Starlo sat face to face with Martlet, who was quite... Not pleased to be there. After a bit of chatting, Starlo had managed to offload Clover's excitement onto Ace and Mooch. But... Martlet had wanted a face to face. The one saving grace for Starlo, was that Clover had actually remembered some of what had happened in this town at the mere MENTION of his persona.

Martlet wasn't sure if it would end that well, but denying Clover the opportunity to take back his memories was on a different level from not telling him a few things. There was no way she'd try to stop them. And given Starlo could help with that, Martlet was slightly more willing to not explode him with her mind. Well, she couldn't do that anyways, but sometimes she reeeeally wanted to.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, face to face with each other at a table in the saloon. "So... What happened to Clover?"

"Well, after you shot them into the canyon." She paused for a second. "As you know, they barely managed to survive. I'm not sure how much of it Ceroba told you about, but they needed my magic to survive, oddly enough." She frowned and leaned forward, holding her head up with a wing.

"Apparently, this hasn't ever happened before, because Clover changed into something else entirely. I think they're part human part monster now, but I'm not entirely sure either. At the end of the day though, they're alive."

Starlo sighed a relieved sigh, he smiled and his mouth opened but Martlet interrupted him at the last second.

"But, he has amnesia."

"...Oh."

"The only reason we're even here is because Clover seems to be able to remember more by hearing the names of people he's met before, seeing them even more so. I'm... Not exactly sure how all of it works, but just know the only reason I didn't walk Clover right out of town is because seeing you helped jog some of the kid's memories." Martlet glared sternly at Starlo, finally giving him at least a moment to speak back to her.

"I... Alright, ma'am, I'll say it now and I'll say it time again and again. I apologize, I apologize dearly. I was upset, but my actions had and still have no excuse. I may have been justified under the law... But my actions might as well have had me morally lower than the dirt beneath my boots. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you and Clover, name it. I understand if you don't want anything else to do with me, but please let me make it up to the both of ya in any way I can." Starlo held eye contact the entire time, Martlet couldn't help but sigh.

"...Alright, if you want to help, first you should apologize to Clover himself. He's the one you shot, not me." Martlet sat back up and leaned back. She pinched at the space just above her beak. "And after that? Just... I know Clover likes all of this cowboy stuff, I don't really get it but I know you do. I'm not going to leave you two alone, but just play along with them, alright? It's... The least you can do."

Starlo nodded firmly, before standing up and readjusting his hat much the same way as Clover.

"O'course, leave it to me."

...

"Amnesia, huh?" Ace held out a hand of cards for Clover to pick from, Mooch stared nervously...

"Yup!" Clover chirped happily as he plucked out the card in dead center. An ace of spades, not quite what he needed there...

"And what's up with all the feathers now? Some kind of, suit?" Ace continued to question as Clover held out his hand to Mooch, her eyes flashed from card to card, fingers twitching in anticipation... She grabbed the card furthest to the right.

"Dangit!"

She grabbed a four of clubs.

"Whaddya mean a suit? This is just what I look like."

"Pardon?" Ace deftly snatched a card from Mooch's hand with zero hesitation. She painstakingly let it go. He stared without a peep, before shuffling it back into his own hand. "Are you not a human?"

"I... Wha?"

"You came here just a few days ago, we all saw your SOUL Clover, you can't seriously expect us to-"

WHAM!

The door came flying open, and each head turned with a varying level of speed. Mooch first, Clover second, Ace three seconds in last. The force from the opening of the doors had blown over the stack of cards in the middle...

"Hm."

"Alright Clover! This here sheriff has come today, just for you!" Starlo did his signature pose as he spoke, finger gunning Clover from across the room. They took one last glance at Ace, who still eyed them curiously, before standing up and laying down his cards.

"Sorry guys, I've got a date with destiny! And time waits for no cowboy."

"ow"

Clover could've sworn he heard Starlo grunt. It looked like his smile faltered for a bit, but Clover blinked and he was still smiling, must've just been his eyes playing tricks on him.

"But first! I've gotta apologize, see buddy, I hear you got amnesia and I... I gotta be honest, that's completely my fault. I'm not sure how much you remember but, we were in a fight and you... Well, you fell into the ravine you've no doubt seen outside of town. It's entirely on me. I'm ashamed of my own actions, and I completely understand if you don't want to forgive me. But I still need to apologize, it's the right thing to do."

There was a deep sense of shame in his voice. Clover paused for a moment, looking the man before him up and down. He stood firm, but for as stalwart as he was, Clover still felt humility. Clover's boots echoed against the now quiet building, each step interrupted by not a single soul. Until eventually, Clover stood directly before Starlo.

Clover knew what had happened, as soon as this man had told him, the memories of the accident had come flooding back. It was still foggy, but... They distinctly recalled falling, falling very, very far. His world had turned upside down, and the man before him had been the cause of it.

