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Something's off, Al's voice sounded in his mind at the same time that he turned his head toward the direction of something or someone that he felt as though was following or watching his movements. He saw nothing then. But, his head snapped down next, at the ground. It seemed to be splitting open, but instead of Dan falling in, he saw that something was coming out of the opening, a black mass of some sort. And then, he heard something else. Was that the sound of a clock? Anyway, whatever that black something was, it was huge and seemed broken.

Then, there was suddenly a whole lot of doors.

And, that wasn't all, it was far from the end in the sequence of strangeness as two memories, first one and then another, crossed his mind. What was going on?

But anyway, those memories, the first seemed to be from his past as he recalled the bench he had been sitting at across the street from a busy park entry point. That was when he was recruited to be a hunter. Someone had asked him if he was seeing the same thing. By that point in his life, previous experiences led up to him taming his 'weird-watching' and verbal elaborations on such matters. It seemed the description he provided, though descriptively open to a lot of interpretation, had been sufficient in the conversation taking a turn into talk of his potential recruitment that eventually transpired.

And then, there was what felt like a present memory. The training area came to mind along with a feeling of eased tension. He interpreted the memory to be referring to how training there is something that helps him with relieving stress.

Routine patrols usually resulted in a short nap, sometimes a smoke break here and there but a general disinterest. It wasn't usually his sort of bag and he felt really ill-equipped for such a position when he found it popping up on his schedule. It at least always allowed him to have a little bit of a stretch.

This time could have been just like all the others before it but there was just a weird feeling, the hairs on his neck standing up even and Digs only confirming with its excitable warnings. Sheldon had half a mind to summon his weapon, just in case, but felt it fleeting when he turned around and found nothing there. Just what he always saw now. Everyday. Green, trees and sometimes a good view of the beach.

That came to a halt, though, when the ground suddenly split open before him and a mass of black shot upward as if a geyser. It was nothing, just a heap at first and then slowly a shape with clocks that just seemed a little bit wrong. Wrong enough to make his eyes open a little wider and his demeanor on the defensive.

It didn't help too much from the whooshing sensation nor the doors that engulfed him. Nor the memory that he suddenly found himself in, as if a omnipotent spirit watching his life go by.

It wasn't just one, it was several all laced and connected. The broken home, the constant moving and uncertainty of what each new day would bring as his parental struggled to keep them both afloat with multiple jobs. And how they had to move again, sometimes moving in with others. How difficult it was to keep up sometimes in school when curriculum was just so different.

Running away. Falling into the wrong crowd, trying to keep every sort of demon out of his life; those that stabbed at his emotions and those that no one else could see.

Then an offer - because it was strong in his family - and his life was so low that anything seemed better than where he was.

Seeing him.

It was so tempting to close his eyes but Sheldon just couldn't find himself looking away. Even as he felt his body transported to something else. Familiar now, much more coherently vivid. Because it was the island all around him. The longest place he could easily say he had been in one go.

They were at the lighthouse, returning home. His first real mission complete and successful. There was almost a smile on his face as he stepped back into solid ground. It didn't help he had found something interesting along the way -

Sheldon jolted again, nearly falling over as he regained his senses. He was back again but the shadow still loomed before him. The clock ticked and he stared complacently at the puzzle before him. Well, time to get to work.

Aya had always been alone.

Even when she had family, even when she had a brother -- she was alone.

Ever the second child, she was always pushed aside in favor for the first born, the golden child, the apple of their eye.

But Aya was an accident, not meant to happen, but kept around just to be useful. Ignored, even when she dressed in strange clothing. Even when dying her hair obscene colors, even when she didn't come home sometimes...

She had never minded, not really, considering that her brother actually went out of his way to spend time with her -- but not their parents. Never their parents.

Aya always saw it in his eyes, how he tried to include her in things, how he stated to his parents to not forget her... but they made excuses. Explained to him how she wasn't old enough for things. How something was meant for him but not her.

And she saw his hands grip into a fist, every time, knowing that he couldn't continue to fight her battles for her... or save her from her endless nightmares and the creatures crawling on the edge of her vision.

