Harrison Avalon was many things. A genius. A prodigy. A traitor. A good-looking old man. A cool sword. Really, the list could go on. One thing he wasn't good with, though, was people. Despite how far he had come, despite how many lies he told, and despite how much he loved to make people do what he wanted, he just was never able to quite understand what made people tick.

That especially included someone like the Emperor. Over and over, he constantly tried to get a read on the man known as Nier, yet it always came up short. Nier was a bundle of insanity who seemingly never made sense. The man was just lashing out at the world out of frustration and spouting off utter nonsense constantly, yet because the Emperor had power, people listened. Not Avalon, though. He followed, not out of some sense of loyalty or fear, but instead a deep-rooted hunger. A greedy soul like him just had to know.

What was going to happen next?

Perhaps it was because of his very nature that he had been punished for his current task. He was far too useful to the Emperor to ever actually be killed, but Nier still wanted to torment him, so instead of being put to good use like Avalon would have wanted, he found himself holding a mirror up for the person he had been assigned to work with for this quest.

"You missed a spot," Avalon said in a dry tone as he shifted the full-body mirror he was being forced to hold up.

Cinder ignored him and stared at her reflection. She ran her fingers through her blonde hair and batted her eyelashes at herself while she applied some makeup. "It's hard to really get this body to look cute sometimes." The false Lord said, letting out a heavy sigh. "Its face isn't really anything special, and these eyes and hair glow so much that it draws attention away from the outfit I wear. And this body is more athletic than cute. Why can't I just tweak it a tiny bit?"

"Now, now, Skin Walker, you know what the Emperor asked of you." Avalon let out a dry chuckle.

"I don't understand why he wants me to stay in this form constantly." The shapeshifter hummed and casually flipped her hair. She was in her private room. With Avalon's help, the building she was in would shift and constantly change, able to appear in any city within the realm they resided in. She used this building to pop in and out, as she was pleased when it was time to give a speech and start the 'preparation' for the event, despite the fact that it wasn't impossible to find this place if someone looked hard enough.

"I've met Cinder only once." Aarush Brenner casually bit into an apple. "She's strong and seemingly quick to anger. Normally, making someone angry in a fight lets you use that emotion against them, but when it comes to Supers like her, it gives them quite the power-up."

Aarush Brenner, father of Kyle Brenner, had been the first to discover the false Cinder. Now here he resided within the woman's room. It was a large, square room made of a plain-looking white metal, similar to the prisons that held some of the Super caught by the police. The room had a large king-size bed, several cabinets filled with expensive and fine clothes, as well as a desk and table, which he sat at. At any moment the room would be placed within a castle that resided somewhere in the realm. There was a door in one of the walls that, if one were to open it, it would allow them to step out onto a balcony in one of the ten cities.

Maybe it had been pure dumb luck, or maybe he had actually cheated. It was hard to say, really, but he had somehow managed to find the Queen that all the people of this world talked about. He wasn't alone either. Flanking behind Aarush were two figures who wore long red cloaks that covered them from head to toe, as well as a white mask that had golden coins sewn into it.

Casey and Hannah. Two out of the three warriors created by the previous Lord of Life, known as Wish.

Cinder rolled her shoulders and stood up. She snapped her fingers, and fire seemed to swim across her form. The flames went out as quickly as they appeared, and she was suddenly dressed in a long white gown with a red cloak over her shoulders and a large golden crown.

"I bet the real Cinder is going to try and beat me up when she sees me." Queen Cinder sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's not my fault I'm more Cinder than she is right now."

"How do you have fire powers?" Casey questioned.

The Queen just winked and smiled. "It's a secret."

"The real question is, what are you going to do, Aarush?" Avalon placed the mirror down on the table and folded his arms, leaning back slightly in the chair he was in as he shot Aarush a sly grin. "After the defeat of Wish, Sky became the current Lord of Life. The Emperor had planned for that, obviously, but we had to wait for Wish to mature and draw out her proper power to ensure the full title would pass onto Sky. What we didn't expect was that Wish would have somehow done what the Emperor couldn't and create Supers." Avalon's eyes roamed over Casey and Hannah, who both flinched. "Or... maybe Wish didn't. I doubt the two of you are actually humans still. After all, Kevin's body mutated and changed. I guess Wish didn't crack the code to create Supers. Oh well." Avalon shrugged and looked back to Aarush. "We planned to put those two to good use, but then somehow, you got picked to be a player in this year's game by a complete freak accident."

"I wasn't supposed to be a player?" Aarush asked, raising an eyebrow.

