“Anja?” Ashley asks. “Do you know this person?”

I don’t respond immediately. In fact, it doesn’t even really register that she asked a question.

It’s my Aunt Kierstyn. She’s behind the mask. She was the one who just shot the sheriff. She… she was the one who was working with Moloch. No… no.

“You never mentioned me to your friends?” Aunt Kierstyn chides. “Anja here is my niece.”

“What?” Ashley questions raspily.

“And if I’m not mistaken, I grew up with your mom, too,” she explains to Ashley. “When we first met by that courthouse, I thought you looked like her. Anja I was expecting, but your mom never seemed like the type to set up her own child down the same path.”

“The same path as what?” Ashley growls. “I wasn’t set up for anything.”

“Right. Whatever.” Kierstyn puts away her mask, no longer needing it to hide her identity, and smoothes out her short black hair lazily, while keeping her gun facing Ashley with her other hand.

“So that was the truth that was meant to destroy her, huh?” Ashley asks.

“Oh, no, not at all. I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet,” Kierstyn says. “But, I wanted to give poor Anja a moment to catch her breath first.” She turns to me expectantly.

Her gaze sets something off in my brain which gets it moving again. “How… could you?” I ask. Upon saying it, I can feel tears streaming down my face.

“How could I what?” she asks. “I haven’t even told you what I did yet.”

“You mean other than the times you attacked us?” Ashley retorts.

“You may have noticed that I have yet to actually hurt any of you,” Kierstyn says.

“You electrocuted me. Literally just now!” Ashley says. “You lying bitch.”

“And you chopped off my leg,” Kierstyn counters. “We’re even.”

“Because you were helping Moloch torture my girlfriend,” Ashley hits back. “By the way, you’re more horrible than I thought if you feel nothing doing that to your niece’s friend.”

“Wait,” I say, something dawning on me. “You… all that stuff I told you on the phone…”

“...Is how I knew what you were all doing, yes,” Kierstyn confirms. “And I warned you again and again, don’t get involved in supernatural stuff. Stay out of trouble. And you ignored me again and again.”

“That’s right. We came here to crash your plans instead,” Ashley taunts.

“My plans? I had no ‘plans’ but to keep Anja safe,” Kierstyn says. “If you don’t believe me, think about this. Who do you think reported that whore teacher to the school?”

“Huh?” I ask. “Do you mean Ms. Truman?”

“That’s right,” Kierstyn confirms. “Part of my job is to keep an eye on that human trafficking organization you’re so ready to barge into. So when I saw that one of their new recruits was a teacher at your school, I passed the information along to your administrators. Then, to make sure you all knew about the threat, I sent her sick Tumblr blog to my dear daughter.”

My brain roils on this one for a little bit. Should I distrust her on principle because she’s the Dark Trooper, or trust her on principle because she’s Aunt Kierstyn? Well, she doesn’t really have a reason to lie about this, and it makes too much sense to ignore. Lily refused to tell us how she had found that blog post. And I swear Ms. Truman said something about the school already knowing about her before she did the post.

“But then, what are you doing?” I question. “You should be helping us! Zoe is in their custody, right now! Help us get her out!”

“Nope,” she says simply. “I told you. My ‘plan’ is to ensure your safety. Which means sending you home, and not letting you barge into a place where you can get hurt.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Ashley snaps. “I am sick and tired of every adult telling us to just stand aside while they do nothing, while they know nothing!”

“Oh, but I know a GREAT deal more than you about what’s going on here,” Kierstyn explains. “You two are not nearly powerful enough to break into that facility.”

“Then help us!” I plead. “Please, Zoe needs us, right now!”

“I’m not responsible for Zoe,” Kierstyn says coldly.

“So you don’t care about children getting hurt, if they’re not personally a part of your family?” Ashley scolds her. “That’s just a barely diluted form of pure selfishness and egomania.”

“That’s only part of it, ginger,” Kierstyn explains. “But, now for the good part. I’m bound by oath to protect Anja. An oath I made to my sister, right before she died.”

I gasp. “You were… there when she died?” I ask.

“Of course I was,” Kierstyn says. “I killed her.”

For the third time in the past few minutes, I feel as if the world just stopped spinning. I feel numb at this point. I don’t even really realize what she said.