She was all too glad to leave, disappearing without a second glance.

Aya never looked back.

-----

Her happy thought was actually being included in things. At first, when she'd joined the Hunters, she took to the background of things, until people started noticing her and calling her by name.

Actually asking for her.

The feeling that made her heart soar was unfamiliar to her, and she found herself more and more social, wanting to pursue that feeling and never let it stop --

Her body shifted, and she jerked up, feeling like she was falling from a dream, but -- no. She was in front of a figure with clocks.

That's right. This was a battle. Why the memories, though? Those were memories she had wanted to forget.

Rising to her feet, she wobbled a bit, before lifting her hand... and giving it a rather rude bird.

Gzifa felt a little antsy, as if she was being watched by her division lead as she made her rounds outside the Deus gates. She was not a slacker by any means, nor did she usually give anyone a reason to doubt her abilities other than a few minor outbursts here and there...

Alright, she may or may not be a little sensitive about her height, but at some point it was getting tiring trying to prove that it does not matter. She was not a child, and she was definitely more than capable of bringing down anyone in a fight.

A shadow loomed over her in those few moments she was lost in her thoughts, Gzifa having assumed it belonged to just another annoying tall hunter trying to tower over her for fun. She was wrong. Cassie began screeching bloody murder, but there was nothing she could do except to be engulfed in the shadow and thrown through the door...

- - -

“What is she doing here? Isn't she just a child? This is no place for them.” Whispers echoed through the room as she waited for further questions. The hunter in charge was looking at her skeptically and kept referring to the sheet on his clipboard, but there was no denying it – she was old enough to make her choice.

“You have a lot to prove.” He tutted and moved down the line.

“Yes sir.” Glares were thrown back at the others who were staring, challenging them to give her a try. Sure, she wasn't the strongest in a fight, but she knew how to win.

- - -

“Owowowow OK STOP STOP, I CONCEDE.”

“That's lunch for a week ya owe me,” she laughed, loosening her hold around the hunter's neck and letting go of his hair. It took a while but she had been promoted, and what better cause for celebration in this dreary place.

“That includes drinks too!” she quipped, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Slowly, soon everyone will acknowledge her.

- - -

Now then, where should they start? Twin blades were summoned in each hand as Gzifa stared down the shadow before her.

Yao Ming


He'd tried to explain.

"If you would just - listen to me - "

The words fell on deaf ears. They had never wanted to listen to him, had never wanted to understand, had never wanted a reminder that their only son had fallen short of all of their expectations. He wasn't good enough, had never been good enough, and it didn't help that he was gifted, or that he was more intelligent than half of the students in his class (or rather, three fourths of them). He'd somehow failed them anyway, because he wasn't the dutiful son doing exactly what they'd asked - even though he always had.

And the damned shadows.

"There are no shadows," his mother had said, derision lacing each and every syllable of the words so that they dragged out too long. They felt like little pinpricks on Yao's skin. "There is nothing there. You are the one who has caused all of this. Do not place blame on something nonsensical. You are not a child. This is not an imaginary friend."

He'd never been allowed those, either, as a child anyway. Yao had overheard his parents discussing delusions with the family doctor, as though that would have helped at all. At the time, he'd been old enough to understand things anyway, so there was little point in keeping him out of the room to try and make sure their only son wasn't going crazy.

It was a moot point. Yao knew perfectly well that he wasn't crazy. He wasn't stupid after all, so he'd long stopped talking about the shadows he could see out of the corners of his eye every few days or so. After the years had gone, he'd just come to accept it as a fact of life - they were just there.

Until they'd moved, and he didn't know what had happened this time, only that he was fine, and his father was not, and it was those damned shadows again -

His mother jabbed a finger into his chest. It was surprising how a petite, five foot woman could be as imposing as she was, but the expression on her face did not give leeway for anything less than perfection at all times, and she had learned how to use her height to her advantage. People underestimated her, gave her - unintentionally - the upper hand.

Yao never had.

"Mother - " he started to say, but she was already gone.

She'd been gone for years.


