The scenes and events that happened next were all but a blur to me. Sure, I walked into my apartment. Of course, I went ahead and started packing up the essentials.

Though if you were to ask me what my thoughts were during the process of moving out, I would have just looked at you and gone - "Thoughts? What are thoughts even anymore?"

Because I had no thoughts. The bizarreness of the entire scenario hadn't settled in yet in my ailing, failing head. My poor brain hadn't yet come to terms with previous events and now it's getting slammed in the front lobe with another one.

Cue the explanation.

Bowler-hat man came to my place and found that it had been ransacked and torn apart. So he reported to the big boss, and the big boss in turn reported to my dad, and my dad in turn started turning cogs in his head and came to the conclusion that I've been robbed and rendered homeless.

Don't know why he didn't just look at the news, but I digress. So in his own way of helping me out, my dad, the madman he was, managed to coax the big boss into giving me another place to stay.

Now, I do not know how he managed to do that. I do not want to know how he managed to do that. All I know was that he managed to do that. Dad has some pretty big pockets, apparently, and those pockets run deep.

Yeah, that settles it… I needed to ask me some questions here.

So after bidding bowler-hat man farewell, here I was now - with a key and an address to a new home that I'll be staying in for the time being. Along with an Elf, Vampire, and a Phoenix.

You know - like normal people.

Man, I'm stuck in a loop, aren't I? Doom to spend the entirety of my days constantly zigzagging through abnormality after abnormality.

I used to have an aversion for these kinds of things. Anything strange or out of place anywhere and I'll go steering away in the other direction. Lately though, it's starting to seem like I have an aversion to my own aversion.

My whole life is just one big novelized joke authored by the Big Man above… wasn't even that funny, really.

But enough about me, how about we go and see why Ria was still in my room rummaging around the insides of my closet for the past five minutes now. Sure she must have a good reason for it.

"Why isn't anything here folded or organized?!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide in horror. "You live in a pigsty!"

Yep, a very good reason indeed.

"Weren't you supposed to be taking cables and toothbrushes and things like that?" I asked her, to which she promptly ignored.

"Shirts! Pants! Wha- even underwear?! Really? Didn't Terestra teach you how to fold?! What kind of omnipotent excuse of a mother doesn't teach her own son how to fold his clothes?!"

I swiped away the boxers that she had pinched between her fingers and stuffed into a bag that I fished out from a drawer.

"Firstly, my mom's name is Lilith," I said. "Secondly, yes, she did teach me how to fold my clothes - I just don't bother to, alright? It's a pain. Sue me."

Ria stood up, rolled her eyes, and went into the living room, where her voice echoed aloud once more.

"You don't even wash the plates!"

This phoenix I swear to God…

------

With a bag packed to the brim with some essentials, finally, we made our departure. But not before I spun around, taking in one last good view at the doorway that held a lot of memories.

Could still remember the first time I walked through this hall, the first time I cooked in that kitchen… how time flies by….

Okay, that's all the memories I have. Bye apartment. You were nice. Not too nice, yet nice enough. I shall remember you… for as long as I'm able to anyway, no promises.

Another chime of the elevator bell signaled our descent back down to the ground floor. Silence and compactness again drifted my mind about, drifted it to a scene I wasn't very gung-ho about.

That abandoned building at the side of a begotten road and the events that transpired within them will surely come to haunt my dreams for many nights to come.

Morbid curiosity had me wondering about things I really shouldn't be. Like what would have happened if just a single little thing had gone a different way.

If Ash hadn't listened to me, or if Irene hadn't come, or perhaps most damaging of all...

I turned to look at the phoenix beside me, who was once again humming a dainty little tune to herself, her flames glowing in harmony to the melody of her voice. I looked at her and thought - what if she wasn't there?

I never really did give her my thanks, did I?

I should.

"Thank you," I finally said to her. "For everything, really."

"Don't mention it," she beamed. "Don't thank me."

I shook my head. "Still going to anyway. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead many times over. Wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't thank you for helping me out there."

Ria again brushed it all aside, pursing her lips, squinting her eyes.

"I think you're under the wrong impression," she muttered. "If you are, change that impression."

I felt my lips curved downwards. "What does that mean?"

"I didn't help you, bucko…" she explained. "You helped yourself. I was just along for the suicide ride, wasn't I?"

"That's not…"

"Not what? True?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Looked pretty true me. Whatever it takes, right? At my expense… Irene's expense… doesn't matter so long as it gets the job done, right?"

"I thought you were okay with it? The plan… helping me?"

"What was my other option? Disobey? Can I even do that?" She gave a chuckle. "Would you have let me, master?"

A simple thanks, a little expression of gratitude… how did it end up like this? I was utterly confused by it all. I never really thought about it that way… I was always under the impression that she was helping me out. Was I really just using her? Was I really just helping myself?

If she was angry, then why wasn't she? If she wanted to make me feel guilty, then why wasn't she upset? Why was her smile so nonchalant?

It stayed that way even as the elevator doors parted open to the outdoors, lingered still, as she spun around back to face me, speaking, with not a shred of bitterness to her words.

"Just a little tidbit for the future - I actually do have the right to disobey orders. There's a penalty for it, yeah… and each penalty will inflict so much pain onto me that I would wish I were dead. So, yeah… keep that in mind the next time you mindlessly order me around because maybe at some point - I might just decide that I would rather take the pain than listen to you any longer."

A raise of an eyebrow, then she turned around again and continued walking back to the car, leaving me at an utter loss for words, trailing along right behind her.

"I'm sorry…" was all I could say to her.

And even that she wouldn't accept.

"Don't be," she said reassuringly. "You managed to do it, didn't you? Heroes shouldn't have to apologize for saving the day. Even after everything, you still did everything right."

Another chuckle.

"Right?"