right?” 

Six huddled against the wall in the shadows, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from sobbing. She had done this to him. He wouldn't ever go back to the boy she had known. 

Jade hissed at her, “Why aren't you killing him? Get rid of him before he causes actual damage!” 

Six blinked back tears. She couldn't…she couldn't hurt him. She had done enough. He was irreversibly damaged mentally, and she couldn't stop him. She didn't want to stop him. She deserved it. 

The other girl's eyes narrowed at her hesitation. “ You…you actually care about him?” 

Six shifted into a defensive posture, but the other Siren was already on top of her. Six screeched and tried to claw at Jade, but she knocked her hand away, hissing at Six. “He's mine. You can stay here until I'm done.” 

She punched Six in the ribs, hard. She gasped and rolled onto her stomach, face down. Jade let her go and scurried cautiously towards the place where Mono's voice had come from. She disappeared around the corner, presumably going outside. Six breathed away the pain, jumping up. A beat passed, and Six stepped forward to chase the girl. 

“Well, I thought she'd never leave,” Mono said. 

Six's head snapped around to see Mono standing in the middle of the room, smiling brightly. It almost reminded her of times when he had been her friend, but no. That smile was too wide, his eyes looked as if someone had cracked them, with static floating around him. 

Six jumped back in fright. He was completely unassuming, but something about the way he was standing just seemed wrong to her. He was slowly rocking back and forth on his heels, watching her with a smile on his face. She managed to find her voice. “W-What do you want, Mono?” 

Mono seemed to consider the question. “What I want, hmm.” His eyes never left her. “I want to remove something very wrong from this world. A heartless monster, one that kills innocent kids or destroys their minds. You.”

His eye twitched. “But not yet. First, there's something I want you to do for me, Six. You destroyed my mind, made me kill and maim countless beings, and you did it without remorse, then only later did you pretend to care.”

Mono still wasn't moving, but Six was backing up against the wall, absolutely terrified. He was far gone, and every second he spent around her only seemed to drive him deeper into his insanity. 

Mono stared her down, his wide smile still plastered onto his face. “You made this happen, brought it on yourself. You will fix it.”

Six stared at him. “I already told you I can't-”

“SHUT UP!” he suddenly roared, causing her to flinch back onto the wall. “STOP LYING! I KNOW YOU ARE, IT'S ALL YOU KNOW HOW TO DO!” 

And then the smile reappeared back on his face so quickly it scared her. “It's what a good best friend would do, right? Sixy, didn't you say all those times that you were my friend? Well, prove it.” 

Six didn't know what to say. He was erratic, shifting emotions constantly and spiraling further away from sanity. “Mono, I want to help you, I just don't think it's possible, and if it is, I wouldn't know what to do.”

Mono grinned, showing his teeth. “Then I guess we'll try a different solution to this problem. You're a cancer, Six.” His eyes began to glow, and clouds of static surrounded him. “I'm going to end this now. Maybe…” for a moment he looked desperate, almost scared, as if he wasn't sure what he was doing anymore. “Maybe if I kill you, it'll be quiet again. Can you hear it, Six? All the time, never shutting up?” 

He continued to talk, but Six had stopped listening. Jade had slunk back into the room behind Mono's back, he hadn't noticed in his raving. Six caught Jade's eye, and she glanced away. She almost looked as if she was foaming with hunger. 

Six shook her head, silently pleading. Please.

Jade locked eyes with her for a brief moment, then shifted towards the blissfully unaware boy, still rambling. 

Six wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice. He's going to die!

Wouldn't that be better for him? He was only going to hurt himself going this way, maybe it would work out. 

No, he's my friend! 

He wasn't her friend anymore. That boy that stood in the middle of the room wasn't the Mono she had grown to care for. He was gone. 

Jade approached from behind, stretching out her claws in anticipation. 

Mono stopped speaking in the middle of his sentence, his head snapping around to stare directly at Jade. 

She froze, coiling into a defensive posture. 

As if he had done nothing but blink, Mono shifted, disappearing and reappearing directly behind Jade. She hissed when he vanished and looked wildly around for him. 

Six tried to warn her, but Mono was too quick. He struck like a snake, lashing out with his powers and grabbing Jade in a hold of static, reeling in Jade like a fish on a hook. The girl choked out, “Put me down now!” Six could sense the power in her words. Mono simply blinked, then barked out a laugh. “That doesn't work anymore, siren.” 

She started to panic, her eyes revealing her fear. Mono simply kept gesturing and she moved forward, her feet scrabbling on the ground.

Calmly, Mono reached out and took her arm. With a completely neutral expression, he said, “So this was your plan, Six? Get your friend here to stab me in the back? Wow, that's low. Even for you.” 

Still blank-faced, he twisted the Siren's arm. It made a sickening snap.

Jade screamed, tears of pain running down her face. Mono gently let her arm down, then got close to her. “You see, Six there thinks I'm better than this. Unfortunately, she was the one that made me this way. Her fault, not mine.”

Jade whimpered. 

Mono calmly raised his arm again, wrapping his fingers around the Siren's throat. Her eyes bulged as he squeezed, seemingly without a hint of hesitation. She fought against his grip, beating at him with her good arm, her feet trying to get a hold on the ground. 

Snap.

Her limp body toppled to the ground.

Six finally found her voice, and howled a cry of misery. Mono slowly turned to look at her, completely devoid of any emotions. “Another one to add to your long list, Six.” 

Six choked on her tears. Again. It was happening again. People were dying, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. Mono had just proven how far he was willing to go to get to her, torturing and killing anyone in his way and blaming it on her to justify it to himself. 

But he was right. In a twisted, terrifying way, he was right. She had done nothing but cause him pain from the moment they had met, destroying his mind and his morality. At the time, she had rolled her eyes at his incessant cheeriness and good heart. Now she would do anything to have it back. 

Even if it meant she let him win. 

Six kneeled down on the sandy ground, lowering her head. “You win, Mono.” 

Mono cocked his head at her, then teleported directly in front of her. “What? I didn't hear you.” 

“Do it. Kill me. I'm not going to stop you.”

Mono scowled. “What's the game here, Six? Where's your trick?” 

Six looked directly into his face, letting him see her raw pain. “There's nothing. I'm done. Do it.”

Mono suddenly giggled. “Six, I'm not going to kill you! Why would I hurt my best friend?” 

Six stared in blank shock. What?

His expression changed in a split second, anger returning to him. “You need to be taught something, Six. Thankfully for you, I'm bored.” he raised his hand in a mock wave. “Bye. See you in hell.” Static hissed around him again.

Why was he acting nice before?

The wind stirred, then whirled all around the pair. Six looked around in panic. Not again! 

Mono snarled and whipped around to try and pick out what was causing the wind again. The familiar figure of what she now knew as the North Wind materialized before Six's eyes. “Come on, really? That's it? Where's the drama, the suspense? Don't you want to live, idiot?”

The wind lifted Six off the ground, letting her flail all while Mono screamed and uselessly blasted the gusts of sand around her. 

Shaking its head, the figure ghosted in front of her. “I'm honestly ashamed. You really have gone soft. The old you would have eaten him by now just like all the others.”

Six was stuck again with this creature, carrying her away to another location. 

“Soooo, what did you think of him? Real piece of work, huh? Those powers of yours sure did a job on him.”

Six hissed, but otherwise didn't respond. The thing was trying to get under her skin, but she wouldn't let it.

It huffed. “Fine. Be that way. Have a safe flight.”

She didn't notice the other figure being swept away from the ground, static flying in every direction in vain.

***

Six got roughly tossed into the sand and she scrambled around until she was on her back, she was right back in the same spot the North Wind had talked to her before. She couldn’t spot the entity but she could feel its presence, gusts blew past her and swirled sand around in small whirlwinds. A figure was dropped down a meter away from her and she immediately scurried away from them once she recognized him, why did it drag Mono along?! He attempted shooting at the wind but his powers were useless against something made out of air. His eyes snapped over to where she was and he tried to stand up, but got shoved back down by the North Wind.