Instead of lashing out though, Clover raised his hand, retracting his claws and waiting for Starlo to take hold of it.

"It takes a real man to admit your own mistakes like that, as far as I'm concerned, you're alright in my book's partner."

Starlo let out a breath he had been holding for at least half a minute, taking Clover's hand in his own and giving it two good shakes.

Starlo smiled wide, taking a step back and turning around to face the sun outside.

"I figure I should reintroduce myself then! M'name's not North Star, never was. I realize that now. Name's Starlo, I'm the sheriff of this here town... And you? You're my deputy. Welcome back to The Wild East Clover."

...

Ceroba took a good look at the differences between Clover's blood and Martlet's magic. Martlet's was just that, entirely magic. Nothing too interesting. Though as for Clover... They were a very special case.

On the surface level, Clover's SOUL held a very similar resemblance to to a monster that had absorbed a human's SOUL. Or would it be closer to say it was more like a human that had absorbed a monster's SOUL? There were no depictions of such a thing in the Underground, so she couldn't be certain. Either way, it was safe to assume Clover's SOUL was likely immensely powerful. But would it still WORK for what she needed it for?

The contents of Clover's blood were a mixture of various components. As far as Ceroba was aware, blood effectively carried extremely dliuted versions of a human's SOUL matter, so examining that should give her an accurate answer... Her paw trembled for a moment, but she sucked in a breath and got to work. There was an answer awaiting her, all she had to do was look.

The magical components of Clover's soul had seemingly been empowered when compared to the last time Ceroba had seen them. Traces of red and yellow within his blood... There was more of it then there had been before, she wasn't quite sure what exactly those colors meant, but she knew they were linked to Human's SOUL's... The power of DETERMINATION. The properties of Clover's soul had not diminished, but there was now one more component to his blood...

Magic, legitimate magic now coursed through Clover's very being. Curiously, it was extremely similar to the makeup of Martlet's magic. So, absentmindedly, Ceroba figured they sort of were related now, but that held the least priority in her mind. No, the far more important thing was the following question; could a monster still absorb such a SOUL? A SOUL with three different components to it, a SOUL with both Determination and Magic co-existing, along with an unknown third factor...?

There was only one way to find out. It wouldn't be nearly as powerful without any genuine SOUL matter, but going through the same steps should still produce a substance similar to the original.

It didn't take her long, she'd already gone through the steps so many times before. In her paws, Ceroba held a syringe full of a yellow substance. She breathed in slowly, readying herself for the next step.

"For Kanako."

And she injected herself.

She stumbled, barely catching herself before she went toppling to the ground beneath her feet. This serum was incomplete, weak, if it did anything positive to her it would be entirely temporary, likely anything it did would be... Well, unless it ended up killing her. Or making her fall down. That was a risk she was willing to take though.

Slowly, she began to regain her balance. And as if it was compensation for the bout of weakness she had felt mere moments earlier, Ceroba felt energized, powerful. Her eyes widened, had it truly worked...?

She waited, minutes passed and eventually the strength left her body... But it had worked. Even after the power faded, she could still feel an unknown energy residing in her very being, a power she had never felt before. Was this... Determination?

If anything... The changes to Clover's SOUL may have actually made it even better for what she wanted to use it for ...She knew what she had to do.

Though, unbeknownst to her, there had been a small spectator all the while. A little, yellow, flower.

She would not realize how much that one tiny variable would matter until far, far later in her life.

...

Martlet looked on passively as the four played around, supposedly Ed and Moray were visiting family so not everybody could be here today, but Clover seemed to be just fine with that outcome.

"So you're out here trying to remember your past eh Deputy? Then what better to jog your memory than some training exercises?!" Starlo gave a smile bordering between enthusiastic and wicked as he knelt down and held out a BB gun for Clover.

"That fourth mission that used to be in the regiment? It's back on the menu deputy! We've got a perp loose out in the desert, and it's on us to bring em to justice!"

Clover smiled confidently as he grabbed the toy gun, skillfully spinning it around and perfectly timing his holster. Nailed it.

"Alright Sheriff Starlo, your deputy is at the ready!"

"That's the spirit!" Starlo stood back up to his full height, before glancing over at Martlet in the distance. He explicitly waited for her to nod before continuing.

"Word is that they're just outside of town, if we're quick we'll be able to catch em, c'mon Clover!"

"Right! I'm with ya sheriff, lead the way!"

Starlo nodded, turned around, and with the biggest grin on his face began to lightly jog his way out of town and into the wasteland. Clover followed after him a moment later, followed by Mooch... Where was Ace? Ah well, Clover was sure they'd be along.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

...

