Fader tried to act calm as his former reflection and this goddess just stared at each other between prison bars, but he couldn't. The wrongness of this place may have soured his belief in the Father, but he still had every bit of faith in His power. With an irritated sigh, Fader stepped forward and wrenched the cell door open.

"I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about, but can we pick it up?"

His words seemed to startle Danna out of her thoughts and she looked at him again. When her eyes fell on him, his Soul seemed to shiver. The Father's wrongness wasn't from something that he lacked, but something more. When Danna looked at him, he could feel that all that divinity boiled down into singular Truth. Danna was a goddess - a true goddess.

"Uh," Fader stumbled over his words. "If, uh, that's all right with you, ma'am."

He knew he sounded stupid, but anything he said would surely sound stupid to one such as she. If she thought that though, she didn't say anything instead regarding him seriously.

"Where is Noctua Dominus?"

Confusion entered Gi's face and Fader wondered what was going on in the now quiet otter's head. Fader pointed to the cell behind them. It was empty, but it wouldn't be forever.

"He reforms faster than you, but I don't know the timing. We don't really have time to wait, your holiness?" Fader hadn't meant that as a question, but he didn't want to seem too demanding. "The Father has been leaving for longer and longer lengths of time, but there's no guarantee that he won't be back soon."

"His soldiers won't take kindly to his captives being freed either," Gi said. The first thing he'd added to the conversation since they found Danna.

"I'm not leaving without him," Danna said. "Give me a moment. Maybe there's something I can do."

Fader stepped out of the way as Danna walked directly into Noctua's cell. The dead guardian took a step over to the stairs to listen, but he couldn't hear anyone coming. That didn't make him any less anxious though. Where was their sense of urgency? The Father had already defeated the two gods at their best.

Danna, still ever so slowly, raised her hands over the cell like a priest blessing a child back in the Thousand Kingdoms. Yet, the gesture performed by mortals spoke more to children imitating their parents than what Danna did here.

Fader didn't have a good sense for these types of things, but something shifted in the room. Despite the change, both versions of reality were true. He wasn't seeing something truly change, but instead it was a perspective shift like two words that read the same with vastly different meanings.

An instant later, tiny motes of fire appeared at each end of the cell, and with a whoosh, raced towards its center. Those fires joined together into a small ball before exploding outward. In the fire's place, a sturdy draconic humanoid stood in its place.

Danna sagged, breath ragged as her working took a lot out of her after being so recently reformed. Clatter and voices from the top of the stairs told him that Noctua's little explosion had been heard and that wasn't how he normally reformed. They'd have company soon.

"We've got incoming," Fader said.

Pulling herself up to her full height, Danna started to work something beyond what he could truly sense, but as Noctua came truly to consciousness, he stopped her. "I have more power for the moment. Let me."

Boots slamming against stone announced the arrival of seven of the Father's soldiers. As one, their eyes fell on both Fader and Gi and surprise was mirrored on every one of their faces.

"Traitors!" One of them yelled and rushed forward with his sword arm raised. With Noctua, assumingly, working on their exit and both Danna and Gi doing fuck all, that left Fader to stop the mess. He didn't have a sword or a shield, but he didn't need them against this chaff.

Two quick jabs caused the first soldier to stumble and a heavy cross knocked him from his feet, sending him clanging against the bars of Noctua's cage. Their false confidence from Fader's lack of weapon didn't abate after seeing their companion get tossed like a rag doll and all six charged him at once.

When you're quick enough, a simultaneous attack has to take place within a much more finite piece of time. To Fader, the slight distance needed for each of them to freely swing their weapons might as well have been an entire stage. He rushed forward, grabbing the first by his hauberk and sword arm before flinging him into the closest two on his right. All three went down in a tangle of limbs.

He shot forward. Another jab stalled the next one as he bulldozed past the second, flinging him behind him. Fear finally shone in the last one's eyes, but it was too late. A Crossblaze Strike slammed into the soldier's cheek and he hit the floor as quickly as if gravity had increased ten times over. His form burst into transparent white mist that drifted upward through the castle.

Its ragged and damaged form wouldn't manage a complex reincarnation.

The first three he'd knocked over were just now getting up and it would only be a moment before the soldier he'd bulldozed would as well. Danna and Gi still just watched him, but a line of fire had appeared between Noctua's hands. From that fiery line, it felt like cracking open a window in a disgusting inn and bringing in that crisp outside air.

