"...What is this place?"

K looked around, bewildered. Last thing he remembered, he was fighting those Ouroboros whelps. Then the dratted black fog had rolled in, then they'd done something to the Flame Clock, then...

Well, it sure didn't feel like being dead. He felt quite all right, actually. Not exactly in perfect health, but that was fine, he'd just have to find another colony to heal himself with.

He found himself in a very strange place, though. It looked like...inside a canteen in the City? He barely remembered a thing about the City, his life before becoming Moebius having been so long ago, but it was certainly a fixed building rather than a colony's tent. Possibly one of the few static colonies, or even one of the castle settlements, but the design of the room matched neither country. Even weirder, the place was deserted, and the curtains were closed, yet the lights were on and he could feel the heat of the grills behind him.

Wait...why was he standing behind the counter?

The door opened and a Kevesi woman walked in.

"I would like simply a large thinchips," she ordered.

K was stunned for only a moment. Strange situation or not, he was a Consul, and he would take no such attitude from a lowly soldier.

"Now now, young lady, that's no way to treat your superior. I would think someone of your age would have learned the proper reverence for your leaders."

"Oh?" She looked around as if unsure where she was. Mockingly. "Beg pardon, but I am seeing no evidence of this assertion. I only see a mere employee of this establishment. Have you perhaps misplaced your name tag? Ah, never mind, I see it right there."

K looked down to find that he was in fact wearing a cook's clothes. His name tag read "K, Trainee".

"W-What is the meaning of this?!"

He instinctively went to his Iris to gather more information, but it would not activate.

The customer crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "It means I expect you to serve my food posthaste."

K went to remove the name tag, but it zapped his fingers as he tried to touch it.

"What is going-"

Then he noticed. Those pure white wings, that distinctive silver hairstyle - this was no mere Kevesi soldier in front of him.

"...th- the Queen? The true Queen of Keves?"

Melia nodded. "Most of your kind realise within seconds, yet you took almost a full minute. How pedestrian of you."

"No. No!" K whirled around, looking for an exit. He didn't see any doors aside from the one beyond the counter.

He'd heard the rumours - all the Consuls did, though only some believed them. Rumours that if ever released from her imprisonment, the Queen of Keves would be upon the world in a red wrath, with no goal in mind but the eradication of those who had wronged her, wielding powers that only the whole of Origin could hope to contain. To see her casually standing before him, he was either already dead, or would be very soon.

Melia waved her hand, supernaturally pulling the only pre-prepared order of fries off the rack and into her grasp. "You have failed the tutorial, to no great surprise. I strongly suggest you listen to my explanation of the remainder, for I will not repeat it."

K tried to jump over the counter. An invisible wall held him back, and he slipped onto the floor.

"Normally," she continued, "departed souls are cycled through Origin before being reborn into the world. Even those of the City such as yourself go through the process, though in a slightly different fashion. But as Z has so helpfully connected me to Origin, I have control of its workings, and as long as I am careful no one is any the wiser. Those who chose to become Moebius, I route through an inner reality first, a tiny artificial world carefully designed for a singular purpose. You must defeat the challenge within before being allowed to reincarnate."

"What gives you the right to control us like this?" K lashed out.

Melia chose to ignore the outburst; she'd heard it all before. "The challenge is tailored to the manner in which you bent the world to your will. As you were a glutton for life, you are sentenced to serving the gluttony of others."

She pointed out a digital counter installed above the door: 0 burgers served.

"When this number reaches one million, you may go."

"O-One million?" K's eyes bulged in anger. "You will not see a single one! I will never submit to this degradation!"

"We shall see about that." Melia had been eating her fries this whole time.

K tried to say something else, but he couldn't figure out what. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

"The first day of a new location is the most important, you know. If the public sees quick and seamless service, they will flock to you, and you shall be done quicker than you might expect. But if they see a man who would rather sit behind the counter and sulk in anger, there will be many days between single customers, and it will take quite a while before the establishment's reputation is worth patronising. The quicker you can change your ways, the better."

"I AM MOEBIUS! I DO NOT CHANGE!"

Melia nodded with a mischievous smile. "Of course not. Why do you think it is said that Moebius cannot be reborn?"

With that, she turned and left.

K was left gripping the counter in rage.

B scowled. "Who gave you this supposed authority over us?"

"That would be Z, I suppose. Though he is not aware of it." Melia had a thought. "Or perhaps he is knowingly turning a blind eye, which would certainly be something. But very unlikely."

"So you admit you have no claim!"

"I don't think you're in much position to dispute me."

B tried to jump at her to start an attack, but his feet were suddenly affixed to the ground, so he just kind of wobbled back and forth a bit.

"On to the details," Melia went on. "You are an opportunist, picking only on those who are significantly weaker than yourself. This has kept Colony 9 safe while limiting their advancement to nil, whilst simultaneously ensuring a rout with great loss of life on the other side. If Keves and Agnus truly were enemies, I would not object to this strategy. But the war is orchestrated to be equal, and the only difference in the end is who must pick up the slack and who has bragging rights over the other. You refuse to consider engagements where your fellow Moebius might take sway over you, even if there is no other risk. In short, you are a coward."

The lights came on, revealing the room to be the inside of an empty casino, staffed with faceless non-humanoid automatons. The aesthetic was bland and tasteless, with no flashing lights or jazzy music, to get across the idea that this would be a chore rather than a vacation.

"Here is a penny."

Melia flipped B a coin, which he allowed to fall to the floor.

"You will play the stakes at this casino. If you ever become bankrupt, you will shortly find a single penny on the floor to continue with. In order to be freed, you must accumulate one billion G."

"You think I am a fool?" spat B. "Everyone knows the house always wins! One cannot profit from gambling!"

"This is true in normal circumstances. But in this house, the odds are stacked. If you play the coward and try to minimise losses by making the safe choice every time, you will surely feel the sting of the house advantage more than the statistics would imply. But if you instead do otherwise, taking the risks you so desperately avoided in life, you will find the advantage turned the other way - averaged over a great many trials, of course."

"And why should I trust that you're telling the truth?"

Melia shrugged. "Perhaps you simply don't wish to stare at this boring room for eternity."

"Having heard all of this," Melia concluded, "what do you say?"

G considered for a moment. It was clear he was angry, but was holding back out of respect.

