In the old world there was a day that was sometimes celebrated by people. It was called Halloween. It was something that managed to be recorded to even today, though it had vastly changed. Halloween wasn't something held on a particular day. It was something that could come out of nowhere and be held when the right time called for it.

It was a day where people would dress up in costumes and tell each other stories. Back in the past, it was used to spook each other. Now, though, it held a different goal.

Halloween was a day that allowed you to be someone else.

A day where you could forget all your issues, whatever they may be, and pretend to be someone else.

Halloween today was a way to deal with sorrow.

Jack sat in his car in silence. He had parked it in a little alleyway near Myth's base but hadn't been able to bring himself to get out. He had simply been sitting in the car for over ten minutes now.

The sun was starting to set, and he had a feeling the others would have already arrived and were waiting on him, but he couldn't bring himself to get out. He was still thinking about everything that had happened. The situation with Wish, him using his old sword, and how he failed to stop her sooner.

Worse yet, the old man was dead...

Old Dog, one of the oldest heroes in the world, had passed on a few days ago. Word of his death hadn't gotten out just yet, and his funeral hadn't been held either. It would happen any day now, though. He already knew he was going to show up to it. He had to.

It hurt.

Watching such a man like Adam Sini die a slow, painful death hurt.

Nothing could be done about it now, though.

With a small sigh, Jack unbuckled and climbed out of his car. Spider Street was mostly empty by this point. The few people who did remain, though, barely glanced his way as he stumbled past him. They likely thought he was some drunkard. They weren't wrong.

Jack rubbed his eyes and tripped his way through the narrow alleyway once he was sure he was out of sight. He arrived at the base and opened the door, slipping inside. No one was on the first floor to greet him, so he climbed up the stairs. He stopped when he reached the very top and raised an eyebrow at what he saw.

"You're in costume?" He questioned. He wasn't dressed as Battery. He had been told to come but not to dress up, so he was just Jack Larison. He wore a white buttoned-up shirt and black dress pants, but the others were dressed up. Not in their hero costumes, though. "What's all this?" He asked.

Hope gave a grin and placed her hands on her hips. "What do you think it is?" She asked.

Jack looked around the room. Their base had changed a bit. Several of the chairs and seats had been pushed up against the walls, and the lights had been dimmed. The TV was on, and it was broadcasting some old horror movie. The others were all in the room as well. Armin, Hope, Lois, and Thaddeus. But they all wore strange outfits. Jack closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm not doing this."

Hope wore a very familiar outfit. She was the only one in a hero outfit, but it wasn't hers. She wore what looked almost like a black military jacket and a long red cape that was tied around her. She wore a blonde wig, which was strange since she could literally change her hair to blonde if she wanted, and she carried a toy gold sword. She was dressed as the Victorian.

"Why not?" Hope pouted. "It's healthy! A bunch of bad stuff happened, so it's a way to blow off steam."

Jack turned away and shook his head. "No. Not for me." He gave a half wave as he walked out of the room. "I'm not going to play pretend." Jack left the room as quickly as he had arrived, leaving them all stunned.

Hope folded her arms and let out a huff. "Why didn't he stay!"

"I guess he doesn't need therapy?" Armin tried to shrug, but his costume made it very hard. Like Hope, he wasn't in his hero costume. Instead, he wore a large cylinder-like box that had the label of Feast-Cream on it. He had dressed up as a cart of ice cream. "I can't really say I blame him... This was a sort of goofy idea."

Lois rubbed the back of her neck and hummed. "Yeah, I sort of saw this coming. Traditions like this work, but if someone doesn't want any help, it won't serve any purpose." Lois wore a yellow fur suit that looked almost like a lion, and she had a fake tail and cat ears on.

"I do feel a little silly," Thaddeus admitted through a mumble. The leader of Pantheon was dressed in tinfoil armor made to look like a knight of some sort from a fantasy novel. "Do we really have to wear these costumes?" He asked.

"Yes!" Hope waved her arms around. "That's what Halloween is all about!"

Armin snorted. "Halloween is something we learned about in history class. The people from the old world, before Supers existed, would wear costumes and go and get candy."

