Gabrielle woke up to the sound of her phone beeping, she rolled over and turned it off. She was waiting for Skyler for the entire time she was in Elega, but he didn’t show up. She waited hours in the castle for a guard to call her down and get him, too. Dazed, confused and angry, she punched her pillow. Where is he? There was a whooshing noise, and she could feel his presence behind her.

“Where were you?!” She squeaked, rolled over and tackled Skyler, she put so much of her weight onto him that he almost fell over.

“Woah, careful! You could’ve knocked me over!” Skyler said with a giggle as he patted her on the back.

“You’d better tell me what you were doing,” She grumbled, her head buried in his chest

“I was with Dr. Gage and a few of my friends, trying to figure out what we could do to get me more power. I don’t really want it, but I won’t be able to defeat him without more, after what I was told.” Skyler said.

Gabrielle looked up at him, she didn’t know what he was talking about. “What do you mean ‘him’? Who’s ‘him’?”

“Oh, yeah, you weren’t there… His name is Wrackivorn, he’s a cousin of mine. On my father’s side, obviously. Nobody on my mother’s side would do what he’s done. It’d be insane to have your soul get a second chance, only to trade it away for more power.” Skyler looked down, but averted his eyes.

“What do souls have to do with this?” Gabrielle asked and tugged at his sleeve.

Skyler stared at nothing for a moment. “It’s that… Book, again. A… Very bad person who I won’t name had it and let Wrackivorn borrow it, and Pain is one hundred percent sure that he read all of it. Pain’s a reaper, he can sense souls, and Wrackivorn didn’t have one.”

“What does that mean, though?” Gabrielle was worried, something felt off about the way he spoke, and she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong about the feeling she was getting off of him.

“That book, I can’t even describe… And him… It’s worse than horrible, I don’t have the words for it. I’ve only heard a little of what is inside from Elaine, but even she couldn’t tell me some of the things she read off the cheat sheet she was given.” He raised his head and turned away from Gabrielle.

“Cheat sheet? For a scary sounding book like that? Why’d she have one?” Gabrielle said and pulled at his coat.

“The reason why Pain even exists is because she read a bit of it. Each page takes a part of the reader’s soul away, or rather, rips it out of them. She told me it was an extremely painful experience, but she didn’t want to lose him, so she did it, but he would never have died if it weren’t for that man, and I wouldn’t have died either.” Skyler looked back at Gabrielle, a pained expression etched into his face.

“I’ll never forgive that guy,” Gabrielle said with hatred in her voice as she buried her head into his chest again and squeezed him tightly. He must have been shaken just remembering the guy, she thought. This was the first time Skyler actually talked about his death without dancing around the fact that he died, but she didn’t want to prod him for any more information, even though she wanted to know more.

“Me neither, but enough about that, get dressed. We’re going to meet up at your work to continue brainstorming,” He said and patted her on the back.

“Aw, but I had today off.” Gabrielle let go of him, fell backwards and plopped back onto her bed.

“If you don’t feel up to it, I can go myself.” Skyler turned and started walking out.

“No, I’ll go, I just don’t like the fact that I’m going to my workplace on my day off is all,” Gabrielle said as she got up and yanked at Skyler’s trench coat.

“Alright, I’ll be in the front room waiting,” Skyler said and giggled again, looking back at her pouting face.

Thirty minutes later, they were at the hospital. She knew he teleported so she pestered him to let her drive him there instead of him teleporting away. The car ride was silent for the most part besides him asking her how she was doing today, and her responding saying she was doing fine.

She slammed the car door behind her, and heard the front passenger door slam as well. They both silently walked towards the entrance. Without a noise she took her hand and prodded at his and looked up at him. He smiled in response and held her hand. She put a hand to her chin, a warm and fuzzy feeling coursed through her body.

They walked in together, and Jack was at the counter again.

“Hey! What are you doing here on your day off? I never come near this place on my days off,” Jack said and laughed.

Gabrielle walked around and faced Jack, his eyes widened a little as soon as he got a glimpse of them holding hands.

“You know you should probably not do what I think you’re going to do here, don’t want you to get fired for having some…” Jack cleared his throat and raised his hand to do a quoting gesture, “fun, in the hospital.” Jack grinned, stifled chuckles barely escaped his throat.

Gabrielle’s face turned beet red, and Skyler started laughing. She wondered if she should let go of his hand, but decided not to. Why was Skyler laughing? She didn’t think it was funny at all, more embarrassing than anything else.

“I would never! And stop laughing, Skyler! It’s not funny!” Gabrielle said and lightly punched Skyler in the arm.

“Sorry, sorry. I just couldn’t believe what he said.” Skyler rubbed his arm, a cheeky smile still etched onto his face.

She leaned forward and stuck her finger out. “You’re wrong to think that I’d even consider doing a thing like that in a place like this. We’re here to see his friends and talk about what to do next, not… You know, that!”

