Al was fairly sure it was floating in nothing, adrift in not darkness exactly. It pondered if the world it remembered was even real. This blank empty canvas of the world around it gave no indication of anything, no life on the street, no king’s agents, no friends.

It moved its hand to its face, groping towards some sensory input in the empty sightless space. It breathed, or perhaps just thought it breathed, a sigh of relief it could feel the familiar lines and curves of its flesh under its fingertips. But not, it realised the soft touch of fingerprints upon its own face. It withdrew its invisible hand; the experience was unnerving – disconcertingly as though Al’s entire body was still asleep.

Al drifted absently in the nothingness, a shifting, swirling nothing that surrounded it. The weird bubbling nothing constantly rolled into itself, calming and colourless as Al watched. The memories of its last day meandered idly through its mind as it watched the shapes. So many moments, each so heavy with emotion now unmoored.

Sorrow, joy, rage, and hope all swirling around still images that Al felt it could flip through at will, life postcards of a foreign land. The thought troubled it, but in a way that was poorly defined and before it could grasp it, something infinitely more important appeared in it’s shapeless void.

Colour – strands of green reaching, stretching towards it. Al sniffed, the smell smelt familiar, it smelt damp, cloudy and windy. It smelt of home.

Al touched it and found it could open its eyes to the harsh light of the world. It could see again, feel again and every cell of Al’s body screamed out in exhaustion as familiar necromantic energy lanced through its nerves.

Al was awake. Al was alive.

---

Sai watched with bated breath as the cocoon of green energy swirled around Al’s still form, the crackling energy had an anger to it, a resentment at being seen and a pure white rage directed towards its wielder. They could see that Jack for his part felt it, his mandibles tensed and his normally twitchy limbs were still and stiff as his claws wrenched the threads of magic against the hidden will within.

They watched as the shadow of Al moved within the cloud of energy, the green glow becoming dimmer and tighter around its twisting form. Sai squinted, trying to get a better view of the body as Bitey writhed in their hands and gradually they started to notice oddities. They did not recall Al’s shoulders being that wide, nor littered with long razor sharp spikes.

Sai struggled ever harder against Al’s squirming pet as the magic dropped away to reveal a figure; - Al, resurrected, in all its dark glory, a shimmering bone mask covering its face, whilst layers of thick black fabric fell around it in great shimmering robes. It turned towards them, and Sai caught sight of the glowing maliciousness beneath the mask and shuddered, inadvertently releasing the furious dragonling towards their former minder.

Bitey wasted no time as they lunged out of Sai’s hands in a flurry of claws and began biting at necromantic shadow shrouding Al. Their claws and teeth rending the impossible blackness of the robes like tissue as Bitey swallowed great chunks of the sickly smelling cloth until Al stood before them again, hostility fading as it took in the people around it, eyes drawn to the other Al. A mirror of shimmering silver energy near identical to the resurrected enby.

The Al with glowing green eyes laughed hoarsely. "Holy shit. Did you replace me with a machine?? Can't leave Red alone for ten seconds!"

The other Al smiled and shook It's head.

"Ah, I'm afraid not, I'm as human as you are."

It flinched as light caught on its shimmering silver skin.

"Or, well I was before King Andrews agents found me? Actually, is being a human a physiological or a mental thing, I mean a ghost is still human right, maybe person is the better word? Either way, I think you stole identity? Filled some taxes in my name and pissed off the king who rules the shit hole that I got kidnapped from?"

---

Li watched carefully as the original Al, now dressed only in the hoodie and jeans went bright pink, the fading luminance of its eyes clashing with the visible signs of embarrassment. Ey breathed a sigh of relief as the doppelgangers awkwardly hugged. The whole interaction was textbook Al, and helped clear the gnawing fear that had been building in eir stomach as ey worked with Jack to bind Al’s body and spirit back together.

Ey let Al have its moment, Al had no idea what it was now, but perhaps it needed the time to readjust to being alive again before ey mentioned the conditions that held its body and mind in one place. Li flinched as a cold dampness leaked into the flesh of eir shoulder and turned to see the ghostly form of Penelope’s hand resting there.

Her eyes bore into Li before flickering down to the hidden pocket where Li had placed Al’s phylactery as she spoke in hushed tones.

“Al deserves to know, there is no good time to tell it, you just need to tell it. I’ve been there, Al needs to hear it from a friend.”

Li nodded slowly, it would be foolish to argue with the ghostly doctor, and besides, ey knew that she was right. Li could make excuses till the end of time, but eventually ey would need to have that conversation.

Ey pulled the hidden item from the wheelchair and held it loosely in one hand as Penelope smiled and drifted off to harass Jack. The phylactery was like many things ey had crafted, simple, elegant, and durable. A disc of polished silver inlayed with a pattern of six tiny gemstones, each glowing with the faint twinkle of the necromantic energies which were now a requirement of Al’s long-term survival. Ey cleared eir throat and beckoned over to Al.

“Al, I need to tell you something about how we resurrected you.”

---

Charlie waited for their spouse to finish talking to Al before approaching, casually noting the new addition of a gemstone studded amulet around its neck as he abandoned his conversation with the wolfen form of Stevie.

Charlie lifted Al clear off the floor in a full bear hug, holding it tight until the enby was frantically beating on his arm for breath. They let go of it and grinned widely.

“It fookin’ worked Al! Ya shud have seen me! I dived into tha void in a whirl of technological marvels an’ ripped that bastard outta The Collective!”

Their smile slipped for a second as he caught Biz’s raised eyebrow and he hastily corrected themself.

