Blau Auge, or simply Blauge as Rehn had decided to nickname him basically five minutes later, was satisfied as he gulped down the pieces of meat the cat girl had sneaked back into her room after dinner. The horrors of helping a teenage girl choose her wardrobe for a date still wasn’t worth this, though.

“Heh, thanks for helping me out, Blauge. I think I finally found what I want.” Rehn grinned back at him, head plopped onto her hands as she laid atop her bed. He suppressed his deadpan stare. The clothes she had chosen barely looked any different from her normal wear. In fact, he was pretty sure she would have worn them to school the next day if the Lebensfest wasn’t taking place.

Still, he puffed up his feathers proudly. No way would he let a compliment escape him.

Late afternoon, closing in on evening, had laid itself over the city and Blauge fluttered over to the window. With a small smile, Rehn opened it for him and waved him goodbye.

“Hope to see you tomorrow. Maybe at the festival?” She offered and the pitch-black nevermore bopped his head back and forth. Eh, he would see if he could. The glitter in his eyes saying he would definitely try. Letting out a caw his wings stretched out and he fell into the sky, gliding into the distance and upwards until the clouds swallowed him whole.

“Hehe, hope to see you then~!” She called after him with a giggle.

The moment he had vanished in the distance, Rehn closed the window and pulled the curtain close. Her bright and cheerful look replaced with a pained grimace as pulsing agony pierced through her skull. Not once had her headache abated, instead it had just grown in intensity as always. The fact she hadn’t showed her pain even once around others was honestly impressive.

“Why…” She mumbled, letting her tears flow for once as she crawled onto her bed, curling up tightly with her eyes pressed close. Only sleep seemed to help her.

Rehn had barely closed her eyes when it suddenly felt like the headache turned into screaming, like a child bellowing right into her brain with a megaphone: “Look!” “LOOK!!” “LOOK HERE!!!”

“AGH!” She let out a strangled gasp as her senses seemed to twist and bend, her own body suddenly feeling distance and disconnected. Everything whirled around her and then Rehn found herself somewhere else.

A crumbling building, children were shouting and crying while white lighting seemed to dance between the falling boulders. There was blood. It was chaos, it was horrifying. The whole experience was surreal as she seemed to watch it all from behind them. She was there and yet not. And this sensation unlocked without warning a torrent of memories, of dreams she had. Watching Vee, her father, Thale and then Jak while she had slept.

“W-what…?” She gasped, for the first time feeling conscious as she watched through this Other eye. All of this. It was impossible for her to deny. This tragedy before her was real.

And caught within it was Vee. Rehn’s focus whirled towards her as the chameleon weasel rushed with a furious look after a young boy and girl.

“N-no…!” Rehn’s eyes went wide in horror as she saw the ceiling above Vee crack and shatter, a massive boulder breaking out of it and threatened to crush her.

“NOOO!!! LOOK OUT!!!”

Desperation and fear burned bright through Rehn as she tried to reach out, to rush forwards and push Vee out of the way of the boulder. And then she blinked dumbfounded as she suddenly felt her feet touch ground, her body already moving even as her unconscious mind took over the confusion.

Vee’s eyes widened as she stared upwards and then gasped as Rehn barrelled into her from behind, the cat girl’s body swirling with a golden green glow out of a bat-winged eye that had materialised into the room. Back in the tower her body had dispersed into similar motes of light.

Behind the two the boulder had crashed into the ground, now unmoving but splattered with blood at the side.

“Gah…!” Rehn cried out as she crashed to the ground, laying atop Vee as a long cut went along her leg where the boulder had grazed her.

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“…R-rehn?” Vee mumbled wide eyed, disbelief written clear within them.

“Y-you’re safe…” The cat girl gasped and then collapsed atop the chameleon girl as exhaustion rushed through her. But still, a feeling of content relief washed over her as well. The headache that had hammered into her brain was suddenly gone and instead the static that had filled out so much of her mind was replaced with the clear sight out of her third eye. The bat-winged eye vanished into thin air once more. Returning into to its unnoticeable existence.

