The sun had barely crested the horizon when David and Claire set out, leaving the familiar silhouette of the Observatory behind. The air was cool and crisp, a welcome respite from the oppressive heat they knew would come later.

David perched comfortably on Claire's back, his wings tucked in close as she navigated the rocky terrain. The Cuddlebugs were nestled around him, some still drowsy from the early start.

"You know," David mused, breaking the comfortable silence, "I never thought I'd be excited about hiking through monster-infested wilderness to pick a fight with something that could squash me like a bug."

Claire snorted, a plume of warm air rising in the cool morning. "Welcome to the new normal, bat boy. At least the view's nice."

And it was. As they descended from the mountaintop, the landscape gradually transformed. Barren rock gave way to scrubby vegetation, which in turn yielded to more lush greenery. By midday, they were trekking through a dense forest, the canopy above providing welcome shade.

"Hey Claire," David chirped, idly grooming one of the Cuddlebugs, "you ever miss your old life? You know, before all this?"

Claire was quiet for a moment, her steady pace never faltering. "Sometimes," she finally admitted. "Though it's getting harder to remember what it was like."

"Yeah, I get that," David nodded. "It's like... was I really stressing about deliveries and rent just a few months ago?"

Claire chuckled, the sound rumbling through her massive body. "At least you were mobile. Try being stuck in a cubicle all day, crunching numbers for people who couldn't balance a checkbook if their life depended on it."

"Oh man, I forgot you were a bank drone," David grinned. "No wonder you're so good at math. Bet that comes in handy with all these System notifications."

"You have no idea," Claire grumbled good-naturedly. "Though I'll take XP calculations over loan applications any day."

As they continued through the forest, David found himself opening up about his old life. The monotony of delivery routes, the constant race against the clock, the occasional bright spot of a grateful customer.

"It wasn't all bad," he mused. "But man, it feels like a lifetime ago."

Claire hummed in agreement. "I know what you mean. I'd just been transferred to Redfield like…two months before? The commute was terrible."

The conversation lulled as they navigated a particularly dense patch of underbrush. When they emerged into a small clearing, David broke the silence again.

"You never really talked much about your childhood," he ventured cautiously.

Claire's stride faltered for just a moment. "Not much to tell," she said, her tone guarded. "Dad made some bad choices, got in with the wrong crowd, like I said before. We managed."

David nodded, sensing the weight behind her words. "Must've been tough."

"It was what it was," Claire shrugged, nearly dislodging David in the process. "Sorry about that. Anyway, it's all in the past now. Literally a different world."

As the day wore on, their conversation drifted between memories of the old world and plans for navigating the new one. David found himself marveling at how easily they could now discuss mutagens and evolution in the same breath as reminiscing about favorite restaurants and old TV shows.

The sun was dipping lower on the horizon when Claire finally called for a break. They'd made good progress, the forest beginning to thin as they neared the Brute's territory.

"You know," Claire said as she lowered herself to the ground, allowing David to hop off, "for all the insanity we're living through, I'm glad you're here, David."

David grinned, his fangs glinting in the fading light. "Aw, you big softie. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Wouldn't want the Brute to know you're just a cuddly lizard at heart."

Claire snorted, a puff of warm air ruffling David's fur. "Keep it up, bat boy, and you'll be walking the rest of the way."

As they crested the ridgeline, the Brute's territory sprawled before them, a patchwork of craters and splintered trees.

"Well," David chirped, eyeing a particularly massive hole, "I guess we know where Thumper's been playing hopscotch."

Claire snorted, lowering herself with a grunt. "Real cute. You planning on using those jokes to bore it to death?"

David hopped off, stretching his wings. "Hey, don't knock it. Laughter is the best medicine. Or in this case, maybe a distraction."

The Cuddlebugs scattered around them, chittering as they explored. David paced, his mind racing.

"Alright, so we know taking out its legs is the goal. Question is, how? That hide looked thick as hell when I scouted it."

Claire's tail thumped thoughtfully. "Your acid worked well enough on the Pulverizer. Think it'll do the trick here?"

"Maybe," David mused, "if I can get enough on target. But this thing's a lot more mobile than our last dance partner."

They fell silent, the warm breeze carrying the faint scent of shattered trees and fresh sap, a lingering effect of the Brute's impacts.

