The Meeting

Mapleview, North Carolina.
December 23rd, 1988.
11:35 A.M.

Throughout the week of Valek, Vincent, and Victoria’s exploratory efforts in Canterbury Lab—Vincent found himself more competent and clear-headed than he’d been in many years.

He now wore a dark contact lens in his right eye—and he, alongside the other two shot-callers of Canterbury, spent the week devising careful plans, equipping themselves with walkie-talkies and pocket-sized notepads, and stepping into the strange, dark voids that resided in the rooms and behind doorways of the lab—always emerging in a new place or time, sometimes under the sun, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in a vastly different season, and sometimes even emerging in times where no Canterbury Lab existed yet, leaving the void in plain view with no lab, walls, or doors to conceal it. One of the gateways Vincent Hawthorn and Daniel Whittaker explored happened to lead to 1931, where there was no lab, and where the gateway hovered alone in the middle of the woods. Vincent speculated it would certainly ruin someone’s day if some lone homebody of the 1930s happened upon it by accident.

Each expedition required a lot of walking—as the lab’s location was where every gateway let out, and the lab was in a fairly isolated place in Maple County—which gave every two-man team the long, arduous task of walking until they reached town, observing their environment, and doing a little poking around in order to uncover what time they were in, like speaking to a passerby on the sidewalk, or collecting a newspaper from a trash bin. Vincent and Daniel did their jobs swiftly and took detailed notes—Valek doing the same with a partner from his usual unit, a man named James—and Victoria doing so with a unit member of hers called Fredrick.

Valek seemed to be taking his time compared to the other two; he explored the gateways with interest and with ease, while Vincent and Victoria seemed to be rushing, diving into each gateway, taking their notes, and filling out all the paperwork on each one rather hurriedly so as to move on to the next one.

Vincent really thought his timing ought to have been admired; he knew precisely how long he would have to take on each of the two gateways between him and the garage door, and he had just finished the last of the paperwork on the most previous gateway the night prior, meaning the garage door was finally his for the exploring. He’d spent his week doing all his tasks with Daniel, a calm and rather enjoyable partner who occasionally shared conversation with him, and the two of them spent a lot of their empty time joking at the expense of Valek and Victoria, always sharing a laugh as they did. He hadn’t yet told Daniel anything about his conspiratory plans for the lab—or that he may have been possessed by demons—but he hoped that being buddy-buddy with the guy would help in those efforts sometime later.

He felt inspired, truly refreshed and downright determined to take over the lab, finally putting his power-hungry father out of commission. He wasn’t sure how much of it was the anger and disdain he held for his father now, how much of it was a new sense of moral priority, and how much of it might have had to do with Amory—but as of now, it didn’t matter.

All that mattered was working against that heartless, sadistic man, at long last.

Today—Vincent wore one of his nicest suits, his tan trench coat and matching hat on as well, puffing on a cigarette as he strolled out of his office. He marched with a seemingly permanent smirk on his face, passing by Victoria in the back hall, sure to give her a smile and two-fingered salute before marching onward. Victoria frowned and rolled her eyes as he walked off.

It was a fantastic day; he felt no pain, no fogginess or confusion, and no incredulity about anything he had to do. He knew and felt all his plans clearly and concisely now, and—as his incredible luck would have it—Valek had just left the facility, taking a break from his exploratory missions in the lab in order to attend a meeting with some higher-ups in Washington D.C. His father was gone from the lab, and he planned to be gone for a number of days—so now, Vincent felt freer and more in charge than ever.

When he reached the garage door in the south wing—Daniel was standing there and waiting for him, just as they’d arranged. Daniel was a stockier man, now wearing a sleek black suit and hat, a gun on his hip, and a thin goatee on his face of a matching black color to his slicked-back hair. He gave Vincent a nod, then pushed the large red button on the wall, the garage door lifting loudly and beginning to open.

“You see Victoria?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah… she looks like somebody pissed in her cornflakes today,” Vincent chuckled, taking another drag from his cigarette. “Wonder why.”

Daniel laughed. “She was so damn sure of herself, too. She’s been yammering at me all week. I’m gonna beat you! I’m gonna beat you! You just wait and see! ”

Vincent exhaled a smoke cloud, still smirking and snickering. “She’s really got it in her head that I get the ‘good jobs’ because I’m Valek’s son. Not the case. It’s not an issue of favoritism. It’s an issue of skill. Which she doesn’t have.”

“I don’t know how the hell she ever got here,” Daniel remarked. “I mean, really, what is her big amazing skill that we just have to have here?”

“She’s everybody’s side piece,” Vincent knew, taking another hit. “There’s nothing else to her.”

Daniel let out a long whistling noise, pressing a fist to his mouth. “Wheeew… damn. Tell me how you really feel.”

“Oh… I can’t do that,” Vincent said, watching as the door opened itself fully, revealing the dark, shifting void beyond it. “Not yet.”

Daniel was quiet for a second, eyeing the rift thoughtfully.

“You hear about Kenny?” he asked.

Vincent shook his head and flicked his ashes to the side.

“He up and died,” Daniel informed.

Vincent turned his head and squinted questioningly at him.

“Valek took him in there for another procedure run, and he just up and died in there,” Daniel told him. “First time in a long time that an actual employee here got killed doing that. I thought everybody here only had to do the procedure once, when they’re hired… but, for whatever reason, Valek felt the need to do it to Kenny again.”

Vincent made a slow, understanding nod, his expression now grave and distant. “Well… that’s apparently what he does any time someone starts to stray. He’s a controlling prick.”

“I’m really starting to think he’s more than just controlling,” Daniel commented. “He seems like a goddamn sociopath.”

“He’s worse than that, too,” Vincent murmured knowingly, his eyes resting on the rift. “He oughta be put out of power.”

Daniel turned and gave him a look, reading his face, as if trying to decipher how serious he was.

Vincent met his eyes again, looking far from amused or nonchalant.

Daniel hesitated, peeking back over his shoulder and giving a quick scan to the area, seeing nobody else nearby in the dim, spacious area they stood in. Then, he leaned slightly closer, hushing his voice and gently nudging his arm to Vincent’s.

“You ever pull some shit like that… you know whose side I’m gonna be on,” he muttered.

Vincent flashed a flat sort of smile, then faced the rift again and inhaled from his cigarette. “Good. But I didn’t hear that.”

“Hear what?” Daniel smirked, pocketing his hands and facing the rift as well.

“Exactly,” Vincent disclosed, dropping the cigarette to the tiled floor and snuffing it out with his boot. “Let’s go.”

The two of them stepped forward—vanishing into the quivering darkened mass together.

Mapleview, North Carolina.
October 17th, 2025.
11:54 A.M.

For the past two hours on this nerve-racking morning—Amory had been hiding, sitting on the rooftop of Evervale Manor, far from where Aravali or anyone else might think to look.

He sat in a dark, sloped portion of the front of the roof, giving him a perfect view of the front yard, his eyes level with the top of the highest tree, and far down below, her was able to see the entirety of the driveway, the rounded gravel patch in front of the manor as well as the long, narrow stretch that spanned down the distant hillside. He sat with his arms folded atop his knees, wearing his navy blue bellbottoms and his old white shirt with the flowy sleeves, the torn spot in the elbow now stitched up quite nicely.

About an hour ago, he had glimpsed down, seeing the blue KIA Soul drive off and vanish down the hill. He wasn’t sure where Xena had planned to go today, but as of now, that was the last thing on his mind.

What most predominately occupied his thought now was meeting up with Vincent again. He truly hoped the man had a real change of heart, and that he wouldn’t try to arrange an ambush out there.

Aravali would likely be rather upset with Amory when he eventually came home, but Amory wouldn’t be able to stay put and listen to whatever lecture the doctor would deliver. After this tense meeting in the woods—he had to return to the manor, walk through the blue door, and return to 1988 for the first time since all of their escape, somehow mustering the nerve to face his parents once again. This day would be filled with uncomfortable talks and confrontations.

Amory sighed, pulling back his sleeve and staring at his wrist, realizing he had forgotten to put his watch on. So, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the smartphone Xena had gotten for him, the pink sticky note still attached to the back. He felt along the side for a moment before he found the correct button, illuminating the screen and checking the time.

He sighed again.

Sliding the phone back into his pocket, combing his hairs fully back, and slowly reaching his feet atop the roof, he summoned his nerve and gently closed his eyes, knowing it was time to go.

He thought of it clearly—the lab, the ruins, the place he’d fled in the here and now, with the broken wall and the autumn leaves all around—and then—he vanished from the rooftop at once.

When he opened his eyes again—he found himself standing precisely where he had envisioned, in the same exact spot he’d been last week, with the ruins of Canterbury Lab in the near distance, with the broken and collapsed wall around it, and with its every visible window dark and dusty, an endlessness of trees and autumn leaves in every direction from here.

Amory turned, gazing over at the ruins and huffing out another heavy breath, his heart beginning to pound with anxiety. He’d stood in his mirror for nearly an hour last night after Mikey went to bed, rehearsing everything he would say to both Vincent and his parents—but now, all of that seemed to have drained out of him, and he stood still in the leafy clearing for a long while, scraping his fingernails into his palm and praying that nothing bad would happen here.

Then—after what felt like an eternity—two figures emerged from behind the broken wall in the distance, a man in a black suit, and a familiar face with a tan hat and overcoat, both of them striding across the leaves and shuffling through them loudly as they drew nearer.

Amory swallowed roughly, his eyes flickering between Vincent and the other man, feeling another spark of nervousness. Vincent hadn’t mentioned bringing anyone else out here for their meeting—but it was only one person. Hopefully, it wasn’t a sign of an ambush or a double-cross.

When the two came closer, Amory vaguely recognized the man in black, feeling as if he knew him from Canterbury, as if he’d seen him in passing there many times before.

Vincent and Daniel stopped just in front of him, and for a moment, no one spoke.

Daniel was glancing strangely between Vincent and Amory now—as he, too, hadn’t expected to meet another person out here—but Vincent calmly lit himself another cigarette, pocketing his lighter and releasing a smoke cloud into the air above him.

“Yeah… and… by the way,” Vincent said, motioning over to Daniel with his cigarette. “As far as when I’m gonna pull that shit… that’s… now.”

Daniel’s brows raised, looking to Amory again and seeming genuinely surprised. “Oh…”

Vincent nodded, Amory still staring at them warily.