Avalon shook his head. "Normally, players are selected at random from previous people who were caught in the middle of a Murder Game. There was one exception, however, this year. Alexander Lauren was decided to be a player. The other four in this year's game, however, are still random. So maybe it was fate that both you and your son were selected. It doesn't really matter, though, does it? Because now that you're here, we were able to bring two more of our own agents into the middle of this game."

"You would have brought us out no matter what." Hannah giggled and folded her arms under her chest as she leaned forward. "You villains haven't been playing fair since the start, and you'd have thrown Casey and me out the first chance you got. All that's changed is that you can pretend like it's luck that you get to use us."

Avalon just chuckled and shrugged. "Maybe."

Aarush remained quiet and looked down at his one remaining hand. He was still in his prisoner uniform, and his hair had grown out a lot more, as had his beard. He didn't like what he had become, but he had no choice. Instead of feeling pity or shame, he viewed this as his chance to finally save his son.

Kyle was here in the Murder Games, after all.

What Avalon had said earlier made him consider the entire situation. Was it really a coincidence he was selected along with his son? No. Of course not. If Mr. Grove had still been alive, then his boss would have just smiled and claimed that it was Lady Luck smiling down on them.

This was his story. The story of how he got a second chance to save his son.

And all he had to do was kill every other player and then himself. It wouldn't be a good fate if what that Gabby doll had said was true; then Kyle would likely end up becoming the host to one of the Immortals, but at least his son would be alive.

Right...

Aarush shook his head and got his thoughts back on track. "You looking like Cinder makes this all simple."

"It does?" Queen Cinder cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Cinder's going to try and fight you. She wouldn't just stand on the sidelines and let you go on to look like her." Aarush explained. "She'll also have likely gathered the other players by now. With the way these games are set up, the players are more likely to team up rather than turn on each other outright. Especially because there are heroes here this time who serve as the bodyguard. The heroes would most likely all have some moral code and wouldn't be able to bring themselves to turn on each other. Not to mention, Cinder has a strange way of filling people with hope. With her on their side, they're going to most likely think they can win, and they'll come for you just as I did."

Casey nodded his head and stepped forward, holding his hand out from beneath the cloak. His skin had seemingly changed and looked pitch-black now, but his power was the same, the blood forming in his hand and taking shape. It took on the form of several stick figures, all holding hands. "We came here because a villain who tried to hunt us told me that you had a way out of here."

"That's a lie, though." Avalon chuckled. "In reality, there isn't a way out of here now that the Murder Games have started. The barrier Lucifer put up stops even my teleportation from working. Unless you're a Ruler or a Lord, you can't get in or out, and even for them, it'd take a lot of effort. We didn't tell the villains that, though. We sent them all out and told them they could destroy this world if they wanted now that the games were about to begin. I'm sure many still think we have a way to get out and have passed on that information."

Casey closed his palm and crushed the stick figures. "That's right. If we were told that you guys have a way out of here, then any other player who beats a villain will likely know as well. The villains are likely to give up that information in some effort to save their own skin or something. All the heroes will attempt to head for Skin Walker in an effort to break out of here. Little do they know, though, that there isn't a way out. So we'll trap them when they come for us."

Queen Cinder hummed softly and rubbed her chin. "If we assume she managed to gather all the heroes on her side, then we'll be fighting four heroes. With the two of you, plus myself and Avalon, that will even the odds. Since I don't like fair matches, though, let's cheat and give ourselves three more allies."

"We don't have to beat the heroes." Hannah giggled. "We just need to kill the player. So while we distract each hero, we can have Avalon do what he does best and get you or another villain in close to strike down all the players, save for Kyle!"

Queen Cinder let out a small sigh and nodded her head. "It's going to be a bit of a pain doing that and the ritual, though."

"Ritual?" Aarush leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Avalon grinned and pointed up to the sky. "Do you believe in God?"

"I guess? Why?"

"Well, in the old world, sometimes people would perform weird rituals to the God they believed in," Avalon explained. "The Emperor was the one who picked Chrysanthemum as this year's battlefield. When we first came here, it had been an empty land that had almost nothing in it. Legend's power had spread out and forced his reality onto ours, but the bastard wasn't clever enough to actually create anything. Likely because he's no longer in control. He's just his power now. A mad, angry ability that has energy so dense it alters time itself. We gathered several groups of villains and brought them all here with my power. We forced them to create the world you see before you and used Legend's wild power to allow this realm to grow. In less than a year, we were able to create a world that has existed for over a thousand years with its own history and people. The issue, though, is that Legend liked being alone, and he isn't really happy with the world we created. His level of strength is massive. Maybe even close to what Full Monarch used to be. In other words, he's become a god. And all good gods need a ritual to keep them happy."