"I care for the lives of my soldiers," he answered. "I grant them freedoms few other colonies have. I push knowledge and education as much as fighting and training. I allow them a modicum of self-governance. I even provide a fresh start for those who cannot remain in another colony, more deeply than any other Consul. After all, a happier soldier is a stronger soldier."

"I do not dispute this. You are indeed much more grounded and reasonable a Consul than many others. However, your base nature remains. Your philanthropy is only a means to an end, a way to cultivate the lives you consume rather than to truly allow them to shine on their own."

G scowled. "If you've already made your decision, why involve me in this discussion?"

Melia smirked. "It is just as you with Commander Teach, is it not?"

He scoffed. "You think yourself so smart."

"I would not be here otherwise."

Melia activated the simulation: a large, colourful room with many toys and books.

"Tell me, how are you with children?"

G's face did not react. "The young soldiers are simply uneducated. They can be frustrating to deal with at first, but they learn quickly when treated correctly."

"I expected as much from an Agnian." Melia moved towards the door.

"You thought I had a care for what the City calls "children"?" G scoffed again and crossed his arms. "Perhaps you are not as smart as I thought. The City children are buffoons. They cannot be taught without extreme effort, they regularly defy authority simply because they can, and they are too weak and uncoordinated to accomplish even the smallest tasks. I will never understand how they run their society, nor how they believe it is better than ours."

"As I said, I expected as much."

Melia opened the door. A small flood of preschoolers poured in, phasing through her like she wasn't there, and going straight for a distraught G and the toys.

"You may reincarnate into Aionios once your daycare is rated the best in this simulated City."

"It is unusual for two Moebius to be as intertwined with each other as you two are," Melia said. "Which is honestly somewhat of a surprise. I would've thought that the compulsion to be with one's lover forever would produce many pairs of Moebius. But I suppose in most cases the staggering of death dilutes the feeling over the years."

"Are you going to get to the point any time soon?" demanded P.

"Let her sally on," countered O. "Being polite is free."

"Hmph."

Typical, Melia thought. "While I do not fault you for wishing endless companionship, stealing the life of others is by no means an acceptable method of obtaining it. As punishment, you shall spend eternity together."

There was a moment of silent confusion.

"But..." P began. "But didn't you just say that's exactly what we wanted?"

"Oh yes. I presume you have been careful with what you wished for?"

The three of them were suddenly within a simple, contemporary one-room bungalow. There were no doors; the windows only showed a blank patch of sky.

"This is your new home," Melia continued. "Every time the two of you are asleep or otherwise unconscious, everything shall be reset: food will be restocked, waste will be purged, damaged furniture will be repaired, and so on. A truer eternity than Aionios, I suppose."

O looked around and made a noise of disgust. "This is poverty! We can't live like this!"

"I distinctly remember hearing you tell Z that your soulmate was all you needed," Melia shot back. "Well, now you have it. Enjoy."

She vanished from the room. She'd keep a loose eye on them - if they truly did love each other above all else, they'd settle well into their new life and deserve the choice of mutual reincarnation later. But she expected them to instead turn on each other not long from now, the conditions breaking their feelings rather than strengthening them. They did choose to spend a fair bit of time apart in Aionios, after all - surely they already had a seed of tiredness with the other planted within them.

The click of a single spotlight turning on echoed through the empty theatre, illuminating E and Melia as they stood centre stage. It was about the same size as Z's theatre, though the look was different enough that the two couldn't be confused.

"I thought you said this was supposed to be a punishment?" E looked around in confusion and some badly-concealed excitement. "The stage is my domain! I am the master of playwright!"

Melia chose to ignore the bragging and handed him a thick stack of papers. "Here are the scripts. Seven pre-written productions, to be performed in order, one a day every day. You have one month to prepare yourself."

E skimmed through the pile to pick out the titles. "Beginning of the World, The Heroic Adventures of Addam, Vandham Peronet, what is all this drivel? No, no, no, these will never sell. I-"

"Luckily, it is not your choice what sells. In this world, the house will be packed on opening night, and your performance will determine the size of future audiences."

"My performance? You misunderstand, I-"

"You will do as I say if you wish to return to Aionios. And being beholden to another's script is part of the challenge."

E grumbled. "Fine, fine, we'll start with this. I daresay I'll do a fine enough job the people will demand I make improvements, anyhow."

"Oh, you are very mistaken."

Melia clapped her hands again. The spotlight turned off as the backstage lights turned on, revealing the props strewn about.

"Your role is not the writer, the director, or the master of ceremonies. It is of a stagehand."

E's mouth hung open for several seconds before he could respond.

"I'm sorry, I must have misheard. Did you, one who I would assume is fairly intelligent, just try to claim that I would work as a stagehand? The lowest of the low in the art?"

Melia made a show of rolling her eyes. "You still think you're in any sort of control here? Yes, you shall be working as a stagehand. And any dereliction of your duty will dramatically affect the production to the point of turning away visitors from later shows, thus making it that much more difficult for you to reach your goal of one billion G in profit."

E threw the pile of scripts to the floor, which magically remained intact. "I refuse! One stagehand cannot put on an entire play by himself, surely you must know this!"

"That was never my implication."

With that, a troupe of shadowy figures started to emerge from the curtains, surrounding the two of them.

"These are your fellow stagehands," Melia explained. "They are simple constructs, programmed to act as stagehands and nothing else. If you put in your effort, they will do the same, and the production will go off cleanly. But if you do nothing, so will they, and both actors and audience will treat you accordingly."

"Y-...Y-...You! Y-Yoouuu!" E was too upset to get anything more out.

Satisfied that the trial had been fully laid out and understood, Melia stepped backstage and disappeared.

"Hold this, L."

L scowled and didn't move. "You think I don't recognise that phrase?"

"I was hoping you would, actually. I don't wish to waste my wit."

Melia forced the item into L's hand: a rolled-up map of the cave they found themselves in.

"Here is a map of this area," she explained. "As you dig around the cave, you will find up to four passages to another cave. The map will automatically update itself to match the cave you currently find yourself in. Each cave also has a small chance of hiding a deposit of valuable metals. The frequency of metals is inversely proportional to the ranks of the colonies you so gleefully destroy. There is exactly one gold deposit within this cave system - if you find it, you may return to Aionios."

L crossed his arms. "And how many caves are there?"

"One for every soul you've ever stolen."

He did some math. A couple hundred people per colony...this one cave they were in wasn't much larger than four typical bathing tents...this was going to be tedious, but probably not as much as waiting for his colony to make Gold rank. He could deal with it.