“I was joking, chill!” Jack laughed and made a dismissive gesture with is hand.

“You’d better have been joking, pervert!” She wagged her finger at him, then stood up and led Skyler out of the room by the arm.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Skyler asked, pulling her back.

“No, I just wanted to make it dramatic by leaving, sorry. Um… Can you show me where it is?” She turned around, embarrassed.

“No problem, follow me.” Skyler walked in front of her and led her in the right direction.

A small bit of walking later, she could hear distant conversation.

“Well, I can have them make anything I want, just like your lower jaw, remember?” A female voice asked.

A voice spoke inside her head that wasn’t her own, It was a velvety smooth male voice. “Yes, I remember, I’m wearing it right now.”

“What the- what was that?” Gabrielle was filled with fear, she’d never experienced anything like that before. What was that voice? She was thoroughly freaked out.

“Oh you remember Pain from before, right? The guy who gave me my clothes? That’s him, he’s just speaking telepathically, since his favorite prosthetic keeps him from talking normally.” Skyler turned around and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

They walked into the room, and she immediately notices Pain floating upside-down in the criss-cross position near the right wall. Their eyes met, she was completely floored. What the hell? She’d seen Skyler turn his arm into a blade, but this was a lot stranger.

“W-who? Who or what is that?” She shakily pointed to Pain, who became stonefaced in response.

“Gabby please, I know you didn’t get a good look at him but don’t call him an it, he’s very fragile. Pain, stop floating over there, you’re scaring her.” Skyler made a collection of downward sweeping motions with his hand.

Pain nodded and turned himself right side up, then put his feet back on the ground.

“I’m used to getting that kind of reaction first.” Someone responded. It was the same female voice from the hallway. She was a purple colored android, her outer layer looking like a skin tight suit. Her lower legs went outward like bellbottoms and ended over where her feet should have been, with a flat surface in the middle of the curve of the metal so she wouldn’t fall over, with a streak of light purple paint at the end. Her long purple hair reached down to her mid-back and didn’t have varying length at the end, it was a straight line all around at the end. Two pointy contraptions that looked like sensors poked upwards where her ears should have been. Her mouth had a thin bright red line around it and her lips looked like large upper and lower fangs, though there were teeth behind said lips. Her eyes were black where the whites of her eyes should have been, and the color of her eyes were a glowing red.

“Oh, I didn’t expect someone from New Metropolis to be here, what’s your name?” Gabrielle was very interested, she’d rarely ever seen an android, since they all live in the New Metropolis area and built their own society.

“Nagix, Nagix Brooks.” Nagix unfolded her arms and waved.

“Oh, so did you use to be…?” Gabrielle was going to say it but she stopped herself, she didn’t want to sound racist, her voice was very similar to what African American women sound like.

“You were going to say black, weren’t you?” Nagix said, her eyelids lowered, and she put a hand to her hip.

“Oh, no I wasn’t! I just don’t know how to say it without offending you,” Gabrielle said, putting her hands in front of her.

“It’s ok, I’m still my race even in this body, though.” Nagix did a dismissive hand gesture with her free hand.

“Let’s not get too far into this, I need to go back to the mainframe soon.” Wira waved her arm.

Gabrielle looked around the room, there was Pain, Wira who she didn’t know, Drake, who was sleeping in a chair, Nagix, and Elaine, who was buried in a book.

“You’ll have to wait a little longer, Wira, I’m trying to find a certain spell.” Elaine turned a page, looking intently at the contents inside, which from where Gabrielle stood was a lot of red text and some sigils.

“Is that your sister over there Skyler?” Gabrielle pointed to Wira.

“Ah, technically yes. We decided on trying to siphon my mother’s power into me somehow, but we don’t know how to do that yet exactly.” Skyler waved to Wira, who waved back.

“Is that how you’re going to get more power?” Gabrielle asked, tightening her grip on his hand.

“Are you sure about this? It could be extremely dangerous,” Pain said, scratching an itch on his cheek.

“I have Gabrielle to keep me in check, I’ll be fine. What do you think, Wira?” Skyler turned to Wira, who put her index finger to her cheek and thumb to her chin.

“Maybe… An upgrade of the wireless connector?” Wira wondered.

Drake shook his head as he woke up. “What about the wireless connector?”

“That sounds like a plan, but how do we upgrade it? And do we have the parts for it after getting that one guy you told me about an arm?” Nagix asked.

“My asshole demon side, yeah. I hope he didn’t set you back too much.” Drake pouted, and crossed his arms.

“I have some spare chest parts from some trial version of an offshoot Wire Girl that was never mass-produced, which was how Boy was created. It was supposed to be a line of male Wire Girls, but the trials were unsuccessful.” Wira shook her head.

“Boy?” Drake asked as he leaned over in his chair.