“ As much as I would love to see you two fight again, now is not the moment, sit. ”, the entity formed in front of them, Mono’s arms were kept firmly pinned against his sides. “ I am disappointed” , it turned towards Six, she bristled quietly. “ There are so very few of you and by far you are the most disappointing one I have come across, I thought your kind was ruthless, heartless blah blah blah you know what. ”, she watched Mono out of the corner of her eye that had not taken his gaze off her for one second, his eye twitched.

“I don’t care.”, she hissed, the North Wind narrowed its eye. It turned to Mono.

“ Did you know the real reason she has been all over, traveling the world in search of power? ”, he didn’t look at it, it let out a sigh then forced Mono to pay attention to it. “ There are only six of them in existence, well four now but that doesn’t matter. ”, it floated back up to her and lifted her into the air, then held her in its hand. She felt slightly panicked but wouldn’t let it show. “ You wanted power, you wanted to kill the others and take their strengths so you could be the last one left, then you wouldn’t have competition. ”, that used to be her mission, she wanted to be powerful so she wouldn’t ever be trapped or have to suffer anymore, yet now that had changed. “ And you threw that all away, you’re not even making this fun. You just gave up and accepted to be killed, that isn’t fun at all. ”, it shook her back and forth. “ Do something more fun, make it entertaining. I hate being bored, and if nothing fun happens I will have to force you two to do something fun ”, its eye switched between the two, Mono has started struggling again on his spot and sparks of electricity came off his body. 

“LET ME GO! I WILL MAKE YOU-”

“ Silence. ”

Mono was shut up as the air was forced out of lungs, he tried to claw at his throat but the North Wind kept his arms pinned. Six saw this and started to panic internally, it could definitely try to kill him if it wanted to and she couldn’t have that.

“ You really threw it all away for this human boy? Heh, sadly it is too late for you now. ”

“I don’t care about all that anymore! I changed, if sacrificing myself means he will be back to normal again I will do it.”, the North Wind looked unamused, it dropped her back into the sand and she landed with a dull thud. 

“ How heroic, you think you deserve a happy ending?” , no, she didn’t, and that is why she wanted to sacrifice herself. “ You do not even know if sacrificing yourself will fix the situation, you just do not want to live with the failure you caused. ”, it taunted, she narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth. It dared to accuse her! Mono began to struggle even more with the lack of air, the North Wind snapped around with an annoyed expression.

“ You know what, change of plans. My patience has run out. ”, it lifted Mono into the air, Six looked horrified.

“No, what are you doing! Leave him alone!”

“ Really, you still care even after he has threatened you multiple times? You are truly pathetic ”

She screeched when its claws slashed against his torso, then dropped him against the ground and faded from existence. 

“ Have fun ”, its voice echoed in the air. Six rushed over to him as soon as it disappeared, he stood on his hands and knees and clutched the bleeding wound. Deprived of oxygen and quickly bleeding out, he was growing weaker. 

“Mono! Are you-”, his head snapped up to her, anger was written all over his face. 

“You..you caused this! Did you know this monster, was this your plan? Get it to kill me!?”, the smile crept back on his face but the anger never left his eyes. 

“No-”

“Backstabber!”, she flinched away and took a step back, he was still not sound of mind, he was not going to listen. “That's what you did to that other boy didn’t you? The one you killed?” , her breath hitched, was he really going there? “You lulled him into a sense of safety, pretended to be his friend, just like you did with me. Then when he wasn’t looking, you ate him.”, he giggled madly, Six’s hands trembled. “I’m weakened, are you going to do that to me too?”, he eyed her curiously, she growled.

“ No. ”, she crossed her arms, he laughed again.

“Come on, I know you want to tear me to shreds. I wanted to hurt you, so why wouldn’t you? You’re a monster, that's what monsters do.”, she was already angered by the North Wind, so she was easily becoming even more agitated. “Are you going to sink your teeth into my flesh and tear out chunks until I bleed out? Drink my blood until I’m nothing but a dry husk?”,, he kept on taunting.

“I didn’t have a choice! I didn’t want to kill him!”, he didn’t look like he believed her.

“YOU STILL DID! Right in front of me! You were like a wild animal! I can’t believe you backstabbed them like that”, his expression morphed back into one of rage. “Come on, do it! Attack me! That's what you would do! It’s what you did to them!”, he shouted, trying to provoke her, to prove himself right. Six wasn’t having that, but she did have enough of his taunts.

“I DIDN’T USE MY POWERS AGAINST HIM! I was friends with him! I didn’t want to kill him, Mono. But I couldn’t control myself! I hadn’t eaten something for a while and I lost myself, I lost control!”, tears started forming in her eyes as the memories surfaced. “He was a real friend! I regret it so much, but I was so -”, she clutched her mouth as her stomach rolled, the nausea returned at full force. The pain from all the regret and guilt she felt was eating her alive, she didn’t know how much longer she could handle this before she fully broke down. She looked back at Mono who was sniggering, just further adding to her agitation. Then, she noticed the large amount of blood coating the sand below him, he was going to bleed to death! She grabbed his arm and dragged him to his feet, then ran towards the other Siren’s shelter that the North Wind had taken them from. Mono was delirious from the blood loss and did not struggle a lot, much to her relief. No doubt he would still probably try to kill her again later, she wouldn’t stop him. She squeezed in through a hole in a broken wall and went over to the fabrics, then placed him down by it and grabbed one of the fabrics. He continued to insult her and she could see he was growing angrier, but she ignored him. 

“You wanted help, you are getting help.”, she muttered, ripping up the fabric then tying it around the wound. Then after she was done she stood back up and took a step away, she didn’t look in his eyes. He would be fine if she left him here, she was upset now and wanted to leave. 

Yet, a part of her wanted to stay.

She shook her head, it's best if she got out of here. If he stops tracking her down, then his mind could heal, he would heal away from her. She turned and walked back to the hole. Honestly, she was getting tired of being threatened too, this was a lost cause.

-

Everything hurt. Mono felt as if his entire body was on fire, the slashes in his chest burned him. It was a bit better now, the makeshift bandages stopping the blood flow. Even so, his thoughts felt a little sluggish, almost like he was swimming. As soon as he had seen Six, the voices had started chanting in his mind, and they still hadn't stopped. All he could hear was the constant screaming.

Kill her kill her kill her kill her kill her kill her kill her

Why was it all so loud? 

His eyes fell on Six, trying to pick her way out of the building. Where was she going? 

“Six…”

She froze, turning around. 

“Hey, why are you leaving? Did I…am I hurt?” 

Six seemed confused. “Uh, yeah?” 

“What…” he groaned, pain spiking through his body again. “It's okay, Six. You’re my best friend. You’ll help me.” 

She stiffened, an expression of shock on her face. “Mono, are you alright?” 

KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER 

Mono scowled. “Why are you helping me, Six? You ate that other kid, why haven't you done it to me yet?” 

Six blinked, looking completely lost. Mono softly laughed to himself. She knew what she had done. “I'm going to kill you, Six. If you don't finish it now, I'll never stop coming for you. You had no problem with that other kid, so just-”

Six sprinted over to him and grabbed him by his coat. “Shut up.” 

Mono giggled. “You're proving my point, you know. Monster.” 

Six hissed and said in a low voice, “Kill me if you want, but don't you dare talk to me about Seven.” 

Ooh, she was getting upset. Maybe she'd show her true colors now. The Six he had seen. He decided to keep pushing. “That was his name? Shame you murdered him, didn't even give him a chance to talk-”

Six scowled, and dropped him back onto the ground. “Shut it, Mono. I'm helping you, just like you asked. But if you're just going to be an ungrateful prick, then I'll just leave you here to figure it out yourself.”

Mono watched her move to a different corner of the room, spreading out a blanket. His mind swirled with every thought possible, but one thing stood out among them all. 

