With a gasp, the zombie's eyes widened. “Archie?” Sally took him from the mobster and cradled the tiny cat in her arms. “You’re so small.”

“Mew” he replied.

“He ain’t much for talking,” Jackie shrugged, before turning around to see the others waiting in the room. “Fuck! You’ve grown, Chuck, hardly recognize ya. And Sword-guy. Pleasure?”

“Not that we aren’t happy to see you,” Chuck began, confusion clear on his face. “But how? And why?”

“And when?” Sally added, still cuddling with Archie.

“Fangs actually has some brains in him. When he came back to the Forest he did more than level. Turns out,” she jerked her thumb back at the zombie, “that’s the area one Archie. The cat that found us last year was originally from the fifth area.”

Chuck furrowed his brow, but nodded, exchanging a glance with Dent.

“Dumb vampire knew he was going to die, said he’d need us to bring the furball when the time was right. Had the pendant made, which gave a signal back to the goblins. Henkk has been training all year to get my ass over here.”

“Had to be the top of the tower,” Sally said as she shook her head. “So that he could aim you, huh?”

“I, uh, anticipated you having different company.” Jackie grimaced and flicked her cigarette to the floor. “Fangs take out the others?”

“I’ll update you as we leave this place.” Sally swaddled the kitten up in her robes. “Is there a quick way down, Fern?”

“Back on floor eighteen, yes.”

[New Bodyguard: Jackie, Level 23 Mobster]

The Mobster whistled, adjusting the case that was slung on her back. “Missed being powerful. Can tell you that. That’s a lot of new skills.”

“Fran and the goblins okay?” Sally pestered her, starting after the dryad towards the stairs.

“Henkk is doing what he can, keeping as many Uniques safe as possible. Couple of Observer attacks, but nothing we couldn’t handle. If we were talking pre-Architect death number of skulls, then…”

“We lucked out in a way there, then.” Sally smiled, but felt out of place. There was a great warmth in seeing Jackie again, and having a kitten close to her, but it was something else, too. The pressure of the eventual last stand. All her favorite people coming together to do or die one last time. It was remarkably cliche.

Jackie put her hand on her back. “You holding up okay, Sally?”

She pouted. How she missed the easy Forest area, they should have just stayed there and not wormed their way through all these struggles to follow her ambition. “Humphrey killed Theo and ran away due to guilt.”

“Oh, it wasn’t Edward?” Jackie took out a fresh cigarette and put it in her mouth. “Fangs kept going on and on about some demon.”

“Ed and Theo are like best buds. You’ll probably meet him soon enough. He’s another of my Bodyguards.” Sally narrowed her eyes at the mobster as she brought out a lighter. “Didn’t you give up smoking for Fran?”

Jackie shrugged. “I’m probably going to die. Let a gal have a little fun. I chose this, by the way,” she took a drag and blew the smoke out, “before you go thinking I got pressured into it. The last year has been like a dream, and I’ve got your scrawny ass to thank for it.”

“Thanks, Jackie.” Sally gave her a wide smile. “The best is yet to come.”

“Normally I’d roll my eyes,” she replied, “but with you, I believe it.”

They reached Fern’s living floor and stood around while the plant-person dealt with something to teleport them down.

Sally checked her STAR, to find there were notifications.

[Norah: everyone doing okay?]

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

[Lucius: ij gote humphersy]

[Lucius: ridifng]

[Lucius: !!]

[Norah: …]

She sighed. It looked like the Shade was on the move, and couldn’t type properly while moving. It looked dangerously like he was still with Humphrey, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

[Sally: dungeon complete]

[Sally: reward was Jackie and a kitten]

[Sally: lucy get me co-ords to meet up asap]

Closing it down, she worked her jaw around. No closer to bringing Theo back—his little ploy was just to gather more allies to help solve the bigger problem. He had been acting weird for a while, and it actually tugged at her dead heart to know he had all this weight on his shoulders. Also explained why he was so sure that he would win fights if his death had been foretold.

She was sure to give him a kick when he awoke for keeping all those secrets, though.

“Gather around when ready,” Fern told them. “This is usually a single person thing, but I can bend the rules a little.”

“Are you coming with us?” Sally asked, as they circled by the dryad.

“…If there is a place for me, I would like to see the greater world.”