"That's not how we celebrate in my household!" Hope announced. She had been doing her best Victorian impression, but it wasn't very good. "You do Halloween whenever something really bad happens to a group. It comes on any day at any time, and it helps you move past it! The last time I did this was when my father first... Well, anyways, it works!"

She had been the one that asked everyone to show up at the base, and she had brought a massive box filled with all sorts of costumes. They had all humored her at first and got dressed up, but now that Mr. Larison had blown her off and left, her tradition wasn't exactly leaving a good impact on any of them. With everything that had happened, she wanted them all to take a break and talk about it so they could move on, or at least attempt to.

Wish hadn't been like Polaron. Polaron had been dangerous and threatened them and the city, but Wish was more. That villain had gotten an Enforcer killed, as well as come very close to killing them all. Metal Ronin, Wasp Nest, and Money Tree were all still in the hospital, and worse yet, the Wandering Coin had gotten away and escaped. As far as things went, they failed to do anything to that group.

Everyone was feeling down. That's why she decided to hold Halloween now. The day where you could get rid of sorrow.

Armin attempted to rub the back of his neck but couldn't reach it because of his costume. "I think I'm going to head out as well."

"What! Why!" Hope gave him her best puppy dog look, but the boy just shrugged.

"I promised Poseidon I'd come and train with her. She's been putting up with me, so it'd be pretty rude to blow her off." The boy admitted. He began to undo his costume. "I'm sorry..."

Hope felt her heart sink a bit as her friend left the room. When she had been feeling down about everything that happened with Polaron, Myth had been there to help her. He had spoken with her and got her out of a bad headspace. She wanted to be a hero, and that didn't just mean fighting bad guys; it meant helping people on an emotional level, yet now she was failing.

How was she ever going to reach someone like the Victorian at this rate...

"I'll stay." Lois took a seat on the floor when she had noticed Hope's sad look. "Thaddeus will as well!" Thaddeus huffed as he was forced to sit down by Lois. "So what do we do, Hope? We've never celebrated this before."

Hope managed a weak smile, and she sat down in front of the two of them. "Well, it's kind of embarrassing, but you just talk about yourself in the third person as if you were watching the things you did."

"What do you mean?" Thaddeus questioned.

"Like, we're in costumes because we want to pretend we're someone else. So instead of just coming out and saying how you feel, you talk about what the real you did and how it made you a bystander feel." She noticed their confused looks didn't go away, and she sighed. "How about I go first? I think Cinder could have done better in the fight with Wish."

"How do you think you could have done better?" Lois asked. "That's a dangerous way of thinking, you know, focusing only on your flaws."

"Well, it's not my flaws; it's Cinder's flaws. I'm the Victorian!"

Lois rolled her eyes. "Right. So how could Cinder have done better then?"

The fake Victorian rubbed her chin. "She stopped caring. At a point in the fight, it stopped mattering whether she would win or lose. She was ready to throw her life away. She has friends and family that care about her, but she..."

Lois reached out and placed her hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Are you sure this is a good idea? You just look sad."

"It works! I- W- We're talking about it, aren't we?" Hope willed herself to keep a steady voice. "I mean, after everything that happened, it seems like everyone was just ignoring what was going on. Our friends are in the hospital, an Enforcer member is dead, and that monster Wish was a Lord of Life."

Thaddeus hummed. "I wish Myth had gone to the Watch Dog's sooner."

"Huh?" Lois looked to her friend.

Thaddeus had his head bowed slightly. "I should have—he should have gone to check up on them sooner. As soon as he learned what was happening to Old Dog. What they did is still unacceptable, not giving any information, but they were also hurting in their own way. They stayed put, not doing anything and not being saved by anyone. Maybe if I- if Myth had come to the island sooner and spoken to them, maybe if he had done something like that, then the existence of Wish would have been known about sooner."