The island was a better safe haven than Yao had initially expected. He'd been relieved - and vilified - to learn that all of the times he had carefully, cautiously hidden the shadows from his childhood and teenage years, he'd been right to so. And that he hadn't been merely hallucinating, because here was an island full of people who had seen the same things.

Except that they were all useless peons.

"Do it again," Yao instructed boredly to the Life tech on duty, pushing over a vial of some smoking liquid the tech had apparently decided was worth his superior's attention. It smelled like sulfur; the acrid stench was slowly filling the Life labs, where Yao was currently taking his temporary residence while he researched.

"So-sorry!" The tech scrambled away, vial in hand. Yao watched after him, then glanced at his watch. Kith would be coming in soon; she was a far, far superior assistant than the rest of them, much more intelligent and sharp minded than any of the other cretins who kept attempting to impress him and failing. Kith's best point was that she didn't try to impress him; she just did her work, and did it extremely well, and that was what impressed Yao.

The rest of them were useless, as far as Yao was concerned, but it was okay. Everything would be okay.

Eventually.

[ Haddy ]

Patrol had never been Haddy's favorite duty; hell, it didn't even rank in the top five. It was long, lonely, and usually pretty boring. To the point where she'd sort of wish to see something, just to break up the long stretch of nothing that was the usual. Today really didn't seem any different than that, at least not at first. She had been at it for a while, humming softly under her breath, with only her weapon to keep her company, which wasn't much help, honestly. Aya was the strong silent type. Tending only to chime in when she deemed it necessary. A blessing and a curse. She avoided the irritation of constant chatter, but there were times when she would have welcomed the extra noise.

<My apologies.>

No, it's fine. I couldn't have asked for a better partner.

<Nor, I.>

A small half smile ticked at the corner of full lips. It wasn't much, but a temporary break from the monotony was appreciated all the same. It Made the next few minutes a bit less of a chore, at least.

Though instead of returning to boring silence, everything just sort of felt...wrong. It was hard to place a finger on what exactly had her shoulders suddenly crawling with tension, but something did, and it had her summoning her weapon as she continued along the path.

Crack.

Haddy froze, bright eyes snapping down to the ground beneath her feet, and she jerked back and away from the jagged fissure that had just appeared there. Not that it mattered in the end; the damage was already done, and something was rising up from it. Dark and shapeless, it rose up above the Moon to spread and spread until all there was was darkness.

Darkness and the whirl and click of...gears?


[ Past ]


There had been a time when Haddy hadn't questioned her dislike of the dark. A point in her life where she'd gotten so incredibly used to living her life through the evening hours that she'd convinced herself that things she'd believed she'd seen as a child were nothing but products of an overly active imagination. The monsters under the bed weren't real, and they never had been. To hold onto such childish fears was, well, childish.

And it seemed, for a while at least, that she'd been right. Because it was easy to miss the shadows in a crowd, or while you were at the tail end of a fourteen hour shift, running on next to no sleep. The brain played tricks on you when you were sleep deprived, every medical student knew that. Everything had been so easy to simply disregard.

Until it hadn't been.

Until she'd started seeing things even when well rested. In empty rooms. Everywhere. To the point where she'd begun to question herself. To wonder if there was actually something wrong, and if she should try to seek out help for it.

That was when they had found her, though she supposed they must have been watching for a while. Waiting until the time when she would be most likely to accept. The plan had worked, obviously. By that point Haddy had been so desperate for answers, and to escape the formless fear, that she'd been willing to place that safety and peace of mind above everything else. A semi professional career as a niche model, two years into a nursing degree, and, most importantly, her family.


[ Present ]


Torn.

At this point Haddy honestly didn't know what to do anymore. She'd tried to simply accept him as he was, and that had ended with a nervous break down after having to assist in stitching him back together again after a particularly awful mission had gone sideways. She'd tried to sever ties with him him. Tried to simply break it off, as if that would keep her from caring about it, missing him, craving his company and the touch of his skin. It hadn't worked, but then she'd been something of a fool to believe it actually would have. You couldn't just turn off the way you felt a person, human emotions just didn't work that way.