"You know," Claire rumbled, breaking the quiet, "we could always go with the classics. You sneak, distract it. Then I come in, after you get your bat-dust all over it. Finish it off together. Worked on the Crusher."

David's ears flattened. "Yeah, but the Crusher was slow. This thing? It'll be on you faster than you can say 'oh shit'."

"Such a ray of sunshine," Claire deadpanned. "Got a better idea?"

David grinned, fangs glinting. "As a matter of fact, I do. Remember how we took down the Corruptor? Same principle, but dryer and less melty. We get it into a bad position by making it chase me, and you get up a full head of steam and run it over."

As the sun dipped lower, they refined their plan. David would start stealthy, using every trick in his book to disorient and weaken the Brute. Claire would hang back, ready to charge in when the beast was off-balance. Same basic plan they usually employed, if David was being honest with himself.

"And if all else fails," David chittered happily, "we wing it. Hasn't steered us wrong yet."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Claire's answering rumble was part laugh, part growl. "Speak for yourself. I'd still have scorch marks from our last 'winging it' session if we didn't heal so fast, that is."

As night fell, they made camp on the ridgeline. David took a final scouting run, ensuring that nothing else nasty was lurking in the vicinity, waiting for them to let their guards down.

Landing back at camp, he found Claire already dozing. He settled into his spot, Cuddlebugs curling around him.

"Sleep tight, big girl," he murmured. "Tomorrow, we add another notch to our apocalypse belt."

As David curled into a ball and began to fall asleep, the edges of his vision shimmered with ethereal purple light, undercut by a subtle rainbow shimmer. The world dissolved as he drifted in and out of consciousness, reforming into a vast, empty beach. The sand beneath his feet shifted in impossible colors, each grain a tiny prism refracting light that shouldn't exist.

A gentle wave approached the shore, growing larger as it neared. It crashed over the beach with a sound like whispering voices, reshaping the landscape in its wake. Dunes rose and fell, intricate structures of sand and shell formed and crumbled, all in the span of heartbeats. The air tasted of salt and something indefinable, ancient and powerful.

A familiar presence made David's fur stand on end, every instinct screaming danger. He turned slowly, heart racing, to see Xi sitting nearby. Nine fluffy tails swayed behind the creature, each moving with a mind of its own. Its fur shimmered with an impossible array of colors, shot through with various hues of purple, constantly shifting like oil on water. Eyes that sparkled with mischief and unfathomable intellect fixed on David, a sly grin spreading across its vulpine features.

David tensed, acutely aware of the being's power. The strange symbol etched in iridescent fur on Xi's forehead pulsed gently, all three strokes seemingly painted by exquisite strokes of a brush.

"Grains of sand, once mountains proud, now dance to tides' relentless shroud," Xi's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, neither warm nor cold. "First ripples touch a tranquil shore, while greater waves prepare to roar."

David swallowed hard, forcing himself to speak. "Why...why are you showing me this?"

Xi's grin widened unnaturally, revealing teeth that seemed to flicker between existence and nothingness. "In realms where cosmic currents flow, one clever bat must learn to grow. Shadows lengthen, stars align, as powers shift the grand design."

As Xi spoke, David noticed something odd. Thin, almost invisible strands extended from the fox's form, stretching up into the sky by the hundreds. They pulsed with an otherworldly energy, making David's head spin if he focused on them too long. The strands seemed to connect Xi to something vast and incomprehensible beyond the dream.

Unnerved, David looked back to the ocean. His blood ran cold as he spotted an enormous wave on the horizon, dwarfing the first. It was a towering wall of water, blotting out the stars as it approached, tinged with colors that had no right existing in nature.

"The Originators," David whispered, dread filling his voice.

Xi's eyes glinted with an unreadable emotion. "In games where gods contend, alliances shift and old rules bend. Some seek to shape, some to destroy, while others watch, and some employ."

The fox's tails flicked playfully, a gesture at odds with the ominous words. "When order falters, wild things thrive, in chaos' court, the clever survive. Seek not the paths of least resistance, for growth demands a fierce insistence."

David's mind raced, trying to decipher the cryptic warning. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but froze as he saw the massive wave looming ever closer, reality itself seeming to warp around its edges.

But as he watched, a rainbow of smaller stars began to manifest in the background, their glow intensifying as the distant wave drew nearer. Uncountable thousands of them, glittering in every color imaginable. They shone through the obscuring bulk of the wave, seemingly swept out of the sky itself to be pulled along with the water.

