The Arrival of Zerox

Zerox was not supposed to be here.

Not in Httoq. Not in this life.

But when he opened his eyes, he was somewhere else.

The floor was cold. Not the polished marble of his father's empire, not the glass-tiled perfection of his world. This was different—rugged metal, raw, unfinished.

For the first time in his life, he wasn't where he was meant to be.

And someone was watching him.

"How the fuck did you—" Zerox started.

Feast smirked. "Welcome to Greenland."

A beat of silence.

Then, from behind him, a new voice:

"How did you get him here?"

Feast turned. Hermes stood in the doorway, arms crossed.

Feast smiled, slow and deliberate. "Some mysteries are better that way."

Zerox sat up, his mind still catching up. "What the fuck is—"

Hermes cut him off. "We needed you. And now you're here."

Zerox blinked. He knew that voice.

Then it clicked.

"Wait," he muttered, sitting up straighter. "You're—"

Hermes grinned. "The guy with the t-shirt. Yeah. Small world."

Realization crashed down on Zerox.

The concert. The line for the bathroom.

The moment he read the words on Hermes' shirt.

And now he was here.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Hold on," he exhaled. "This—this is because of that? Because I read your fucking shirt?"

Hermes chuckled. "Well, that and the fact that you're the son of the most powerful unelected man in the world."

Zerox's stomach twisted.

"Relax, Nepobaby," Hermes added, rolling his eyes. "You're not special. You're just useful."

Zerox narrowed his eyes. "Go fuck yourself."

Hermes smirked. "See? Now you're getting it."

Lupa's Epiphany

The room felt like it tilted when Lupa started speaking.

Not physically. Not really.

But mentally—like a frequency that had been off-balance finally found its perfect resonance.

She hadn't planned to say it. Hadn't rehearsed.

But the moment she saw Zerox, the moment the weight of his presence settled into the bunker, the words just came.

"You don't understand why you're here," she said.

Zerox's lip curled. "That's an understatement."

"You've always been here," Lupa continued, her voice strangely certain, as if she were stating a fact rather than an idea. "You just didn't know."

Zerox let out a short, bitter laugh. "Yeah, sure. That makes sense."

"It does," she said simply.

And then—she explained everything.

She explained the frequency. The fact that reality was not what people thought it was, that time, space, and connection were part of something much deeper.

She explained Boris—how his arrival wasn't just a cosmic accident, but an intrusion that rewrote everything.

She explained the virus. The lie of the pandemic, how the mutation wasn't a disease, but an awakening.

She explained herself.

"I'm not just like Boris," she said. "I am Boris. A fork of him. A second instance of something that was never meant to exist in two places at once."

No one spoke.

Not even Feast.

Not even Hermes.

Because for the first time—things were making sense.

Not in the way they had been trying to force them to.

But in the way they had always been true.

The Impasse: Remo vs. Hermes

Remo exhaled sharply, pacing the room. "So what? What does this actually change?"

Hermes gave him a look. "It means we don't have time to waste."

"Maybe you don't," Remo shot back. "But I'm done chasing ghosts. We can't live in this puzzle forever. Lupa's been stuck in her own head for too long—she needs to be here, now."

Hermes narrowed his eyes. "She is here."

"No," Remo said, turning. "She's not. She's out there—running equations, solving shit no one asked her to solve. What happens when she gets too deep? When she doesn't come back?"

Lupa's voice was calm. "You think I'm going somewhere?"

"You already have," Remo muttered.

Silence.

Then—

Hermes sighed. "This is why I went for reinforcements."

Zerox, still processing, scoffed. "And you thought I was the answer?"

"You were convenient," Feast said smoothly.

Zerox turned to her. "You stole my shadow."

Feast smiled. "And yet, here you are."

Zerox: The Reluctant Piece of the Puzzle

Zerox had never been a believer.

Not in fate. Not in destiny.

Certainly not in any of this.

But there was something unsettlingly real about the way they looked at him.

Like he was supposed to be here.

Like he had been inevitable.

And that scared him more than anything else.

"So," he said slowly, "what happens now?"

Lupa tilted her head, eyes still locked on him.

"Now," she said, "we see what you're capable of."