“The stars had aligned for her,” Kierstyn explains. “It was 2006. Everyone was unhappy with Bush. The governor had a big scandal. She could’ve won one of the reddest states in the union. But my boss was not having that. He wanted to kill her, slowly, painfully, and humiliatingly. But I loved my sister. So I said, let me do it. I will make it quick. Dignified. Peaceful, even. When she woke up on the other side, she accepted her death with grace. And she made me promise, Anja, that I’d keep you safe. You were the only thing she talked about, Anja. She couldn’t stop seeing your face.”

Seconds, minutes, pass by. I don’t take in anything she said. I don’t understand any of it. I just feel empty inside. It’s like I shut down.

“You don’t make any sense,” Ashley finally says. “You say you loved your sister so much, and that you care so much about protecting Anja. But Anja doesn’t want you to do any of this. While I never met her, I’m willing to hazard a guess her mom wouldn’t have wanted this either. You’re not on their side.”

“There are no sides,” Kierstyn says simply. “Only staying alive. That’s all that matters.”

Kierstyn exhales heavily. And then, without another word, she reaches her hand to that green gem embedded into her chest, and seems to vanish into thin air, seemingly having done what she set out to do.

Huh? The Metaverse isn’t really anything like how Ashley said it would be. Wasn’t there supposed to be like, a jail cell, with a conservative-political-cartoon version of me? That’s not where we end up at all. We’re in some dimly lit chamber, where everything is of a distinctly blue hue. It’s… bizarre. What’s more, we’re not alone. We’re surrounded by people, all wearing a variety of gaudy outfits. Most strangely, they are all wearing masks; not like medical ones, but Masquerade masks, the ones that go around your eyes. It reminds me of that one part of Phantom of the Opera. Somewhere that I can’t see, there’s a string orchestra playing a pretty little song.

Even my friends are wearing outfits, although theirs are much cooler. Nova has a long, slender golden robe and a headdress. He looks so good in it; so bold, so confident, even though at the moment he’s just kinda looking around the room and blinking, disoriented. Kevin- hot damn. The red longcoat and hat, the little fangs, the chiseled frame… okay, I guess he always has that last one, but still, it comes together to give him some serious bad boy energy, and I’m here for it. Ruth’s wearing a fancy, long blue dress, with a splendid white ruffle over the chest, and her hair is all neat and tied into a bun.

I look down at my own body, expecting to see myself dressed in something fantastic. But, no. I’m still in my house clothes.

“Hey, not fair!” I complain. “Where’s my sexy costume?”

“Oh, uh, you need a Persona for that,” Nova explains.

“Ooh. Can I have one now?” I say. “Give me one!”

“It’s not exactly something we give you,” Kevin says. “It kinda comes to you, when you need it. You know?”

“It would be advantageous to have her awaken it now,” Ruth says.

“Yeah, but like… she can’t just force one out,” Nova argues.

“Why not?” Ruth asks. “That’s how I got mine.”

“Wait, really?” Nova asks, looking shocked.

“You were there for that!” Ruth says impatiently.

"Oh yeah," Nova says stupidly. "Sorry, I forgot."

“Huh. I didn’t realize you could do that,” Kevin ponders. “For me, let me think, it was… I had to get free of-” he unexpectedly trails off, and looks a little weak.

“Yeah, I just got mine in the middle of a fight,” Nova says. “I thought that’s how everyone did it.”

"Why don't you unlock it now?" Ruth suggests, turning to me. "Look deep within yourself, and find the burning within you. The desire to rebel."

"Okay!" I say, feeling hyped. I sit down and look within myself. I see fantastic colors dance before my eyes... I see paintings I've done, and ones I want to do... I see bursts of light... HYA! THAT'S IT! I'm going to rebel against this cold, cruel world! TAKE THIS!

I open my eyes. "GUYS, I DID IT!" I exclaim.

"Uh, no you didn't," Nova says flatly. "Your clothes are still the same.”

“Shit!” I say. I look down and, sure enough, nada. “Well, that’s no good. I’ll be out of place and underdressed for this whole party!”

“What kinda party is this anyway?” Kevin asks, looking around and frowning. “Everyone’s wearing those little mask thingies.”

“Yeah,” I say. “The least we can do is grab some for ourselves.” I grab a masquerade mask off of a nearby table. Mine is pink with gold lace around the eye slits, and a pretty little rose on the right side. I slip it onto my face. “How do I look?” I ask.

“Hey! That’s great!” Kevin says. “Let me grab one for myself.” He grabs a red and lacy one to match his outfit’s color.