"I'm not going to let your challenge defeat me."

Melia nodded. "Very well. I await your success." She walked through the cave wall.

L picked up the unbreakable pickaxe and started to mine. With the cave as small as it was, he found the next cave in less than an hour. And with only ten minutes of digging through the second cave, he found a good chunk of copper. He could see the gold in his mind already as he found the entrance to the third cave.

He looked at the map as he stepped through the hole.

...Why is it zooming out so far?

He looked back up. The cave extended far beyond the reach of the lamp on his helmet, horizontally and vertically, and what he could see was composed of a great many levels. It was at least as big as two hundred of the previous cave. He had been fooled into grossly underestimating the scale of the problem.

He thought he heard an almost sinister laugh echo through the cave.

"You are a funny one, aren't you?"

Irma snarled. "Say what you mean why don't you."

Melia tilted her head in mock misunderstanding. "Ah, but is this not your modus operandi? To scheme and connive, to speak the inverse, to be what is not?"

"Get to the point!"

"Oh, very well."

Melia produced a comically large gold key from behind her back. After holding it up for a moment, she smashed it in her fist, spreading sparkles across a newly-appeared forest.

"This randomly-generated landscape is approximately the acreage of the entire Erythia Sea. I have split the key you just saw into eight parts. You must find the parts, reassemble the key, and finally locate the keyhole, in order to escape to the world you know. There are no people, animals, or even insects to aid you. Only you and your ability to discern the false from the real."

Irma placed her hands on her hips. "So you just want to waste my time? There's nothing about a treasure hunt that says "learning your lesson" to me."

"Oh, hardly."

Melia stepped to the nearest tree and examined it for a moment. She then pulled one of the branches like a handle, causing the entire trunk to open like a secret door, revealing a shelf with twelve gold pieces on it.

The meaning of this hit Irma instantly. It wasn't searching for eight things in the forest - it was searching for the disguised hiding places in the forest and trying to puzzle out which of the key pieces were real out of the many, many fakes.

Melia recognised the face of realisation, smiled, and vanished out of the simulation.

H was evidently impatient, with arms crossed and foot tapping. "Go on then, so what's next?"

"I have determined the pattern in your behaviour is that of sowing distrust and discord amongst your own troops," Melia went on. "Through this, you profit from the losses incurred by in-fighting and uncohesion, coming to its ultimate head with your recent experiment of a "battle royal" colony. You care little for the war compared to your own obsession with watching individuals turn against each other. Therefore, the challenge you must defeat to return to Aionios expects from you the exact opposite behaviour."

The lights came on, revealing that the two were standing in a large barracks with several hundred sleeping soldiers.

"This is your new unit." Melia handed H a clipboard with the soldiers' names. "They are currently complete strangers to each other, but they are no-nonsense professionals. Nothing you can do will cause them to turn against each other, even slightly. Instead, your goal is to foster teamwork and camaraderie, to transform this unit into a pure crucible of friendship. Once every soldier reaches maximum affinity with at least fifty other members, you will earn reincarnation."

"You know this isn't possible!" H exclaimed. "One person can't be friends with fifty other people at once!"

Melia had looked up the relevant research before setting the challenge. "Dunbar's number is an estimate that a person can maintain about one hundred and fifty individual relationships. I am doing you a favour by only requiring a third of that. This is of course not related to Dunban's number, which is the value on the Eryth Combat Scale at which it becomes more optimal to shed equipment than to wear armour."

H was almost spitting mad at this point. "Do you know how long it takes to become friends with just one person?!"

"If they discover they share an interest, it can be practically instant. You would do well to analyse their profiles and group them together on that basis. You have a few hours before daybreak to prepare yourself."

Melia could tell just from her expression that H had no intent to do any of this. Unsurprising. Her job explaining the situation done, she left the room.

"I thought I might see you."

This surprised Melia. "You did?"

M nodded. "A feeling, a gut instinct. A sense that your body was not as it was in Origin by happenstance."

"Ah, yes. I do remember your visits."

"You were awake?!"

"I do apologise for making it seem like you were throwing your feelings into the void. But even the most trustworthy of Moebius cannot risk knowing I have any more power than a warm body in a keyhole."

"That, I can't deny." After all, she'd just spent a month doing a similar thing.

The two took a moment to sip their drinks. Overly-fancy ones, on a beach facing the sunset. Sometimes Melia wondered how no one noticed the ever-increasing number of tiny artificial realities within Origin's memory banks. It must be that, with the Moebius being convinced that they could not be reborn, none would think of the idea of being trapped in limbo. Or perhaps not even Z understood the great machine well enough to realise its true powers.

"I had always wondered why Z had chosen you over my Queen to control Origin," M continued. "What did you have that he was looking for? As the years went by, I began to understand. The people of Agnus would describe our Queen as refined, graceful, and compassionate. Yet the people of Keves described theirs as firm, keen, and imposing. Of course they were describing the false presences rather than the true people, but it would have started with a grain of truth. And so it came to me: Z saw you as the greater risk to his endless war. If he could only have one under his control, he needed it to be you."

Melia nodded and sipped her drink. "Not the exact truth, but close enough. You still may yet have a role to play in the future, so I cannot correct you in entirety. But I must set one thing straight."

"What's that?"

"One could argue that she is "compassionate", and she could be called "graceful" in the correct circumstances. But Nia is as "refined" as a lump of raw ore."

"What is this place?" demanded U. "And why are there so many insufferable bugs? The incessant buzzing would surely drive one mad."

"This is an apiary," Melia replied.

"No, no, this won't do at all. I shan't have anything to do with insects or vermin."

Melia rolled her eyes internally. "In order for you to return to Aionios, you must take the role of beekeeper. You will collect honey, and deposit it into the tank before you. On the day it is filled to the brim, you will be granted permission to reincarnate. The tank will empty at a constant rate, so you must outpace it, rather than relying on a slow trickle. All tools of the trade will be provided at will, including materials for new hives, which you will require eventually to get enough throughput."

U crossed her arms. "And what makes you think I will play this little game of yours?"

"I have taken note of your propensity for enjoying the slow decline and decay of others, the teetering on the brink between life and death. You consider this to be what you live for, correct? I have thus designed this challenge to entirely lack any means of achieving this."

"...Say that again."