Aarush frowned at that. "He's not actually a god, though. Right?"

Casey gave a lazy shrug. "It really doesn't matter, does it? What happens if you don't perform this ritual, Skin Walker?"

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Queen Cinder began to do her hair up and rolled her eyes. "Let's just say bad things will happen."

She really hated this job.

When she worked for the Hero Branch, it had been a pretty cushy job. She pretended to be dead people and used their position to benefit the Branch. Now that the Emperor was back, though, she had been thrown into this hellish world with Avalon as her babysitter. He was always there watching, making sure she didn't try anything.

She had also been the one tasked with pretending to be the Queen. Well, actually, the title of Queen had been her idea. When the villains had started, and they gathered all the humans to create a false society, Legend had nearly threatened to come out. For whatever reason, though, he seemed to calm down when she was around, so long as she did the 'ritual'. She was the face of the villains, forcing them to help create the world. And since she needed to appease Legend, she made it a point of showing up from time to time before the people of this realm.

Legend's power caused the years to jump by, so she'd pop in and out of this place and the real world and reappear every ten or so years to make sure Legend stayed put. He always shifted around where he stayed, though, so she was always having to show up in different cities each time, and since she kept appearing so often, over the course of hundreds of years, she became a mystical figure in the eyes of the people. Now that the Murder Games had started and the barrier was up, it became impossible to get out, which was why she was staying put in this strange room until it was time. Thankfully, time had seemingly settled now that the Emperor and Lucifer were both where Legend slept, ensuring the man's dangerous energy remained in check.

"It's such a pain." Queen Cinder groaned. "I really hate doing this, but here we are. And what's worse, it's so close to the Murder Games actual starting time." The monster rubbed her forehead, already dreading what was to come. "I hope we can kill them all before the actual day comes. The sooner they all die, the sooner we can turn on Lucifer and kill that bastard."

"And you're sure the Emperor will kill Lucifer once this game is over?" Aarush asked quietly.

Avalon snorted, "Of course he will. Rulers aren't made to work together like the Lords. The only real reason they're tolerating each other is that they need to gather the rest of the pieces for the game to start properly. The Beast put a damper on the plan after it almost killed Cinder, so we're behind schedule, but thankfully, we'll recover from that mistake soon. Mark my words: by the end of this game, only one Ruler will be left standing. It's just a matter of which one."

Hannah let out another giggle. "I can't wait to see what's going to happen. Oh, this is getting good."

Queen Cinder finished doing her makeup and made sure her clothes were perfect before she finally walked to the door. "Let's not keep the people waiting." She opened it and was instantly hit with a flash of light as the sun above bore down on her. With a fake smile, she stepped out onto a large balcony that overlooked a massive city. "Magnolia Tree. Looks like the future of not just this world, but the real one as well, will be decided here."

With any luck, all of this would finally reach its conclusion.

Of course, things were going to go horribly wrong.

***

Things had gone horribly wrong.

The plan had been simple. Cinder would fight Royal, Shift would fight Phantom, and Phoenix would fight Glacier. Pied would be taken out at the first chance they got, freeing all the people, and Lycaon would be on standby to help transport them all to Apple Tree.

That hadn't quite gone according to plan, though.

Cinder looked down at the young boy. Pied rested in the snow outside, curled up in a ball, resting his chin on his knees. The boy didn't look sad. He didn't even look mad anymore. Instead, he just looked confused.

"Should we do something about him?" Phoenix asked her quietly. They had left the ice castle, which was starting to fall apart by now. The body of Glacier remained behind, but Phoenix did take Phantom with him. The villain was trapped inside of a large green bubble, perfectly held in place. If Phantom could think, she could activate her power to phase out, but every part of her, including her mind, had been put into stasis, making it impossible for the villain to do anything. As far as Phantom was concerned, time had stopped. "I mean, he did kill someone..."

"I killed people as well." Cinder shrugged.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. There are a few fights where I stopped trying to hold back and went for the kill with whoever I was fighting." She rubbed the back of her neck and winced. "I don't really like it, but still... I have killed before and attempted to kill. Plus, with what I did to Glacier..."

"You didn't have a choice in those situations, though," Phoenix said sternly. "Fighting a villain, it's kill or be killed. Cops will try to take people in, but if they don't have a choice, they'll shoot. That's what we do as well. That's not what he did, though. Glacier had surrendered. He didn't have to die."