And, unbeknown to all three of them—an onlooker observed from the near distance, leaning sideways against a large tree, standing on a fairly small hillside, and watching as the three men stood and talked in the clearing, paying very close attention to everything they said and did.

Crowe wore an uncharacteristically serious visage as he observed their every move, leaning against the tree with his hands pocketed in his long black overcoat. He stood relatively out of sight from them, and he remained very still and silent now, so not to move the leaves beneath his feet and give away his position. It was prudent that he observe them without any of them knowing he was there.

He had to see for himself what Vincent Hawthorn would do now.

“So… is he, ahm…” Daniel uttered, scratching his cheek and motioning to Amory. “Is he who I think he is, or…?”

“Ye’ap,” Vincent affirmed. “One of those three.”

“Oh shit,” Daniel breathed. “Yeah? How’d you know he was gonna be here?”

“Because I came here before,” Vincent informed. “And Daddy Dearest doesn’t know that, so we’re not gonna tell him, all right?”

“P’shit… you ain’t gotta tell me twice,” Daniel laughed.

“Your eye,” Amory murmured, staring at Vincent’s face and frowning.

Vincent turned to him and perked his brow.

“Your eye’s dark again,” Amory saw, looking disturbed.

Vincent nodded and held up a finger, pinning his cigarette between his teeth and lowering his head, holding both of his hands to his eye. He slowly, carefully pressed either side of the contact lens, then peeled it carefully off of his eyeball, letting it sit gently on the tip of his finger as he raised his head again.

Now—both of his eyes appeared the same sky blue color.

Amory glimpsed at the tiny contact lens on his finger, then at his eyes, smiling and breathing out a relieved little laugh. “Oh, that’s smart…”

Vincent smirked and reached into his inner pocket, pulling out a tiny black box and placing the contact lense inside of it before stuffing it away again.

“So, um… what are we… doing , here?” Daniel asked, pointing between Vincent and Amory.

“Well’p… I figure we all have a lot to talk about, since we can all agree that my dear father is completely bat-shit insane,” Vincent replied. “And there are a lot of things that both of you need to be fully informed about. Valek just killed an employee of Canterbury with the procedure… right after what he decided to do to me.”

Amory and Daniel both stared at him in surprise.

“Wait… he does the procedure to all the employees there? Not just you?” Amory asked.

“Jesus H Christ… he did that to you too?” Daniel uttered, giving Vincent a look of chagrin.

“Yeah… that’s where my pretty new face job came from. He goes a bit overboard when he focuses on me,” Vincent said grimly, turning to Amory. “And, yes… every employee there has to undergo the procedure at least once before they work there. It’s in the contract they all sign. I imagine my father doesn’t want any single person there to be outside of his little hivemind. What I aim to do now… is start breaking people out of that hivemind.”

Amory and Daniel both fell silent for a second, eyeing him quizzically.

Crowe raised his head slightly, listening intently from afar.

“And that only became a possibility because of you,” Vincent said firmly, pointing his cigarette at Amory. “You made it known to me that breaking people out of that hivemind is actually doable. So… if we entertain the possibility of doing that for others at Canterbury… then we might actually be able to create a plan for takeover.”

“You don’t wanna just destroy the lab,” Amory realized. “You wanna completely revise it.”

“Well… there doesn’t have to be a huge massacre that way, so… yeah,” Vincent nodded and shrugged. “And it’s not exactly the lab that would be saved… it’s some of the people running it. Most of whom never even knew half the shit that was going on there. Including you.”

He waved his cigarette over at Daniel, who gave him an odd look in response.

“You know why the south wing was always out of bounds to everyone who didn’t have level-three clearance?” Vincent asked him. “That’s where they kept children, Dan.”

Daniel blinked, shaking his head once and ogling him strangely. “What…?”

“Yeah… state’s custody kids, immigrant kids, and little runaways like him,” Vincent said, gesturing over at Amory. “I know they pitched the initial procedure as a health thing whenever people were hired on, but in reality… it’s the same thing they do to all the people who show up to partake in the trials, and they do it to random kids that they snatch up off the streets, too. They do that same procedure to as many people as they possibly can.”

Daniel scrunched up his face at him. “Why…?”

“Well… that’s the scary part,” Vincent uttered with a sideways nod, puffing on his cigarette. “You were part of the CIA. You know what MK-Ultra was trying to do. Well… Canterbury exists to do the same kind of thing… only they actually succeeded.”

Daniel’s face instantly fell stony and grave, suddenly understanding everything Vincent spoke of, and looking deeply troubled by the mere idea.

“But the really wild part is the way they do it,” Vincent added. “They use influence from the extradimensional… and it connects everyone there to a disturbing sort of hivemind. That’s the whole purpose of the procedures they do.”

Daniel stared stoically at him, inhaling a deep cloud of breath.

“I’ve had that procedure,” he said grimly.

“I know,” Vincent replied. “That’s why you’re here.”

He turned to Amory.

“You think you can do for him what you did for me?” Vincent asked him.

“Oh… yeah, yeah, I should be able to,” Amory nodded, looking to Daniel. “But, um… you have to be… really… ready for it. I have to lay my hands on you, and I have to try and expel everything evil from you. If you feel something dark and negative inside you, then you have to be really, truly able to let that go… or else, this can’t actually work.”

“O… kay,” Daniel muttered. “And… what happens if it… doesn’t work?”

Amory paused, biting his lip and looking down.

“Then God help you,” Crowe murmured darkly under his breath as he watched.

“Hey,” Vincent said, meeting Daniel’s eyes and giving him a serious look. “This is ultimately where you’re gonna decide whose side you’re on. It’s your crossroad. This is where you can do more than just blindly obey orders. We have the opportunity to act against Valek and all the twisted shit he does. If you really want to do that… then it oughta work just fine.”

Daniel gave him an intense stare. “They’ve really been keeping kids there this whole time?”

“Ask him,” Vincent stated, pointing at Amory. “You ever wonder why he was there for so long? He and his younger sister were apprehended in 1973, alongside their friend. They’ve been there since they were children, and they all lived in the south wing until they got older.”

“Holy shit,” Daniel exhaled, running a hand over his mouth. “All right, well, I didn’t know any of that… Jesus Christ…”

“Well… now you do,” Vincent said definitively. “And… now, you decide… are you okay with that? Or would you like to help in our efforts to end that?”

Daniel stared for a moment longer, nodding mildly and looking assured. “I think I’ll defer to my original statement of… you know whose side I’ll be on. I’m just hoping you have an actual plan to enact when it comes to dealing with your father.”

“Oh… well, that part comes later, and it all depends on how many people I can get to turn away from him,” Vincent replied. “There are so many ex-military, ex-Fed, and ex-CIA operatives working at Canterbury… I imagine I could fashion quite the formidable shadow operation out of them. I just have to figure out how I’d fund the whole thing.”

“I think I have an idea for that,” Amory smirked, thinking of Crowe’s way of solving money problems and feeling excited by all the plans unraveling around him now.

“All right, well… are you ready to give this a shot?” Vincent asked Daniel.

“Yeah… I reckon,” Daniel agreed, turning to Amory. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Amory faced him fully, took a deep breath, and reached out to him, placing one hand on his forehead, and the other over his heart. Then, he closed his eyes, found his focus, and allowed the great peace and serenity to wash over him, reaching into the man before him and commanding all evil to leave.

Daniel closed his eyes as well, Vincent watching and finishing off his cigarette. Crowe eyed them all from nearby, his eyes drained on the man in the black suit, waiting anxiously for whatever came next.

Then—Daniel made a gruff choking noise, his mouth opening as a bizarre black fog billowed out from inside him.

Crowe saw this happen, then he suddenly let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. From the looks of it—this seemed to be going the way it had when it was done to Donna, not the way it had when it happened to John.

Vincent’s eyes traveled up, following the trail of black fog as it ascended and dissipated into the air. When he looked back to Daniel and Amory, the fog had stopped flooding out of Daniel, and Amory’s eyes were now open, both of them aglow.

Seconds later, Amory’s eyes slowly returned to normal, lowering his hands from the man’s head and heart. In that moment, Daniel’s leg buckled—and he collapsed.

Amory and Vincent both sprang forward and caught him, Amory clasping his waist while Vincent hooked his arm around Daniel’s, and they each slowly lowered the now unconscious man down to the leafy ground. They placed him in a restful position, Daniel now lying on his back with his eyes shut, then they straightened up and faced each other.

“M’kay,” Vincent grunted, staring down at the unconscious man. “So… did this go well, or not? I honestly don’t know how to tell.”

“Oh yeah. It did,” Amory nodded. “You’d be able to tell for sure if it didn’t. I think you kind of get torn apart inside and killed if it doesn’t go well.”

Vincent blinked and shot him a look. “Beg pardon…?”

“Yeah. If it doesn’t work, then you die,” Amory said with a misplaced nonchalance. “I thought you knew that.”

Vincent stared at him incredulously for a second, glimpsing down at Daniel, then back up at him. “How on earth would I have known that…?”

Amory paused, then choked out a few breathless laughs. “Well… I don’t know. You know a lot more about this stuff than most people do.”

“I don’t know anything about angel power,” Vincent clarified. “And that’s what you have, not any of us at Canterbury.”

Amory made another nod, still smiling, eyeing him curiously. “You might. Never know.”

Vincent sighed, looking down at the sleeping Daniel again. “You could’ve told me he was gonna pass out.”

Amory tossed up a hand. “Why wouldn’t he? You did.”

Vincent raised his head and stared at him, his brow hardening. “Did I?”

“Yes,” Amory laughed.

Vincent paused for a second and looked to the side. “Huh. I do not remember that…”

“Well… yeah… you were passed out,” Amory snickered.

“All right, you little smart-ass… listen here,” Vincent said, taking a step closer. “We do need to make an actual plan of action, as far as how we’re going to conduct meetups in the future, what needs to be discussed, and how we’re going to regularly contact each other.”

“Oh!” Amory gasped, suddenly remembering what was in his pocket. “Ooo, hang on! I know exactly what you need!”

He dug into his pocket and pulled out his brightly-colored smartphone, plucking the pink sticky note off the back of it and offering it to him.

Vincent took it, surveying it closely. “A North Carolina number…”

“That’s my new number,” Amory grinned, holding up his smartphone and wiggling it around. “Do you know what this is? Take a guess. You’ll never guess.”

Vincent pocketed the sticky note, staring at the device.

“Phone?” he figured.