Lois shook her head. "No. That's wrong. The story we were told would have been the same. In it, Wish was vaporized instantly by the Victorian. The Emperor was powerful, but even he didn't have a healing factor anywhere near as strong as Wish's. No one bothered to look for the girl because they all assumed she was dead. We would have had no reason to think the opposite. I mean, from what it sounds like, she's a walking cheat code doing things the other Lords of Life couldn't. I'm not saying the Watch Dogs shouldn't have done anything more, but if they revealed that the very next Lord of Life turned out to be evil and looked like Paragon, it could cause widespread panic. Not to mention, once word got out that the Lord died, some of the villains would go looking for the Pod. Things like that are normally classified, but there are bad guys out there who know about it. They'd try to find the Pod before we could. That's likely how Wish was made in the first place. Some villains got their hands on the Pod when they shouldn't have."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Thaddeus shook his head. "Still. Myth should have talked to them sooner. How can he call himself the leader of a team if he won't take responsibility?"

Hope managed a slight smile. "Well, I think Myth is still pretty cool."

Lois hummed and shrugged. "How about we just watch some movies or something? The others are gone, and I didn't really do anything lately, so there's not really anything for me to regret." The girl giggled.

Hope sighed and nodded. "I guess this didn't pan out as well as I thought it would, huh?"

Myth reached out and patted her on the back. "It helped. It was fun getting dressed up. I've been kind of down about what happened to Money Tree, so this was a good break." He stood up and helped her and Lois up. "I agree with Lois, though. Let's just relax and watch a movie for tonight. The world's gone a bit mad, and I think we're all in need of a break."

It had only been a day since the battle with Wish, but Pantheon was, in their own way, moving on.

***

Armin felt himself be flung back as a wave of cold water smashed into him like a raging tidal wave. It swept him off his feet and sent him tumbling around the junkyard he had come to know as his training ground. He shivered and cringed slightly as he felt the cold air blow against him now.

It was becoming winter, and being soaked head to toe in ice and cold water wasn't going to end well. He'd have a cold for sure.

"Again." Sitting on a makeshift throne of scrap metal, Poseidon leaned forward. "We'll keep doing it until you can manage to freeze it."

Armin chuckled weakly but pushed himself up to a sitting position. "You're being kind of rough tonight-" He barely got the words out of his mouth before Poseidon casually brought her arm down. Another massive tidal wave formed into existence and surged toward him. It was as tall as a building and incredibly dense and heavy. Armin let out a battle cry and stabbed both his arms forward, attempting to freeze the water, but his wall of snow was devoured and destroyed as the water crashed down on him, and he was sent tumbling back once more.

Poseidon sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This isn't working very well."

Armin spat out a glob of water and coughed, trying to get his lungs to settle down. "Yeah. You're telling me."

"Let's move on from the ice." The Lord of the Sea and Depth stood up and cracked her knuckles. "You fight hand to hand, right? I'll show you a few moves, I guess."

"Huh-" Armin had just managed to stand up, and he looked up, finding the fist flying toward his face. He let out a squeak and managed to dodge to the side just in time. The fist flew past his head, and he tried to throw a punch of his own out, but Poseidon easily blocked it and kicked his leg. He winced and dropped to his knees. "Ow!"

Poseidon frowned and folded her arms up once more. "It's not working."

"What isn't?" Armin hissed and rubbed his ankle.

"Your powers." The girl sighed. "Yesterday I went to hit you; your body reacted and your power inverted on its own to save yourself. Now though, it seems like no matter how much I strike you, you just get knocked down."

"Maybe because you're not giving me any time to learn or do anything!"

Poseidon's face softened a bit. "Yeah... You're right. I'm sorry."

"Huh? Wait, you're agreeing with me? I thought you were gonna say something about hard work paying off and beat my ass again."

Poseidon snorted and shook her head. "No. You're right, I don't need to be this rough. I'm just... Kenny still hasn't woken up." The girl almost made a face. "And we can't find Sky either." Poseidon collapsed to her knees and balled her hand tightly into a fist. "I looked all over for her, but I think she entered her realm and won't come out." Poseidon did her best to wipe at some of the tears that were threatening to rain out of her. "She doesn't even know that Grampa is dead now."

Armin winced and nodded his head slowly. "I'm sorry... I- I didn't know Sky was missing?"

"She just vanished." Poseidon took her costume's helmet off and set it to the side. "She can enter this world that is created with her power, and when she first went blind, she would often go into it and refuse to come out. She did it to avoid me. I- I think she's doing that again. S- Something happened earlier. Part of me wasn't all there, and something inside of me took over, and I- I'm not sure what I said to her, but I remember her yelling at me before she blacked out again. I- I hope she isn't avoiding me."

