"Maybe..." Cinder sighed deeply, feathers dancing with troubled green-violet-blues and uncertain silvers. "Maybe we already are friends, Vee. Real friends."

"R-really?" Vespera looked up, gray eyes wide and hopeful through her tears.

"Yes, you stupid bird," Cinder's wings wrapped around them both. "Real friends. Who apparently share dreams... and humans now. Somehow. Against my better judgment."

"You mean it?" Vespera sniffled. "You'll... you'll let me co-own him? Thank you! Thank yooouuuu, thaaaank youuuuuu!"

She dug into Cinder with her talons even harder, making the Quetzalcoatl wince.

"Under conditions," Cinder stated firmly. "First - no more surprise kidnappings."

"But what if..."

"No. More. Kidnappings." Cinder's voice brooked no argument.

"Fine," Vespera pouted. "No more surprise kidnappings. What else?"

"No more surprise, full-on, floating, Celestorm-generating mind-melding with him!" Cinder stated.

"Fine," Vespera grumbled with a sour face. "Freakin' square dragon don't appreciate any freakin' spontaneity. What else?"

"Let go so I can feel my legs," Cinder ordered.

"Done. Anythin' else?" The Thunderbird released her.

"I don't know what else!" Cinder huffed. "I didn't think we'd get this far in this particular direction. Ughhhh."

She stretched and waddled over to me and sat by my side. "I blame you for all of this."

"Me?" I raised an eyebrow. "What did I even do? I don't have magic powers to claim people. I'm just chilling in the tub I made, trying to cope with whatever you did to me two days ago."

"Me?! You know what you freaking did, you manipulative ass!" she growled, elbowing me.

Vespera slid into the stone seat beside Cinder, glancing at me. "Yeah. Making everyone feel things and care about stuff! Quite devious of you!"

"I am a dastardly human villain," I grinned. "Though I must point out that nobody asked said human about being property."

"Nobody asked the sofa if it wanted to be sat on either," Vespera clicked dismissively, sinking down to enjoy the warmth. "Or the hot tub if it wanted to be filled with bubbling water. Property doesn't get a vote."

"That's... rather concerning," I commented.

"That's just Omnithornia for you," Cinder sighed. "Where humans have fewer rights than furniture."

"But at least you're premium furniture," Vespera added cheerfully sending me a thumbs up. "Like, really fancy premium furniture. With benefits!"

"What benefits?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Like getting to sit in hot tubs with pretty, top-predator, half-god girls," Vespera winked.

"Oh yes, such terrible benefits," I rolled my eyes. "Being claimed as property by two apex predators who can't decide if they want to fight over me or share me. Truly, I am blessed."

"Oi! You are blessed," Vespera clicked. "Do you know how many humans would kill to be in your position?"

"None," I said flatly. "Because they're all terrified of your unholy magic powers. I barely survive the day. I was an adventurer till I got an arrow thru' the lung!"

"Details," Vespera waved dismissively with a smirk at my Skylord joke. "The point is, you get us. Both of us! That's like... winning the lottery twice!"

"And all it cost was my basic human rights," I sighed dramatically. "Such a bargain."

"Oh shush," Vespera poked me stretching a hand across Cinder. "I'll give you rights... later."

"What kind of rights?" I asked.

"The right to sit still and look pretty. The right to carry my shopping bags on weekends..." Vespera clicked her beak mischievously and yelped when Cinder elbowed her. "Ow! Watch the ribs! ...The right to claim us back."

"The right to... what?" Cinder choked.

"Claim us back," Vespera nodded with a sage expression. "I mean, it's only fair. If we get to claim him, he should get to claim us too."

"How's he gonna do that with no magic, you knob?" the Quetzi demanded.

"Ci," Vespera shook her head stretching herself across our laps, slipping back into Valley girl accent. "You're pretty, but so dum' sometimes, ya kno'? He channeled lightning through me. He Dreamwalked. Ya get what this means, right? You can make a shake outta those feathers and we can teach him to claim us both, Omnid style. Maybe if we're proper blood and soul-bound to each other, we won't need that lighter as much, yeah? After all, that mana-rich fuel will run out."

"Blood bond?" Cinder flashed with orange-reds. "Two-directional soul-bond?! That's... That's really serious stuff, Vee. Like, permanent serious. Forever serious. That's... that's basically marriage. Like, old-school, ancient-rites marriage!"

"Yes," Vespera's playful tone vanished. "That's the point. I want something permanent. Something real. Something that can't be taken away or rewritten by my family's orders or lightning. I'm genuinely happy with you two. Satisfied. You're quite tolerable for a Quetzi and a human. This is my nest."