"If a colony of bees is unhappy with the conditions of their hive, they will simply leave. If a flower is unable to bloom, it dies very quickly. The grass and trees have been fixed in place, as unchanging as Moebius itself. There are no other beings for you to manipulate in this world. Your self-proclaimed favourite source of suffering is entirely absent. If you wish to see those things again, you must spend many years cultivating the exact opposite: a healthy mini-ecosystem."

U was clearly attempting to restrain her anger and remain cordial. "How do you sleep at night, knowing your eternal torture of so many of us?"

"I have been asleep since arriving in Origin." Melia thought about the statement for a moment. "I also haven't slept since arriving in Origin. It's a dual nature sort of thing. I do miss having a proper daily cycle, but on the other hand, it's made me fifty percent more productive. Returning to reality will be bittersweet."

"That did not answer the question and you know it!"

Melia shrugged. "If you are expecting me to feel guilty over assigning you the consequences of your actions, I'm afraid I must disappoint you."

Shania hissed air between her teeth. "I. had. no. choice. What would you have done in my situation, eh?"

"Well, I cannot say with any certainty," Melia replied. "Every situation is unique, after all. But I know how it is, to have a parent who does not desire the best for you. I have much experience navig-"

"You're a Kevesi! You wouldn't know a bloody thing about parents if one strode up and spanked your-"

Melia moved faster than Shania thought possible. The two were face-to-face in an instant.

"I am older than you are capable of imagining," she said in a near-whisper. "I have seen more years than any Moebius. For eighty-eight of those years, I suffered under the lofty expectations of my father and the murderous gaze of my mother. I know more of tough and unfair parental treatment than you could imagine."

Shania grimaced and growled. She didn't want to believe it, yet some deep-seated gut instinct told her it was true.

Melia stepped back. "But your upbringing is peripheral to the issue at hand. It was still your choice to turn against your family, friends, and entire society. You made these decisions, as an adult, without the persuasion of others, against the nature of House Reid, knowing full well the consequences. And in my culture, traitors are the lowest of the low. If you wish to be reborn, to have the second chance you so desired, you shall have to work very, very hard for it."

She snapped her fingers. The landscape suddenly changed to that of the Dannagh Desert, though with obviously artificial borders in the form of glowing green mesh fences, beyond which the landscape quickly faded into a grey fog. In the middle of the marked zone sat a Kevesi Ferronis.

"This is Colony i, your new home. It is a Dirt-rank colony consisting of five hundred Kevesi soldiers of varying ages. People will not age and cannot die, though they will behave believing they do. There will be no conflict or contact with other colonies. There will be no plants to scavenge or animals to hunt; food and other resources will only come from supply drops typical of the colony's rank. The Consul leaves the colony entirely alone, to be governed as the people see fit. All the colony's inhabitants are aware that you are the cause of them being demoted from Silver rank, which happened only yesterday. In order to be reborn into the real world as you covet, you must weather their anger, earn their trust, and become the colony's commander."

Shania scoffed. "Quite the elaborate simulation to spend on me. What's to stop me from just not participating?"

Melia shrugged. "I'm sure you'll be hungry in a few hours. Stealing Dirt-rank scraps and garbage is not exactly a sustainable way of living, and will only make it more difficult to reach the win condition. Besides, does this not sound like a fun game? To rise from nothing up to first place, in a world where all others are mere imitations?"

This made Shania visibly angry.

"Thus, you must decide," Melia continued. "Will you do the bare minimum to get by? Or will you rise to the challenge and show me up? You have the power to choose. Use it wisely."

"This is your command centre."

The room that had appeared around Melia and F was filled with communication devices and filing cabinets. On a table in the middle sat a map of an unknown region, with figurines of army forces spread about.

"You will lead your black ops from here," Melia continued. "The system will simulate the war on the outside. You will receive regular reports. As with all wartime operations, they are not guaranteed to be accurate, and you will often encounter situations where you must make tough choices."

"This is not appreciably different from my regular duties as Moebius," F replied. "I cannot enjoy it in these subpar conditions, but any administrative differences are negligible. What sort of test is this supposed to be?"

"Let me ask this. What is the average age of Colony 0?"

"Black ops is a theater of naturally high turnover, especially considering the operation of the colony. Our soldiers are too young to carry out their orders and contest opponents without utilizing the full power of their Ferrons. We have not had someone reach their fifth term in many years."

"Exactly."

Melia held out a flute. Unlike the wooden flutes of the Keves and Agnus off-seers, it was metallic, covered in the same red plating as Consul armour.

"When a soldier of yours reaches Homecoming, you will play for them. And then you will be reborn."

F stepped back in shock. "What?! That is preposterous! There has never been a Homecoming in Colony 0's history, and nor should there be! Why, for someone to actually reach the end of their life in our service would demonstrate they were never in our service at all!"

Melia nodded. "That is the old way of thinking. If you wish to be reborn, you must eschew it."

She placed the flute on the desk and left the room. There was no need to explain the intricacies of the simulation to F - how playing it safe and stealthy would generally result in greater gains, risky orders would always fail unless all alternatives were equally risky, and ordering limiters disengaged would guarantee the soldier's death. If he wished to win, he would learn how to respect a person's life by himself.

Melia paced around the room. A simple and small virtual space, obviously artificial in nature, just for a change of scenery to try and get the mind going.

It was a difficult question: What to do with Joran?

On one hand, he chose to become Moebius. He willingly did terrible things to the people of Aionios. He was the Interlink partner of D, one of the nastiest and most blatantly depraved of all Moebius.

But on the other hand... He'd only been Moebius for a few years. His reasons for becoming Moebius were fairly childish. His kill count was very low, and he didn't appear to enjoy it very much. He was D's partner, but he always took the back seat, and while he never tried to stop the rampaging, he never really did much to assist it either. And most importantly, he'd just had a change of heart, turning against D in an act that was very soon to lead to their shared demise.

It was good that she was connected to Origin, or she wouldn't have been able to think fast enough to come to an answer in time.

She couldn't punish him like the others by trapping him in a micro-world of ironic design to mock his mindset and force him to change his ways. He'd already essentially gone through it all, including the eventual redemption. It wouldn't achieve anything.

She couldn't allow him to be reborn as with a typical death. It was simply too soon; not only would it be awkward for his friends if they ever later met, the other Moebius would recognise him on sight and draw Z's attention to him. In theory she could just keep him suspended for many years first, but Nia had just been awoken, meaning there was not even a year left in Aionios.

