If someone were to ask Edna how she felt about the return of the second amongst her childhood friends, she’d probably respond positively.

Then again, she generally responded to most things with some measure of positivity, regardless of whether she felt it or not. This time though, it would be honest. If it was in the past there might have been some resentment that lay between the two.

This world was made up of winners and losers and there was no denying that back then, Elena’s family was amongst the winners and Edna and Billy were amongst the losers.

Still, children’s feuds weren’t necessarily the same as their parents’ and so long as things weren’t made to fester they would have gotten over it.

Thus now with the boons of time and perspective and the memories of the times when Elena came to see her while Edna had yet to rediscover her words, there was just a fondness.

Happiness at their reunion and only a mild amount of annoyance at the fact that the other woman had seemingly just invited herself into their home and their company as if it was only natural she be included.

After all it wasn’t a bad thing that all three of them were together again. They’d always been at their best and worst when all three of them were present.  

Edna was thinking such thoughts. Wondering how they’d restructure their near non-existent corporate hierarchy or whether they’d simply just make her another co-CEO.

Edna was surprised to find herself leaning towards the latter, if only because it seemed easier. She was just wondering if Billy’s lackadaisical and bothersome approach to life was rubbing off on her, when she saw a bloodied figure slink out of Billy’s room.

*Spit-Take*

The coffee mug smashed to floor, seeming to hang in the air a full second after Edna blurred out of the room. She ran into Billy’s bedroom was greeted by a seen from a nightmare.

The bed, walls and ceiling were splattered in red. Gibbets of flesh and viscera were stuck to everything. The only thing she recognized was the frail form that lay on the floor. Dark skin made pale through exsanguination.

Eyes rolled up into the back of his head. His face twisted in agony. Edna stared down at what seemed to be a corpse and she felt her brain switch off and on. Her body feeling hot and cold at the same time, while she struggled to make sense off what she was seeing.

*****

The phrase seeing red turned out to be both false and true. While Edna’s world did indeed turn monochrome, her overwrought feelings had pushed her into a world of gray rather than a world of red.

She rushed out of the bedroom. Her blood boiling, her stomach roiling. All eight of her AWs manifested themselves. Shifting to their cannon mode.

Using the cannons indoors wasn’t a smart move, however Edna wasn’t of a mindset for smart, right then. She was just barely a step above using her nails and teeth. Barely able to articulate words. Her body shaking, trembling.

“.....You.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a condemnation. The bark of the farmdog once its found that the hen house has been broken into. She was about a second from firing the cannons and releasing a hell storm of superheated aether and nothingness when she recognized the face of the figure.

The fires of her rage quenching themselves almost immediately.

Elena turned around, yellow-green skin, coated in red, with only her eyes cleared of the ichor. Their coloring changed to a murky gray, like surface of a pond.

“....Mhm? Morning, Ed.”

“ Ell...Billy is...You didn’t kill him did you?” said Edna. Already knowing the answer.

The true reason why she and William never truly held any grudge against Elena was the fact that they knew that the girl would rather hurt herself than hurt either of them. Their relationship was close, perhaps a little too close.

The three shared everything, whether it was mischief, rewards or punishment. During the one time where their antics went too far and lead to several dozen fields burning down it was Billy who took flogging, Edna who took the house arrest and Elena who took the kingdom’s ire.

Forcing her father to use the Maddoc family’s status to argue the punishment down to branding with a hot iron, rather than the execution that their actions would have merited.

Her father making her two friends watch, as the headsman marked with molten iron. All three of them sharing the vicious scolding that the family gave them once things finally quieted down.

Elena frowned, looking confused, rather than offended. Then her expression brightened. A cheery smile spreading across her face.

“Oh you mean this?” said Elena. Gesturing to herself and to the blood that covered every inch of her curvaceous figure.

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“This is just proof of our dear Billy’s affections for me.”

The nostalgic recollection made the current flawlessness of the girl’s blood covered skin, a little more noticeable. Jarring Edna’s thoughts back into motion as she started guessing what might have possibly happened.

The gears in her head turned and after moments time she took a deep breath and nodded. He’d done it again. She wasn’t sure what ‘it’ was but she knew whatever it was had been risky and dangerous. Dangerous enough to leave him in the dead or nor dead state that she’d found him in.. She was angry again but now it was an entirely different sort of anger and the focus had changed.

“Ah...in that case, I’m probably going to need your help with something.”

*****

Edna had Elena go get her one of the big glass containment jars from one of the storage rooms. There were multiple storage rooms and they all more or less had similar things in them so it didn’t matter that Elena wasn’t yet familiar with the house and its many space.

Once she found it, Elena returned with Edna to  Billy’s bedroom and helped her unceremoniously drop the boy into the coffin sized tank. This was followed by Edna filling the tank with pretty much everything they had in one of their cold rooms.

Stuffing the tank with the last remainders of their stores of dragon meat and whatever else happened to be in that particular freezer. Recalling Billy’s explanation that all he needed to do to heal if he was ever really hurt was simply be surrounded by some appropriate masses.

“Mhm. This should fine, you can go shower now. There’s actually a bathroom two doors down.” said Edna.

“Thanks, Ed.” said Elena.