So here they were, stuck in some odd nebulous of together, but not completely. And Haddy knew that the only thing that kept them from just being happy like they had been in the beginning was her reluctant, but every time she came close to just giving in she remembered the scent of his blood, the tackiness of it drenching her hands and her arms, and how frightfully pale he'd been when they'd wheeled him into surgery. The tactile memory of how it'd felt...

And here the complications, because every time she thought she could walk away, there came the overwhelming sadness at the thought of never again getting to see his smile, or hold his hand. Never feeling the softness of his lips or the strength in his hands when he held her.

She was a mess, and she knew it. He would be gone one day, it it would destroy her, but she couldn't let him go.

So they would take it day by day now, and try not to think about the rest. Live in the moment.

He would continue to get hurt, and she would continue to work too damn hard and forget to take care of herself. So Haddy would ice his bruises or close his skin, and Ren would check in on her at work, make sure she remembered to eat, and to take breaks. Because the both of them were filthy hypocrites, and neither was capable of letting go.


[ Now ]

Haddy opened her eyes again to darkness that went beyond anything she'd ever known before. Solid and consuming. Instead of emptiness, it felt as if everything was closing in around her, and the illusion of suffocation made it hard to breath. When she could see, it wasn't the island. There was an unfamiliar door standing before her in the darkness. A clock floated along with it, and the clicks and the whirring she'd heard before now had a source. On the face of it, and the hands, numbers and letters.

It seemed to be waiting, expectant, but for what..?

Lucien Red


He hadn't had any siblings growing up, but he'd had his cousin, Ren; and for Lucien, that had been more than enough, because Ren had been an extremely vibrant, extremely cheerful, and extremely exciting person to be around in general. Lucien had looked up to him for several reasons, the primary of these being that Ren was simply - cool. He'd somehow managed to acquire every single personality trait that Lucien looked up to, and he'd managed to pull it off without looking like an idiot.

If only Lucien could have said the same.

He was not exactly the most well-versed in confidence, but he did his best. He tried, which was saying something. He tried and he pushed his way through the bullies, but they were always there. Mocking his accent, mocking his clothing, telling him that he would never live up to be like Ren, but still, he tried.

It still hurt. Whoever had come up with the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me had clearly never been taunted as a child.

Ren had been his idol and still was. Lucien had grown up thinking of him, remembering that time when the two of them had snuck out of the house in order to go get ice cream and had wound up in the back of a police car for playing hooky. Ren had grinned at him, cheeks flushed with the heat of the coming summer weather, and had said it was worth it, even as the dry humored officer had led them up the front steps to Lucien's house.

That was the one thing that Lucien had that Ren didn't - good parents.

They never talked about it.

They didn't talk about here, either, especially since Lucien had never expected to see him here. He hadn't thought that he would walk into a meeting and discover that his long lost cousin, the one he'd thought dead, was here, happy and alive with a wife and a life completely separated from the terrible one he'd been living before. And sure, life on Deus wasn't a paradise by any means.

But it wasn't like the human world. Lucien could be different here.

He could be himself.

It was a strange, foreign thought.

A normal patrol brought something he’d never seen before. Borr was caught, trapped, each doorway spinning out, ticking like a clock and pulling him in. Which door..? Which was right..? But it wasn’t within his control. His focuse shifted from one to another until he was sucked up, drawn in and...

He’d always seen things but it was easier to laugh them away. Big sounds and big smiles and big happiness could chase away any shadow. He lived as best he could, which was all that anyone could do, and he was probably too young when he found love… love that he ended up losing.

She was too young to get that sick, they were too young to be that in love, and he had been too young to handle that loss.

And so he ran.

He rode, he fought, he drank and didn’t stop until something stopped him. Until maybe he got to the age where thinking about himself was finally acceptable and when finally Deus stopped him, someone with an offer for work that he couldn’t refuse.

Maybe there had been nothing for him anymore in the real world. He hadn’t found what he needed there but he still knew it was something to protect and as a Moon Hunter he’d found his purpose.

And here on the island he’d found more.. There was someone special that he’d never known if not for this place and that..

Borr smiled before he was torn back and he he blinked again at the clock, at the door…