"There he is!" Starlo slid and ducked behind a rock as cover, just in time too. The masked (it was a bandanna) figure took aim and fired! A bullet (a BB) whizzed over the rock that Starlo had dived under.

"Quick you two! Get to cover!" The sheriff called out to his posse, and the two of them quickly obliged. Another few BBs came flying, but by the time they'd gotten close enough to hit they'd already all been behind conveniently large enough rocks.

"Deputy! I'll cover for ya, get close enough tah' the law breaker and apprehend em!"

"Understood sheriff!" Clover called back, peeking over his rock as Starlo stood up and began to lay out suppressive fire. Clover took his chance, and dashed as fast as he could towards the next closest rock. Two seconds later, and Starlo had to reload. But by then, Clover had already made it.

This same cycle repeated as Starlo reloaded and continued to lay down fire. Absentmindedly, Clover wondered what Ace and Mooch were doing right now, but the current situation was more pressing!

Rock after rock, Clover got closer and closer until eventually he was only one dash away from their opponents rock! As soon as he heard the now familiar firing of the BB gun, Clover slipped out from behind his rock and began the final charge. This was all so exciting! Clover wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd just had some good fun like this. No real attacks or anything of the sort, just cowboys being cowboys. So, he wanted to be stylish! At first, Clover considered just coming around the side, but no. A deputy should have a little bit more flare than that!

The whole world just felt right at that moment, his adrenaline was pumping and he was having good fun. Clover felt an odd feeling pass over him, but paid it no heed. A moment later, they were leaping over the very rock that his target was taking cover behind.

Their eyes flared in shock, the monster before him tried to raise their gun to Clover, but as soon as Clover hit the ground they dashed towards them and... Huh, that was... Really fast. With a (BB) gun to their chest and a hand on their gun, Clover decreed to them; "hands up!"

Wordlessly, the monster let go of the toy gun, and as commanded he raised his hands.

"Great job deputy! Excellent use of magic, didn't know you had that in you!"

Clover pulled his gun away slowly, and as he did the monster he was holding it to sighed, then snapped. A tophat appeared on their head.

"Wait... Ace?"

"Yeah, you didn't notice?"

"I... Huh..."

"No time to lay down deputy, we've still got a few more missions to go through before we're done! Oh and uh... You didn't happen to remember anything, did ya?" He glanced in Martlet's direction as he said that, who was also fairly shocked at Clover's most recent display... She had no idea he even could use magic, but well, she supposed that answered that question.

"Mmm, nah, nothin yet, that was fun though!"

"Great to hear it! C'mon partner, next up we've got some detective work to do!"

...

A few hours later, Martlet was starting to get tired just standing there... She had no idea how Clover was still running around dressed more heavily than her without even looking like they were sweating. She didn't want to cut anything short, but they were on the eighth "mission" and still going. Clover was having fun, and even sort of figuring out how to use their magic...? She wasn't sure about that one, it's what it looked like but with the way they were acting, Martlet wasn't even sure if Clover REALIZED what they were doing. Regardless, it was a fairly interesting ability.

From what it looked like, maybe it was some kind of energy manipulation? She hadn't seen any monsters with magic like that, but she had heard of it. It was pretty rare to just be able to manipulate raw energy, fairly versatile as well, but it might not also be what Clover was making use of either. She... Wasn't very sure. Regardless, she would certainly be remiss to cut them short but...

"Alright Clover, just a few m-"

"Excuse me?" Martlet smiled nervously as she stepped inbetween the two of them. "I hate to interrupt but, don't you think it's getting a little bit late Clover? Maybe we should head back to Ceroba's for now? You and..." Martlet didn't quite sigh, but it wasn't without a bit of disdain either. "Starlo," she at least settled on saying his name. "can pick this up another time, alright?"

"Oh... Alright mom." For the first time in a good few hours, Starlo looked genuinely bewildered. With THOROUGHLY raised eyebrows, he turned his gaze on Martlet.

"It's... A lot to explain." She turned away. "I'll tell you about it later." She reached out for Clover's hand, and they obliged.

"See ya later sheriff Starlo!" Clover smiled and waved

Starlo blinked a few times and shook his head, before smiling right back. "See ya around cowboy!"

...

The sun was starting to set and well, it got very cold very quick outdoors in the desert. So Martlet was eager to return as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Ceroba's manor wasn't exactly far from The Wild East so it didn't take long.

Just as before, Martlet knocked on the door, and it didn't take Ceroba long to answer. The door opened, and she welcomed them inside.

Clover ran ahead, leaving the two to speak for a short moment. "So how did it go with Starlo?"

"He... Well Clover had a lot of fun, but to be honest I'm not sure how to feel... He's clearly sorry, he was doing everything he could to make up for what he did but... It feels wrong to just forgive them, they almost killed Clover! But Clover just, let it go and they were the one who got shot to begin with. I feel awful giving them any leeway and I feel awful for still holding a grudge, what do I do?!"