Waving as she left, tracking bloody footprints through the hall.

******

Billy woke up with a start and found himself lying naked with shards of glass being pulled into his hungry flesh. He hadn’t died, but it had been close, and he’d sustained a bad enough mixture of physical and aetheric damage that he’d probably be feeling it for quite a while.

Billy took a look at his room and guessed what must had happened. He’d overdone it, paying too much attention to Elena’s needs to notice the waste energy and pressure building within him. On the wall of his bedroom, written in his own blood was a single word,

“IDIOT!”

A fair indictment, but then again, he’d never claimed to be smart. Hyper intelligence didn’t denote wisdom. If it did the practitioners of this world wouldn’t be as big of a menace as they were.

Ceasing with their strife just as soon as they were smart enough to recognize that their endless battles for the top was doing more harm than good.

With a thought he went into the mental network that contained the townhouse’s system of domestic enchantments and spells. Activating the housekeeping program that would clean up all the blood in his and the blood he just ‘knew’ would have Elena tracked through the house.

******

Billy left his room, wearing a bathrobe for decencies sake. The bloody footprints he was tracking through the house quickly disappearing as the house cleaned after him.

He took a long shower, his body absorbing most of the water, using it to filter and discard the things that it decided it didn’t need. A fair amount of foamy black oil running down the drain before the process was over.

He left the bathroom and headed back into his bedroom, unsurprised to find that the cleaning protocols had also seen fit to remake his bed. Finding himself a tad worried that the tangle of self-adaptive spellwork might end up becoming animate and self-aware. It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but it would be troublesome at the very least.

Billy discarded his towel letting it drop on the floor, he was fairly neat everywhere else in the house, but his room he let turn to a sty.

Letting the ground gradually get covered up by clothes and books and balls of crumpled paper. It was always cleaned again when he had the housekeeping spells activate, but would always quickly return to its mussed state.

Billy was made way through dressing, pulling on some boxers and a pair of jeans. He went into a closet to wear on of the shirts Edna bought for him because it was “apparently” gross to wear multiple copies of the same thing everyday.

“You enjoy the show?...” he said with a sigh. A rare bit of irritation seeping into his tone.

The only response from the one who lay on his bed wearing wide smile on her face, was a low growl. One that was maybe slightly more hungry than Billy was comfortable with.

Billy just sighed again and finished dressing. Then just as he was about to leave the room to go search for something to snack on because he was apparently still hungry, she broke the silence.

“So….what exactly did you do to me?”

Billy paused, holding the door open, hesitating for a moment, feeling like he wanted to run away. Then he shook his head, and scolded himself for acting like  a scared child.

“Hey, Ell….You can see inside of me right. I’m not sure what happened, but you’ve somehow gone just far enough off the beaten path that you’ve learned to really ‘look’  closely at things. I know because I learned a little more about you while you were inside of me….So you definitely know that I’m not the same as I used to be. You definitely know that I’m ‘different’ now.”

“....Yeah? And so….”

“So aren’t you going to ask me about it?” said Billy.

“I wasn’t really planning to. All that matters to me is that you are still you.”

Billy ignored the warmth that was growing his chest, his expression still flat and just a little grim.

“Yes...well, thanks….Anyway, part of the new me, is this place. This power. And that power is a part of me. It ‘is’ me and after I fixed the parts of you that were broken...I put a little bit of that part of me inside of you.”

“Ah,... so that’s where this came from?” said Elena. Pressing her finger against a little black, crystalline dagger point that jutted out from her forehead, like a unicorn's horn.

“Uh...yeah.” said Billy.

Not bothering to mention that ‘that’ particular addition wasn’t entirely on purpose and was more a reaction of their two powers mixing than anything else. Something that shouldn’t have been possible since she ‘should’ have been in a dormant state while she was inside of him.  Her consciousness fully suppressed.

“Edna’s pretty mad at you, y’know?” said Elena.

Billy rubbed the back of his neck remembering the writing that she’d put up on his wall.

“I know…”

“She says that you take stupid risks and try to handle everything on your own.”

“Nh….”

“No worries, Ell the great and wonderful is here to keep an eye on you now.” said Elena. With a smile and wicked gleam in her eye.

“Nh….”

“So, anything else I should know about the consequences of our little intimate entanglement?” asked Elena.

Billy ignored the heat flooding his cheeks and stopped to think.

“Nh, nothing too big for now. I mostly just made some ‘minor’ changes to your genetics. Then I made some slight bigger changes to your aether matrix. Y’know, just to add in a proper regenerative factor and some augmentations to your physical build up.

You won’t break down as easily now and you’ll heal properly if you do hurt yourself. You have that...uh...connection to me, so you won't drain yourself as much as you used to. That’s pretty much it ...I can’t really think of anything else.

There might be a few other consequences and side effects but nothing that’s necessarily detrimental to you. Anyway, I can promise you that if there are any issues I’ll take care of it. I’m definitely going to be here for you two no matter what...” he said. His expression shifting to one filled with determination.

“My, my...what a declaration. Well, it’s not like we don’t feel the same. I know maybe we should get connected...in other ways.” purred Elena.

The door open and closed, a disgruntled Billy hastily making his exit, leaving  Elena to cackle to  herself, in his bedroom.