Actually, keeping him suspended without further action might be the correct decision. She generally didn't put killed Moebius into suspension because her goal was to reflect their suffering upon them, but this was a special case - she could just keep Joran in limbo for the couple weeks or months it would take to reactivate Origin, and it would all be good. Hopefully she would remember to release him at the correct time to avoid complications - she made a note in her to-do list so she wouldn't forget.

Hm. Hope.

"You are the hope of the High Entia."

A spiritual confirmation that the right decision had been made.

Melia quickly set to work on producing a short out-of-body experience for Joran, much like she had received so long ago. He deserved to know that his difficult choice had helped save the world.

Melia spoke coldly. "Unlike your fellows, I will not be giving you an opportunity to be reborn in Aionios. You shall be trapped here in limbo forever, and the world shall be better off."

D smirked. "Go ahead. I killed the other queen. You can't even try to win anymore. When Z catches you doing this, I'll be rewarded."

"Ah, yes, about that."

Melia displayed a diagram on D's Iris.

"On the left side, we have the anatomy of a typical feline Agnian. And on the right we have the Queen of Agnus. You will notice a stark difference in the chest area here, in the various tissues and vessels connecting the crystalline formation to the body. In short, while both crystals provide ether to the bloodstream, the Queen's is also a nerve cluster and secondary circulatory system."

D rolled his eyes. "So the crystal is a second heart, big deal. One heart can't out-beat that big a hole in the first one."

"True, in normal conditions. However, the Queen of Agnus happens to be...shall we say, uniquely talented."

Melia played the very-recently-captured video footage. With the Cloudkeep no longer cloaked, she could request its internal security feeds, and its administrator was most delighted to provide them.

D watched with some boredom as his attack pierced the Queen's body. But as the subsequent battle went on, he suddenly turned furious.

"HOW IS SHE HEALING?!"

"Three reasons." Melia brought the anatomy diagram back up on the side. "One, she still lies in the stasis pod, and even while inactive, it confers a measure of recovery to its occupant. Two, the Queen is one of the most gifted healers any world has ever seen, able to reverse the effects of direct contact with a literal embodiment of destruction. But three, and most importantly in this specific case, you only struck her in the heart. You can destroy as much biological material as you desire, but as long as her Core Crystal is intact, she will regenerate in full, good as new. And with a healthy anger to match."

"No...Impossible! Unacceptable!"

He leapt towards Melia in a blind rage, cracking his face on the invisible barrier between them.

"The Queen is fully healthy," she said. "And she has already told your enemies what they need to know. All because you didn't finish the job when you had the chance."

D screamed in wordless anger, trying to get through the invisible barrier like a rabid animal.

Melia left him to it. Some people spent their last chance long ago.

"Compared to your compatriots," Melia stated, "the challenge you must overcome to be granted reincarnation is more tailored to your personality than to your actions."

The whole world was suddenly dropped into monochrome, with the landscape changing to an old-time rickety town.

V looked around and snarled. "What is this supposed to be?"

"This is the town of Vaude-Ville." Melia's voice had also changed to match the setting, coming out as flat and tinny. "You will play the part of the mustache-twirling villain. All you must do is succeed in a single evil scheme. Rob a bank, receive ransom for kidnapping, kill your rival, anything you may think of. The simulation will invent an appropriate supporting cast for whatever villainy you wish to perpetrate."

"This is far too simple a task for me," V commented. "Why would you go through all this effort, for it to be undone with ease?"

"For a similar reason as Z, to be honest: I wish to be entertained."

"Hah! Then you shall receive your entertainment, and I shall return to Aionios promptly!"

Melia nodded and vanished. She then spawned herself a one-person theatre to watch the first few episodes.

It was becoming difficult to come up with a new challenge for each Moebius - one disadvantage to the Ouroboros' party being so successful - but it quickly became clear that this one was a winner. V was a perfect stereotype, both easy to hate and easy to foil, while still so utterly convinced of his own superiority that he would never come up with any smarter plans.

This will be an excellent distraction should I need a laugh in the future.

"You think yourself some god of judgement, then?" asked Q.

"You could indeed put it that way," Melia answered. "But I don't think of myself as the god. I am merely acting in absentia."

"I believe that is the same thing, in principle."

"I never denied it. Now, on to business."

Melia flipped the light switch to reveal the two stood in a giant hangar, filled with piles of scrap.

"You shall begin your journey here with naught but your own two hands," she explained. "Use them to construct things from the refuse that people might find useful. At regular intervals, Nopon will come by willing to trade your creations for improved tools, or special parts you cannot find in this massive scrap heap. Over time, you will accumulate a wide selection of fine tools and materials with which to construct an entire Ferronis. Once you have done so, you will ride it out into Aionios."

"A... An entire Ferronis?!" Q stepped back in shock. "That is impossible! One cannot build a Ferronis by human hands!"

"Why not? It is simply a machine, after all. A rather large one, but you can surely construct enough smaller devices to render the task achievable. You do seem to be all about ever more lofty expectations for the builders and engineers you command, why should this be any different?"

Q stuttered in indignation.

"Besides," Melia continued, "you may very well encounter Nopon willing to join your endeavour. Should you treat them well and remain doing the main share of the work yourself, of course."

"Nopon are useless!" spat Q. "They do whatever they please whenever they please, regardless of constraints or deadlines. I need people!"

"Nopon are people. You will learn to treat them as equals, or stay here forever."

Melia stepped out of the hangar and vanished the door.

"Normally, this would be where I outline the nature of your crimes and transgressions, and how they play into the challenge set before you. But you never were a true Moebius, were you? You said the pledge and wore the mask, yet you never coveted life, relished in suffering, or moved to protect the endless now. You had your own, unique reasons."

It took a moment for the response. "I can't say whether I would've fallen down that path in future, distant years. But Noah's journey, that is everything to me. All I cared about was watching his score unfold."

Melia nodded back. "For that, I offer you a choice."

She stepped to the side and extended her hand. Two doors appeared.

"The door on the left is that of the cycle. You will return to the life you know. Newly born from a cradle, with no memory of the truth, in a distant colony where the war still rages yet news of approaching peace does reach."

"The door on the right is that of the end. You will find yourself in a theatre much like that of Z, alongside any others who have also accepted this choice. And from there, you may observe the Ouroboros as they travel, forcing the world onto its rightful path."