She's not killing me.

Even though I couldn't hurt her right now.

Why? 

If she was pretending, then she was either the smartest person of all time or incredibly stupid. He would have done it. This was the perfect opportunity to get rid of him.

But she stayed. 

Every ounce of his brain changed to confusion. Everything he had thought about what he was doing, why he was doing it, suddenly became uncertain. 

His eyes started to feel heavy, and he laid back on the blanket underneath him. For now…for now he would just rest. He would figure it out when he was healed. 

kill her kill her kill her

She wouldn't let him down. After all, she was his best friend, wasn't she?

***

Six listened to Mono's breathing until it evened out, showing her he had actually fallen asleep. Only then did she let her tears come. His words had cut deeper than she had shown him, reminding her of the kind boy she had so briefly befriended. 

Seven, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry I couldn't be your friend. 

Please forgive me. 

She didn't even think of sleep, her past coming back to haunt her. The unnamed girl, shutting her out of a room to face monsters. Her previous victims, each terrified before she had killed them. Mono, his horrified look as she had forced him to kill beings, then his insane smile as he had lost all morality. 

Seven…

His bloody, broken body. 

Six didn't care anymore. She just cried on and on.

Chapter Text

Six awoke with a start, the taste of copper and iron was heavy on her tongue. Blood and gore dripped down from her face and mouth, she gasped softly and sprung up to her feet. What had happened? Where was she? Why was she covered in blood? She noticed she was closer to the floor and her raincoat was missing, her eyes widened, she was wearing white shorts and a white shirt. Was she..? 

Her eyes landed on a body in front of her, bloodied, broken, torn to shreds. The first victim. She was back at the Nest, but how? She brought a clawed hand to her face and covered her mouth, she remembered what happened here clearly. The boy, she never knew him, she had been captured and taken to the Nest and unfortunately they had crossed paths. She had been trapped in a cage for weeks, she was so hungry and the fool had opened her cage. He had listened to her sweet lies, doomed many children to an ill fate.

No, it wasn’t him, it was her. It was all her.

She did it, she had done it all.

The corpse’s blank eyed stare bore holes into her body, she didn’t like this. She wasn’t like this anymore, she had changed. She backed off and turned to run when she was stopped by a figure materializing in front of her.

“You.”, no, it was her. The unnamed girl snarled, her face was obscured in shadows by the raincoat Six had stolen but she could see the anger on her mouth. “You are a monster, you tried to trick me.”, she stepped forward, Six backed up until she hit the wall behind her. “I saw straight through your lies, but of course, I still died anyway.”, she said in a low tone, Six’s heart was hammering in her chest. No- No no- she remembered the way she had smiled when she found the girl’s coat, it made her sick to the stomach. “You took what was mine, thief, liar.”, her voice echoed all around the room, Six covered her ears.

“Monster, Monster, Monster!”

NO! She wasn’t anymore! She wasn’t!

The walls began to bleed around her and pooled onto the floor, the surroundings shifted and more and more of her victims appeared. She stared on in horror, there were so many, too many to count, and they all looked angry. 

“Why did you do it?”

“I thought we were friends..”

“You lied to me.”

“You tricked me.”

“Six..?”

Her eyes snapped to one of the corpses, a familiar face greeted her. Black-brown hair covering his face, blue jumper, cuff around his ankle. 

“Why did you betray me? Why did you kill me?”

She couldn’t handle this, she needed to get out. Blood lapped at her feet, all the stares felt like they were going to drown her. 

“Six.”

Another familiar voice called, a hint of madness to their tone. She couldn’t look, she could see their glowing eyes peer at her from the corner of her eye. Their smile reached from ear to ear, small black particles flitted around them and blinked in and out of reality.

“Sixxxyyy, we are best friends aren’t we? Then why did you keep pushing my mind, why did you destroy me?”

She couldn’t look, it would break her heart. All the failures, all the deception, she could feel it eating her up from the inside out. She screamed when she looked down and bugs were eating out of her stomach and scrambling around her lower body, she swatted them away but more just kept coming out. The pain was unbearable, the blood reached her lower abdomen now. 

It was getting hard to breathe, the air was dense with the humid smell of rot and decay. She couldn’t handle this, the blood pooled up to her shoulders. She desperately tried to breathe, but she couldn’t. Her body was frozen still, her senses were overwhelmed. The voices of her victims screamed out and assaulted her mind, her head throbbed with pain. 

The blood slipped over her head, she couldn’t breathe now. She couldn’t see. She was going to die, she was going to drown here. She didn’t want to die. She has changed! Why must she still be punished!

She is sorry!

She is so-

.

.

Six woke up with a startled gasp and clasped her hands over her mouth, she scanned her surroundings quickly. The room was dark, but she could see perfectly still. She could make out the soft breathing of someone sleeping, her nerves calmed down and the adrenaline left her body.

It's fine. She was fine. It was just a dream.

She slowly lowered her hand, her arms trembled slightly. She needed some air, quietly she got up and crawled over to the hole in the side of the building. She leaned outside to check if anything was amiss, but was surprised when she felt a droplet of rain land on her nose. She didn’t think it could rain in this desolate wasteland, but yet, it was. She turned back and looked into the room they had taken shelter in, he was still asleep in the spot she had left him in. She turned back towards the outside, then squeezed through and got outside. The air was crisp and cool on her skin, washing off the dried blood that was caked on her skin. She walked for a little bit until she found a dead tree that stuck out next to the building they were sleeping in, she stood there and stared up at it. Maybe if she climbed it she could see if there was a way out of this desert? There is only one way to find out. She jumped up and used her claws to find purchase on the dead bark, then climbed up until she found a sturdy branch at the top and sat down. Then she looked out, tried to find a way out of this horrid place and to escape the North Wind and its games. She squinted her eyes, but, there was nothing but sand stretching forever on. She growled and cursed under her breath, fantastic. She sighed and leaned back, thinking back to the nightmare she had. How had she fallen asleep? Last time she remembered she swore she didn’t want to sleep, probably the exhaustion and all the crying she was doing caused her to drift off without her knowing. That wasn’t exactly comforting to know, she had left herself vulnerable. 

Not that she would care much about what could have happened to her.

She brought her knees up to her chest, the nightmare was still vivid in her mind and the images flashed in front of her eyes. She rested her head on her knees and closed her eyes, tremors ran through her body. The voices of her victims screamed in her head, she could hear every single accusation and pained question squeezed her brain. 

And they were all right.

She hated herself, she hated what she was, hated what she had done. All her sins had caught up to her and were now tormenting her, she just wished for a moment of peace. She sighed, no, she didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve that for what she had done. She considered leaving again, if she left then Mono could heal, she wouldn’t feel so guilty if she did that. If she could save him it would bring peace to her mind, she would feel content. 

But..

A small, still selfish, part of her wanted to keep him around. To find a way to fix his mind, reverse the effects her magic had on him, and be his friend again. She scoffed, that would be too ideal to actually happen. She was too hopeful, too naïve. Soft. Part of her hated how she had changed, how she had become soft. Her old instincts still raged against her for what she had done. Stupid, so stupid, ignorant! Something clawed at her stomach and she froze, she clenched her teeth at the pain. No, no it can’t be happening already, it can’t. She released a shaky breath, she thought she would have had more time. This was not good, this was not good at all. She looked up at the endless stretches of sand, there was nothing living out there and she knew it. The other Siren had mentioned she hadn’t found anything to feed on for months, the North Wind had taken it all. She chewed absentmindedly on her lip, she had to get out of here now, she couldn’t have this happen again. It would destroy her!

She flinched and snapped her head to the ground when she heard a noise by the building, her eyes landed on Mono that was slowly crawling out of the hole.

Her pupils narrowed, no, no this..this was not a good time, what would he want now!