Amory’s smile faded, and he lowered the phone by his side, glancing down at it, then giving him a vexed look. “Man… how did you know that? None of the phones in this time look anything like phones.”

“You just handed me a phone number, Amory,” Vincent chuckled dryly. “I figured the thing it was attached to probably had something to do with it…”

“Yeah, okay… the point is, you have my number now, and I can carry this phone anywhere, all the time,” Amory explained. “So… whenever you come here, all you have to do is find a phone to use and call me.”

“M’kay,” Vincent muttered. “Are the payphones in town still in all the same places as they are in our own time?”

“Oh. Um… there kind of aren’t any payphones anymore,” Amory mumbled.

Vincent stared vacantly at him. “Then… how am I supposed to find a phone and call you?”

“Oh! Um—okay, I got it,” Amory said suddenly, slapping his own forehead. “I’ll just go out and get another smartphone. I can get my friend to set it all up for me, and then I can give it to you next time we meet up.”

“There ya’ go… that’s a better plan,” Vincent replied with a nod. “And… I need to give you an update on the lab projects, and we also need to talk about our potentials for the future. First of all… Canterbury is running two-man reconnaissance missions to survey the various gateways through time and determine where they all go. That phase is nearly over with now… and, once it’s completely over with… that’s when the bigger expeditions are gonna start.”

Amory frowned. “You mean… that’s when they’re gonna start looking for all of us again.”

“Exactly,” Vincent affirmed. “Now, I’ve been cataloging the information on the other gateways that Daniel and I have explored, just as Valek and Victoria have been… and I will have to do the same for this one. I can’t just feed them false information in the reports, because that false information can be easily disproven the moment they come here. However, what I can do is mark this particular gateway and time period as a low-priority expedition, meaning that I’ve deemed it as a place that isn’t likely to have any Canterbury runaways. Valek will still probably want to send a unit here to snoop around, but as long as they don’t actually stumble across any of you in public, or walk into wherever you’re living now… then you should be in the clear.”

Amory nodded as he spoke.

“And… we also need to address what we’re going to do about the people in Canterbury,” Vincent said seriously. “And to fund a way of reestablishing them in a new organization… outside of my father’s influence.”

Amory fell silent for a moment, pondering on this and knowing for certain that this was the kind of thing that Vincent would need his assistance with.

“I know it’s a lot to take on,” Vincent remarked, reading his expression. “And I’m only gonna ask you if you want to help out with it. If not… then I can just as easily carry out my little rebellion in Canterbury with the end result just being people getting freed from my father’s spell and running for the hills. It doesn’t have to result in a shadow operation.”

“Why do you want it to?” Amory asked honestly. “I understand wanting to fight Valek, but… you could just run for the hills, too. You’re pretty much completely free now. You don’t have to do any of this anymore.”

Vincent stared at him thoughtfully, sighing and raising his eyebrows at him.

“Well… I could obviously say revenge, or retribution, or setting things right in general… but those are all things I could let go of and walk away from,” Vincent disclosed. “The thing I can’t discount and walk away from is the fact that my father is not going to stop pursuing every single Canterbury runaway until he actually finds you.”

Amory went quiet, gazing at him and letting the words sink in.

If he was understanding Vincent correctly—it sounded like he was acting mostly out of protection, like he wanted to establish an entirely new operation solely to blockade Valek’s attempts at hunting down the children of time. Amory could hardly believe that this was the same person who’d been actively pursuing him and his friends until now. He stared at the man incredibly for a moment, making a subtle shake of the head and feeling almost perplexed by him.

Crowe continued to listen from a short distance away, wearing a serious face.

“I just can’t… believe you,” Amory breathed. “I mean, I really want to, and I appreciate it, but I can’t shake the feeling that this is just… too… good… to be real. I watched you and your unit open fire on my little sister and my best friend. It’s just hard to believe that you care about them or any of the rest of us this much now.”

Vincent fell silent, glancing down at the leaves and releasing a heavy cloud of breath. He didn’t speak for nearly thirty seconds, and when he did, he looked visibly more troubled than before.

“Well… it’s complicated… but I told you,” Vincent conceded, meeting his eyes. “I don’t remember that happening.”

Amory paused, squinting at him strangely.

Crowe lifted his head slightly, his brow bone wrinkling, staring at Vincent in the clearing with an invested look.

“I remember… going there, very pissed off,” Vincent stated. “And I remember random swaths of time thereafter, when you and I talked, and when your doctor walked up on us. But… as far as giving the order for them to open fire… I do not remember that at all.”

Amory swallowed, eyeing him uncertainly. He truly did want to believe what Vincent was saying—but this could easily be a convenient cover story for his heinous past actions.

“I’ll tell you something, though… the longer this past week carried on, the clearer my head got,” Vincent added. “And I started thinking back, and realizing… there were certain times when the brain fog and memory loss were a lot worse than other times. I wondered what made that happen. I wondered… what was I doing to make my father’s influence get stronger from time to time?”

He reached into the inner pocket of his trench coat, pulling out his pack of menthols.

“Have you noticed I switched to cigarettes instead of cigars?” Vincent asked, perching his brow and giving the pack of cigarettes a shake. “Well, honestly, I’d always smoked both… but I’m definitely going through the cigarettes a lot faster now. You wanna know why? I was racking my brain, trying to determine what could have been getting into my head and making me black out, and then it occurred to me; everything my father does comes from some twisted supernatural science. It would have been something you ate, or drank, or ingested… or… smoked. So… on a whim… I peeled open one of my cigars, and you wanna know what I found?”

Amory made a disdainful face as he listened.

“Devil’s Venom,” Vincent stated. “My father has always been the one supplying me my Cubans… and he’s been filling them up with dried Devil’s Venom. Now, for an angel, it’s pure toxicity… but if you remove the human sedatives, and you feed it to any regular human, or demon, or hybrid freak like me… then it has a whole other effect altogether.”

Amory looked more disturbed by the second as Vincent spoke.

“And I do remember puffing on a cigar when I showed up at the King’s Place,” Vincent said gravely. “And when that clicked in my head, a whole lot more shit suddenly started making sense. I am in no way trying to minimize anything I’ve done, and I need to make that clear. I know damn well I’ve done some truly monstrous things, especially here lately, and I know it’s been horrible and damaging as hell. I also just…”

He paused for a second, looking down and sighing.

“I don’t think, or feel, or believe that I was the only one doing that,” Vincent told him. “Even with me standing there, doing the talking, and doing the actions… it wasn’t… all… me.”

Amory made a slow, thoughtful nod, feeling as if he understood.

And Crowe, still standing mostly hidden from their sight, glanced down and frowned, knowing for certain that he understood as well. He found himself thinking of poor John, and all the times that his fun, gruff, and edgy-humored friend had turned into another person entirely due to the influences of Canterbury Lab.

“I’m not asking for forgiveness. I know what the deal is, and some things aren’t forgivable,” Vincent disclosed. “What I’m asking for is for you to just try to trust the idea of joint efforts, because we can set a lot of this right now, if we really wanna give it a try.”

Amory gave him a long, sad stare, letting out a sigh and taking a step closer.

“Do you think you just… can’t be forgiven?” he asked.

Vincent stared at him expressionlessly.

“I don’t care,” he replied. “We have bigger fish to try.”

“Oh… you do so care,” Amory replied, tilting his head and making a caustic face. “If you didn’t care, then why’d you bring it up? I didn’t say anything about forgiveness. You did.”

Vincent continued to stare, quietly clearing his throat.

“It wouldn’t matter,” he said in a softer, raspier tone. “There are some things that you just can’t walk back. I’m aware of that… and I accept that. Doesn’t matter.”

Amory’s eyes narrowed just the slightest bit, gazing into him so deeply, he appeared to be staring straight through him.

“You have a lot of regret inside you now,” Amory noticed. “You’re terrified of trying to look for forgiveness at this point. You really think it’s too late.”

Vincent fell stoic and silent, his expression hardening.

“Y’know… you had like… the biggest awakening of your whole entire life a week ago,” Amory continued. “But if you keep thinking like that, then you’re gonna slowly end up slipping back to how you used to be… thinking negative, and setting the bar too low for yourself. That’s how you undo the whole healing process of your mental health, y’know.”

Vincent blinked and shook his head for a second, squinting oddly at him. “Who the hell have you been talking to? You sound like you’re parroting a psychiatrist. Poorly.”

“Well… yeah… I probably am,” Amory replied. “Ari knows all the right words to use, but I think you get what I’m trying to say regardless… and I think you shouldn’t just assign yourself to the ‘unforgivable’ category. You can’t be that if you’re on our side. We’re all weird, and crazy, and flawed, and victims of Valek and Canterbury. And you know what? We’ve fought with each other, and we’ve all forgiven each other, too. That’s just what you do.”

“Amory,” Vincent said, his tone low and grim. “You know it’s not the same with me…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Amory insisted, grasping his arm and giving it a shake. “You have to know that I forgave you already… and everyone else still can. I mean… God, look at what you’re trying to do right now. You’re the last person any of them would expect to help us, or be a double-agent, or try to start a whole new organization just to fight Canterbury… and you don’t even have anything to gain from doing that. That’s a huge deal. Do you really think everyone wouldn’t be able to see that you regret a lot and you’re trying to fix it? Do you really think none of them will even think about forgiving you?”

“Well… I have met them before,” Vincent replied tonelessly. “So… no… I don’t particularly think that they would. Especially not Crowe.”

“Crowe is… he… okay,” Amory muttered, nodding sideways. “Okay, he’s gonna be the hardest one to convince, yeah… but he just has to know this stuff, and he just has to see it. That’s how he’s gonna know if he can trust you or not.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Crowe murmured faintly under his breath as he watched them.

“Well… unfortunately, there isn’t much to see as of yet,” Vincent said. “There are still a lot of things that need to be done before any of the wrongs can start being put right. I have a lot to do now. Frankly, we all do. I just imagined it would be more doable if we worked together. It isn’t about forgiveness, and it certainly isn’t about trust. I don’t expect that, either.”

“Oh, you don’t? Okay,” Amory nodded, accepting his challenge. “Vincent… this October 17th in 2025. This time period is my new home… and I came out here alone, too. Only one other person knew I was coming out here, and if something happened to me right now, then none of them would find out and get here fast enough to help me. If you really wanted to spring an ambush on me, then believe me, you really, really could right now.”

There was a long silence following his words, Vincent staring at him intently. Crowe turned his head away, swallowing a groan and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Amory’s eyebrows shot up, and he spread out his arms, wheeling around in place and glancing in every direction. “Well? Where’s the ambush…?”