They'd have an exit soon. He'd have to pick up the pace.

With the bulldozed one on his hands and knees, Fader grabbed him by the back of his hauberk and used him like a battering ram into the the only one that he hadn't knocked down. He rammed them both with such force into the bars of the cell that they both burst into frayed mist.

Without the Father's influence, Fader liked to think the other three would have fled after being so easily trounced, but they charged directly at him instead. The timing was a bit tighter now so Fader let the first sword fall, deflecting it with the bracer of his plate mail. He stepped forward with a headbutt, smashing his helmet into the soldier's face with enough force to dissipate him into mist.

Fader kept moving dodging a soldier's attack by going through the dissipating soldier and bringing a hook to the back of the man's head. As he crashed into the ground face first, he too dissipated into mist.

The last soldier was a woman - a rarity in the Father's believers, but her face had transformed to a rictus of rage.

"You were the best of us. The Prince held you up as a true believer in the Father. Why would you betray us like this?"

Fader snarled. "I'd never betray the Prince."

Palming her face, he slammed her head against the stone three times before she finally buckled from the blows and her form split apart into mist. With the battle over, Fader frowned, not liking the idea that he was somehow betraying the Prince with his actions here.

He practically snarled at Danna and Gi who watched him while occasionally glancing at the other. His awe at being around true gods and goddesses was starting to wear off and he was irreverent by his very nature.

"Hurry up with the damn exit."

Before he'd even finished his sentence, that line of fire burst into a portal, leading towards a cavern that was large enough to house three copies of the Father's castle with room to spare. Noctua Dominus sagged after opening it and gestured everyone through it.

They all hustled through and as Noctua followed after them, the portal collapsed behind. Breathing heavily, Noctua spoke. "This is my heaven. It was the easiest for me to take us to, but he'll expect this place. Since he was able to find Danna's heaven before, we have to assume it's not safe here either."

"Then let's hurry up and leave," Fader said.

Danna shook her head. "It will take time to restore the power we've lost. Maybe an hour or two? We'll just have to hope it's enough time."

Noctua nodded distractedly, but his eyes fell on the far side of the cavern. "And there's someone that I must speak to."

Fader followed his gaze and scrambled backwards when he saw what Noctua was looking at. A dragon, easily bigger than the Prince's flagship, lay curled up against the far wall. The red of her scales bled easily into the rest of the cavern, almost giving her a natural camouflage, but her yellow eyes watched them.

Sadness and pain radiated from those eyes and drew Noctua forward. The god's posture seemed resolute like a man walking towards his own execution. Fader turned to Danna and Gi to see their reaction, but the two were just staring at each other. Their eyes searching the other's for something that Fader couldn't guess.

Even though it felt like the Father could come for them at any time, they couldn't escape until the two deities recovered more of their power. So Fader grunted before walking away.

"I'll give you some space."

****

Danna continued to study her husband as Fader left them. Part of her felt some concern for Noctua as he left to speak to Queen Siht, his greatest follower, but she didn't have much attention to spare. The monster who had been Richard was finally, finally in front of her.

Cowardly, she dipped into the river of Truth to see what he was thinking, but his thoughts were muted to her in a way that they'd never been when he was truly mortal. She wasn't sure if it was to do with his progress or perhaps some lingering protection from the Father blocking her, but she could still feel a single basic intent from him.

One she was scared to hear, but she wasn't one to hesitate for too long.

"I feel you have something to say."

"I do," Gi said, eyes still dancing across her face. It took him a long time to muster the courage, but eventually, he spoke again. "I'm sorry that I left you and Noah that day. It was a mistake."

Danna blinked. Once he'd fully regained his memories, he'd hated her. He blamed her for everything that had happened at the end between them. It was more nuanced than he'd believed, but that hadn't been enough to assuage her own guilt. She'd never expected him to apologize. He wasn't done though.

"Growing up, my father was the strongest person I'd ever met. He seemed both omniscient and wise yet still cruel. Everyone in our lives always tried so hard to appease him because what else could you do against a force of nature like him? There was no stopping him. All you could do was minimize the damage. That's how my entire life was spent - just minimizing the damage."

From her time looking back within the river of Truth, she understood how he felt. The desire to make himself small had always been present in those childhood memories. Gi took a deep breath as though he was still shaking those feelings off even after Richard's death.

"When we met, you showed me that I didn't have to live my life under his thumb. I felt safe with you in a way that I never had before, but it didn't really change who I was deep down. All I did was put you on the pedestal that I kicked him off of."