-

Mono blinked awake slowly, trying to get up, then groaning when he remembered his slashed chest. He had slept for a while, judging by the darkness of the room. It had been much lighter earlier. Was it raining now? 

It was, he could hear it softly pattering on the metal outside. It reminded him of the Pale City, going through the rain with-

Six.

His gaze snapped over to the corner she had made her bed. 

Gone. 

Anger clouded his mind. He had slept through her leaving. She was abandoning him again. 

Coward, get back here!

Mono stumbled to the hole in the side of the building. He would find Six again, and she would die. Once he got his strength back, she couldn't stop him. 

Outside in the soft rain, his suspicions were seemingly confirmed. Six was nowhere in sight. 

He howled, sparks flying off of him in every direction. She was gone again!  She always left, never taking responsibility for anything! She dared to say that she actually cared about anyone or anything besides herself, then left him again!

“SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX!!” he roared, his voice glitching and fragmenting in his anger. The voices were at a frantic, feverish pace now, screaming in his mind louder than ever before, all while laughing at him.

Weak. Foolish. Soft. 

Monster. 

Mono screamed, but his powers were still weakened. He could barely produce a few fizzles of static before it exhausted him. His shouts soon turned into laughter, loud and harsh in his own ears. He couldn't stop. He kept laughing, and could barely breathe through it. 

Dimly, through a haze, he could hear someone calling his name. He looked up, and saw a splotch of yellow coming closer to him. Barely able to see what it was, he tried to look closer, but ended up falling into the sand. Why was he so dizzy? 

***

Six felt a stab of panic when Mono toppled into the sand, she started shimmying down from the tree, calling his name. “Mono! Mono, are you okay?” 

He didn't respond. Six moved faster, reaching his side. “Mono!” 

He rolled over and mumbled deliriously. “Six, what…I don't…still here?” 

“Yes, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere.” 

He looked up at her, his words slurring, eyes trying to focus on her. “I thought…you were a monster. Why…” he groaned, static fuzzed around him and Six felt a small electrical shock come from touching him. “I'm…Six, please, I'm not..a monster, am I?” He giggled softly. “No, 'course not. That's..You, not me.”

Six pushed his hair out of his eyes. He wasn't looking directly at her, they were shifting slightly to her left. He obviously wasn't rested enough, and was still slightly off from all the blood he had lost. And there was the fact that he was also completely insane. 

Six spoke softly, trying to get him to stand. “No, Mono. You're not a monster. You're nice, remember? My best friend, you'd never hurt anyone.”

Mono struggled to his feet, guided by Six back to the building. “No, I've…I hurt people. You…you made me. Monster.” 

Six felt a shard of ice pierce her heart. He was right. But that didn't mean she was going to let him roam around and kill himself wandering a dangerous desert. 

She finally managed to get him back on his blankets, pulling off the bandages she had given him hours ago. They were soaked in his blood. He had lost so much of it, it was a wonder he was even awake. 

She ripped up rags to make new ones just in case the bleeding started again, then glanced over his other wounds. The old head wound had closed up, but it still looked slightly red. His arms were covered in small scratches that she recognized immediately. 

Her fault.

The guilt intensified when she saw the raw dent where she had clawed out a chunk of his flesh a while back. She had hurt him. 

All the while, Mono was muttering to himself feverishly, giggling and occasionally producing small sparks of static that disappeared after a few seconds. He seemed to have entirely forgotten she was even there. She felt guilt rise up again, and she sat and watched him for a moment. His mind had fractured many times over, she had no idea how she would even begin to try and fix him even if she could. 

His head snapped over to her. His eyes were focused, and he stared her down. She felt distinctly uncomfortable, she didn't like the look in his eyes. It was the same cold look that had been there before he had murdered Jade. 

“So, you're still here. Don't you have anything better to do?” He scowled at her, and Six instantly felt annoyed. So he was back to this now, was he? 

“Shut up,” she growled. “You asked me to help, I'm helping. Be quiet and rest, or you'll tear those wounds open again.”

“Why would you care?” he snickered. “Aren't you the one that tore me up first?”

Six hissed at him and stood up. “Stay there. I am saving your life by doing this, so if you want to be like this about it, I can always leave. You wouldn't be able to track me down if I got far enough away, not in your state.” 

Mono smiled, his face taking on an unnatural cast in the shadows. “You'd be surprised.” But she was right, and she could tell that he knew it. 

She smirked at him. “So you can take your attitude and shove it. I don't even need to be here, I'm doing this for you.” 

Mono snarled at her, then his expression changed completely. He stared at her with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open. “I'm glad you're taking care of me, Six. You're a good best friend.”

Six narrowed her eyes. “What?” 

Mono laughed softly. “I know you'd never leave me, Sixy. I don't have to worry.” 

What in the world? 

His expression changed back to anger, the cold tone returning. “Actions speak louder than words, Six, and yours are screaming.” he grinned at her. “Do you hear them?” 

“All the time,” Six responded quietly. 

At that, he shut up, blessedly, and went back to muttering to himself. She sighed and went back to her corner, watching him out of the corner of her eye. If he made a move, she had already positioned herself close to the door so she could escape. 

Her eyes widened as her stomach rumbled again, she hissed in pain and tried to drive it away. It was what she had feared, she hadn't had enough to satisfy, only to delay the inevitable. She very pointedly did not think about the reason why. 

Her eyes flicked back over to Mono, who had evidently grown tired of his raving and fallen back asleep. She sat and stared at him, then tried to rest herself. But panicked, terrifying thoughts kept swirling in her brain. 

It could happen again. I could lose control, then lose him. 

He would be right. 

Why? Why did something always have to happen? She was finally back with him, given a chance to help him, and now this? 

She heard a noise from Mono's corner, and her gaze whipped back over to see him shaking. She got up and walked over to him, and she started hearing words, spoken so quiet and fast that she could barely hear them. 

“it was fake all fake not my friend she lied to me why did she do this to me liar liar liar I'm not a monster she's a monster please no no no no no no no no”

He was talking in his sleep, and she could see tears dripping from his tightly shut eyes. 

“please help me six please no this isn't me I'm not me I'm not me I'm not me I hate myself please”

Six stepped back, and found tears of her own falling to the ground. She had done this to him, this was her fault. 

She would fix it. 

Somehow.

***

Six was back in her spot, idly drumming her fingers against her legs. She didn’t want to sleep, couldn’t , she was afraid she would have that nightmare again. The gnawing of her stomach wasn’t helping either, it was growing worse as the seconds passed. She had to actively concentrate or she would move without her noticing it, she had found herself hovering over Mono’s unconscious form twice already. She chewed on a piece of her hair, spitting it out once she realized what she was doing.

This was not working.

She tensed up when she felt the gentlest breeze whoosh past the building and pass through the rain, this was not normal wind, it was them. 

“ You are quite correct ” it whispered in her ear, its presence chilling her to the bone. The atmosphere told her that it was not happy, cold nipped at the exposed parts of her skin and the breeze blanketed against her like ice. 

“What do you want?”, she hissed into nothingness, it had decided to not grace her with its presence. That was fine, she didn’t want to see its ugly triangle head anyways. 

“ That is not how you greet a friend- ”

“I am not your friend.”, she spat, she heard it tut disapprovingly. 

“ Do not interrupt me. ”, it warned, her mouth clamped shut. “ Anyways, I just came to check up on my two favorite people. Anyone died? Tearing each other to shreds yet? No? How disappointing. ”, it drawled out the last word for a few syllables. “ I had hoped my little twist would spice things up, seems like it didn’t. ”, she narrowed her eyes, she was not impressed with its little trick. Yes it may have made Mono unable to do whatever he had wanted to after he killed Jade, but at the same time it just made everything two times as difficult. She was not going to give in to whatever it wanted out of them, it wanted a show and she had crashed it. “ I guess I will have to try something else, does not matter. ”, her eyes widened and she yelped when it materialized outside the hole she sat close to, then a wispy black hand reached inside and grabbed her around the waist just as she tried to escape.  