"But I think we both know that this isn't much of a choice at all for you. Correct?"

Crys nodded.

Melia stood in the doorway with a sadness in her chest.

In the middle of the great playroom sat W, engrossed in a tale she was weaving with the dolls and other toys provided.

Y had been experimenting with accelerating the aging of soldiers. New births were useless on the battlefield, forcing the late-termers to waste time and effort protecting and raising them. Birthing fully-formed adults would reduce the training period and drastically increase the amount of life that could be placed on the battlefield at once. But the results were not promising, so he shelved the idea for a time, only recently returning to it.

W was one of these failed experiments. A child's mind in an adult's body, unable to grow and develop any further.

Melia couldn't in good conscience punish her. She had very little understanding of the difference between reality and make-believe, between a doll that had always been lifeless and a corpse that was only recently so. She did terrible things, but could not answer for them.

Yet she could not be reborn either. The damage caused by Y's experiments was too severe for a single rebirth to cure, and she would not survive for long in the world as it was. If fostered in the City, perhaps, but that would be too difficult a chance encounter to orchestrate. She would be fine once Origin could be properly activated, but for now, it was not so.

Thus, W could only be kept within this personal limbo, like her Moebius fellows but without the possibility of release. She would be safe and happy for as long as Aionios persisted.

Melia backed out and closed the door. It would have to do.

"That's it?!"

Melia nodded. "Of course. Why, do you desire a tougher challenge?"

R laughed. "Too late! I've accepted your bargain. If you want me to prove I view pawns as valuable, and all that requires is to defeat you in a game of chess, then you had better prepare my revival immediately!"

"Very well. I am rather busy, so I hope you are not offended if I play remotely."

"You don't want to look me in the eye as I crush you, is that it?"

"Hardly. You are not the only Moebius who I am challenging in the afterlife."

"Hmm... Yes, I suppose that is true. Too many of them have been dying lately...all the better for me. I'll play out a quick win and come back to a world with no competition!"

"It is decided." Melia waved her hand, causing a holographic projector to appear on the opposite side of the table. "I will have my moves forwarded to this display. Play well, Consul."

"Play well, Queen."

R snickered as the door closed and vanished, leaving her alone in the opulent sitting room. She wasn't going to just win - she was going to deliver the checkmate with a pawn, to show up the Queen in the most degrading way possible. It had been far too long since she'd faced an opponent worthy of her long-honed skill and tactics.

Melia couldn't stop herself from chuckling as she spun up a background thread in Origin. Playing chess with only a few Moebius did not exactly do much to advance the meta - or to suggest that perhaps a computer would be a strong opponent, able to string the challenger along with a game that felt winnable until the end, close enough for each loss to spur the "I'll get you next time" mindset. Were Aionios not to end very soon, she would've included a means of winning eventually, but for now, R was about to experience a rude awakening.

N was sitting on the island under the decrepit tree, head against his knees.

Melia stood in the shallow water a fair distance away.

There is no need to do anything, she decided. He has suffered enough, and made the difficult decision to step back onto the right path.

She left the room without further note. She was about to leave Origin, and she had to ensure the backdoor was open for her to remote in later, in order to pass judgement on the remaining Moebius.

"You bitch!"

X let out a war cry and charged. Melia allowed her to approach before stepping aside and grabbing her by the ankle, lifting her up upside-down.

"Do try a more clever insult next time. A certain Ms. Vandham has exhausted our profanity budget."

X sneered and snarled, flailing her fists around aimlessly like a rabid animal.

Melia let go, dropping X onto the concrete floor headfirst, stunning her enough to stop any immediate problems.

"So you are the main engineer of this endless war," she went on. "You designed a society entirely based on trading violence and glorifying such for the express purpose of enforcing suffering. A world where life flows from one side to another in an almost pneumatic cycle, where peace is almost fundamentally impossible."

"Of course I did!" X spat. "How else are we supposed to stay alive? To keep the world as it is? You're lucky I even bothered to keep human nature intact at all! The competition, the scheming, the glory-seeking... It's so useful for all this war business, isn't it?"

Melia shook her head with disappointment. "Here is one example of a different system, that would be just as abhorrent yet still much more humane: a single faction attempting to survive against an endless horde of beasts. With both sides on the same side, there would be no need to quash fraternisation, or to paint Ouroboros as the enemy. Indeed, these would likely turn into benefits against the inhuman enemy."

"What, you think that wasn't one of my ideas in the first place? It's so much easier to control both sides of the war when they're both smart enough to take orders. Can't risk one side actually losing, can you?"

"It is rare that the correct path is also the easy one."

X grumbled. "Okay I'm done talking to you. Leave me alone for eternity or whatever it is you do. I'm part of Z, I'll get out of here soon enough."

Melia chuckled. "Not soon enough, actually. How long would it take you to find a crack in the system and exploit it, five, ten months?"

"Three months actually. I'm no pushover. I know Origin. See look here." X pointed in a direction. "That's the randomization function for this inner reality. I just gotta start kicking up a lot of dust to roll its period. Once I got it down, I can pick apart how the alignment disruption modulator works, and once I find a hole I'm out. Poof."

"Oh I am impressed. Genuinely. I didn't think any Moebius would have such experience with the actual code." A pause. "Pity that it doesn't matter. You honestly believe it will take over three months to reach and defeat Z from where you were in Origin?"

"Doesn't matter. They aren't beating Z either way. I've got all the time I need honestly."

"Well then, let me neatly disassemble your delusions. The randomisation function you speak of is primarily based on the Mersenne Twister. Its period is extremely long. Frankly, long enough that I don't know how to describe it. I doubt that you will be able to put a dent in it in many years. Also there's no dust in here. But more importantly, Z's days are numbered. Your denial is irrelevant."

"Just shut up and get out already!"

Melia pretended to stifle a laugh. "Oh, you're so easy to rile up."

"SHUT UP!" yelled X.

She threw a backhand at Melia, but it was effortlessly avoided.

"I would love to continue antagonising you, but I have other obligations with your compatriots. Goodbye."

Melia vanished from the room. X screamed in rage.

"Aha."

In the entirely blank room, Y turned around, his face equally blank.

"The Queen of Keves doth approach, an act proclaiming her sagacity and resplendence."

Melia couldn't lie, she was excited to flex her vocabulary in the presence of someone would would actually understand it all.