“He doesn’t have a name, usually I give a color and a number to Wire Girls, and Tall Dolls choose their own names amongst themselves. Neither of them accepted him into their group, and he became an outcast, which made him increasingly angry, on top of being incomplete.” Wira lowered her head.

“I’ll try to talk to him sometime,” Drake said while he leaned back into his chair.

“I found it.” Elaine lifted her head from the book she was reading, and pointed to the sigil on the page.

“Good, now we need the parts,” Nagix said and looked to Wira.

“I’ll try to find a buffer version’s parts that could fit over Skyler’s shoulder.” Wira smiled, her strange mouth making her smile look menacing.

“Do you have a neck plate though?” Nagix asked and folded her arms.

“I’ll see if I can find one and finagle it to work,” Wira said and leaned against the wall.

“I’m glad you called on me, I’m an expert on this, you know.” Elaine grinned pridefully.

“Of course, Lady Elaine. You even knew the exact book it was in,” Pain said, bowing at Elaine with a hand behind his back and another on his chest.

“I told you to stop calling me that, and stop bowing,” Elaine said in an annoyed tone.

“Yes, my Lady,” Pain said and rose back up.

Elaine groaned and put a palm to her face. “Oh whatever…”

“He can’t stop being formal I guess,” Drake said with a grin.

“It’s like a nervous tick for him when he’s around her.” Skyler said and shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s really cute.” Gabrielle smiled.

“Yeah she keeps telling him not to do it but he can’t help himself,” Skyler said as he walked up and ruffled Pain’s hair.

“Cut that out,” Pain said with a smile but pushed Skyler’s hand away.

“You’re such a goober, you know that?” Skyler let out a chuckle and patted Pain’s back.

“I’m not a goober, I swear,” Pain said, lightly punching Skyler in the arm.

“I think I need to get going now,” Wira said and started to walk out.

“See you soon.” Drake waved at her.

“What do you mean ‘see you soon’?” Skyler asked and turned to Drake

“Father gave me a wireless connector.” Drake said with a pained grin.

“You don’t seem too happy about that,” Skyler said.

“Glitch was there, and until he’s gone I won’t be able to enjoy connecting to the mainframe.” Drake slammed his fist on the chair.

“Oh shit, him?” Skyler scowled.

“Yeah, him. I never want to see his damned face again, but I don’t want to stay away for too long,” Drake said as he looked away.

“Is Glitch the other personality Skyler told me about?” Gabrielle asked.

“Yeah, it would have never happened if my father didn’t want me to be human, he thought he could keep me from having demonic urges. It worked until a few years ago,” Drake said with a slight nod.

“That’s terrible, I hope it works itself out soon,” Gabrielle said. She felt bad for him, having another side of him that he couldn’t control.

“You think you could work with Wira on the device, Nagix?” Skyler asked, turning to the purple android.

“Yeah, but only in short bursts. It might take a while to complete because of that,” Nagix said as she closed her eyes and nodded slightly.

“Alright, I’ll see you all later then. See ya,” Skyler said and waved to the group.

“Okay, bye.” Elaine said, her head back in the book she had.

“See you later, brother,” Drake said as he smiled and put his hands behind his head while leaning backwards on his chair.

“Yeah, see ya.” Nagix grinned and waved back.

“See you tonight., Pain said with a wave.

“Well that was quick,” she said as she walked out of the room with him.

“Well we had to cut our time short last time and Wira and Nagix weren’t there, I reluctantly brought Elaine to Elega, but I had to make her promise she wouldn’t try to take it over.” Skyler grinned and shook his head.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I’ve had to stop her from toppling governments before, I wanted to preemptively tell her to not try that kind of shit there,” he said and sighed.

“Oh, wow, she seems really… Aggressive.” Gabrielle’s eyes widened a little, she didn’t think that woman with the body of a child could be so power hungry.

“Tell me about it, she runs a vigilante group with a name I have told her about ten times to change, but she won’t listen to me,” he said and looked at her.

“What’s its name?” she asked, wondering how it would be as bad as the hero he wrote in english class in high school, Super Awesome Ranger isn’t exactly the most creative name to give a protagonist.

“Macabre Hearse,” Skyler said and scowled.

“That’s an interesting name. Never knew she was a goth,” she said, wondering how she came up with such a weird name.

“It’s incredibly bad and I just want her to change it, but she keeps saying it’s the best name ever and that I just don’t understand genius.” Skyler shook his head again.

“Ha, that’s great.” Gabrielle smiled and stifled a giggle.

She was still holding his hand. She wondered why his mother’s power was so dangerous, and how he met Pain, who freaked her out in the beginning, but turned out to be a nice guy. She also liked Nagix, even though she was really awkward around her initially. They walked out together, and parted ways. She drove back home. The radio was drowned out by her own thoughts. She wished she was less awkward that day, and laughed at herself because of how silly she was.