Without thinking, she stepped forward to comfort him, but he stepped back, not willing to accept her embrace. He continued.

"You spent all your time and emotional energy making sure that I was okay and I thought you were perfect for it. After my childhood, it felt so good to finally be out of survival mode that I took that lack of conflict for granted. Didn't that just show how perfect we were together?

"Once Noah came, I was transcendent. My family was growing and I finally had the opportunity to be a better father than the one I'd been given. Yeah, I was having problems at work, but for my family, I could have endured anything. After you started acting differently..."

"I had just gone to the doctor-," she started but Gi held out a paw to stop her.

"It doesn't matter why it started. The sudden introduction of conflict into our relationship tainted the goddess that I'd built up in my mind and all I saw was my father all over again. I couldn't feel safe. The only thing keeping me together was that I wasn't useless. I brought home money for you and Noah to live. Then I got fired."

"We would have figured it out."

"I know... now." He shook his head in regret. "I'm sorry I couldn't figure it out sooner."

"It's not just your fault. The day before the crash, I went to the doctor because of how off I was feeling. I thought keeping it from you was a good way to keep some stress off your plate. I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"What did they say?"

"Postpartum depression. I didn't even think about it because I assumed that would manifest as lethargy and not the sharp irritation that I laid on you." Danna sighed. "I really messed up not talking to you about it. While I had a good reason, I said some very hurtful things to you and I don't want to use that as an excuse for those."

"You also said some true things. One thing I've learned since being reborn as a monster is that conflict isn't inherently bad. If we never challenge our own thoughts and beliefs, how would we grow? I'm glad our relationship gave me so much peace, but I worshipped you more than I loved you. If I'd been more self aware, our troubles could have brought us closer instead of pushing us apart."

Silence reigned between them as both of them looked inward. He wasn't wrong about Danna's actions. Her biggest mistake wasn't even not telling him about how she was feeling or her doctor visit. It was the fact that she'd tried to shield him from life - to protect him utterly after his horrible childhood.

"I...," Gi started, the words coming in thick like he was holding back tears. "The clan helped me to see. Some of them looked up to me the same way that I looked up to you. They had such high expectations out of me, but I was such a flawed individual. Most of the time I was trying to build the plane as I was flying it. It wasn't until I was dying the second time that I finally realized that I saw them the way that you saw me."

Gi swallowed hard as he kept fighting to hold back tears. "They're a good clan," Danna said.

He laughed, choking back his tears. "They are. I wish I'd done better by them. Sometimes, I acted like my Father and treated them as a tool. Other times, children that needed to be-" He stopped, again forcing back his tears. "What I hate myself for the most was leaving Noah behind."

His eyes shined with unwept tears and looked desperately to her. He wanted her to loath him or to forgive him or anything. He'd realized so much about the state of their relationship, but all that did was reveal what he saw was his truest sin. If it wasn't all Danna's fault like he'd felt before, then he'd abandoned his child.

Not even the Father had abandoned Richard.

"I... left him too," Danna said, her own voice shaking as she spoke. Her divine nature couldn't hold back the depth of the emotions that lived at the heart of her very soul. "I felt so guilty after your crash that I wasted away, barely doing anything for him. We both failed him."

Like a guitar string snapping, the distance between them broke. Tears fell freely as both of them embraced for the first time since before Richard's initial death. Danna squeezed hard, clenching her fingers in his fur as she forced back her divine nature completely so that she could truly feel.

Their shared guilt hammered against their souls; the loss of their love and the relationship they'd built raked itself through them; and sheer loneliness from the other's absence fueled their weeping.

Their souls felt cracked open and raw from the pain of acknowledging their flaws, but it was through those cracks that they could finally see each other like two children peeking through a fence. For the first time in two lifetimes, they were truly connected.

The tears that had started as an expression of pain and loss turned to a healing rain that soothed their souls. It didn't lessen their mistakes or magically make them unflawed, but it did finally bring them a sense of peace that neither had possessed in a long, long time.

As their tears slowly subsided, the two of them gripped each other tightly, unwilling to let go now that they'd found each other. Their breaths still came in shuddering gasps, but small hesitant smiles slowly blossomed on each of them. Giving Gi one final squeeze, she pulled back to look in his eyes.

"Can I tell you about Noah's life?"

Gi sniffed heavily and rubbed his paw against his eyes. "I'd love that."