“Wait, where the fuck did that table come from?” Nova asks, a little freaked out. “That was not there a second ago.”

“Uh, maybe you just didn’t notice it before?” I ask.

“No,” he says firmly. “I know I may forget a lot of shit, but I always notice what’s in my immediate vicinity.”

“We are in a supernatural realm,” Ruth comments, as she slips on a silver mask with glittery tiles that look like feathers. “It’s not out of the question that things may pop in and out of existence.”

“Well, I hate it,” Nova complains. He grabs a golden mask with splashes of blue on it, as well as a matching blue feather sticking out from the left side. He grimaces at it at first, as if worried it may try to bite him, but then puts it on.

“Welp,” Kevin says. “We should probably have a look around. See what we’re dealing with.”

“Look no further than behind you,” a familiar female voice says.

Kevin (rather impressively) jumps several feet into the air, lands, and stumbles away from the voice, which belongs to Ms. Patel, who’s dressed in the strangest outfit of anyone here.

Damn it. She got away.

I turn to Anja. She’s… something’s very wrong. Not because she’s crying or anything, but because she isn’t. She’s just standing there, starting on blankly.

“Anja?” I say.

No reaction.

I reach over and grab her shoulders. “Anja… let’s…”

She doesn’t seem to even see me.

This is no good. This can’t be happening right now. Zoe is trapped, right now. She needs us. And… something’s not right with Anja. She’s broken. What the fuck do I do? God damn it, god fucking damn it all!

I lose my shit and throw my sword at the ground, which gets embedded there. I run around, I kick up the dirt everywhere. If that’s even what this shit is. I yank my sword out and throw it again. It gets lodged into a nearby tree. I want to grab it and slice the stupid tree into lumber. But, I start to realize then how stupid I’m being. I can’t throw a tantrum now!

Okay, so. I can’t leave Anja here. That would be extremely shitty, and she’s not okay. So, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll pick Anja up, and carry her. I don’t know, I can’t really carry her all the way through the heist I guess, but that’ll at least give her some time to… I don’t know. There’s just nothing else to do, I h-

The pink gem in my breastplate is glowing.

What? No. Oh no. That means…

…No, the Dark Trooper just left. Did she come back? Why would she? Maybe it was the others. But, they’re too far away by now to trigger that. What’s going on?

I look around, carefully surveilling our surroundings. I refuse to be 0-2 for having someone ambush us in the trees. But, it’s all still. I don’t see anything.

But… there is something. Not in the trees. In the sky.

I look up. It’s small, it looks as if it’s a fair distance away. Like when you see airplanes flying overhead. But it’s not an airplane. It’s a… a butterfly. A purple butterfly.

How curious. Of course, wildlife often manifests into this world, but it’s usually not so peaceful. But wait. If that thing is in the distance, it has to be way bigger than a normal butterfly.

I look closer, transfixed. I see the butterfly wings beat back and forth. But, there is something with the torso that’s odd. It looks human. A human with butterfly wings? Not even close to the weirdest thing I’ve seen here, so sure.

But what could that mean? Are they a friend or foe? Past experience indicates, probably a foe. I yank my sword out of the tree.

In the time it took for me to do that, they stopped. The butterfly person hovers in mid air. What’re they doing? They’re facing towards us, did they see us?

They quickly fly downward, disappearing into the treeline.

“Uh, Anja,” I say. “I think we’ve been spotted by someone.”

No response. I turn back to her. She hasn’t moved an inch or changed expression.

“Alright, then,” I say. “I’ll protect you from whatever it is.” I get into a position near Anja, and scan the trees.

Then, I hear a horrible sound.

It’s like the sound of church bells, except… like they’re being played at a funeral. They’re clanging in a brooding minor key, filling me with dread, and making my blood run cold.

And as soon as they began, the bells stop. My heart is pounding. What the fuck was that?

And then, my heart lurches in shock, as someone very quickly emerges from the trees. I briefly take in huge, beating purple butterfly wings, before I look at the person’s face, and…

She lands on the ground in front of me with a thud. She’s a woman, a woman in her late thirties, wearing a sparkly purple dress that matches her wings, and a black headdress with purple crystal embedded into it, a woman who has pointy elf ears and long red hair, with two neat little braids hanging out in front. A woman with bright green eyes.

Bright green eyes that are identical to mine.

It’s my mom.

How in the-

“Ashley Viola Davis,” Mom says angrily. “You are in BIG trouble, young lady!”