"But verily," she answered. "Connected to Origin, the conduit through which all passes, for years untold. Only the incognisant and the cockamamy would presume I would not learn to command power from therein, had this not already been the case from the outset."

Y shook his head in disappointment. "A grand stratagem writ beneath our noses. Coruscating in its simplicity. Thou hast shown more patience than any Moebius."

"Yet patience was never truly thy domain, were it? The betterment of Moebius was thy bailiwick. Thou seeketh new and untrodden sciences to maintain the endless now, despite this being antipodal to the very nature of Moebius."

"A paradox indeed, yet no less valid for it. The endless now is paramount. To weave change in its benefit is a blessed calling. It is my purpose to assist Z, and in doing so, assist the whole of us."

Melia nodded. This was about as she expected. "My judgement has labelled thee a psychopath."

Y considered this for a moment. "'Tis a valid point of view, to mark me as lacking in empathy and remorse. Doubtlessly, the lives of humans are beneath me, and require no consideration when compared to my craft. Were this an opinion, I could grasp it to be disrelishing and inimical. Yet it is instead the truth, the pure unadulterated fact of this world."

"Exactly the perspective I expected to hear."

"Thou art not quenched by it?"

Melia thought for a moment what to say.

"A single additional query will do: Had thee the truest infinities at thy beck and call, the sway to exert thy will upon the very fabric of this world, regardless of whatever Z has set, what would the sciences of thy hands produce?"

"Ah, a question that truly begs the inner recesses of the mind."

Y put a hand to his chin as he thought. He stood there for a surprisingly long time before answering.

"I would divest the harvesting of life from humans entirely."

"My skepticism is exorbitant," Melia answered.

"How so?" Y began to gesture. "All beings of flesh and blood require the life of others to live. But this is fundamentally a struggle, a turmoil of larceny and violence, to wring the strength from those who desire the exact opposite. Would it not be the truest betterment of life, to no longer have to take the vim and zeal of others for sustenance? To exist as oneself with no requirement for provender or potation? Truthfully, to live without need of theft, without need of pap, without need of conflict - this would be the purest expression of Moebius."

Melia was left speechless. This was a big surprise, yet entirely in-character. She had to spend quite some time turning the philosophy over in her mind, and decided to drop the over-loquacious act.

"Your worldview has stunned me, Y. I believed I knew what would happen upon entering this room, and I have been proven wrong. You remain a psychopath, this has not changed. But you also wish to remove your dependence on the war for your survival. Your logic is cold and ruthless, yet you do not inflict suffering for its own sake like your fellows. I think you deserve a chance."

She waved her hand, forming a door.

"Within this door is a theatre much like that of Z. From there, you may observe the Ouroboros as they continue forward, alongside other Moebius who have been afforded this same chance."

"And if I decline?"

"Then you can remain here, in this room of nothingness, for what is unlikely to be very long."

Y frowned. "I do not wish to see my life's work unravel before my eyes."

"That is quite understandable. But you have an educated mind, yes? You ought to be able to entertain the idea that you are in the wrong, and at least give the opposing hypothesis a chance to be proven or disproven."

"...'Tis a hard-driven bargain."

Z found himself in a black void, with not even any light emitted by himself.

An indeterminate amount of time had passed since his defeat at the hands of the Ouroboros. Enough that he had calmed down; not nearly enough to have dissipated the anger. Anger that his work had been destroyed by those too blind to know better, anger that all his best efforts to stall oblivion had failed, anger at having been right all along and now only the void remained.

"Z."

The voice of Melia had cut through the emptiness. It was impossible to tell whether she was present or merely projected.

"You," he spat, trying very hard to keep his composure. "You who do not fear the end, and thus brought it to pass."

"Ah, you noticed, did you?" Melia thought back to shortly before the final blow had been delivered. The rest of the party was straining to brace themselves against the waves of pure fear and will that Z was emitting, but she stood against it without effort. It had been vaguely amusing at the time.

"See now what your foolishness has wrought," he continued. "Fear is a necessary instinct of survival. Your lack of it has wiped clean the worlds."

"Incorrect, on multiple counts."

Z let out a long, rumbling growl. It was beneath him to pretend she was correct, but he was too upset to simply assert himself.

"Firstly," Melia went on, "I am very afraid of the end. I have been witnessing endless cycles of ends and beginnings since before I had consciousness of it, with an uncountable amount more to come, and I have dreaded every single one. It is from this wealth of experience that I may proceed onwards despite the fear. When you saw my staunch resistance to your nature, you were not seeing an immunity to it, but rather a mastery over it."

"Secondly, I am not foolish. There were very few ways to save our worlds, and the debate over which to select was fierce. The Great Anchors would have needed swift development and deployment. The Eternal Engines would require constant maintenance. The Brethren's Lattice relied too much on other worlds not known for their own stability. In the end, while the Point of Origin placed every egg in one basket, it gave us the most time and offered the only truly permanent solution - reborn worlds that would not continually seek mutual annihilation."

"And finally, the world has not been wiped clean. Far from it, in fact. You are simply currently experiencing the exterior, the place beyond place, the empty room before the furniture is moved in. Origin will soon complete its duty, and this void will cease to be."

"You have no proof of this," Z retorted. "Your wisdom is misplaced, your valour unfounded."

"Where wisdom and valour fail, all that remains is faith. And it can overcome all."

"I have no faith in you."

"Of course." Melia had her answer prepared. "Your very nature is the lack of faith. Had you any, you would not fear the future, and thus not exist."

"Are you quite done?"

"I could be."

"Then begone. There is no purpose to your torment, to your falsehoods and false hope."

There was no response.

Z settled back into his anger.

"It has been a while, Alvis."

Alvis made his trademark chuckle. "By one perspective, certainly. But by another? Merely a speck of dust in the cosmos."

"You know very well what I mean." It was a friendly jab.

"Of course. After all, perspective is everything."

The two turned to look at Origin, hanging in the nothingness, its segments spinning madly to anchor its nature against the reality shadow waves cresting upon it from other nearby universes.

"Do you forgive me?"

Melia turned to look at him. "Whatever do you mean?"

Alvis didn't move. "It has occurred to me that, throughout our interactions ever since the defeat of Zanza, you have never once made it clear whether you forgive me. Not only for my apparent acts as a disciple of Zanza, but for my apparent acts within Aionios."

"Ah."

