I was awake, but I didn't open my eyes just yet.

Where was I? I was lying on what felt like a slightly firm mattress, a soft but equally firm pillow propped against my head. It was warm.

Opening my eyes, I found a ceiling made of cream-colored wood. Looking down on my body, it was wrapped in a brown comforter, filled with what felt like feathers and sheep wool. I extracted myself from within it and looked around.

The room was cozy, albeit not that big. There was a table and a carved wooden chair in the corner. A notebook was lying open on the table, a primitive pencil that was practically just a graphite stick wrapped in cloth next to it.

Two weapon holsters hung from the wall, one holding my sword, one holding an ornate golden knife.

A bin weaved out of fibers was under the table and it was filled with the most random things imaginable; Several rusty throwing knives, several normal knives, a plate number from a car, lightbulbs, some cracked, some not. There were old T-Shirts, a cracked picture frame, the picture missing, and a single leather pouch, stained and dusty from its thousands of years of storing berries. I smiled dryly.

"You okay?" Irys asked.

I waved her off, more out of habit as she was still in my head, after all. "Yeah, yeah."

My eyes drifted to a hook nailed to the wall, a brown cloak hanging from it. I walked over, took it off and put it around my shoulders in one fluid motion. It still smelled like her, no matter how long it hadn't been washed, no matter how much blood, food or sweat got on it, it'll always smell like the slightly strange but no less fragrant mixture of berries, the flowers she wore in her hair, and earth.

I blinked back the gathering moisture in my eyes, something Irys didn't fail to notice.

"Hey, it's fine to cry." Irys whispered. "I'm doing it too."

"You're a disembodied consciousness in my head." I reminded her.

"I'm crying in spirit."

Shaking my head, I grabbed my own berry pouch from the table and popped two into my mouth and headed to the room's main attraction; its giant window, overlooking a congregation of wooden and stone huts surrounded by a short wall made of stacked stones.

People were walking along the wide streets carrying pots of water, food or stuff they were selling, or simply just walking with their loved ones, children or tames.

I leaned against the windowsill, looking down upon the village I founded. I was perfectly content, but I can't say that there wasn't at least a small part of me who wished that upon the creation of a new village, she would just magically appear out of nowhere.

"It's been ten years Mumei." I heaved a sigh. Below me, a child was looking up towards my window and waving at me. "I wish you were here to see this."

—<>—

My eyes shot open, my gloved hands quickly going up to block hits that never came. Confused, I lowered my hands. Where was Thomas?

I looked around. The tables were still overturned, the plates and utensils scattered around. Element corpses were scattered around, but they seemed to be permanently dead this time.

Standing up, I walked around, despite my midsection aching. Where are the village people? Where's Bennett? And most importantly, where did Leo and Thomas go?

My eyes continued to scan around the place, and one body in particular caught my attention.

"Irys!" I ran over to her mauled body. It was ripped completely open and starting to rot. Her head was nowhere in sight. I pressed my hand to her chest and tried to sense her essence, but nothing resonated. Dread settled down as if someone threw several wet carpets onto me.

"Oh no..." I stood up several tears flowing down my cheeks as I covered my mouth. "Irys-"

If Irys was absorbed, then Leo must've-

I clapped both sides of my face with my hands. "No! Instead of wailing about it, go avenge them!"

With newfound resolve, I marched around the place, searching for a weapon. A dead body lay on the dining pavilion, one of Leo's swords next to her. I recognized the body's white dress and red hair.

"Emily..." I knelt next to her. Her entire midsection was bloodied and bashed in, around the area where mine hurt too. Her eyes were still open, frozen in an expression of shock. I brushed her hair behind her ear and closed them, then picked up the sword.

I followed the village's path to the sewers that led to the surface, trying to ignore the destroyed village around me, the still-standing structures showing signs of heavy decay. Pushing through a curtain of vines, I aimlessly walked up a dark path, but then something made me stop.

It took me a few seconds to figure out, but I heard something in the distance. Running water, and lots of it, going by the sound. Sticking to a wall and holding the sword at the ready. I reached the sewers and instead of the rat skeleton filled Dilophosaur den I was expecting, the sewer was pristine white, slightly murky water rushing along the canal.

"What..?" It wasn't even dusty, and there were a few footsteps that indicated people walked through here.

The ladder that led to the manhole was right beside me. I climbed through, and found myself in the middle of a fully functional city. A car honked at me as it rushed past and I narrowly dodged it, diving to the sidewalk.

"How?" People were walking past me, holding Starbucks coffees and phones, some glancing at me then shrugging, probably assuming I was a cosplayer.

Re-sheathing the sword on my belt like Leo always did, I walked through the streets, heading to nowhere in particular.

My eyes wandered. Everything was here, streetlights, cars, motorcycles, ATMs, a Mcdonalds, even homeless people were back. It was almost as if the Catalyst never existed in the first place. My train of thought was broken by me plowing straight into a person. He fell forward, but I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled himself up.

"Thanks." He muttered. His hair was messy and scruffy in that kinda cute way. A gauze dressing was taped to his cheek, probably covering a wound, and his eyes were an extremely deep black. "Did you come here to see the statue too?"

"Statue?"

He pointed towards a gap in the buildings that led to a big plaza with stone cobbled paths and grass with flowers, hedges acting as its walls. There was a huge golden statue in the middle of it, but I couldn't make out exactly what it was with the sunlight reflecting into my eyes from the angle.

"Sorry, I have to go." He said. He gave me one last nod before running towards an asian looking girl wearing a sweater and leggings and a gray beanie, deep purple hair running down her back, presumably his girlfriend.

I watched them walk into the plaza, hand in hand.

Curious, I checked it out for myself and walked inside. Once I found an angle where the statue wasn't reflecting the sun and looked at it closer, I forgot to breathe, because the giant statue was made in Leo's image, Bennett carved in gold standing behind him. The plaque at the marble base of the statue reading;

Leon Cambridge, founder of the first city after the Catalyst explosion of 2021.

Beside the plaque, there was a small hatch like the lockers you put your stuff in when you go to a water park. The strange thing was, I sensed a bit of Irys' energy on it. I placed my hand on the door to study the energy signature, but it swung open at the touch of my hand.

Inside, my cloak was neatly folded, my knife and a folded paper sitting on top of it. I took my cloak and put it back around my shoulders and holstered my knife to my belt, then took the note and unfolded it.

The paper was yellowing and felt brittle in my hands, indicating it was probably at least fifty years old, maybe more. The handwriting was slightly rough and the d's and a's were unnecessarily round, exactly like how Leo wrote them;

Here's your cloak and knife back, Bird Brain. I used them a lot, sorry about that.

I don't know when you'll read this. I might be dead, I might be not dead, let's see.
Irys is fine, she died, but I got to her in time. I used her as my own personal Siri for a while before Bae found out what happened and took her wife back.
Element seems to have disappeared completely, and I am not complaining.

Imagine you just don't revive at all and this note stays in the vault for all eternity.

That's depressing, nevermind. If you do find this when I'm dead, don't dwell on me too much. Actually do your job this time and stop idiots like me from doing stupid things that could end humanity again, 'kay?

Tears dripped onto the paper, and I instinctively pushed it out of the way, remembering that paper this old might disintegrate under any conditions.

Wiping my tears on my sleeve, I turned and addressed the paper;

"I will."