He turned and glimpsed through the trees, peering over at the ruins and shrugging.

“Oh, I guess there isn’t one,” Amory figured, folding his arms. “Oh well— ow! ”

Something sharp suddenly stabbed him in the neck—Amory wincing and clasping it, feeling around and ripping a small, cylindrical syringe out of his skin. He held it, gazing down at the tiny dart-shaped tube, feeling a slow, heavy dread spreading throughout him like a cold fire.

Vincent glared at the syringe held in Amory’s fingers, then instantly turned to the ruins—spotting a figure emerging from behind the broken wall now.

“Oh… shit ,” Vincent hissed.

Amory’s gaze wandered over to the ruins as well—and Crowe stiffened in his stance beside the tree, looking on with a spark of urgency igniting inside.

Victoria strolled out from the ruins, her arm extended, holding a tranquilizer gun. Her short dark hairs shifted back from her eyes as she walked loudly over the mounds of autumn leaves, striding toward them with an odd smirk on her face.

Amory stood rooted to the spot, staring at her in horror, the dread he felt inside quickly overtaking him now.

Victoria slowed to a stop a short ways away, lowering the tranquilizer gun by her side and cocking her head at Vincent curtly.

Vincent merely glared at her, making a loose shrugging motion. “Is there a reason you followed me here, or…?”

“I told you I was gonna get to see what was behind the big door,” Victoria replied smugly. “Did you think I was just not gonna do that, even if you got there first? Hm… and it looks like it was a good thing I came, too. Weird way to run a reconnaissance mission here, Vincent.”

She glanced down at the unconscious Daniel, then glanced over at Amory, turning to Vincent and smiling emptily at him, awaiting an explanation.

“Do I have to ask… how… or why… he’s here?” Victoria inquired, nodding over at Amory. “Or is this really just exactly what it looks like?”

Vincent wore a hard grimace, staring at her and remaining deathly silent.

“Vincent,” Amory said in a weak, fading breath, his eyelids going heavy, swaying in his stance.

He meekly reached out to the side toward Vincent, not quite managing to grasp him before he began to fall. Vincent glanced over and snapped his arm around Amory’s just before he could crumble to the ground, lifting him and holding him lopsidedly upright as his consciousness started to abandon him.

Crowe inhaled sharply, watching with rapt anxiety, his heart now hammering, every muscle in his body tensing, wanting to get involved and rescue Amory from the situation—but he forced himself to remain still and hidden, his focus locked onto Vincent and Victoria, paying close, vigilant attention to their whole interaction.

“Aww… it is , isn’t it?” Victoria said in a high, mocking voice. “It is exactly what it looks like.”

Vincent straightened out, his right arm holding Amory up despite his head hanging low and his eyes drifting shut.

“Daddy’s little favorite has his own little favorite,” Victoria sneered. “Ooo, you just wait until your father gets home.”

“Yeah? Go ahead and call him for me,” Vincent snapped in response, nodding once at the ruins behind her. “So I can tell him how you just fucked up my plans, here.”

Victoria maintained her sneering expression, though her smile faltered somewhat.

Crowe glared at Vincent from afar, his teeth beginning to grind.

“What plans…?” Victoria asked, looking and sounding unconvinced.

Vincent huffed out an irritable breath, slowly hunching down and laying the unconscious Amory on the ground beside Daniel. Then, he straightened up again and shot her a searing look.

“Do you have any idea how powerful he actually is? ” Vincent griped, rounding on her and jutting a finger down at Amory. “Do you know how damned stupid it is just to run at someone like him guns blazing? The only way to kill him is to talk to him, gain his trust, lower his guard, and then take him out. Do you not understand that? Do you know what finesse is, you ignorant twat?”

Victoria stared icily at him without a hint of her smile now.

“Well—his guard’s down now,” she pointed out, swatting down at him. “Shoot him.”

Vincent glanced down at Amory, then back up at her, sighing deeply and wearing no expression.

“Go ahead. Shoot him,” Victoria urged. “If that was your whole plan anyway, then I just sped it right along. So go ahead. Prove to me where your loyalty really is right now.”

Vincent glared for a moment longer, a grave, tense stillness in the air.

Crowe braced himself even more, preparing for the second he would have to intervene and watching with his teeth clenching so hard, they ached.

Then—Vincent finally relented, making a few mild nods.

“All right,” he said definitively, reaching to his side and unfastening his holster.

And with a quick swiftness—he whipped out his handgun and fired off a shot—the casing bounding through the air—and the bullet tearing a clean hole in Victoria’s skull.

The deafening sound echoed throughout the woodlands—Victoria’s head jolted—and her body went limp, slumping back and hitting the leafy ground with a dull thud against the cold dirt. She lie still there, hair thrown messily back, eyes still open, mouth still agape, and blood oozing from the center of her forehead as her life quickly faded away.

Vincent lowered his gun, staring down at her body with a cold, unfeeling visage.

“There you go,” he resolved.

Crowe gazed out at the scene in astonishment, his mouth drifting agape, ogling Vincent as if he’d never seen anything as mindboggling as him before.

“Holy shit… what happened…?” Daniel’s groggy voice grunted from the ground.

Vincent turned and looked down at him, seeing that Daniel was coming to, sitting partially upright and propping himself up on his arm. He blinked several times at Victoria’s body, then glanced over at Amory lying beside him, looking totally lost.

“Victoria decided to have herself a little field trip and saw too much is what happened,” Vincent informed, offering his hand and slowly pulling Daniel to his feet. “Now… I need you to do me a favor. Go ahead and head back through the gateway, and start working on the paperwork for this time period. It’s 2025, no payphones exist anymore, and phones are now portable devices you carry around in your pocket. That should be enough info to cover the first basic reconnaissance mission… and add the obvious, too. No sign of anything suspicious or noteworthy here whatsoever.”

Daniel blinked again and ran his hands down his face, nodding along as he spoke. “All right… and what, um… what happened to him?”

He waved down at Amory.

“She hit him with the tranquilizer,” Vincent answered. “He’ll be fine. I’m just gonna hang out here until he wakes up. I’ll meet you at the usual place later, all right?”

“All right,” Daniel nodded, turning and giving Victoria’s body another grim look. “And… what’s our cover story about her, if anyone asks?”

“Nothing,” Vincent said simply. “We haven’t seen her, haven’t heard from her, no idea what happened to her. That’s all we have to tell anyone, and they can’t prove a single thing else.”

“Gotcha,” Daniel said, turning and yawning tiredly. “Well… see you later, then.”

“See you later.”

Vincent watched as Daniel walked off, trekking across the blanket of leaves and slowly vanishing from sight. He eventually disappeared behind the broken wall in the distance, and then, Vincent turned back to Amory, gazing down at him and sighing.

With nothing left to do, he merely pulled out his cigarettes, slid one from the pack, and lit it, stuffing the pack away again and sinking down to the ground. He sat beside Amory, inhaled a drag from his cigarette, and released a smoke cloud into the air.

For a while, he simply sat in silence, losing himself to his thoughts, propping his arm atop his knee, and flicking the ashes away, occasionally sparing a glance down at Amory.

Crowe remained in his concealed spot as the minutes went by, merely watching, eyeing Vincent with an intense expression strewn across his face, several thoughts running through his mind at once. He certainly felt many conflicting things; he’d spent a lot of time hating Vincent and carrying a torch for the man, and he’d grown to despise him even more recently, given everything he had been doing.

Yet still—Vincent had just executed one of Canterbury’s long-time managers of operations, someone that Crowe had seen in passing for many years, almost as much as he’d seen Vincent. Victoria had been a part of Canterbury for as long as he could remember, ever since the woman was fairly young. She’d always been a bit snidey, and certainly overly flirtatious. Crowe remembered seeing how Victoria and Vincent would speak to each other in the cafeteria, with her giving him a vaguely flirty remark or a sarcastic comment about how he was always shown special treatment, and him typically not reciprocating much, using only short one-word responses.

Now—everything had suddenly become intense and drastic, and the two people who had worked together for so long in Canterbury found themselves on perfectly opposing sides of a struggle, wherein Vincent showed no hesitation in executing her on the spot. Everything that he’d always done—as far as Crowe could ever tell in the past—had always been for the lab’s benefit. This was the first time he’d ever seen him do something so monumentally opposite.

And—it wasn’t like he was simply putting on a show just to appear as if he was on Amory’s side. After all, Vincent had no audience to show off for. Amory was unconscious, and as far as Vincent knew, no one else was here, closely observing all of his behavior. He didn’t choose to kill Victoria just to make himself look like the hero to everyone else. He did it when, to the best of his knowledge, no one else was even watching.

Crowe took in a deep, heavy breath, truly befuddled by the man now; he could hardly believe such a stark personality shift had occurred for real, that Vincent really had changed his agendas, morals, and allegiances entirely.

Then again—Crowe had seen such drastic and seemingly impossible personality changes in a person once before. John was very, very different when he was himself, compared to the dark, thoughtless, and angry version of himself that he became when the demons overtook him.

Perhaps this was it. Maybe Vincent had reached the other side of the spiritual cleansing in a way that John hadn’t been able to, and this was his path of redemption. Crowe couldn’t help but feel that this was rather unfair—that Vincent, of all people, was allowed redemption when John was not—but it was certainly better than the alternative. Besides, having a man on the inside could prove to be truly useful when Canterbury eventually started seeking out their runaways again.

Inhaling, nodding, and finally feeling as if he’d observed enough—Crowe stepped out from behind the large tree, marching forward and kicking mounds of leaves aside as he did.

Vincent lowered his cigarette; he snapped his head around and tensed up, but he resisted the urge to reach for his gun again when he saw who was nearby.

Crowe walked over to him, stopped, and stared, still wearing a serious visage, his hands pocketed, and his eyes shifting from Vincent, to the sleeping Amory, and then to the dead Victoria. He didn’t say a word, simply gazing down at the fresh corpse with a distant stare.

Vincent didn’t speak, either. He remained seated, his arm resting on top of his knee, his hand dangling limply and his cigarette hanging loosely from between his fingers, watching Crowe without saying anything.

Crowe stared at the body for a moment longer, then stepped past it, his eyes scanning along the landscape in front of him, landing on a clearing of dirt with fewer leaves on it.

Then, he outstretched his hand, focused his power, and moved his arm around in a wide, rounded way, appearing as if he was drawing a massive circle in the air and above the land.