"The tue procession, a grand design, where every star must choose to shine," Xi continued. "Some burn bright with tyrant's might, while others seek a different light."

David's mind raced, trying to piece together the cryptic messages. "You're...you're not all on the same side, are you? The Overseers, I mean."

Xi's form began to fade, its voice growing distant yet somehow more resonant. "In truth and riddle, answers reside, where reason fails and rules collide. The coming storm, may break the worlds, or forge new chains."

The wave was upon them now, a roaring titan of water ready to swallow everything in its path. David tried to run, but his feet were rooted to the spot. He looked back at Xi, desperate for help, but the fox merely watched with that unsettling grin, the invisible strands stretching into the turbulent sky above.

Xi's voice still echoed as the water crashed down.

As the water engulfed him, the last thing David saw was Xi's symbol pulsing with an otherworldly light, burning itself into his mind as the dream collapsed around him.

David jolted awake, gasping for air, the phantom sensation of drowning still clinging to him. As reality reasserted itself, he found himself staring up at the pre-dawn sky, his mind reeling with a mixture of fear, confusion, and a nagging sense that he'd just been given a peek into something that he definitely shouldn't have.

David lay there for a moment, his heart racing as the vivid dream clung to his consciousness. Unlike his previous encounter with Xi, where details had faded quickly, this vision remained crystal clear. Every word, every impossible color, every unsettling detail of Xi's form, it was all burned into his mind with terrifying clarity.

He sat up slowly, careful not to disturb the Cuddlebugs nestled around him. The pre-dawn light cast long shadows across their makeshift camp, and a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature ran down David's spine.

"Claire," he called softly, his voice a little shakier than he'd like. "Claire, wake up. We need to talk."

The massive lizard stirred, one eye cracking open to regard him blearily. "What's wrong?" she rumbled, instantly alert at the tension in David's voice.

David took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts. "It's Xi. It...She...whatever it is, it contacted me again."

Claire's head rose, now fully awake. "Like before?"

"Yes, but...different," David said, running a hand through his fur. "Last time, it was like a hazy message. This time? It was like being dunked into an acid trip designed by a bad novelist."

As the sun slowly crept over the horizon, David recounted his dream in detail. He described the impossible beach, the waves that reshaped reality, and Xi's cryptic warnings. Claire listened intently, her expression growing more concerned with each passing moment.

"The weirdest part," David continued, pacing now, "was how...connected Xi seemed. There were these strands, thousands of them, stretching up into the sky. Like puppet strings, but I got the feeling Xi wasn't the puppet."

Claire's tail thumped thoughtfully. "Sounds like it was trying to show you something about the bigger picture. The Overseers, the Originators...maybe even beyond that."

David nodded, his wings twitching nervously. "Yeah, but why me? Why now? And how the hell can it just pop into my dreams whenever it feels like it?" He paused, a thought striking him. "You know, Omega only made contact with the telescope. ‘Direct Observation’, they said. But Xi? It's like they can actually get into my head somehow."

"Maybe that's part of the point," Claire mused. "Showing off its power, or...I don't know, marking you somehow? You did say you took their evolution."

David shuddered at the thought. "Great. Just what I needed. A shared pet project."

They fell silent for a moment, the weight of the situation settling over them. The forest around them was coming to life, wildlife beginning their morning songs, oblivious to the machinations at play.

"There's something else," David said slowly, his mind racing as he pieced together the fragments of Xi's warning. "The wave. The huge one at the end of the dream. I think...I think it was trying to tell me something about what's coming next."

Claire's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

David took a deep breath, meeting Claire's gaze. "I think Wave Two is about to start. Soon. Like, really soon."

The words hung in the air between them, heavy with implication. Claire's expression hardened, a mix of determination and concern.

"Well," she finally said, her voice a low rumble, "I guess we'd better deal with our angry neighbor quickly then. Don't want to be caught mid-boss fight when the System decides to up the ante."

David nodded, trying to shake off the lingering unease from his supernatural encounter. "Right. One problem at a time. First, we squash a Brute. Then...then we figure out how to survive whatever tsunami Xi was warning about."

As they began breaking camp, David couldn't help but cast a wary glance at the sky. Somewhere out there, beyond human comprehension, forces were moving. Pieces were being placed on a board he couldn't even begin to understand.