“Let me go!”, she squirmed in its grip but it was no use, it yanked her out of the building and the wind picked up significantly once she was outside. 

“ No, I think we are going to play a different game ”, its eye narrowed in what she assumed was an attempt at grinning, suddenly she felt herself get hurtled through the air at terrifying speeds as it carried her to who knows where. Then just as quickly as it started, it stopped. She got tossed into the sand and the North Wind stared down at her as she attempted to gain her bearings, it felt like the air had been punched out of her lungs from the impact. 

“W- What-”, she wheezed out, the North Wind dematerialized back into nothing but gusts of wind and sand, hiding from the naked eye. 

“ Up for a game of cat and mouse, I know I certainly am! You will be the mouse and…Mono will be the cat ” , it chuckled, she clenched her teeth. No! Mono was going to be very mad when he sees her missing and he can’t find her, he might try to hurt her again! “ And an extra twist, let's see how long you can last before your little problem makes itself known again. Ohhhh goodie I wanna see what happens when you go feral! Will you kill him and eat him? Or let yourself starve? I can’t wait to see what happens!” , he cheered excitedly, she just looked around in horror. No, she couldn’t let this happen, she couldn’t! “ Whelp, I must get going! I have a little something that needs..tending to, see ya!” , and just like that, the wind swirled around and disappeared. She ground her teeth and clawed the sand, she could already feel a pang of hunger travel through her body.

No, no no please, no..no!

She collapsed to the ground.

-

Mono immediately awoke when he felt Six’s presence leaving, he first looked around thinking that she definitely would not just try that after what she said. But, when his eyes landed on an empty room he chuckled. Of course she would, he didn’t expect any less.

Of course she would.

Of course.

LIAR.

TRAITOR!

He started to giggle to himself, it was so funny! She really did that! 

She left you.

She left you after she said she would stay.

She left after she promised to help you. 

A voice, louder than the rest, spoke up. He nodded, yes she did, she did. His giggles turned to full blown laughter, tears streamed down his cheeks. He couldn’t remember what he had dreamed about since he woke up, it felt important but he didn’t care. 

She lied.

She’s a monster.

Backstabber.

Traitor.

You need to teach her a lesson. 

He needed to teach her a lesson, she is nothing but a liar. She treats him like she cares then she goes and does things like this, she is double faced. He grinned, his eyes looked unnaturally wide and he pushed himself off the ground. She would pay, she would pay for this. He would give her a piece of his mind, and show her not to keep lying. He wanted to hurt her, he didn’t care that his powers were weakened, he would find a way to make her understand. Small sparks of static flew off his body.

Find her.

Teach her a lesson.

I can help you.

Just follow me.

The words in his head whispered sweetly, the room felt chillier than it had a few minutes ago and there was a soft breeze that pushed gently against his back. He grinned madly and stumbled towards the exit, his steps were uneven and shaky but pure adrenaline and energy kept him going. He would find her. No, he WAS going to find her. 

“You shouldn’t have left Six.”, he giggled, his eyes flickered and glowed. “¥ðµ §hðµlÐñ'† håvê l꣆!”, his voice glitched and words repeated themselves, a heavy tone of distortion was added to his words. “§hðµlÐñ'† håvê gïvêñ ¥ðµ å ¢håñ¢ê, m¥ þå†ïêñ¢ê ï§ £ïñï§hêÐ!”, his laughter echoed over the empty sands of the desert, the wind howled. Rain battered down onto his head, the wind pushed him in the direction he needed to go roughly. Once or twice he stumbled and nearly crashed into the sand, but the wind was there to catch him every time.

You will find her.

I will help you.

Then you two will have loads of fun!

Yes, yes he was going to find her. They were going to have so much fun, like best friends should. He couldn’t wait, he was so excited! He spotted a figure in the distance, hunched over and clutching their stomach. The burning yellow immediately caught his attention, it was blurry from this far, but he knew it was her. He started humming to himself, a very familiar tune. 

“ §ïïïïïïïïxx ”, the figure jolted, in mere seconds he had caught up. He hadn’t realized nor cared how quickly he got there, probably due to the wind. Six’s head jerked and tilted to look at him, something inhuman shone within them. “ £ðµñÐ ¥ðµ. ”, he smirked, Six bared her teeth and drool dropped to the sand.

-

Six was so hungry. 

She needed food, something to help her survive. That little appetizer of a child hadn't been enough, she had been taken away from it. She needed more.

Her eyes fixed on the figure stumbling towards her through the rain. Some fool, come to walk into her! She would have a feast, and she would finally be satiated! She would-

The figure lurched into her view. She recognized him. What was this, memories that seemed blurred and strange? She could swear something was so familiar…

Mono. It's Mono! My friend! 

Those thoughts broke through, and she remembered again. Six breathed heavily through the pain. She was losing herself again, close to becoming completely feral and running off instinct. She stared up at Mono, and shied back at the light in his eyes. He was grinning down at her madly, wobbling unsteadily in the wet sand. He was going to hurt her. 

Kill him, kill him now before he tries! 

Six fought with every fiber of her being against those instincts, her stomach roaring in protest. She needed to feed! 

Mono giggled, and she could hear distortion in his voice. “¥ðµ l꣆ mê ågåïñ, §ïx.”

Six painfully tried to crawl away from him, keeping her gaze trained on him. She managed to spit out a warning. “ Mono, please…get away from me!” 

He shook his head. “Öh, ñð ñð ñð, §ïx. †hå†'§ ñð† gðïñg †ð wðrk. ¥ðµ'rê gðïñg †ð §†å¥ hêrê, ¥ðµ ¢åñ'† rµñ £rðm mê.”

Six frantically clawed at the sand, trying to back away further. “ Please, no…you don't…”

“Ì Ððñ'† whå†? ÚñÐêr§†åñÐ? Ì †hïñk Ì µñÐêr§†åñÐ jµ§† £ïñê.” He kept walking towards her, small tornados of static spinning at his feet. “¥ðµ †rïêÐ †ð lêåvê mê ågåïñ. Öh, wê ¢åñ'† håvê †hå†, Ì §†ïll håvêñ'† †åµgh† ¥ðµ å lꧧðñ. ”  

Sparks flickered around his fingertips, he seemed to be still unsteady with using his powers, but he didn't seem to care. “¥ðµ lððk lïkê ¥ðµ håvêñ'† êå†êñ, §ïx. ¥ðµ §µrê åß𵆠ñð† êå†ïñg mê?” He laughed and seemed to almost fall, but was strangely pushed back into balance. “§êêm§ lïkê †hå†'§ gðñê 𵆠†hê wïñÐðw, mðñ§†êr.” 

Six growled at him. She wanted so badly to let go and have her meal, but she managed to restrain herself. It wasn't easy, especially with him taunting her. She groaned in pain. “ Mono! Get….away!”

Mono grinned and bent down over her. “ñðþê, Ì Ððñ'† †hïñk §ð. ¥ðµ'll lêårñ ñð† †ð lêåvê mê ågåïñ, §ïx. ̆'ll ßê §ð mµ¢h £µñ!” 

Six's back hit something metal, and she glanced behind her to see another building poking out of the sand. She grabbed onto the support beam and tried to climb. Mono watched her with an interested expression on his face. “Ärê ¥ðµ §†ïll †r¥ïñg †ð rµñ? Ððñ'† wðrr¥, §ïx¥, ¥ðµ'll ßê £ïñê. ̆ wðñ'† hµr†. Ć lê姆, ñð† å† £ïr§†.” he giggled at his own joke. 

Six's claws latched onto the wall, and she found a burst of speed, scrambling up it and onto a platform high above the ground. She glanced down, and immediately felt sick. She hated heights. A fall from here might actually break something. 

A hiss of static made her whip her head back around, and she turned to see Mono standing on the window just above her, completely sideways yet acting as if it was perfectly normal to be standing on the side of a building. He smiled and waved at her. 