At once—the dirt began to crackle and separate, a long, ovular portion of the earth being sliced away from the rest.

Crowe cut and sawed away at the rounded chunk of land with his mind—then he raised his hand, fingers craned upward, teeth beginning to clench as he slowly brought his arm higher.

As he did—the oval-shaped chunk of earth began to rise as well, lifting out of the ground and pulling roots, rocks, and worms out along with it, sprinkles of dirt raining down from the mound of earth that was slowly floating higher into the air.

Vincent watched with raised eyebrows.

Crowe lifted the entire chunk of dirt from the ground, then gently turned his hand around, shifted his arm over to the right, and guided the earth chunk to the side, easefully lowering his arm and placing the whole mound down with gentle grace, not allowing any of it to break apart.

The moment the earth mound had been neatly set aside—he let out a breath and lowered his arm, a trickle of blood running down his face from his eye.

Crowe then turned back around, facing Vincent and feeling a brief dizziness, though it faded away in seconds.

Vincent glanced at the new large hole in the ground, then at the earth mound, then looked back to Crowe, flicking his ashes into the leaves.

“Is that my grave…?” he asked, inhaling from his cigarette.

Crowe stared, rather expressionless, thinking of no angry comments or snide remarks to say. Instead, he simply shook his head, looking down at Victoria’s body.

“No.” He held out his hand above her corpse, then made a whipping motion toward the hole—sending Victoria’s body flying carelessly over to it, limps flailing and head twisting as it landed awkwardly in the makeshift grave. “It’s hers.”

Crowe stepped over to the hole and positioned himself at the edge of it, extending a hand toward the mound and slowly raising his arm, lifting the chunk of earth into the air again.

He moved it overtop of the hole, lowered his arm, and inserted the mound back into the hole like a humongous puzzle piece, forcing it down and flattening it above the now buried body, shoving the dirt back into place as perfectly as he could.

Then, he let out another breath and dropped his arm by his side, another red teardrop rolling down his other cheek. He paused for a moment, then glanced around and raised his hand, making a whirling motion and lifting random flutters of leaves into the air, scattering them across the clearing and covering up the spot of dirt best he could.

Now—the ground appeared as ordinary as ever, with no body anywhere in sight, and it looked as if nothing had happened.

“As much as I hate the fact that she gets a burial, and John doesn’t… I reckon she’s gotta go bye-bye,” Crowe grumbled, sighing and turning back to Vincent, strolling toward him. “You might have more of your shadow-government demon friends showing up out here at some point in the future… and you don’t wanna have any of them stumbling over her body.”

Vincent stared up at him for a second, then nodded and exhaled a smoke cloud. “Good point.”

There was a long pause, Vincent flicking more ashes away, Crowe merely staring at him.

“Y’don’t seem surprised that I’m here,” Crowe noticed.

Vincent shrugged, took another drag, and breathed out his smoke. “Well… you three were always attached at the hip. I’d be more surprised if one of you didn’t follow him out here.”

“Hey!” someone else called out from a distance.

Crowe perked up and stared through the spacious woodlands, and Vincent turned halfway around in his seated position, gazing in the same direction.

Raven came sprinting across the leafy ground, approaching them with haste and running across the open land where the stretch of Maple Road once was, staggering to a stop and panting to catch her breath.

“What the bloody hell?!” Crowe barked at her, swatting the air. “I told you to stay in the car!”

“I don’t give a shit! I heard a gunshot!” Raven griped in response. “What happened?!”

She looked down, spotting the unconscious Amory and gasping in fright.

“He’s fine—he just got tranked,” Crowe told her. “Go back to the car!”

“Don’t tell me what to do, asshole!” Raven yelled, giving her brother another concerned look, then jabbing a finger at Vincent. “You—what did you do?! Why did he get tranked?!”

“Victoria did it,” Crowe stated. “She followed Vincent here, shot off a trank dart, and then Vincent shot her in the face. I just ripped a hole outta the ground and buried the bitch. Everything’s fine. All right? Now go back to the car.”

“Stop—telling me—what— to do ,” Raven growled through gritted teeth, rounding on him.

“Look—one of us needs to be with everyone else, and the other one needs to be where Amory is,” Crowe told her firmly. “That’s the best way to keep everyone protected right now—”

“Protected from what?!” Raven snapped, waving over at Vincent. “If he’s not actually doing anything bad right now, then what’re you worried about?!”

“Because Cunt-Face could’ve told her whole unit to come over here after her if she doesn’t come back,” Crowe snarled in response. “And if a whole fuckin’ army of people comes through that gateway—”

“Then I need to be here to help you!”

“No—you need to be with them to stop them all from rushing out here ,” Crowe corrected. “And you know bloody well that Ari would do that in a heartbeat—and so would Miss Morgan, and Xena probably would, too. Nobody’s there to stop them from fuckin’ following me out here now! I need you there to keep them there!”

“You’re doing the exact same stupid thing he tried to do,” Raven pointed out, thrusting a finger down at Amory. “You’re trying to push everybody else away so you can deal with it all by yourself!”

“Raven… the others don’t have fuckin’ superpowers ,” Crowe grumbled, running his hands down his face. “Me being out here and them being out here are two very different things…!”

“Ahm…” Vincent said, raising a finger to interject. “I’m… fairly certain nobody else will make a surprise visit out here.”

Crowe and Raven both whipped around and stared at him.

“Victoria was one of three people who actually had the clearance to lead and run the reconnaissance missions in the temporal gateways,” Vincent informed. “So… technically, she is allowed to go into one by herself if she marks it as a reconnaissance mission. It’s not a very wise move, but… she was allowed to do it, and she did. Nobody else there has the ability to do that without facing serious repercussions. She’s not allowed to order her entire unit to follow her, either… not at the reconnaissance stage of the game. Besides, most of them are fairly busy right now, either with outside tasks, or completing their paperwork from their previous reconnaissance run. It’s very likely that Victoria came out here without anyone else even knowing. No one else is even going to notice she’s gone. Not for a few hours, at least.”

Crowe and Raven were quiet for a second, trading glances, then facing Vincent again.

“So we’re in the clear?” Crowe asked. “We’re safe here for right now…?”

“Oh yeah.” Vincent inhaled another puff, let out the smoke, and nodded. “Reconnaissance in these gateways takes at least a few hours, bare minimum. Nobody in the lab is going to expect to see either one of us for a while. My father wouldn’t be likely to get curious even if he was there… but, luckily, he’s out of town in Washington D.C. I’d say we’re in the clear.”

Raven and Crowe shared another serious stare. Then, Raven looked to her brother again, sighing and sinking down beside him, gently shifting his hairs back.

Crowe remained standing, his eyes still trained on Vincent.

There was a strangeness in the air, a thick, palpable tension that was present for obvious reasons, though none of them quite knew what to say, or how to break it.

Vincent finished off his seventh cigarette of the day and flicked the butt away, deciding he would give breaking the tension a try. He raised his head and gave Crowe a curious look.

“Amory seemed to be under the impression that he came out here alone,” Vincent remarked. “But… I’m guessing he told you all about what was going on out here at some point…”

“Nah. He told Ari,” Crowe replied, sauntering over to him and sinking down to the ground in front of him, sitting slacked back on the leaves and leaning on his hand. “He told Ari what happened with you… and, what he managed to do to you… and… then… Ari told us.”

Vincent’s eyes narrowed. “The psychiatrist…?”

“Yeah… y’know, the doctor you tried to kill,” Crowe rumbled. “He’s actually a decent bloke. You might try not shooting him the next time you see him.”

Vincent opened his mouth to reply, but he drew a blank, falling silent and looking away.

“He pretty much had to tell us, anyway… because I’d seen it in a dream, and I knew something was going on,” Crowe added, nodding once at Vincent. “I saw you and Amory standing out here talking. I s’pose that dream showed me the part when that other bloke was already passed out on the ground. I reckon that’s why I only saw you two talking out here…”

“Yeah… um… I have a question,” Raven chimed in, moving over to Crowe’s side and sitting next to him, squinting strangely at Vincent. “How are you alive…?”

“Ohhh… Ari mentioned that part, too,” Crowe answered, wagging a finger over at her. “Valek brought him back with some of Zyon’s DNA, and then he tortured him.”

“Oh yeah,” Raven mumbled.

“I mean, Christ, look at the bastard,” Crowe laughed, motioning at Vincent. “Valek burned his bloody face half off.”

Vincent stared at him with a stony visage.

“What? Don’t act like you didn’t earn that,” Crowe snickered. “I’m glad Valek gave you that payback so I didn’t have to. Honestly, it helps me humanize you a bit more. You’ve been nothing but a murderous raving lunatic until now.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Vincent muttered, facing away. “Get it all out of your system.”

“Oh… I can’t do that , mate,” Crowe replied, shaking his head and smiling strangely. “I really can’t. If I did, I’d just snap your fucking neck.”

There was a tense pause, Crowe and Vincent staring into each other, Raven glimpsing anxiously between the two of them.

Crowe’s smile slowly faded away, his stare going cold, eyes locked onto Vincent with an unreadable visage. He took a deep breath, opened and closed his fist a few times, and cleared his throat before speaking on.

“But… it’s lucky for you… that I have a very good shrink, and I’ve recently learned that I don’t actually like the whole killing people thing,” Crowe disclosed. “And it’s also lucky for you that I actually understand what made you so bloody evil. You’re not the only one who’s ever tried to kill me before, y’know. My mate John did, too… and he did it for the same damn reason.”

Vincent nodded gravely, pausing before he replied.

“I hope you know… I was not the source of that,” he said. “My father was.”

“Oh… I know. I know that now,” Crowe responded. “That’s the only reason we’re talking.”

There was another pause.

“Well…” Crowe uttered, nodding sideways. “That, and everything I just heard and saw out here. You’ve actually got some decent plans up your sleeve, if I’m being honest.”

Vincent squinted quizzically at him. “How long have you been eavesdropping out here?”

“Oh… the whole time,” Crowe replied with a laugh. “Fuckin’ ‘ell… you kidding me? Ari tells us that Vincent’s been brought back to life and just had a buncha demons hoovered outta him like dust from an old rug, and he’s coming out here to meet with Amory in secret… and you think I’m just gonna sit at home and not come see how that plays out? Pfff… not a chance.”

Vincent gave him a deep, investigative stare.

“You’re a lot smarter than anyone’s ever given you credit for, you know what?” he said.