"That's... Certainly a lot to unpack." Ceroba raised an eyebrow, before turning around and gesturing for Martlet to come in.

"I'll make dinner, we can talk after Clover goes to sleep...?"

Martlet thought for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, but I need to go over something with him before he goes to sleep, alright?"

"Of course, come along now."

Like she said, it was Ceroba who was making dinner. Clover had seemingly disappeared into the manor once again, so it was on Martlet to find him.

"Clover?" No response.

She walked down the hall way, called out again. Still no response. Where could they have possibly gone?

"Clover? Where are you?"

Martlet sighed again, still nothing. Maybe they were upstairs again? It certainly wouldn't hurt to check.

...

Once again, Clover stood at the foot of the bed. It was hand crafted, he could see it now. A beautiful, yet dusty, old piece of woodworking. Something about this room just called to him, he wasn't quite sure what it was but it felt as if it was drawing him in. Though... There wasn't much else to it, with his curiosity sated for the moment, Clover turned to leave.

"Clover?"

"Huh... Deja vu..."

Just as he had earlier in the day, Clover quickly found his way to Martlet. Though he just as quickly wished he hadn't.

"I sure hope you've been working on your preening Clover, cause now we're really gonna get into it!"

He paled at the realization. There was no more delaying it, it was time to clean...

...

Other than that little incident, the rest of the night was fairly normal. After a bit of discussion, everybody came to an agreement on sleeping arrangements. It had been a long day, so they went straight to bed after dinner. Or well, Clover had. True to their word, Ceroba gave her best advice to Martlet.

"Starlo... He's a good man," Ceroba sighed as they sat face to face. "He can get a little wrapped up in the acting, but at the end of the day he's got a good heart in him. I'm pretty sure he's genuine in his remorse, no I'm certain of it. If Clover's already forgiven them, in my opinion I think you should as well. At the end of the day it was him who got hurt."

"I know... It's just... It feels weird you know? All of this, it just... It all happened so fast! Clover got better, I don't even know what to do with them, or how they're going to do in the Underground moving on from here, they see me as their mom-I basically am at this point! I swear I've said the exact same things as MY mom at least three times today alone! And now the guy who caused Clover's amensia... They're just sorry and everything's alright? I just... I'm not sure what to do. It's all... It's just been hectic."

"I... You know Martlet, the magic that you gave to Clover stuck, permanently."

"...And?"

"You keep saying Clover sees you as their mom ever since they lost their memory. Have you considered that there's a reason for that?"

"...No?"

"Martlet, the magic you gave to Clover changed their SOUL... I think permanently. And the magic now in their SOUL, is incredibly similar to YOUR magic."

"I-what are you saying here Ceroba?" Martlet raised a very stressed eyebrow.

"I'm saying... You and Clover are technically related in the same way any normal family would be. By all technicality... You basically are their mother in terms of biological relation."

"...what?" Her heart skipped a beat.

"I... Think you heard me." Ceroba didn't want to repeat herself. She shoved that thought down deep, as far as she possibly could. She really didn't want to think about that. It would only make what she needed to do more difficult.

Martlet stood up and immediately began to pace around the room. As much as she wanted to refute that, it did make sense. A bird monster out of all monsters? There was no way it would just happen randomly, so clearly Martlet had something to do with it... If their SOUL had recovered by using her magic, and somehow her magic had imprinted on it...? It... It really did make sense.

"I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need a bit... Can we pick this up in the morning?"

"Of course." She lied shamelessly. She wouldn't be there in the morning.

"Thanks." Martlet said rather half heartedly as she walked out of the room, there... There would be tomorrow to process all of this. For now though...? She just... She wasn't ready. She wasn't ready for any of this. Up until now, she'd at least had the thought of it all not really being for real, but no, that just went flying out the window. She needed some sleep to think on this.

Ceroba sighed out loud, it was finally time. They'd be long gone by the time anybody could wake up to stop them. By night's end, she and Kanako would finally be reunited.

She first headed downstairs, she had a few containers stored down there. After that, she began the trek to Clover's room. By now they should be asleep, it'd be simple. All she had to do... Was to take his soul.

Up the stairs, open the door, and she laid eyes on Clover. Their chest was slowly rising and falling, their beak wide open in a constant quiet snore. For some reason, they weren't wearing a shirt, but that didn't matter.

The world turned black and white, Clover's soul hovered just above his chest. Their turn passed without resistance, and Ceroba took step after slow, hesitant step towards it.

She'd come too far to stop now, for a single moment, she hesitated... And then burst into motion, ripping Clover's soul away from their body and enclosing it within the-

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