She padded our legs.

"This is my new Clan," steel-covered talons reached out, sending sparks against our hearts. "No takebacksies."

"Feels like we're going a little fast there," Cinder pursed her lips, her face looking nearly 85% human now.

"I don't have time to go slow," Vespera shook her feathered mane. "I NEED to get legally engaged to someone special before summer. You've got an Outsider in your soul. Lex doesn't have time to fluff around, he's got Wendigos on his... tail? Uhm. Butt? Whatever!"

"Still... you're asking for a lot," Cinder said. "Two-way soul-bonds aren't something to rush into."

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"Says the girl who already tagged him! Also," Vespera clicked. "We DO have some time get to know each other better before I'm force-shipped to Thunderland. I've thought about this. A lot. Since last night when we shared dreams. When I felt, saw how broken you are inside, how that thing from the lake is eating at you, how you're still standing strong, fighting off something so high level against all odds. And him..." She poked me. "He's got two souls already. What's two more?"

"Two souls?!" Cinder sputtered. "What?! HOW?!"

"I don't know," Vespera squinted up at me. "Humans don't normally have two souls. Yet here we are. When I scanned him Tuesday he had one soul. One static pattern. And on Friday he had two human patterns in him. It's like... Mmm... Human to the power of human. [Human[Human]] Weirdest shit ever. Another mystery. Still investigating."

"How in the Abyss do you have two souls?" Cinder demanded.

"Alexa and Martin," I said. "Alexa showed up after I jumped into the Genesis Pool."

Vespera's gray eyes went wide. "You did WHAT?"

"He jumped into the Genesis Pool while alive," Cinder explained. "Thursday, after Em knocked him out with a dodgeball in Coach Canard's class. He just... dove right in. Watched him do it."

"And you LET HIM do that?!"

"I didn't LET him do shit!" Cinder protested. "He just... did it! Before I could stop him. One second he was sitting in his wheelchair, the next he just... jumped in! I had to fish him out!"

"And you didn't think to mention this earlier?!" Vespera demanded.

"I was a bit busy dealing with everything else he's done!" Cinder's feathers flashed defensively. "Like him infiltrating my house, charming my parents, harvesting my brother's gear, banishing our delving Instructor, buying criminal organizations..."

"Fair point," Vespera conceded. "But still... jumping into Genesis fluid while alive? That's..."

"What?" I asked.

"That's a ticket straight to insanity," Vespera said. "From what I've read on Inca' research - there was a case from a few decades ago. An old Omnid fell into his Incarnator while alive for a few hours and nobody helped him out. He came out... wrong, mad, mentally broken. Started claiming he was human named Elleanora Gamp Douglass. Was freaking out about everything. Couldn't remember his own name, his own life. 'Ey put the ol' coot into an insane asylum."

"That's... not what happened to me," I said. "I saw Alexa there. She hugged me. Told me to find our other four friends, I think. Then I got pulled out."

"Other four?" Vespera clicked. "What other four?"

"He's talking about Katherine's book characters," Cinder explained. "He says he's Alexa. One of the main characters. Or has her soul. Or something. I don't know, it's freaking confusing."

"Wait, what?" Vespera sat up. "Katherine's book? The one Em posted online to make fun of her?"

"Yeah," Cinder nodded. "Apparently he's... connected to it somehow."

"Emerald is connected to it too," I said. "Another reason why I didn't let her die."

"What do you mean Em is connected to it?" Cinder blinked.

"Remember how Em became obsessed with the antagonist?" I asked. "Ember? The selfish jackass who kept trying to stop Alexa from helping others?"

"Yeah," Cinder nodded. "She wouldn't shut up about how Ember was the real hero and Alexa was just a villain who..."

She trailed off, eyes widening.

"Oh," she breathed.

"Exactly," I nodded. "Em isn't just obsessed with Ember. She IS Ember. Just like I'm Alexa and also Martin. Maybe we were them in our previous life, and we just... forgot."

"Previous life?" Vespera asked. "That's not a thing. The Arx Wheel sucks up all dead souls like a vacuum."

"Yeah," Cinder nodded. "Em can't be... she's not..."

"It might be a thing. Maybe we didn't die. Maybe the System Wizards, things like Zee Captain overwrote us, changed us... because I went outside of their narrative, broke their System or whatever. Think about it," I said. "Why did Em save you that night at the lake? Why did she help you get revenge? Because that's what Ember would do - save someone to control them, to make them dependent. To prove that her way is the only way."

"But..." Cinder's feathers shifted through troubled grays. "That would mean..."