———

Zooming out of the crumbling building, Myra’s hold had slid down to Jak’s hands mid pull. A quick glance was exchanged between them and she swung him forwards to the side. Letting go, Jak landed on a lower section of the creaking steam pipes her grappling hook had locked onto. The hook detached and flitted back into her glove. Barely a second later Myra impacted the side of the pipe, Jenny rocking on her back as she clung tightly against her, and then she quickly pulled herself upwards onto the building’s rooftop. Awkwardly and partially shellshocked, Jenny slid down her back. Still she tightly held onto the older girl.

Jak was quickly climbing up the side of the building after them, his movement more automatic and instinctive as his gaze was drawn towards the collapsing orphanage. It wasn’t just the orphanage that was crumbling, however. Like most structures around the slums, the orphanage had been built into the core building of this building block. And right now the the cracks spread towards the neighbouring walls. It was like the central book within a row of books had been taken out and now the others were threatening to turn askew. And even along the alleyways Jak could see the fissures spreading outwards. This building they had to so hurriedly fled to was cracking with miniscule cracks, too!

“How…?” Jak breathed out unconsciously, eyes wide in disbelief and numb terror.

This couldn’t be an earthquake, too centralised, and the way only the orphanage was collapsing wouldn’t have made sense then either. Dampfstadt was no stranger to earthquakes and had been build to withstand even the strongest ones. In addition, the Underground cave system below acted as a natural buffer against the worst of it.

“Damnit! Where’s Vee and the others?!” Jak exclaimed in sudden realisation, his head whipping towards the already collapsed entrance of the orphanage. Nobody, he didn’t see anybody around. No, that wasn’t true. Already the alleyways were filling with people running terrified out of their homes. But he didn’t see anybody he knew. Or cared about, rather.

His breathing began to turn quicken, fear for Vee, Mina and Geen washing cold over his body. But not just for them, but the other kids and caretakers of the orphanage as well. He gritted his teeth and continued climb upwards, ignoring the painful aching pull within his chest that wanted him to rush back. To somehow smash aside rock and stone and pull everyone to safety.

“W-was that Haggard’s doing…?” Myra gasped out with wide, wild eyes as she waited for him at the rooftops. They pulled further back as the cracks had ominously spread along the edge of even this building’s rooftop. They were smaller, little more than visual aesthetic than actual damage, and didn’t continue to spread any further from there. The shaking of the ground had mostly stopped as well, though the sound of crumbling stone still echoed loudly through the air as the orphanage continued to break apart.

“N-“ Jak wanted to deny her idea with a vehement shake of his head but froze and cursed furiously as he realised that after that Demon, that wolf could have anything on his side. Instead he snarled out in anger, body shaking with uncontrolled, unfocused fury which he had no idea where to direct.

“I have no idea…!”

“Woah…” Jenny gasped out, catching the attention of the two teenagers. The fennec mouse was staring with big eyes at the sky above after she had pulled away from Myra.

Instinctively Jak and Myra followed her gaze and blinked in nervous awe, only able to echo her sentiment.

“Woah.”

A whirling vortex of pitch black clouds covered the sky directly above the orphanage. It’s eye even darker, only illuminated by the crackling of electric discharges that burst downwards.

The impressive sight pulled Jak out of his funk for a moment. His eyes narrowed and he shot forwards again, back to the edge of the roof overlooking the still crumbling orphanage. Startled by his sudden movement, Myra made sure Jenny wasn’t still holding onto her and then rushed after him. If he wanted to try and help anybody in that building than she would help, too! She was sure she had enough tech with her that could be of use here, definitely!

She arrived at his side just in time to see the building split apart like a ruinous flower, hallways, rooms, beds and flickering Amber lights could be seen falling sideways or in on themselves atop the crumbled ruins. Stone crashed into stone. Hammering into the walls of the neighbouring building, to the side, in front and behind as well. But miraculously the central area of the orphanage, the main hall, had not been buried under piles of dust and stone. But this was a hollow reassurance as large fragments had still pierced the ground… red was flowing from under some of them.

Still, many were still alive and reasonably unharmed for being at the centre of this chaos. A gasp of relief escape Jak as he saw Vee among them… and then had a double take at the cat girl clinging to her side. Was… was that Rehn?! What was she doing here?!

All focus, however, was immediately pulled towards further back as the ground crumbled into the basement of the now ruined orphanage where lightning cracked repeatedly and the battling forms of Graam and Flizz were revealed. Jak’s eyes immediately narrowed with dilating pupils as he saw the hateful form of Haggard floating behind her. His legs tensed.