Six hissed and attempted to move away, but he jumped down onto the outcropping and cocked his head. “Whå† årê ¥ðµ êvêñ †r¥ïñg †ð Ðð, §ïx? ¥ðµ §êrïðµ§l¥ †hðµgh†…”

His eyes suddenly widened, and he stared in shock down at her, his gaze strikingly lucid. “S-Six? W-What’s happening? Where…”

At that moment, Six felt a sharp pang of hunger, and she growled and tried to get away before she took advantage of his confusion and killed him.

Mono stared as if he'd never seen her before. “Six, please…I don't know what's happening…” he clutched his head and staggered backwards. “I can't think, or they come back! They all come back!” 

He looked terrified. “I'm not me, the voices…they won't be quiet!” 

Six wanted to help him, but in his confused state her instincts were all screaming at her to finish it now, to feed- 

His head snapped up to her again, and the madness had returned to his tone. “§ïx, ¥ðµ'vê gð† †ð ßê ¢årꣵl! Ððñ'† ¥ðµ kñðw hðw hïgh µþ wê årê?” 

A small sound caught her attention, and her gaze found a particle of static wiggling at her feet, almost seeming to attack the platform underneath her-

The stone cracked under her, and Six fell. 

She wildly slashed out with her claws, and barely caught the edge before falling. Mono loomed over her, his eyes glowing a bright white. He hummed. “Wêll, wêll, wêll. Lððk å† †hï§!” 

He stomped on the stone. It threatened to break and send Six toppling over the edge. “†hê¥ Ððñ'† måkê †hêm lïkê †hê¥ µ§êÐ †ð, êh §ïx?” He howled with laughter and began to dance with an invisible partner, stopping every so often to tap the platform to make it crumble. 

A chill breeze hissed around Six. “This would be the easy way out, right? You wouldn't eat him. But after all, who knows what would happen if he had another lucid spell and saw what he had done?”

The North Wind grabbed Six, yanking her claws out of the stone and tossing her to the ground. “This was supposed to be an epic battle, teeth versus static! DO SOMETHING! AT LEAST TRY AND EAT HIM!” 

It caught her just before she hit the sand, then shoved her into the ground roughly. Mono appeared over the edge, jumping down and catching himself with static. 

He walked over to her. “§ïïïïïïïx, Ððñ'† ßê lïkê †hï§. Çðmê ðñ, þlå¥ wï†h mê! ¥ðµ Ðð kñðw hðw †ð þlå¥, rïgh†?” 

Six felt something snap within her, and she struggled to not bite down on something, anything-

Mono got close to her, and she lunged. He jumped back, anger appearing on his face, but she howled and bit down on her own arm. Blood seeped through her coat, red on yellow. The wind swirled around her again. “Come on, do it! Eat him! It would be so easy! STOP BEING SOFT!” 

Mono grinned and wiggled his fingers in front of her face. “§µrê ¥ðµ'rê ñð† å mðñ§†êr, §ïx?” 

She couldn't help herself. She snapped at his hand, drawing a little blood. He jerked it back, his expression becoming full of rage. “¥ðµ llê-”

A shadow twisted around Mono's waist, and hoisted him off the ground. Something-some one had snuck up on the two while they were occupied. 

“Miss me, brats?” 

The Lady towered over the two children, her posture hinting at deep anger. 

The North Wind materialized in front of her. “ What are you doing? These are my playthings, get out of here!” 

“They came from my ship, therefore they are mine,” the Lady hissed. “You know what this would do to the Cycle, leave it alone.” 

“The Cycle can screw itself!” the North Wind howled. “This was my entertainment!” 

Shadows gathered around the Lady. “Get out, scum.” 

It held up its hands in surrender. “Fine. Be that way.” it vanished. 

The Lady glared down at the two children. “You,” she bit out, “have caused me more trouble than ever. Do you know how hard it was to track you down all the way out here?” 

Six could tell she was scowling, even under the mask. “I am going to have to fix this myself. You,” she pointed at Six. “You are coming back to the Maw with me. And you,” now she pointed at Mono. “You're going back to the Tower for-”

Mono's gaze turned wild, almost like a cornered animal. He screeched, and broke out of the Lady's shadows, dropping to the ground. Six could hear his feverish muttering from her position. “ No no no no no no no I can't go back no no no no no no no”

The Lady tried to grab him again, but he blasted her with static. “GȆ ÄWÄ¥ £RÖM MÈ!” 

Mono flickered, then pulled static towards him, attacking the Lady. She growled, shadows flying from her. “Stop this, boy!” 

Mono giggled and shot a blast of his power at her. “Èvêr¥†hïñg ï§ ågåïñ§† mê. †hå†'§ £ïñê. Ì'll jµ§† kïll ¥ðµ £ïr§†, †hêñ mðvê ðñ †ð m¥ £rïêñÐ.” 

***

The Lady effortlessly dodged the unfocused blast of static the Broadcaster shot at her, but he did not stop there. He relentlessly attacked her without a break in between, he was still weakened making his powers unfocused and dangerous, not caring for what or who he was hitting. The ground rumbled and static swirled around him like a mini tornado, the Lady attempted to teleport behind him and grab him with her shadows but a small shield made of electricity had formed around him. 

“Stupid boy! Stop this!”, the Lady hissed, he just madly giggled and shot another volley of electric currents towards her. She could easily dodge him, she knew that, but all it takes is one misstep and then he has her. She was caught off guard when he suddenly vanished into thin air, only for him to teleport directly onto her shoulder and punch her in the mask with static surrounding his fist.

CRACK

She tore the child off and tossed him into the sand, he grinned up at her. There was a chip in the mask and a crack spiderwebbed across to the nose, the Lady’s eye was exposed a black eye glared down at him. 

“ YOU LITTLE- ”, a pool of shadows shot forth and she successfully enveloped him in shadows one more, his powers pricked and stung at the back of her mind but she didn’t seem to care. He screeched from the inside of the shadowy cage, sparks of electricity arched out of the ball. A huge shockwave burst out and electrified everything nearby, breaking the Lady’s shadows apart. Time seemed to slow down and a clock chimed hauntingly in the distance. The Lady’s movements slowed down to a crawl, she watched as the Broadcaster dropped to the sand, then stood up and tilted his head up to look at her with pure rage on his face. 

Each step he took towards her the clock chimed out, the Lady felt panic rise up in her mind, but there was nothing she could do. 

“¥ðµ §hðµlÐ ñð† håvê Ððñê †hå†.”, he growled, electricity flowed down his arms and charred the sand beneath him. The Lady tried to summon her shadows and thwart whatever he was going to attempt to do, but she moved so slowly that it was useless. This was not supposed to be happening! She was a powerful sorceress and he was a mere child who did not know how to use their gifts properly! He began to form a rapidly growing ball of static and electricity in his hands, a grin broke out on his face again and he looked completely mad. He began to laugh uncontrollably. 

Suddenly, the ball exploded in his face. He screamed and stumbled backwards, his form glitched and flickered and electricity ran across him. Time sped back up and the Lady found herself able to move faster again, her eyes snapped to the boy curled up into a ball on the floor. Time to end this, she needed to fix the cycle. If his death meant it would be fixed, then she needed to end him right now. She flung her hand out and a spear of shadows shot out towards him, on the end of it a hand formed. It latched onto his chest and wrapped itself around something unseen, it sparked uncontrollably in her grasp like an overloaded fuse. It’s exactly what she was looking for, she pulled. He gasped, his eyes snapped open, then he screamed. His soul seemingly struggled in her grasp, she had never experienced something like this before. It sent shocks along the shadowy tendril almost making her lose focus multiple times, on the other hand it seemed extremely unstable. The Lady was so focused on extracting the boy’s soul that she did not notice the tiny figure in yellow, creeping up behind her. 