Crowe blinked, eyeing him oddly. “Don’t kiss my ass.”

“Oh, I’m not. Honestly. That’s a very intelligent thing to do,” Vincent reiterated, jabbing a finger at him. “Not just monitoring an obvious risk factor, and observing behaviors… but also putting yourself close enough to hear the conversation, yet still staying hidden. You’re a lot more likely to gather truthful information about a person if they’re not aware that they’re being watched. That was well done.”

Crowe reeled slightly back, falling momentarily speechless. He wasn’t entirely sure what he might have expected to hear from Vincent during this tense and peculiar situation, but he was certain he hadn’t expected to hear compliments from him.

“However… at the same time… you have some symptoms of limitations that seem like they’d be more obvious to the people around you than they are to you,” Vincent explained, motioning up and down his cheeks, gesturing to the thin streaks of blood that still remained on Crowe’s face. “Which, I suppose, is why Raven felt the need to follow you out here. I’m not one to say if you actually could take on a whole unit by yourself… but when you both work together, you can manage people in droves. I heard all about it from my father, and as it was told to me, you both did an incredible job of that at the Evervale home. A team effort is a stronger one.”

Vincent’s eyes shifted over to Raven.

“And that’s where your wisdom comes into play, it seems like,” he told her. “Because when the boys overlook that, you never do.”

Raven stared, also surprised by the compliment, and she looked down and smiled, feeling bashful all the sudden.

“What the hell’re you on about?” Crowe griped. “You think you’re just gonna win us over with praise, or what?”

“No. I think you all need to deeply assess all of your personal strengths and weaknesses so you can manage all conflicts better in the future,” Vincent answered pointedly. “So… I’m just telling you what they all appear to be, from an objective point of view. That’s all.”

“Ah yeah? What makes you think you know all that just from a single talk?” Crowe asked.

“I’ve known all of you since you were kids, Crowe,” Vincent replied. “And I do remember a lot of that , if nothing else. Did you listen to what I just said about observing behaviors? Well… I’ve been observing all of yours for a fairly long time now.”

Crowe narrowed his eyes skeptically at him. “Okay, so… how is it you remember that, but you don’t remember opening fire on us at the King’s Place?”

Vincent’s mouth drifted open, remaining silent for a moment. Then, he simply shook his head.

“I honestly have no idea,” he conceded.

Crowe stared at him quizzically for a second.

“Maybe you just didn’t have as many Cubans to smoke on when you were hovering over us all the time,” he muttered.

Vincent scoffed out a laugh. “Yeah, maybe…”

Crowe’s mouth curled into what might have been a smile.

“Or maybe there are just certain things you never fully forget,” Raven suggested. “Like… when you have connections with people, and you care about them…”

Crowe looked away, as did Vincent, neither of them commenting on this.

“That would kind of explain why Vincent stopped chasing us when we ran from the club,” Raven said in a softer voice, murmuring to Crowe. “When he saw Amory… he just… changed and calmed down a little bit. And he never actually saw us… at least not when it started. Remember the glass doors they had there? They were kind of tinted, and you couldn’t really make out people’s faces or anything inside, if you were looking from the outside…”

Crowe made a halfhearted shrug, still not speaking.

“Ohhh… and maybe that’s why he decided to start shooting without going inside or opening the doors first,” Raven carried on. “Maybe the demon part of him knew that the human part would hesitate if he saw our faces first.”

Crowe and Vincent still didn’t respond, and still kept staring off in other directions.

Raven huffed out a breath and shot both of them a look. “We can talk about compassion and emotions, you dummies. Stop being so male for once.”

Crowe whipped his head back around and gave her a befuddled sort of look, making her sputter out a laugh.

“You really want me to stop being male, Raven?” Crowe asked, perching his brow at her. “What would that mean for us if we ever started dating? I mean, I think this time period is a bit more accepting of that kind of thing, but still… it’s not being a lesbian that I’d have a real problem with. I just don’t think I’d make a very good woman. Lookit me. I’d be as ugly as sin.”

Raven exploded with laughter, Crowe then chuckling at her reaction, as he often did whenever he could make her giggle.

Vincent watched them, flashing a faint half-smile as he did.

He glanced over, gazing down at Amory and seeing that he was still out cold.

Then, he sighed deeply, faced Crowe and Raven again, and clasped his hands together, hanging his head and assessing his thoughts before he spoke what was now on his mind.

“Listen to me,” Vincent said seriously.

Crowe and Raven, who had just started shooting witty banter at one another, both fell silent and faced forward again.

Vincent met their eyes, wearing a hard, severe expression.

“I need you both to promise me something right now,” he said intensely. “As far as I can tell, and as far as I can think, or feel, or observe of myself… I am completely free and clear of my father’s influence, and I am wholly and one-hundred percent myself now. But…”

He gulped, sighing again and raising a finger.

“If… there ever comes a time… when my eye goes dark again, and Valek somehow has a hold on me again,” Vincent said gravely. “Then I need you to do one of two things. Either make sure that Amory can work his magic on me again… or just put me out of my misery. If you can’t get me to Amory, for whatever reason… then, please… feel free to end me, right then and there.”

Crowe and Raven stared at him, each with the same dark expressions strewn across their faces.

Vincent raised his brows at them, moved his arm to the side, and aimed his pointed finger down at Amory.

“And do not make him do it,” Vincent disclosed. “If I’m beyond saving, and he can’t fix me up again… and if we’re in a situation where the Old Yeller route is the only option left… don’t make him be the one who pulls that trigger. He’s not gonna take it the same way that any of the rest of you would.”

There was another moment of silence, this one darker than all the ones before.

Crowe let out a breath, now sitting with his legs folded, looking down and twiddling his thumbs.

“It’ll probably have to be me, then,” he mumbled.

Raven turned and stared at him incredulously.

Crowe raised his head and faced her, sighing once more.

“Well… come on,” he said to her. “Be honest. I know you would resort to killing him if you absolutely had to… but I also know that you force yourself to do a lot of things that’re outside of your comfort zone. That kind of thing affects you more than you think it does, y’know.”

Raven glared at him, looking almost insulted.

“When you forced Donna to have that little spiritual cleansing and pretty much planted her in Zyon’s hand,” Crowe clarified. “I know that scared the hell out of you to do, and you told me how you felt afterwards. I’d honestly rather it be me. It’s just easier for me.”

“It affects you just as much as it does me!” Raven declared. “Can you not see that? Because all the rest of us can! And Ari isn’t gonna let you do that, anyway! He said he wanted to be the one to deal with that!”

“Let him do it,” Vincent decided.

Crowe and Raven turned back to him.

“You’ve both been thrown into these situations enough already… and you’ve both been through a lot more hell and trauma than that ordinary man has,” Vincent elaborated. “Honestly… no offense to either of you… but I genuinely believe that he can handle it with more ease than you two. He isn’t carrying around the mountain of baggage that you two are… and he is a relatively well-rounded individual who does happen to be responsible for you. Give him that peace of mind, and let him do the hard part when the time comes.”

“ If the time comes,” Raven corrected, frowning at Vincent. “You don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen or not, and it really shouldn’t happen, to be honest.”

“Yeah… how could Valek ever even get a hold on you again?” Crowe wondered. “As far as I’ve been able to piece together so far… demons can’t affect you unless you willingly let them in first. Same rules as all that angel stuff. It always starts with a person’s free will, and whatever they decide to let in.”

“Well… that’s why the nature of the Canterbury procedure is so deeply manipulative and evil,” Vincent replied grimly. “The drug doses, combined with visions that are meant to put a person in their own personal Hell and drive them mad… illusions of pain… or even real pain, if you’re me… it all makes the person more willing to accept the dark things that come knocking on the door right after. Especially if that dark thing promises to make it all finally stop.”

Crowe and Raven fell silent, trading shocked and troubled glances with each other.

Vincent read their expressions, nodding mildly. “I see you’re both unaware of what the procedure actually does to people… at least people who didn’t garner the protection of an angel.”

“Oh… you bloody liar,” Crowe breathed, shaking his head at him angrily. “You told him… you promised Amory, the day we met you… you promised him that procedure wouldn’t actually hurt anybody. You fuckin’ knew it would. You knew we’d be put through all that mad torture, and you still dragged three fuckin’ kids back to your evil fuckin’ lair to be tortured into oblivion. And you lied about it.”

“Well… actually… at that time, I didn’t know,” Vincent told him. “I didn’t know what the full experience of what the procedure really entailed until… years later.”

Crowe and Raven gave him a questioning stare.

“That only just came back to me a couple of days ago,” Vincent muttered. “My father has always had his own twisted and supernatural ways of trying to keep me in check… but he never actually put me through the Canterbury procedure until 1976. And… at the time… I didn’t remember it afterward. Nobody does. It’s always meant to leave you in a disoriented fog when it’s over, so you don’t remember everything you went through… and… you don’t remember any kind of deals you made with any dark entities, either. I don’t know why I started remembering those things now , but… I did…”

“That’s when he started making you do the procedure,” Raven murmured. “Three years after you took us there…”

“Yeah… it was the day after Amory’s birthday, actually,” Vincent recalled, scratching along his chin. “I think I got him a box of vinyl’s or something that year…”

Raven frowned sadly at him. It sounded as if Valek had started forcing Vincent to undergo the procedure when Vincent was becoming closer to the kids, especially Amory. It was likely Valek’s attempt at seizing even more control over his son, and trying to sever the connections that he was making with the other people around him at the time. She continued to gaze at Vincent, feeling an ache in her chest as these disturbing thoughts weighed on her.

Crowe, however, was paying Vincent’s story no mind; he had just become fully distracted by a loose thought that had invaded his mind the moment he’d heard the word birthday. He was staring over at Raven now, his mouth hanging open, and his face painted with chagrin.

It took Raven a moment to realize that he was staring and gaping at her.

“What…?” she uttered.

“Your birthday,” Crowe breathed, gently shaking his head. “I forgot all about getting them chocolates for your bloody birthday. Christ… that was one of the first things I ever brought up to Ari, and I still never got around to doing it…”

Raven stared at him incredibly, choking out a laugh. “Are you serious right now…?”

“Yes!” Crowe proclaimed. “I had a whole plan and everything! And then Mr. Happy over here went and distracted us all, and he ruined it!”

He swatted over at Vincent, who merely flashed a flat, vacant smile in response.

“Sorry,” Vincent said emptily, tossing up a hand. “I can reimburse you for the chocolates. I guess.”

Crowe and Raven both laughed.