"That would mean that Katherine's story isn't just a story," Vespera finished. "It's something more. Something real. Sheeet. Em was legit crazy obsessed over destroying Kat emotionally over her silly 'human heroes' book. It didn't make any sense. I told her like a million times to drop it, that she was wasting so much effort n' time obsessin' over it, but she just didn't give."

"And you think..." Cinder swallowed. "You think Em is becoming Ember because she read Kat's story?"

"No," I shook my head. "I think she was always Ember. Just like I was always Alexa. The story just... woke something up. Something that was already there. When I ducked Emerald into the Genesis Well... I think that she remembered more of it. She didn't say it out loud, but she absolutely knew. I think that she hates humans because she remembers herself being a human superhero in another life, remembers the human villain... Alexa beating the shit out of her."

"That makes no sense," Cinder protested. "Em's a full-blood dragon. She can't be... she wasn't..."

"She was," I said, tapping the side of my head. "The memories are there, just... buried. Fragmented. Hidden. Overwritten by the System Wizards."

"Wait. Am I in it? Was I overwritten too? I don't recall being particularly bothered by Kat's art or book," Vespera said, looking at me and Cinder.

I reached to where my phone was sitting behind us and showed Vee Katherine's sketches from when I crashed into her. "Do you recognize this town? Saint Mary? Look at this painting," I pulled up Katherine's art from the hall. "There are four kids sitting under that tree." I pointed. "Martin. Alexa. Katherine. Ember."

"Yeah," Vespera sighed, squinting at the art. "I feel nothing. I'm none of these peeps."

"I think that... I'm Alexa," Cinder let out. "Except.... I'm not like her. I'm missing... something."

"Maybe whatever you're missing is in me," I said. "Maybe you got some Martin in you. Maybe when things were overwritten, we swapped around or something. Maybe whatever we did in our past life confused the Wizards enough for them to make mistakes."

"Or the Outsider managed to suck the drive out of Ci," Vespera commented.

Cinder frowned.

Vespera looked at my phone. "Dang, I feel super jelly 'cus you guys have a secret past-life thing. Can I see more?"

Yulia continued flipping through Kat's most recent sketches as the Thunderbird held it in her talons.

"Wait," Vespera said. "Stop. Go back. Again. That girl in the pink space suit. Who is that?"

"That's... Dora the Terraformer, I think," Cinder said. "A hero. One of the great five."

"What'd she do?" Vee demanded.

"Invent shit," Cinder replied. "I dunno. It's been ages since I've read Kat's book or seen her concept art. "Dora wasn't a nice girl. Brilliant but somewhat amoral, I think? She'd invent these amazing things - AIs, nanobots, med-guns, all sorts of futuristic tech."

"Med guns," Vespera blinked. "Hol' up. That gun Io used on your chest." She poked the silver patch with a talon. "Was that..."

"Yes," I nodded. "It was Dora's med-gun design. That's what the text on the side said."

"Kat said that most of her book was inspired by random shit Io pulled from his doomed dimension gates," Cinder said thoughtfully.

"So.... I was... this... Dora?" Vee blinked, running her talons through her feathers. "And my work is still... out there, somewhere? Sheeeet. Was Dora... one of the bad guys or something?"

"She was one of the top heroes," Cinder nodded. "A real corpo-beerch who made up all sorts of rules for others but rarely followed them herself. Alexa tricked Dora a few times, along with the other five heroes who ruled the Superstate from their Titanomachy megastructure."

"What happened to her?" Vespera asked eagerly. "What happened to her AIs?"

"I don't know," Cinder sighed. "Alexa kicked everyone's ass with her clever hijinks, including Dora and sacrificed herself and... that's where Em posted the draft online. Kat stopped writing after that."

"Hrm," Vee clicked. "I'll have to bug Kat about this Dora character. This... interests me."

"We can interrogate her about this when she returns," I said. "Slowly. She's shy about her work."

"She's not shy," Cinder corrected. "She's traumatized. Em took something private and personal and turned it into a joke. Made Kat feel like her art, her writing was worthless. Ugh," she buried her face in her arms. "I feel so bad about all of this. I need to figure out how to make it up to Kat."

"Welp, this is some deep sheet," Vespera clicked thoughtfully. "But I guess that I don't mind. Maybe I was this Dora jerk in another life. It don't matter now. Now I'm me. Vespy. And I'm glad that I found you before I erased myself and became just another cold cruel corpo-beerch."

She hugged both of us tightly. "Don't abandon me, ye? Please."

"Never," I hugged her back. "Never ever ever."