-

Six couldn’t control herself anymore, her mind was completely consumed by hunger. Spikes of worry shot through her each time she watched Mono get attacked by the Lady, but those feelings were quickly buried below her pangs of hunger. That was, until the light in his palms literally exploded, and he started to scream when the Lady shot a shadowy tendril at him. She snarled and pushed herself onto her feet, then staggered on unstable feet towards the Lady. Her vision was blurry and her surroundings would swim around her, yet she pushed onwards. Mono was squirming on the floor, she did not have much time. She shuffled around until she was right behind the Lady, her mind went blank and she bared her teeth. 

She lunged, claws outstretched and met her mark. She latched onto the Lady’s back and bit down, blood spurted through the clothes and into her mouth. The Lady immediately stopped what she was doing and screeched, she tried to turn around and grab Six but she was too quick. She scurried upwards until she reached the Lady’s shoulder, the Lady’s exposed eye focused down onto her and she attempted shooting her with her shadows, but was too late. Six bit down hard onto her neck hard , the Lady let out a howling scream. She tore flesh away from bone like a crazed animal, the Lady’s strength faded with each bite and soon she toppled onto the ground. 

That did not stop Six. She was hungry . She tore out chunks and gulped them down, each piece of meat filling that gaping hole clawing its way through her stomach. She couldn’t resist and gave into the sweet taste of copper on her tongue, bones snapped between her sharp teeth and meat was torn and squished between her claws then shoved into her jaws. Fresh blood seeped into the sand below the corpse and was splattered onto her like some crude painting, the scene was horrific to watch play out. She couldn’t stop, she didn’t know how long she had pushed through this hunger, how long she had gone on without a full meal, but she knew it was too long. She knocked off the Lady’s mask and plucked out her eyes, ate through her flesh until she reached bone, cut open her gut and pulled out her entrails, you wouldn’t even be able to recognize the corpse anymore. She gnawed on a bloody bone until she heard a voice weakly call out to her.

“S-Six?”, she halted, then dropped the bone and slowly stood up and turned to look at whoever had interrupted her. Her eyes landed on a boy sitting upright in the sand, short fluffy brown hair, static-laced eyes, slightly taller than her, olive-brown trenchcoat, a mixture between horrified and concerned expression on his face. Her pupils narrowed into pinpricks, her mind was hazy and it felt like she had been hammered in the head with a nail over and over again. She felt like she recognized him, but she couldn’t place a finger on it.

More meat.

Her mind growled at her. She was filled but she always wanted more, always wanted more power. She could feel there was power beneath his skin, she wanted it. 

She stood there silently and stared at him. 

-

The boy tried to stand up, but fell back into the sand, his form glitching wildly, multiple images of him appearing and disappearing in seconds, his voice sounded like an old television. “Six, are you…”

How does he know her name?

He tried to reach out to her. “Six, please…please help…”

He clutched his head and groaned, he seemed to flicker into transparency before stabilizing again. “Please…friend…”

Six froze up. Something was banging on the inside of her skull, screaming to be let out, but she couldn’t tell-

The flood of memories burst through, and she staggered backwards. “Mono! Are you okay?” 

Mono hissed, static flying off of him in every direction. “ Get out.” 

Six stepped towards him. “Mono, it's okay. You’re okay.” 

He looked up at her and grinned, his madness returning in a split second. “Can't you hear them in my head, Six? I tell them to get out, but they just won't shut up!” 

He howled with laughter, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I'll find a way to make them quiet. You brought them in, so if you’re gone, maybe they’ll go away.”

Mono tried to stand again, but couldn't find the strength. “Six, you made me a monster. Just…just like you.” He giggled and static sparked from his fingertips. 

Six took another step forward. “No, Mono. You're not a monster. Don't you remember?” 

His head jerked to stare at her. She continued, speaking softer as she got closer. “You're my best friend. You taught me how to play. You rescued me so many times, you saved me from being alone forever.”

Tears started forming in her eyes. “You…you changed me. You made me better, because you're nice, funny, loud, and a good friend. My best friend.”

Mono simply stared at her, and she broke down. “Please, Mono…please just be good again. I did this to you, it's my fault, I'm sorry. Just be okay…just be okay.”

Six fell to the ground beside him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He stiffened, but she didn't let go. A small shock passed through her body, and with it came the sense of connection.

Six did…something. She wasn't entirely sure what she had done, but it was like reaching into a soul that wasn't hers, possibly something from the Lady's powers. It was like putting a shattered mirror back together. It was him, she knew it instinctively.

Slowly, his arms reached around to hug her back. She gasped softly, then he let go and looked into her eyes. 

No madness lurked within them. He looked confused, and slightly tired. “Six, what-”

That was as far as he got before she tackled him, crying harder. He went down, and awkwardly patted her on the back. “Six, you realize you're crushing me, right?” 

She didn't care. Her best friend was back. 

At last, she got off of him, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, so what happened? I remember some of it, but it's all kind of…hazy. I think…” his eyes turned haunted. “Six, did I kill people?” 

She took his hands in hers. “That wasn't you. That was what I did to you. It doesn't matter now. You're not that person.”

Mono smiled, a genuine, innocent smile, the first one since the Pale City. “Okay, then. My best friend.” 

Six sat up on her knees. “Mono, I can't stay around you. I'll get hungry again, what if I-”

Mono brightened. “Oh! I have an idea! Come on, I’ll show you!” 

He took her hand in his, pulling her along. She grinned and let him lead her wherever he was going.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a wispy figure materialize next to her. She raised a hand and let shadows form around it, slowly shaking her head. Don't even think about it.

The figure raised its arms in surrender, and was blown away in a breeze. 

***

A boat had been perched on the beach and they had taken it to row back to the Maw, now that its owner was gone they did not have much to fear in going back there. Six wasn’t sure why Mono wanted to go back there, she was honestly very reluctant to do so. Painful memories resurfaced, a mistake she had ignored for too long until she paid for it. But if they were going back she could go and recover his body, then she can give him a proper burial, he would deserve it after all. She was glad he was back, he had forgiven her, he was normal again. Well as normal as a kid with powers could be. Six was playing with the shadows that she had gained after slaughtering the Lady, letting it dance between her fingers. She was fascinated by the new type of magic, she wasn’t entirely sure how she took it from the Lady but it was very cool. Now she could be like Mono in a sense. Luckily he hadn’t questioned all the blood and gore that covered it and she had washed it off some time when they got to the ocean, he hadn’t had much of a clear head back then. He knew she could get hungry and probably assumed what she had done, he did not look at the Lady’s corpse. It was for the best that he didn't see her actions. The boat reached the fake beach atop the Maw, smoke billowed out of the chimney slowly and they stood in front of the large metal front doors.

“What exactly are we doing?”, she glanced at him, he shuffled around the doors looking for a way in before standing up straight and looking back at her.

“I saw a library when I went through the lower decks, maybe we can find a spell or something to help you?”, she scrunched up her nose, she doesn’t know how much she would like that idea. 

“Don’t spells wear off eventually? Like I..”, she shut her mouth and pulled her lips into a thin line, he looked visually uncomfortable. “Nevermind, do you think it will last forever..whatever we find?”, he seemed to think for a moment then answered her.

“If it doesn’t work there are other things we could try”, he paused. “Have you even tried eating normal stuff?”, she opened her mouth, then closed it and frowned. No, she hadn’t tried to eat anything except the flesh of others. Something inside her had drawn her more to flesh than anything normal, so she always steered away from anything like ‘bread’ or ‘fish’. 

“No..I haven’t, I always just had a feeling that it would not work if I tried to eat normal food”, he seemed disappointed at her answer but that expression didn’t last, he snorted then started to laugh. She gave him a confused look and he waved her off. 

“No it's just- you haven’t even tried, that's funny, you thought it would kill you or what?”

“Not exactly”, she crossed her arms, she didn’t exactly find this very funny. 