Armin patted the girl on the shoulder. "I'm sure Sky will turn up. She's survived some pretty crazy things, you know. I don't think this will help, but well... My friend does this thing where she makes you dress up in a costume and pretend to be someone else so you can talk about your guilt. It was something her mom actually first did, and she just copied it."

Poseidon snorted before her eyes lit up. "Actually, that's not a bad idea."

"Really? I never thought it helped with getting over guilt-"

"Not that." Poseidon shook her head and stood up. "Pretend to be me."

"Huh?"

The girl pointed down at Armin. "You're trying to turn snow into ice. Let's do the reverse, though. Instead of trying to supercool your snow, try to make it do the reverse and make water. Then, try to freeze that water. It's way easier to turn water into ice than it is to turn snow into ice."

Armin stood up and looked down at his hand. "Can I even do that?"

"You better. Otherwise, this is about to hurt!" Poseidon pulled her fist back and grinned. "I figured out why your power isn't evolving. You're not in enough danger!" Gravity twisted around her fist, and she threw her punch out.

Armin let out a squeaky eep and threw his hands out in front of him. His power flared to life for a moment, and he was about to create a wall of snow, but he remembered what Poseidon told him. He did the reverse, or at least he tried his best to. He didn't need snow. Snow was soft and clumpy. He needed something that was a pure liquid and flowed. He needed water. The snow vibrated against itself, and what made it up began to come undone. It broke apart and shattered and twisted until all that was left was a wall of liquid.

The liquid wasn't solid.

Poseidon's fist hit the surface of the liquid and was coming through it. Everything was moving in slow motion, and he only had a second to think. If he didn't do something fast, her fist would dent his skull in. He steadied himself and tried to cool the water off the best he could.

Poseidon's fist hit Armin's, and the boy felt himself get launched back. At the last second, Poseidon had turned her power off, so the first was still hard but not enough to cause him serious injury. Armin felt himself tumble back, and he groaned slightly.

"G- Guess I failed."

"Not exactly."

"What?" Armin pushed himself up and looked back at Poseidon. It wasn't much, but clinging around her hand was hard ice. "You gave yourself an ice glove?"

Poseidon shook her head. "You did this. As I was punching you, the water twisted around my arm and froze itself." She flexed her hand and shattered the ice off of it. "It's not much, but you managed to create pure ice. A little more hard work, and you should be able to start doing it naturally."

Armin rubbed his bruised face and smiled. "Alright! Looks like I finally did something good."

In their own way, the two were getting rid of the sorrow that filled them.

***

Sky fell back as she stared at the girl that looked like her. She was totally powerless. Something she really wasn't used to. In her realm, she was almost as strong as a Lord. Able to create life and control the land. She could even fight her sister and had a chance of winning if she played her cards right.

This wasn't her realm, though.

The world was dead. The sky was bleak. The being who stood in front of her was in total control. That much Sky knew.

Wish managed a smile. "Wow. We really do look alike, don't we?"

"W- What do you want with me?"

Wish ignored the red-haired girl and instead stalked around Sky like a predator that had spotted its prey. "I didn't used to look like this. I actually looked very different at one point. I used my power on myself to transform myself into a look-alike of you."

"W- Why would you do that?" Sky shivered and stared back at the girl. She wasn't blind in here still, but she lacked all her other powers. She was helpless, totally at this monster's whim. In this realm no one would be able to get to her in time.

"I was always so jealous." Wish admitted.

"Jealous?"

"Of the life you lived." Wish grinned. "You didn't think it was just you who got to see me, did you?"

Sky felt her face pale. She had been dreaming of Wish. Every night she went to bed, she saw someone that looked like her commit all sorts of nasty crimes. She had always thought it was her, though. She was seeing part of herself; she was the daughter of one of the greatest villains in the world, after all. Turns out, though, that person she had been dreaming of every night, that horrible monster, was a real villain. And while she had been dreaming of Wish, Wish had been dreaming of her.