She held her hand up and shook her head. "Look, let's not talk about it right now. Focus on the people. I'll speak with the kid. Kids love me." That was a lie. Kids loved Snowdawn, but she had never been able to get a crowd of the ankle biters to show much interest in her anytime she went.

Phoenix looked like he was about to say more but shrugged. He instead turned to the other crowd of people he had to deal with. All the people of Apple Tree village stood out in the cold, shivering, but none dared to move because of the giant wolf and red monster that glared down at them all.

"It's okay," Phoenix called out to the crowd. "We're heroes—actually, we're mages! We came to help you people out. We're going to get you all back to your village, but I'm going to need you all to stay put."

"How'd we get here?" Someone in the crowd asked.

"Some bad mages," Phoenix explained. "But it's handled now. We're going to help you all." He used his powers, the fire gushing out of his hands. It formed beneath the people, and for a moment, they all panicked, but they quickly settled down as he created a massive flat sled. It was large enough to allow them all to stand on it, and chains stabbed out of the front, which wrapped halfway around Lycaon's body, allowing the wolf to carry the sled. "I've gone ahead and attached this construct to the bottom of your feet, so don't panic if you can't walk. This will let us get you all back quickly and ensure none of you will fall out."

Some of the people in the crowd murmured, and a few tried to walk but were unable to lift their feet off of the fiery ground. Phoenix grew a pair of wings and flew up, landing on the back of Lycaon, where Shift remained. Shift stood on Lycaon's snout, keeping both his arms folded.

"Can I help you?" Shift asked sternly.

"What's with that tone?"

"Your plan went to shit, and I got blown up a bunch. I'm a little pissed. Also, I know you would only fly over here and speak to me because you wanted to ask me something. So go ahead. What do you want to know?" The red monster asked, letting out a grunt.

Phoenix folded his arms and looked Shift up and down. "What happened to Royal? I didn't see his body anywhere." Shift's head split apart and opened up, revealing the unconscious face of Royal, who was now asleep inside of Shift. Phoenix raised an eyebrow as he stared at the face. "Okay... So what happened to Druid, then?"

"Got away."

"She got away?"

"Yep." Shift made a popping sound as he said it. "When I got blown up, Druid crawled out of me. She made a break for it and escaped. Luckily, I managed to knock out Royal and use him as my new base for this form." Shift held a hand up, and it opened up, sliding out one of Royal's cards. "And now I can throw his cards at people. Seriously, the guy has hundreds of these cards all over him. If I can convince him to help me, I'll be able to make them explode as well."

"And what do you do if he tries to blow up the cards while he's still inside of you?"

"He tries that, and I'll crush and devour him."

Phoenix narrowed his eyes. "I see... Did Druid really escape?"

"What? You think I let her go?" Shift growled.

"I didn't say that. Now that you mention it, though..."

"If you have an issue, just say it."

Phoenix stared into Shift's eyes before finally turning away. "We're teammates. I'm counting on you, okay?"

Down in the snow, a few meters away from the sled and the wolf, Pied looked up as a hand offered something to him. It was his shirt. "You must be freezing." Cinder smiled down at the boy. She had gotten her jacket and sword back once the realm cracked.

"Thanks." Pied took the jacket and slipped it back on. He zipped it up but didn't stand. "I'm guessing you're going to spout off about how I shouldn't have done that, right? I'm a bad person for killing him?"

She looked at the ice castle, watching it crumble now that Glacier's power wasn't supporting it. "We both killed him."

"Huh?"

"You were only able to do that because I injured him so badly. So if you killed him, then I also killed. If you feel guilty or bad about it, then I should share some of that burden."

Pied frowned and shook his head. "You don't get to claim you're part of the reason he's dead. I did it. I deserved to do it. I wanted that fat bastard dead a while ago! He kidnapped me! He kidnapped all of us! Royal and Phantom used to be like me! So did the others in our group! He took us all when we were kids. Phantom and Royal have been part of his sick, twisted group for so long that they think it's right and what they deserve, but I know the truth! That man was a sicko! He had it coming! It's what he gets for killing my mom and dad!" Pied glared up at her. "So don't try to give me some nonsense about how it's not what my parents would have wanted or that I have to be better. I did what I wanted!"

Cinder looked down at him and shrugged. "I wasn't going to say anything like that."

"W- Why not!"