She thought it over for a moment. She had of course thought him a traitor at first, but this was quickly wiped away after talking with Shulk about him, even before his true nature was revealed. But what about Aionios? He had been rather more blatantly antagonistic against those who had trusted him, and at least on the surface had caused a great setback in their fight against Moebius.

Well, there was no harm in asking. "Why did you do what you did, then? I always presumed that weakening our side had some sort of grand scheme ulterior motive."

"It is simple. The nature of Noah and Mio, the way in which they had become Moebius yet also remained within the cycle, would cause problems with the activation of Origin unless they could be corrected and realigned. There were scant few possible futures where this could be orchestrated, and all of them required certain conditions that could not be achieved without intervention. And so, I forked myself."

Melia took a moment to process whether she'd heard the right word. "Beg pardon?"

Alvis continued to stare off into the distance. "Forking is a method by which a process can duplicate itself. By doing such, I produced additional copies of myself that each acted true to their own knowledge and beliefs, sculpted by what information I chose to make available to them. None of them are quite me, yet I am responsible for all their actions."

"I see." So it was as she thought, he'd done what no one else could had known needed to be done. "I have never been one to make a blanket decision on whether the ends justify the means. But as someone who has made many similar decisions in the ark's arc, it is difficult to even conclusively say that there was an offense to forgive in the first place."

Alvis began to nod but then suddenly looked at her, baffled. "Did...you just make a pun with "ark" and "arc"? In our most serious character-defining moment?"

Melia smirked. "Your reaction tells me more than any serious discussion ever could."

Alvis laughed. Not just a chuckle, but a full, open laugh.

"I must be slipping," he continued. "At no point did I expect you to make that choice."

"That is all to the good," she replied. "For me to act in a way you could not foresee, it shows that we have both changed."

"And thus, cannot be Moebius."

"Exactly."

Origin began to glow. Soon its work would be complete, and the two could step back out from the shadows behind reality.

"I have another question," Melia said, "before the universe exists and you can escape me."

Alvis responded with an exaggerated eye roll. "Of course."

She looked across the expanse. While invisible at this distance, the emptiness of nothingness made it easy to sense the three people over there, perhaps discussing the same things they were.

"I learned much of the Trinity Processor during the Origin design process. Our world was overseen by you, and the other by Pneuma and Logos. Logos was destroyed, so a second copy of Pneuma took his place. Was this imbalance the cause of the Intersection?"

Alvis shook his head. "No. It certainly did not help matters, but the die was cast in the beginning. The very nature of the Trinity Processor, with three cores split between two worlds, was our doom."

"Why was it designed as a trinity, then?"

"It was never the intent for there to be two equal worlds. The system was designed for an entirely different purpose. We did the best with what we had."

"I suppose it can't be helped."

Melia could feel the void beginning to align, like the chaotic waves of the ocean starting to all move the same direction.

This reminded her of something.

"I have a request. Concerning a unique ally of ours."

Triton stepped forward and took a deep breath of the salty air. Now this was the life. Wandering the sea in a Ferronis was great and all, but you couldn't beat the look and feel of a bonafide ship of the line.

He couldn't remember how he'd ended up here, but that was nothing new, and to be honest it didn't bother him one bit. All that mattered was the now - the sea breeze, the sails flapping, the crew signing their shanties as they worked. If this was the world after Z, he'd made a good choice in turning against him.

"How goes the sail, Captain Triton?"

Triton turned to see a lady in full admiral's regalia - a rich purple with gold trimming, a dozen and a half medals, and ribbons across the bicorne that spelled out "ANTIQUA" in signal flags. She looked vaguely familiar, but basically everyone did these days. He'd probably seen every possible Kevesi multiple times by this point, and maybe even every Agnian.

"Aye, madam. Not a cloud in the sky, not a lick of crosswind, an' me ship's as shipshape as any can be. Couldn' find a finer day in any year."

"I am glad to hear it."

The two stood in silence for a moment.

"Say, madam. Somethin's been twiggin' my ear for a bit now. Mind if I bend yours ov'r it?"

"You have the floor, Captain."

"Well, it goes sumthin' like this. We Moebius have always known that it's been Z's goal to keep the world all safe and unchangin'. I can't remember if I ever knew the reason meself, but I imagine he can't have been all wrong. No one works as hard as he did for sumthin' you don't truly believe in. So I'm thinkin' that even if he didn't have the right of it, he knew sumthin' we didn't, and jus' went about it the wrong way. You feel me?"

"I could not agree more."

"Ah, good t'know I ain't just talkin' bilge again. Done enough of that to fill a harbour over the years."

Melia paused for a moment and then stepped forward. "Captain Triton, as thanks for your help in defeating Z, I bestow upon you a gift."

Triton carefully took the offered object: a large silver coin, emblazoned with an eight on one side and a seal he didn't recognise on the other.

"A single piece of eight?"

"A piece of infinity, actually," Melia explained. "You may present this coin at any harbour in the world for you and your crew to be entitled to enough supplies for eight weeks of sail. All such expenses will be charged to myself. The seas are your oyster."

"Aww, madam, y'don' have to do that for ol' Triton. I've enough life in these shoulders to know how to take care of myself an' my crew."

"I'm not forcing you to use it. Only to have the option. Besides, it possesses an additional power."

"Which is?"

Melia turned towards the open sea on the starboard side. "Perhaps one day you will tire of the sailor's life. I know it seems preposterous to suggest, but all people can change, even those who were once Moebius. Should you ever decide this, simply take the coin and toss it into the ocean. When the sun rises the next morning, you shall find yourself in a fresh new life, with many ways open to you."

Triton frowned and flipped the coin over a few times, evidently thinking about something.

"An' if I don't?"

"Then nothing will change. You will captain your ship across the waters for as long as this world persists."

He gave her a funny look. "I thought we were fightin' to break out of nothin' changin'. Why let me stay there?"

"You were Moebius. I imagine it might be difficult for you to make such an adjustment. So I have provided you the means to move on only once you are ready."

"An' what about my crew?"

"They are loyal to the end. Should you hang up your hat, they will each decide on their own what to do with themselves."

Another pause for thinking.

"I understand, madam." Triton nodded slowly.

Melia returned the nod. "If I do not see you again, Captain, I wish you an enjoyable sail. Forever until the end."

"Aye-aye!"

Triton blinked and Melia was gone. Bit of a strange encounter, he supposed, but that's how the sea be sometimes. Piece of infinity in hand, he turned back to the bow.

"Onward!"