“Hey, you aren’t mad that I’m a member of the Krokodil Crime Family, are you?” Dominic asked nervously as the two exited the apartment building and stepped onto the purple-lit footpath outside.

“Of course not! We don’t control the circumstances of our birth, Dominic. Also, I’m guessing you’re adopted?” Thomas responded.

“How did you know?” Quickly the three sisters burst through the front door of the apartment building, staring them down. Aside from Aria, who nervously shuffled to the side.

“We don’t want to fight you, Dominic. So, please step away from the man,” Celine commanded.

“What are you going to do if I don’t?” Dominic asked, putting on a threatening tone as he clenched his fists.

“Uh, Dominic, these guys are pretty powerful Civ users. I don’t know if we want to fight them . . .” Thomas tapped Dominic on the shoulder nervously as he spoke.

“He’s right. You have a powerful Civ, Dominic. But you lack experience,” Celine answered.

“I’m not going to let you hurt him, Celine. That’s final.”

“Then I guess it’s settled then.”

“WAIT!” Thomas shouted, throwing up his hands. “I surrender!”

“What?” the four Krokodils asked in unison as they all turned towards Thomas.

“I don’t want to make you fight your family, Dominic. I’ll let you erase my memories, and I won’t come after you guys again, okay?” Thomas pleaded.

Celine and Rosemary began to walk over with a smirk on their faces, stepping up towards Thomas and Dominic triumphantly.

“Thomas, with all due respect: no. Confusion,” Dominic said, striking the ground as Celine walked over, a reel of film shooting out of the ground and binding her wrist before retreating back into the ground and pinning her wrist against the dark metal street.

“Dominic, what are you doing?” Celine asked, not sounding particularly nervous about—simply exasperated by—her younger brother’s efforts to slow her down. Then, she felt a phantom foot kick her square in the jaw, knocking out one of her teeth as it swung into her cheek. “Breaking Point!” she shouted, blood spurting out of her mouth, but then she froze. Dominic was standing over her with a reel in his hand. One that was jetting out of Celine’s back.

“Confusion,” Dominic said, tearing the piece of reel from the whole, with the larger sequence of images taping together to remove the gap. “This reel contains the memories of how to use your Civ. It’ll take a while for you to relearn it.” Suddenly, dozens of strands of red thread wrapped around Dominic’s torso, squeezing him tightly.

“What the fuck is the matter with you? I thought you went through your rebellious phase in your teens when you got that shitty mohawk,” Rosemary taunted, but turning, she found a glowing fist connecting with the threads, tearing through them and causing Rosemary’s right arm to shoot blood out of over a dozen places on her skin. Then several more constricted Thomas. “Your heartbeat, Thomas. It’s high enough,” Rosemary shouted. “Breaking Point!”

“What? Did I forget what your Civ was?” Thomas asked, confused and bewildered as he looked at Rosemary, then at Celine who was just getting off the ground.

“No, but she did,” Dominic revealed as he walked out from behind his sister’s silhouette. “I gave her the memories of Celine using her Civ, and now she’s going to act them out. Not bad, huh?” Dominic smiled as Rosemary released Thomas before beginning to randomly stare at them, as though she was using her older sister’s Civ.

“Well, you got to learn from the best,” said Thomas, smiling as he shook off the wires that retreated into Rosemary’s body.

“Well, my sisters never used their Civs around me.”

“Ha-ha.” Thomas fake laughed as the two embraced.

“Awwwwww. I knew you guys were good for each other,” Aria yelled from across the footpath.

“So, what do you want to do about them?” Thomas asked. “I’m willing to keep this going, but I think they’ll still want to kill me.”

“I know what to do about that . . .” Dominic smiled as an idea entered his mind. “CONFUSION!” he shouted, placing a hand on each of his sisters, causing a reel to erupt from each of their torsos, which Dominic promptly tore out and stuffed in the pocket of his suit. “These contain all memories of who you are. They know who Phantom Limb is, but they don’t know it’s you,” Dominic whispered.

“So . . . we’re free!” Thomas shouted, realizing as much himself, looking at the near-unconscious Celine and the wide-eyed Rosemary, who was attempting to use a Civ she didn’t have.

“I guess so . . . I’ll just ask you to not go after my family? I hope that’s not too much to ask.”

“Of course not. I’ll always choose you, Dominic,” he said, looking into his eyes as the two locked arms again.