She shrugged again. "I think because if I were in the same boat as you, I'd do the same." She hummed and thought back. "There's this person I really like. I'm not really sure when it happened, but I know I think about her a lot now, and I like spending time with her. But I also try to stay separated from her." She sighed and rubbed her arm. "There was this villain... A really bad one named Wish nearly threatened the person I liked. I really hated Wish and tried to do everything I could to kill that villain. If Wish had killed the person I liked... I think—no. I know I would have snapped like you. I would have stopped at nothing until I made sure Wish died. I wouldn't feel bad about it either, and I'd get mad if someone told me otherwise. Also, there was this man I really looked up to. I thought he died at one point, and just like with the girl I really liked, I felt myself snap. At that moment, I didn't really care what happened to me or what I did, as long as the person who caused it paid the price."

Pied's eyes lit up, and he looked back up at her. "You're talking about the fight with the Beast! I- I saw that. Your entire body was covered in flames, and you tore it apart! And then, when you were done, you flew into space!"

She winced a little as she remembered the fight and the way she died. "It's because of the people I care about that I know how you feel. I've been in a similar boat. I've even killed before." Her look grew somber as she remembered Polaron. Just how long ago had that been now? "That's also why I don't think you're going to do it again."

Pied glanced back at her with confusion. "You don't think I'll kill again?"

"When I killed, I felt similar to how you look. I'm not saying you were in the wrong for killing Glacier; you had your reasons, and it's not easy carrying around that much hate, but you felt it, right? That empty feeling. Nothing changed. Killing him didn't bring your parents back. And if killing the man you absolutely hated didn't do anything, then what's the point in killing other people?"

Pied's eyes watered up a bit, and the boy sniffled, bowing his head down. "So what am I supposed to do now?" He rubbed at his eyes and balled his hand into a fist. "If you've been through all of this, then what can I do?"

She folded her arms and hummed. "I had friends and family to help me. I really can't give you a fair answer since we're still trapped in this place. There's no use staying put, though." She smiled down at the boy and held a hand out. "Want to come with us? We're going to be busting out of this stupid world."

"Do you really have a way to get out?" Pied wiped some snot and tears off of his face and took her hand.

"Well, we won't really know till we try." Cinder shrugged and picked the boy up, causing him to let out a yelp. She placed him on her shoulder and began to walk toward the wolf. "Have hope in us, though. We're heroes. Saving people is what we do. That includes all the people of this world and you."

Pied went to say something but stopped. He looked back at the castle and watched as more and more of it began to melt. He couldn't see the body of Glacier, but he knew it was there somewhere. For a moment, the sun above came down from the dark clouds and reflected its way across the water that was pooling. The entire icy area they were in was starting to come undone. All of Glacier's cold would soon be swept away.

That was when Pied saw it.

For a brief moment, he swore he had seen a man and woman standing in front of the castle. He blinked, and they were gone. Shaking his head, he held onto the strange hero who carried him now. "Do you think that at some point I could..." He stopped and winced. "I- I did a lot of bad things working for Glacier, but I- I don't want to be a bad person. I want to be someone my parents would have liked."

"I don't really know who your parents were. I never met them, so I can't say if they'd be proud." Cinder shook her head and jumped up onto Lycaon. "I think they'd be happy that their son isn't in Glacier's clutches, though. So, at the very least, you can claim that!"

"Wow," Pied got off of her shoulders and rested on the wolf. "You know, you really suck at talking with kids."

"What! Hey, that's not fair! I thought we were totally bonding, and I was doing a good job!" She whined. "You can't just say I'm bad at it randomly out of the blue like this!"

Shift snorted and played around with the cards he held. "You didn't really say anything useful. No wonder kids didn't like you."

"Hey!"

Phoenix folded his arms and used his foot to nudge Lycaon. The wolf began to walk forward, and the fire sled was dragged behind it. "So, I guess we're heading back to Apple Tree now?"

Cinder placed her hands on her hips and nodded. "Yep. Let's get these people back home."

Pied looked back at all the people who stood on the sled, and for a moment, his fingers clutched around the pipe he had used to kill Glacier. "I'd like to help them if I can. It's my fault they got dragged into this. I want to help them get out of it."

Cinder gave a grin and placed her hand on his head. "If that's what you want, little hero."

"Little hero?"

"We'll need a new name for you." She hummed and rubbed her chin. "Pied was your villain name. Oh! I got it! I'll put straps on you and wear you into battle as a backpack and call you Baggy-"

"Absolutely not!" Shift yelled. "Stop naming things, Baggy! It's not a good name!"

"Never! It's the best name!"

Pied watched Shift and Cinder mock fight, and he sighed. "I leave one crazy group for another." The boy stopped when he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up, meeting Phoenix's gaze. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Yeah." Phoenix nodded and then gave a small smirk. "I just had an idea. Having you join us might have been the best plan ever."