She nodded and tried to work out the mathematics of it, before a rush of vertigo and green light brought them down to the ground floor room once more. They all wavered and stumbled, apart from Fern. The kitten jumped out from Sally’s grasp and padded over to where the case holding the other was still hidden.

Chuck clicked his fingers, and it came into view.

“Away from there,” Sally admonished Archie, “dangerous!”

Twisting energy pooled out of the empty case and down toward the smaller cat. Before any of them could step forward to interject, the process was complete.

Archie turned back around. “That’s better, although I had hoped to grow to my full size.”

“Awww!” Sally hopped over and scooped him back up. “That voice is only slightly concerning, coming from the tiny you. You absorbed the other Archie?”

“Let me out of this container.”

“Yes. With the Observer side activated, it allowed me to separate myself from it. I just needed another me to consolidate into.”

Chuck rubbed his face. “So we have two here, Humphrey has two, and then eyepatch is in hiding.”

The group stepped out of the tower into the jungle, and overcast sky overhead. There was a figure already waiting for them outside, arms crossed.

“Lana?” Sally clenched her teeth, the skull atop her staff bursting into green flame.

“In a manner of speaking,” the woman replied, brushing curly hair away from her face. “I spoke with your boyfriend recently.”

The flames of her pending attack petered out. “If he left you alive, then you aren’t part of Last Word?”

Lana shook her head. “I am not. See.” She raised her arm up to show a normal STAR—albeit one that was a dimmer gray than Sally had ever seen.

Sally pouted, and looked at her growing group of misfits. “He said he was my boyfriend?”

The group collectively deflated or rolled their eyes.

“Not as such, but he wouldn’t stop talking about you.” Lana frowned. “Took some of my blood, said to look after myself because he was going to die and you needed protecting. Ah, but he told me not to tell you that part.”

Sally bit her tongue. On one hand, he should have more faith in her and not go around telling everyone she needed to be saved—but also, it was sweet he had gathered so many of her pals around when he couldn’t be here.

“It’s not just me that needs protecting,” she sighed. “You saw the big, spooky Architect, right? People like us are on the list to be erased.” The zombie rubbed her face. “Let me go through everything that has happened again, but we can’t keep doing this every time a new face appears.”

----------------------------------------

The skeletal horse vanished, and the trio dropped to the floor—Lucius landing on his backside.

“A little warning next time,” he grumbled.

Edward finished bandaging himself up now that he was on more stable ground. “Are you sure this is an efficient use of time?”

“No,” Humphrey replied, drawing the large mace into his hands. “There are few ways to bring back a Player. Most of those will not work, as Theo is part undead.”

“A fool’s errand then?” Edward stretched out his back and grunted. “I’m sure you’ve thought about this a lot longer than I have.”

“The only fool is one who does not try,” the Death Knight replied, crimson flame at the back of his helmet.

Lucius nodded and dusted himself off. “Yeah, have some faith.”

The demon grimaced, the hulking constructs in front of them illuminating the barren plain in a dim, red glow. “Joy.”

----------------------------------------

“And that’s the abridged history of the last year,” Sally took a deep breath and sighed.

“I see.” Lana nodded slowly. “For what it’s worth, I apologize for the other Lana’s blaming you for the death of our originator. Accidents do happen.”

Chuck shuffled forward. “Do you know who is corrupting the STARs?”

“Yes and no,” the woman tilted her head. “Where they are, who they currently work for - yes. But I’ve never met them, or know their name.”

Sally flexed her hand. “Details then please, we will need the whole picture if we plan on eating the whole Architect.”

“After working on the other Lana’s they got picked up by Seven.”

The zombie groaned. That meant some of the red team might be corrupted, too. Just what they needed, more problems. She held up the kitten and wrinkled up her nose. “New Architect might not like the corrupted Players, right?”

“I would assume not,” the cat began, “but we don’t know their full intentions.”

As she exhaled through her nose, her STAR lit up with messages. Awkwardly trying to press it while the kitten squirmed around, she brought up the Chat window. “Lucy has sent location, here.” She pinged it across to Chuck and Dent.

“All the way down south?” Chuck furrowed his brow and looked at the swordsman, receiving a shrug in return. “With this many people…” he counted heads. “I can get us in off to the east of their location. We’d need to do the rest on foot.”

“Or mouse,” Sally murmured.

“Even better than that,” Jackie interjected, a wry grin across her face. “You should see the Ultimate I just got.”