Vincent paused, glimpsing down and only just remembering another thing he wanted to mention, something that was rather important.

“I had it figured that I’d be arranging regular meetups with Amory so we can discuss whatever it is we really wanna do… and, naturally, you’re all gonna be a part of it somehow,” he said. “But there’s something you need to hear before any of this goes any farther.”

Crowe and Raven went quiet again, listening closely.

Vincent took a deep breath, trading glances with both of them.

“My father does not show his full hand,” he stated. “In fact, he doesn’t even show a fraction of his hand. He’s capable of doing things that I know you’ve never seen him do before… and… I suspect that he can do some things that he’s never even let me see before. He is a lot stronger than he’s ever allowed anyone to see. Regardless of whatever might be going on… even if it seems like we’re all doing very well in all of our efforts… don’t ever assume that we’re winning or that we’ve got him on the ropes, because underestimating that man is the very worst thing you could ever do.”

Crowe nodded solemnly, Raven doing the same and looking down at her lap.

A faint, tiny groan caught all of their attention, Amory’s foot making a twitch.

Everyone turned to observe him.

Amory was making a face, wincing and seeming riled as he began to stir.

“I don’t wanna go back…” he breathed.

“Hey… Amory, look here,” Vincent said, leaning over and snapping two fingers above his face, then placing a hand on him and giving him a gentle shake. “Look at me… you hear me? You’re not back there. You’re fine.”

Amory blinked a few times, his dreary gaze venturing up to Vincent, and the midday sunlight behind him, seeing no hint of Canterbury Lab anywhere around them. He let out a massively relieved breath, allowing his eyes to ease shut again for a moment.

“Where did your friend go…?” he murmured weakly.

“He went home,” Vincent replied. “He’s gonna get a head start on the paperwork.”

“The other one,” Amory mumbled, resting a hand to his forehead and massaging his temple.

Vincent was quiet for a second, then shook his head. “She’s not my friend… and she’s not around anymore.”

“Yeah… you missed Vincent’s big heroic gesture, Amory,” Crowe cackled. “He just shot her point-blank in the head.”

Amory made a strange face at hearing Crowe’s voice. Then, he pressed his hands to the ground and slowly pushed himself upright, still feeling heavy and woozy, and he found himself seated on the ground beside Vincent, Crowe and Raven both sitting across from them.

He stared at them for a few seconds until he was sure that he wasn’t hallucinating, then squinted at either of them questioningly.

“What’re you doing here…?” Amory asked.

“Babysitting you , you stupid fuckin’ prat,” Crowe griped in response. “I had a dream about your little date out here, and Ari spilled his guts about the whole thing, since I cornered him and made him tell me. Oh, and since you decided to run off and come out here without him anyway. He is very cross with you, I hope you know.”

Amory was silent for a moment longer, his eyes moving from person to person, feeling deeply perplexed at seeing Crowe and Raven sitting with Vincent, talking with him civilly and casually, and he briefly thought he may have still been asleep and simply dreaming.

Crowe read his face and smirked. “You thought I was gonna kill him, didn’t you?”

Amory met his gaze, making a loose shrugging motion. “I mean… yeah… obviously…”

“Yeah, well… I’ve been watching the whole thing out here, just to see how he’d act,” Crowe informed. “And… it seems like we really do have a genuine double-agent now.”

Amory hesitated, glancing over at Vincent, then back at Crowe. “Are you… okay with this?”

Crowe scoffed and laughed. “Whaddo you care? You were gonna arrange it whether I was okay with it or not. But, yeah, I actually am. Seems like a smart plan, to be honest.”

“There’s one other thing we need to decide on before any of us go anywhere,” Vincent said.

Everyone turned to him.

Vincent sighed, turning slightly in his seated position and facing Amory.

“ If you want to,” he started. “We will begin the process of planning for a rival shadow operation to Canterbury. That is quite a lot to take on, and it’s entirely up to you. We can just as well make a plan for general un-indoctrination and disbanding of Canterbury’s employees. It’s your call, but we do need to decide that now… because if we are going to go with the rival organization plan, then we will need to start moving on that. My father will be in D.C. until after Christmas, and we will need to take full advantage of the time he’s gone if we’re going to take that route.”

Amory thought about this for a moment, then squinted at him. “What day is it on your side of the gateways, again? Like… what’s the date?”

“The 23rd of December,” Vincent replied.

“Oh my God… they’re only gonna have a day’s notice,” Amory mumbled, glancing down and thinking of his parents.

Vincent shot him an odd look. “What?”

Amory met his gaze again and shook his head. “Nothing, sorry… um… how long after Christmas is it gonna be before your father gets back?”

“I don’t know for sure… but when he goes up north for meetings around Christmas, he doesn’t typically get back until around New Year’s,” Vincent told him. “And we would have to arrange some way of the members of my unit all meeting with you and having that little magic trick of yours done on them before he gets back into town.”

Amory blinked and shot him a double-take. “All of them? How many is that…?”

“As of right now, my unit consists of ten men, including Daniel, not including me,” Vincent answered. “And all of them are of a similar mindset to he and I… as in… they don’t generally care much for the, uh… other leaders in the operation. I don’t know how much that reflects on their actual loyalties, but I’d say it’s worth finding out.”

Amory was quiet, looking down again and pondering on this.

Vincent narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at him.

“You said gateways,” he noticed.

Amory glimpsed back up at him. “What…?”

“You didn’t say gateway. You said gateways ,” Vincent remarked. “Is there another gateway through time here that I don’t know about…?”

Amory fell silent, gnawing his lip, Crowe and Raven sharing a subtle glance with one another.

“Zyon figured out why I got the time wrong when I made the other one,” Amory said softly. “Because the rifts that were created when I destroyed the lab kind of cemented the gateways to certain dates… and the one that showed up here at the ruins of the lab sort of guided the one that I created toward the same time that it led to.”

Vincent stared at him in confusion.

“That’s why I made a doorway that led to a slightly off time,” Amory said. “And I made that one to go back to Raven, and Crowe, and everyone else… because they were in danger. All of that basically means… the gateway here at the lab, and the doorway back at my home… they both lead to the same time, on the same date. It also means… when we figure out when and where we’re gonna meet up… we might have a way easier time of doing that than coming back out here.”

“Amory,” Crowe said warningly, giving him a forbidding glare. “You really wanna tell him about that? I know he’s trying to be good, but that leads straight into our home. That’s a way different kind of risk… and a way more intimate one.”

“Yeah… but… think about it,” Amory replied. “The doorway is warded against everything demonic. Vincent won’t even be able to go through it if he ever gets possessed again. He’ll only be able to use it when he’s himself.”

“Oh,” Crowe uttered, glancing down and nodding. “Right… well, that’s a fair point. I hadn’t thought of that…”

“So he’ll only be able to show up there when we can actually trust him,” Raven deducted.

“Exactly,” Amory affirmed. “And he won’t have to keep using the gateway at Canterbury, either… which is good, because the other people there might start getting suspicious if they keep seeing him use it…”

“M’kay. Does someone wanna fill me in on whatever we’re talking about?” Vincent asked.

The trio exchanged faces.

“Basically… I made a doorway that’s like the gateway here,” Amory said, motioning over to the ruins. “But it’s… not at the lab. It’s in Moonvale.”

Vincent cocked his head at him. “The mental hospital…?”

“Yeah,” Amory confirmed. “And… it leads directly into Evervale Manor.”

Vincent stared, now visibly lost.

Amory let out a laugh and briefly explained Evervale Manor to him before continuing.

“And… that’s where we live now,” he disclosed. “The utility closet on the first floor of Moonvale is what leads into the blue door in the manor. That’s how you can come and meet up with me next time.”

“And if you abuse that information, or pass along that information, or somehow fenaggle your way through that doorway as a demon and come into our home to betray us—then I really will snap your bloody neck,” Crowe said harshly, thrusting a finger at Vincent. “Ho’kay?”

“Yes… duly noted,” Vincent said.

“I’m not kidding,” Crowe said severely. “We’re trusting you with some really sensitive information—and you really don’t deserve that trust—but it seems to be the easiest way to do what we’re doing, so we’re taking a big fuckin’ leap of faith on you now. If something happens—and if I think for a second that you’re gonna harm anybody in our home—then I will very gladly throw my ‘no killing’ resolution out the fuckin’ window. I will do that in a heartbeat. You understand me? In—a bloody— heartbeat .”

“I understand. Hear you loud and clear,” Vincent replied with a nod. “You don’t need to worry about that ever happening.”

“I’d better not,” Crowe concluded.

“Just as a point of curiosity, though… have you ever killed anyone before?” Vincent asked.

Crowe blinked and raised his eyebrows. “What, d’you doubt me? You think I’m making empty threats? Issat it…?”

“No, I don’t think that… I’m just… wondering if you are,” Vincent replied honestly. “That would be why I asked.”

Crowe ogled him bizarrely. “Mate—you were there when I killed people! You were standing right in between those two blokes when their guns exploded and tore them all up to Hell and back! You saw it!”

“He doesn’t remember,” Amory mumbled.

“Oh, fuckin’… right…” Crowe grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose, then tossing up and hand and looking to Vincent again. “Well, yes, the answer is I have killed people before. And that wasn’t the only time, either.”

“I have, too,” Raven murmured.

Vincent paused for a moment, surveying both of them thoughtfully.

“That wasn’t the only time, huh,” he muttered. “Can I ask why you did it another time?”

“Yeah. Some of your mates, or Victoria’s mates, or whoever the fuck’s mates just happened to walk up to Ari’s flat and gun him down on the spot,” Crowe replied darkly. “So yeah, we kinda got a little angry. Don’t think for a second that we won’t kill any of you in a heartbeat if someone in our home ends up in danger like that again. It’s not an empty threat, or a bluff, or just some bloated fuckin’ ego thing to make me feel tough—it’s nothing but a warning.”

Vincent made a slow, understanding nod, intertwining his fingers together.

“I was right, then,” he determined. “If… some circumstance arises where you have to put a certain someone down… then you absolutely should let your doctor do it for you, because sounds like you’ve both been forced into doing those things too much already.”

Crowe and Raven went quiet, their expressions darkening. Amory glanced between them all, looking somewhat lost.

“We have one more thing to figure out before I go,” Vincent determined, turning to Amory. “Do you want to attempt the shadow operation, or is that a no-go for you?”