“Well, no harm in trying now if we can’t find anything in the library, yeah?”, she nodded silently and he turned back to the door. “Now, how do we get this thing open?”, she walked up next to him and joined him in staring up at the door, she narrowed her eyes when she noticed a tiny symbol at the top. Maybe..she looked down at her hand, then back at the door. She pooled some shadows into her palm then threw it at it, it smacked against the door and quickly dissipated. At first it seemed like nothing had happened and she frowned then sighed, Mono seemed confused too. Then, something clicked inside, followed by a whirring of machinery. They both took a step back as the doors slowly slid inwards revealing stairs leading down into a dining hall, large tables and chairs lined the sides, all empty. In the middle was a red carpet leading down to an elevator. 

“Well, I guess that is one way to do it”, Mono commented, then took her hand and they both walked inside. “I can probably find a TV that will lead us to the library”, he smiled, she nodded and smiled back. She was so happy, so happy she could have him back and not be lonely anymore, so happy he was willing to stay and help her problem with keeping herself alive. 

“Hey”, she caught his attention as they stepped into the elevator and traveled downwards. “When we are done with the library..there is something I need to take care of, I’ll be back later ok?”, he seemed to contemplate her words.

“What is it?”, he asked curiously, she bit her lip and swallowed a lump down her throat. 

“I just..have to do something for another friend”, she smiled sadly to herself, Mono’s shoulders seemed to tense and a look of recognition flashed through his eyes.

“I can help you”, she shook her head, she needed to do this alone.

“No, It’s better if I do it alone”, he sighed but didn’t object, she was glad for that. With that said, the elevator crawled to a halt and the doors slid open.

-

Mono and Six came hurtling out of the TV and crashed into a pile of books, the device exploded at their exit. She groaned as she sat up, her vision swam slightly and her head felt fuzzy. She honestly didn’t know how Mono could so readily travel through those things and feel completely fine, it made her feel all woozy and sick. He stood up and then held out a hand towards her, she took a deep breath then grabbed his hand and let him help her up.

“How do you even do that so calmly?”, he paused, then shrugged.

“Takes a bit to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it's all calm seas ahead”, he grinned, right, like she had TV powers too. He turned away and pulled a lighter out of his pocket, using it to light the way and check over the many books stashed inside the library. He would give them a quick glance then move away and do the same, she began to suspect he wasn’t actually reading what they said on the backs. 

“Do you know how to read?”, he stopped, then turned to her with a sheepish grin. “You don’t know how to read.”, she affirmed, he nodded and scratched the back of his neck. “Give me the lighter?”, she sighed and he held it out to her, she took it and then started scanning the books. They were all about stuff she didn’t know nor care about, cooking, things called ‘cars’, clothes, some about people, fairytales. Nothing about spells or anything that could help them, she was about to give up when she spotted another strange symbol on the wall of the library, maybe a secret door? Would it contain books of magic? The Lady would have had to learn her dark magic somewhere, she pooled another ball of shadows in her free hand and shot it at the symbol. Something clicked and the wall became transparent, then shimmered out of existence. Silently they stepped towards the now revealed door, a bunch of intricate patterns were carved into its surface. An old language was written on its surface, her face paled, her language. It didn’t make any sense, she rushed forward and Mono had to run to keep up. She pulled the door open with her magic and stepped inside. Inside a dim light turned on and flickered weakly, the room was largely empty except for a tall pedestal standing in the middle that held a single book, and papers with scribbles and many drawings scattered around on the floor and walls. 

“What is all this..?”, Mono whispered behind her and strode over to a few of the papers. Six’s mind was churning slowly with a million questions and she walked up to the book on the pedestal, grabbed it and looked at its cover. And again, it was all written in her kind’s language. 

“ The Magic of Sirens ”, she muttered in her language, Mono looked up as she stared intently at the book.

“What?”, she flipped open the book and started scanning the pages, most of it she couldn’t understand, some words being too difficult or smudged for her to understand, but she could make out a few things. She didn’t answer him, a feeling of dread enveloped her. 

Very dangerous.

Cannibalistic, need flesh to survive.

Powerful manipulation magic.

Loners, do not like other Sirens.

All of this was things she already knew, but what she read next shocked her.

Sirens are made, not born.

That..she gripped the book tightly, her claws dug into the back of it. Sirens..are made, not born? She didn’t understand, but, it sort of made..sense? She thought back to her earlier memories, she could never remember most of her past. All that she could remember clearly is when she already was a Siren, that is all she was fully confident in. She had already known most of what she needed to to survive, but she could never explain it.

“Six?”, Mono called out to her, she was too distracted to notice. She closed the book and put it back then scanned the papers on the floor and walls, many of the words were feverishly written down and untidy, like someone was in a rush. It looked like writings for a type of magic, like someone was trying to find a spell for something. The clues slowly churned in her head before it clicked, this was all in the Lady’s ship, in a hidden room, written in a language only a certain type of monster could understand. The Lady is a siren, but, something wasn’t right. Six had eaten her, and she knew she shouldn’t have been satiated by her if the Lady was a Siren. Six hadn’t felt that the Lady was a siren, so, had she found a way to reverse it? She must have found a way, if Sirens are made, can they be made normal again? 

“Hey, did you find something?”, Mono called again but she didn’t hear him, she grabbed a few off the papers off the floor and read them. 

Could Dark Magic be the answer?

I have attempted to use it, it worked! I feel normal again.

Unintended side effects, Dark Magic is not a perfect solution, only fixes the curse temporarily. 

Have to ‘feed’ on souls to keep up the spell.

She frowned, the Lady had used Dark Magic. That is how she had done it, yet that hadn’t completely fixed her, she needed to feed on souls of other living beings to keep up the spell. But- but, Six felt hope rise in her chest. There could be a solution, maybe could be normal, maybe- maybe-

Maybe she could be human. 

“Yeah”, she grinned giddily and looked back up at Mono. “I think I found something”, he looked confused. “Uhm, these papers and the book-”, she pointed at them, he nodded slowly. “They said, they said Sirens are made..not born, Mono, do you know what this means?”, he took a moment to think before it dawned on him.

“Wait are you saying, you can be normal? You weren’t..born like this?”, she nodded, he stilled then suddenly walked over and hugged her. “That’s- that’s great Six! I-”, she squeaked out of shock and wriggled out of his grasp. 

“Yeah, but..”, she started, fiddling with the strap of her raincoat.

“But what?”, he questioned and tilted his head.

“The Lady tried to find a solution, it was only temporary. Don’t know what can fix it, if I can even reverse it and be normal and..”. She suddenly felt nervous, she had been like this for as long as she could remember. How would she be able to be normal? She didn’t know how, would she even be able to be? 

“I’m sure we will figure it out, together”, Mono said softly. “And I can teach you how to be a kid”, he smirked, she wasn’t amused at his poor attempt of a joke and punched him in the arm. “Ow! Hey be careful you are pretty strong!”, she snorted and turned away, looking back into the library. Now that they had figured things out..she had something she needed to take care of.

“You can stay here or go back to the Lady’s quarters, I need to go do something”, she said sadly.

“Ok, be careful. There can still be monsters”, she gave him a sad smile then walked out.

Time to get back to the furnace room.

-

Six crawled through a vent until she reached the end, she spotted the warm light of the furnace through the gaps in the grate and halted. She felt anxious again, she wasn’t ready but she had to do this. She had to give him a proper burial, it was the least she could do for him. She took in a deep breath then sighed. She pushed on the vent covering and it popped loose and clattered to the ground, alerting a few nomes who stood in front of the fire. She dropped down onto some boxes and surveyed the room, some nomes let out clicks of alert and scurried away but she didn’t pay them any mind. She was looking for the body of Seven. 

...

There was nothing there.

This didn’t make sense, he was supposed to be here. She did a double take, but got the same results. His body wasn’t here. Her eyes widened.

She saw a blood trail leading from where he lay and into a hole. A low growl emanated from it, and red eyes glowed in the darkness.