Wish had seen Sky's life. Every night she went to bed, Wish would dream, and she would feel the wrath, anger, and hatred at the life Sky lived. The life she should have had.

"I made myself look like you at one point." Wish hummed. "I'm not sure when. I just know I woke up one day and looked like this. I had become a twisted copy of you. The life I lived before I was this simply didn't matter. None of it mattered. Because I was a Lord of the Land and Life. A Lord who, just like you, never got to know her real parents. Unlike you, though, I didn't get to live a good life. I wasn't adopted by some nice family." Wish hissed and glared down at Sky. "You're the daughter of a monster. A freak disguised as a human. I'm a God, though! The power of ancient heroes flows through me! It isn't fair that you get a happy life and I'm stuck as this!"

Sky crawled back a bit and gulped. Her body was shaking, but she steeled her nerves. "W- Why do we have this connection?"

Wish made a face at her. "Something went wrong, I guess. I suppose even godlike beings like the Lords can make screw-ups. You're the daughter of the Emperor. Created to be a host for his power, yet instead of all the power going to you like it should have, most of it went back to the new Pod that was created when the Emperor died. That power is now in me. Yet you still have a portion of it. For some reason, the full power didn't go to you. The children of Lords are supposed to receive the blessing and title. There's another case of something like this happening, though, isn't there?"

Sky felt her mouth go dry. "The Victorian... The Victorian is the daughter of Full Monarch, yet she didn't become a Lord of the Sun and Cosmos. Instead, that power passed to Hope."

"Bingo." Wish chuckled. "It's strange, isn't it? Both the strongest villain on Earth and the greatest hero who ever lived take each other out, and then their power doesn't properly pass on how it should. It's because of what they did to each other. They killed each other. For the first time ever, two Lords fought to the death and wiped one another out at the same time. The Lords are meant to work together. The heroes that defeated the Shadow should fight one another, yet they did. They broke a taboo. Who knows what the punishment would be for such a nasty act... Who knows just what they truly unleashed doing that? One thing's for sure, though. Their powers didn't pass on how they should have. You hold a piece of what's mine. A piece of my birthright. The Emperor managed to give you a small piece of his title, but I want it back. I'm not a full Lord till I get it back."

"S- So that's how we're both here. How we can see each other when we dream." Sky winced slightly. "We're connected through the Emperor."

"Not for long." Wish licked her lips. "That bastard in red actually managed to kill me. Normally it'd be game over for me, but since I'm the Lord of Life, my soul is connected to the power, and a piece is inside of you, so my soul has managed to not move on. I'm still alive, and I'm going to claim your life!"

Sky shook her head. "N- No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!" Wish cried out and swung her hand out. Sky flinched and closed her eyes. She waited for the grasp of death to get her, but it never came. Slowly she opened her eyes and stared up at Wish, who was glaring down at her. Wish's body was glowing. "Damn it." The girl hissed. "Doc is trying to bring me back. My soul is being dragged to the new body he's building." Wish began to flicker in and out but managed to smirk. "That's okay. I can always visit you in the real world. Oh, and if Cindy ever kills me again or something like that, I'll just be back here, and next time I won't give you the chance to escape. Until then, sweet, sweet sister."

And then Wish was gone.

The girl just faded away as if she had never been there. Sky felt a hard sob break out of her, and she collapsed back. That had been the closest she had ever come to truly dying. She had felt so powerless. So helpless. So useless.

Cracks appeared in the space around her, and then in a flash she was back in the hospital room. It had been emptied out, her friends likely being taken to a different ward since they were so injured. She stayed seated for a bit and tried to stop her sobs. She couldn't see anymore, but she felt her connection with Destiny. The bird was all the way back home and sensed her return, letting out several loud cries that would likely wake her mother.

After some time, Sky managed to stand up and step out into the hallway of the hospital.

"Paragon!" Instantly, a nurse noticed her and let out a loud cry of shock. Just how long had she truly been gone for? She had no way of knowing. It hadn't felt long in the other world, but she could tell time had passed. "Are you okay?" One of the nurses asked, running over to her.

"Can you call my mom?" Paragon steadied her breathing and adjusted her sunglasses now that she was back in the real world. "Tell her the Lord of Life isn't dead."