Amory took in a deep, stressful breath, thinking of everything he would have to do—trying to find some place where he could house these people, a place where they could run their operation, as well as funding the entire thing. If they did this here in 2025, then he would have to get some modern documentation of identification in order to purchase property here, or he’d have to have Xena do it for him. He’d also have to steal from banks again, which was a risky thing to do, even for him. It was definitely a huge thing to take on—but the look on Vincent’s face now made Amory think that the man was simply bound and determined to do it all.

“I would love to give it a try, I just…” Amory muttered with a shrug. “I don’t know where we would even do this here. I got really lucky just inheriting Evervale Manor… but I don’t really have any other place here that’s just at my disposal…”

“Well… if it’s any consolation, I do happen to own the place we’re at right now,” Vincent informed, motioning over to the ruins. “Canterbury Lab and its research was government-run, but the property itself was not owned by anything that could be connected to any government institutions on paper. I’m sure you can work out why… but the point is, the funders of the research, as well as my father, who is great buddies with all those people… all of them kept their names officially off of certain things that might bring about the issue of litigation. My name was the one used to purchase this property… and, as far as we know, and as far as it appears to be here, given that this place has been in an obvious state of neglect for quite a while… I am probably still the owner of it now, here in 2025.”

“Wait… Valek didn’t want trouble coming back onto him, so he used your name instead?” Raven clarified. “Oh, that’s messed up…”

“Hold on.” Crowe raised a hand. “You really wanna make an anti-Canterbury organization in a place that has an open gateway to Canterbury inside of it? They could all just flood right through that gateway and slaughter the lot of you.”

“Yes, I’d thought of that. The existing gateway would be managed in one of two ways,” Vincent replied, holding up his fingers. “One—it would be heavily walled-off so nothing could travel through either side of it, layered with some explosive-proof and anti-ballistic material. Or two—Amory could try his hand at closing that gateway entirely. But I’m not sure if he’s capable of that. I don’t believe he’s ever tried that before.”

“No… I haven’t,” Amory mumbled. “But I could try… and if I can’t do it, then maybe Zyon could instead…”

“Right… and if it can’t be done by either of you, when we’ll just go with the walling-off option,” Vincent decided. “It’s manageable.”

“Sure… if you’re swimming in money,” Crowe snarked. “We did happen to get a hold of some, but no offense, I kinda wanna keep that for our lives and our problems. We’d have to get a separate bundle of riches for you to use.”

Vincent squinted curiously at him. “How exactly did you come by money here?”

Crowe smirked. “Don’t worry about it.”

“We can get you some. That’s what’s important,” Amory disclosed. “I think we really can do this… but… you might have to get an ID made for 2025, in case someone has a problem with you doing construction out here, or you claiming to own the property, or whatever. We need to be able to prove that you own this chunk of land, just to avoid any possible problems that could pop up.”

“Yeah… how old actually are you?” Crowe wondered, narrowing his eyes at Vincent. “Because I swear, you’ve never looked any different for as long as we’ve all known you… and if you’re technically supposed to be like eighty-seven years old in 2025, then we’re gonna have to do something about your appearance before you go anywhere to have an ID made here.”

“How old am I officially?” Vincent uttered. “On record, in 1988, I am forty-five years old… but you can see just a hint of the lines on one side of my face that show something closer to my real age, and the other side is all burned to hell and back, so I think my age can be kept rather mysterious whenever I go to talk to the DMV here.”

Crowe opened his mouth to reply, then paused and nodded. “Well, all right, that’s fair… yeah, you’ll probably have an easier time of it than any of us will…”

“Wait a second…” Amory said, lowering his head and rubbing his temples. “I just thought of something… how is this anti-Canterbury organization gonna be able to work against Canterbury if we actually get rid of the gateway to 1988 here? They won’t be able to time-travel.”

Vincent stared at him for a moment. “Well… I thought I’d work that part out with you later on, timewalker.”

Amory stared at him doubtfully. “I… I don’t really like doing that hopping through time thing. I mean… I can just zap myself through time and back, but… I don’t really know what I’m doing when I do that… and the first time that happened, it was a total accident that landed me in 2025. I’d rather just use doorways, because they’re more solidified to one time period, and I don’t have the opportunity to mess it up that way… or… if I do mess it up, then me or Zyon can just modify the doorway and fix it instead of me just time-jumping all over the place and trying to aim for the right year, or month, or whatever…”

“All right… then I suppose we’d have to have a conversation about making more doorways later,” Vincent synopsized. “If that’s the way it should be done, then that’s what we’ll do. But we can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Okay,” Amory agreed.

“And… that means we do need to move on all this very soon,” Vincent added, placing his pointer fingers together and aiming them both at Amory. “Starting with you doing your cleansing thing to the members of my unit. I appreciate you telling me about the other gateway here, and that will prove to be very useful… but it sounds like that doorway won’t allow any demon-affected people to pass through it. If that’s the case, then all of these people who need the cleansing done to them won’t be able to use that doorway to come to you.”

“They don’t need to,” Crowe shrugged. “They don’t need to come to 2025, mate—they just need to check themselves in to the local loony bin.”

Vincent stared vacantly at him.

“They don’t have to go through the doorway—they only have to go to the doorway,” Crowe clarified. “They don’t need to be in Evervale Manor. They can just be in Moonvale.”

“Yeah… and I can just meet them there,” Amory figured. “I’ll go through the blue door and meet you guys in Moonvale, and we can just do it all there, easy-peasy.”

Vincent’s eyes shifted between the two of them. “Do you know what the current status is in Moonvale? Have any of you been there since you all came here?”

Amory, Crowe, and Raven all exchanged glances.

“No… we haven’t gone through the blue door ever since… you showed up at my parents’ house,” Amory told him. “Zyon said that we all need to stay away from 1988 from now on.”

“Ah. Well… that was a good call,” Vincent murmured gravely. “I’m sure Valek and Victoria both have sent people to Moonvale to scope everything out and search the place from top to bottom… but I guess they never found anything, if the place has been uninhabited this whole time. And… well… three weeks have gone by. Nobody will be poking around there now.”

“We should still check first,” Crowe speculated. “I think we oughta open that blue door and see what’s on the other side… just to make sure Moonvale is actually empty… and then we can set up this little meet-n-greet.”

“Both of us should be there, too… not just Amory,” Raven said, turning to Crowe. “Just to make sure we can protect the place as hard as possible if anyone shows up there while Amory’s doing the cleansing thing to all these people.”

Crowe nodded in agreement.

“I have to check Moonvale out, anyway,” Amory knew. “I have to go through the blue door later today regardless…”

Crowe, Raven, and Vincent all stared questioningly at him.

“I have to go see Mom and Dad,” Amory explained. “We’re supposed to be there for Christmas, Raven… and it’s already December 23rd over there… and… y’know… Xena and Mikey wanna come with us, too, so… I just kinda wanted to warn Mom and Dad ahead of time… before I bring five people over for Christmas…”

“Amory… how much have your parents been told or warned about any of this?” Vincent thought to ask. “To the best of my knowledge, no one from Canterbury’s shown up at their home again since the first time, but that doesn’t mean my father isn’t planning to.”

“He can’t,” Amory replied. “Zyon warded the whole place. That’s why nobody from the lab’s gone back there. They literally can’t.”

“Oh.” Vincent nodded.

“Yeah… but you can feel free to go there and warn them about Canterbury yourself if you want,” Crowe said to him with a curt half-smile.

“Oh God no,” Vincent replied, his voice hitting a strange note as he reeled back, shaking his head. “No, I am not going anywhere near Amory’s father again… no thank you.”

Crowe and Raven laughed heartily at this, Amory glimpsing over at Vincent and attempting an amused smile, not entirely succeeding.

“Hey… can I ask… how likely is it that us driving through town today would be dangerous?” Amory wondered, nudging his elbow to Vincent’s. “On your side of the gateway, I mean.”

Vincent eyed him. “Why do you ask…?”

“Because…” Amory murmured, smiling and making a coy little shrug. “I kind of know a couple of people who’d like to have a little joyride through the 80s…”

Vincent’s expression flattened.

“What? Victoria’s gone, Valek’s out of town, and you’re on our side now—so I figured it’d be safe for us to drive through 80s Mapleview now, right?” Amory said hopefully. “It’s not like either one of them are gonna be sending people directly after us right now, and we know you’re not… and plus, they haven’t seen a hint of us in three weeks. You said so yourself that they probably stopped looking by now, right…?”

“My father is wholly convinced that all of you are living in another time period now… so… yes. They are no longer prioritizing seeking you out in 1988,” Vincent replied. “But it is still a risk to do that, Amory. The risk is minimal now, yes, but it is still there.”

“It’s not a risk if we’re all there,” Crowe determined. “I would like to pop back home and give my old bandmates a call, just so they know I didn’t disappear off the face of the earth.”

“I wanna have a burger from Burger Chef again,” Raven said, smiling happily at the thought.

“Yeah… we’ll just have a nice, quick drive,” Amory grinned. “We’ll grab some food, and we’ll stop off at a payphone so Crowe can call his old friends. Xena and Mikey can see a little bit of what our lives were in the past. That’ll be nice.”

“Right… and there’s no Burger Chefs in 2025, and that haunts my fuckin’ dreams every night,” Crowe griped with a laugh. “Ugh… and now I’m hungry. I want a good burger from there again, too. God, I miss that place… and the arcade…”

“Ooo—I still have to take you guys to the arcade here!” Amory suddenly remembered. “The Cyber Showdown! That’s where Mikey goes!”

“Okay—we’re getting off-track,” Vincent stated, holding up his hand and giving Amory a look. “Would you be okay with me bringing my unit to Moonvale at noon tomorrow? Is that a good time for us to arrange this little cleansing get-together?”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Amory nodded. “We’ll meet at the same time and have the same backup time.”

“Alrighty then,” Vincent said conclusively, pushing upright and reaching his feet. “I guess it’s about time for me to clear out of here.”

He held out his hand, pulling Amory to his feet as well, Crowe and Raven standing opposite the two of them.

“See you tomorrow?” Amory smiled.

“Seeya tomorrow,” Vincent affirmed, giving him a two-fingered salute. “And if you go driving off in 1988 today, then just stick together and watch each other’s backs, all right?”

“Okay,” Amory smirked and nodded. “Bye.”

Vincent gave him a nod, a smile, and a wave, turning on his heel and marching off toward the lab ruins.

The misfit three watched him go for a moment before facing the other way and walking down the long, leafy stretch that was once Maple Road.