Dominic and Thomas moved in with one another shortly after. And The Krokodil Crime Family was defeated.

CHORUS OF THE DEAD END

Except it wasn’t. Not really.

As Thomas held Dominic out in the empty street, he heard somebody walking down the footpath. Somebody that seemed to make it a lot less empty than he would’ve liked. Thomas’s eyes opened slowly to see an exceedingly tall man—at least seven feet—standing a few hundred feet away in a powder blue suit. He was thin and lean, but despite his lack of width, Thomas could see a decent amount of muscle bulging from under his buttoned-up appearance. His long blue and pink hair was done in long braids behind him, looking a bit like chains running down the back of his head. He was a few hundred feet away just a moment ago. Now he was standing right next to the happy couple, staring down at them. “Is this the Thomas Finn I’ve heard so much about?” His clean-shaven face and chiselled jaw arranged into a warm smile.

Dominic looked up. He was about a foot shorter than his adopted father. “Hey Dad . . . yeah, this is him.” Dominic stepped away, motioning nervously towards him.

Cyrille Krokodil, Thomas thought as he looked up at the towering figure. “H-Hello sir . . . it’s a pleasure to meet you . . .” Thomas nervously extended a hand towards him, which Cyrille lightly brushed aside.

“No need for formalities, my boy. You’re part of the family!” Cyrille let out a hearty laugh as he ruffled Thomas’s hair.

Meanwhile, Thomas was staring into space, the fear of God having burrowed into his soul as he prepared for Cyrille to scalp him. But it didn’t happen. Instead, he just lightly took his hand away.

“I’m sorry I’m late, my son, I had some business to attend to.” Cyrille looked over at Dominic apologetically. “I hope there’s still a bit of party left in you?” Cyrille added, beginning to walk inside with a hand on his son’s shoulder. “I’d like to get to know Thomas a bit more . . .” He turned back, flashing a genuine smile.

Thomas wasn’t looking at the kindness that was being sent his way. He was looking at the blood on Cyrille’s boots.

“Hey, Dad!” Rosemary waved, joining them at the door, along with the Krokodil Sisters.

“Hello, girls!” Cyrille gave each of them a hug as they walked away, leaving Thomas standing outside in shock. A few moments later—a few moments of Thomas simply standing out in the dark alone, unsure of where to go—he got a Unit call. From an unknown number. Thomas answered it hesitantly.

“Hello?”

“Thomas I’m not going to hurt you. I know who you are, and you know who I am, but Dominic is my son. You have my word that as long as the two of you are together, I am not your enemy. I don’t need to be your friend if that isn’t what you want, but you have my word that I will not only refrain from making your life worse, but I will actively seek to improve it.” Cyrille’s voice sounded genuine as Thomas stood confounded and intimidated outside, looking at the door to the apartment. “Now, come inside. We’re going to play Drunk Trivial Pursuit.”

Hearing this, Thomas walked through the door.

* * *

Thomas was sitting on his bed, holding an empty bottle of Chorus. “That was two years ago today, Phantrana,” he said with a tear in his eye as the scene of Thomas’s messy bedroom changed into a purple void.

“Why did you relive that memory, Thomas?” Phantrana boomed.

“Because there was a specific memory in there that I wanted—something I needed to remember.” Thomas opened his Unit and wrote down a set of specific directions through the caverns. “I doubt they would’ve gotten a new warehouse since then, as I didn’t destroy it yet.”

“I’m sorry, Thomas.”

Thomas paused. “It’s not your fault. That wasn’t the only reason I chose that memory.” Thomas walked blindly out of his bedroom, carrying a bundle of bottles of Chorus in his arms. “I chose to live with Dominic last time I had the choice. To ignore the problem, to ignore what these people did.” Thomas arrived at his sink. “It was a happy memory that I chose to be my last . . . but it also reminded me of what happened last time I let them go.” Thomas was pouring the bottles into the sink—down the drain. The bluish-pinkish liquid was quickly vanishing into the pipes of Neonight. Becoming but a memory itself. “Blair may think I betrayed her, which I kind of did.” Another bottle gone. “Piotr may be missing, and I should probably be looking for him.” Another bottle gone. “I have no idea where Rocky is. In fact, I really have nobody on my team.” The last of Thomas’s addiction had vanished, and nothing more than a pile of empty bottles on the kitchen counter remained.

“But I’m done following others, Phantrana. And it’s time to finish what I started.”