“W’th tha aid of me good buddies Biz an Red o’course!” They looked around and caught sight of Li and Penelope watching his awkwardness with amusement.

“Oh, an Li and Penelope, and Jack an…. Well… It was a bit’o a team effort.” He shrugged off his embarrassment with practiced ease and flipped his camera out of his metallic arm holding it loosely as he pulled Al into a second, one handed hug and dragged it from the graveyard back onto the street.

“Anways, since you’r back from ta’ dead an all we need ta get ya to a good spot for your dramatic final sequence where ya destroy the great evil that you died for”

He glanced around at the assembled residents again, a scattering of exasperation, amusement and confusion scattered across the human faces, whilst wolfen and arachnid eyes merely gazed back unblinking and unreadable. They gave up on the nonhumans and instead made eye contact with Biz, flashing xem a thumbs up as Biz pushed the wheelbarrow full of drives after them.

The journey was short, the street warping around them as he led the group, light bursts of drift buoying their feet and pushing them forwards at a slightly uncomfortable pace, as though the street itself was keen to be rid of the monster cargo Biz dragged with xem.

He arrived with a sense of disappointment, the boiling waters of the fishing pool gone, its emptiness an angry scar on the landscape of the street. They frowned, the empty desolate place was hardly the spot for a heroic finale, nor was it great thumbnail material, unless…

Charlie began organising the group, setting them up for the perfect spot as he rushed about posing scars and marks of war into a frame perfect photo to commemorate Al’s victory, available in high resolution for VIP members. Happy with the positioning Charlie pulled the camera from his arm, wincing as the metal disconnected, placed it atop an abandoned chair and went to take the best thumbnail of his career.

---

Biz cleared xyr throat loudly and waved xyr hand to attract the groups attention, masterfully ruining Charlies perfect shot as heads turned towards xem.

“Folks, I’m really sorry to be a buzz kill but we need to deal with the god damn evil intelligence stuck in these fucking hard drives.”

Xer sighed theatrically, but couldn’t keep a smile from slipping across xyr lips. It was not sensible to wait any longer and besides there was some trepidation around the burly Scotsman leaning against the drive-filled wheelbarrow.

“We figured you deserved to do the honours Al.”

Xe gestured at the wheelbarrow; “Wanna dump this piece of shit back into the world from whence it came?”

Al grinned. “This is where this bit of the collective came from? This pond?”

The other Al replied before Biz could, the silver of its mouth adding a peculiar resonance to its words.

“The portal’s where we came from, me, the Kings Agents, and that particularly vicious part of the Collective…” It paused and looked at Biz unable or unwilling to complete its own interruption.

Biz sighed internally, first it interrupts and botches the intro, then it needs to be bailed out of its mistakes. – The cheek of it. Xe pushed past the irritation and focused on the joy of this all being over, and something closer to normal returning to xyr life. Xe considered for a moment stretching it out, to direct the simmering anger at Li’s injury at this Al, to take the pain and direct it at the silver enby the vortex had become.

Xe doubted anyone else would even notice if xe chose the excruciating overanalytical, Red might even appreciate it, but after a second’s reflection xe would feel bad about it so gave the short version.

“From what we understand, the Kings Agents jammed Al’s mind into a machine and shot it into the street as a mess of silver threads so those assholes could track it here. Fortunately, they screwed up and this…”

Xe gestured at the wheelbarrow full of hard drives.

“..sentient asshole came with Al and inadvertently protected us, well before trying to kill us all.” Biz shrugged and nodded at the original Al. “So, you get why we need to dump this back right?”

Al nodded and pushed the barrow, drives and all into the dry pit that used to be known as the fishing pool and the marginally less mysterious portal to the horrifying world of the Kings Agents.

---

Red watched as the drives, and the malicious intellect within, vanished through the swirling energy of the portal and looked at the assembled crowd. The five originals, six if Red herself was included in the count, had each changed substantially since Al sent its ill thought letter. The path it had tread was a magnificent unique map, moving from life to death and back again.

She pulled loose a notebook to jot her thoughts down, it was likely they were misreading this new and fascinating situation. This recent slew of events had filled her notebooks with new ideas and concepts that would take months to implement into her models and systems.

The idea itched at her, the urge to run off and explore them barely held back by the social niceties that she was nearly certain applied in this situation.

Al was okay, ultimately everyone was. The map of its life was still ongoing, joined and intermeshed with another different Al. She considered for a moment, there was some fascinating possibilities there. Was it possible for Scarlet to join them on the street? Perhaps everyone could housemate with a version of themselves which they could communicate with instinctively!

She grinned and went to interrupt the conversations occurring around her only to stop, there was a lack of something, a dozen or so tiny social signals missing from her friends for the first time in weeks. It was so big and obvious she checked it in her notebook more from habit than necessity.

The lack was a sense of calm, or perhaps peace with the world.

She scanned the faces, smiling and laughing as Sai opened a bottle of champagne they had acquired from somewhere. They shook it and the cork burst forth shooting after the hard drives into the world of the kings’ agents whilst Stevie lapped up the spilt liquid.

Red smiled at the absurdity of it all and let a raucous Charlie embrace her. She could work through the mixed mess of new information and write a new map later. For now, there was just her friends and the faint build of drift as it built once again for another tremor.

---

The drift tremor struck later that night, the street reverberating with change as it rearranged, and the queer folk of the street smiled in their disturbed sleep, rocked into wakefulness by the familiar, inconsistent strangeness of the street nominally associated with your reality.