• Published 2nd Dec 2018
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The Multiverse in a Nutshell - Pennington Inkwell



What do you do when you accidentally break the multiverse and scatter your friends to the cosmic winds? Go on a ROAD TRIP, of course!

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Meaner Than My Demons

"Ugh... head... hurts..." Sunset mumbled.

"Magnetic resonance imagery indicates no serious damage to your brain, Sunset Shimmer. It appears that you simply overextended yourself. Symptoms should disperse in a matter of hours."

Sunset flinched as Isis's voice spurred a fresh pang of pain among the general throbbing of her skull. Carefully, she opened one eye to look at her surroundings. She was laid across the first row of back seats in the Oldsmobile... but she didn't remember getting in the car. The last thing that she remembered was Penn and Missy holding her up from behind so that she could see... see...

the body.

The DEAD body.

That she had-

Sunset's entire body was suddenly racked by an overwhelming wave of disgust, one that overrode the pain enough for her to fumble and scramble for the door. It was only the act of slamming one hand over her mouth that stopped her from completely emptying the contents of her stomach across the inside of the car. She didn't have a chance to relish the fresh air or even get her feet underneath her before she was heaving up a flood of bile onto the grass, resorting to hanging halfway out of the car. For what felt like ages, she was lost completely in the sensation of hot, burning liquid pouring out of her and the stinging flavor of acid in her mouth and nostrils. From head to toe, her body retched and recoiled over and over in a way that made her want to curl up into a ball and pray until it stopped. She wasn't certain when she fell out of the door and onto the ground, but when the spasming in her gut had finally stopped, she was laying on the ground.

Finally, a pair of firm hands wrapped uncomfortably around her shoulders, pulling her up and setting her onto the seat of the car, still facing outwards. Sunset couldn't even muster the strength to be embarrassed by how much of a mess she had become in front of her friends. Penn kept his grip on her, holding her steady through the shivering and wobbling as her hollowed-out body threatened to collapse. He didn't say a word, but his wide-eyed worry gave her more comfort than words ever could have. As he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, Sunset was struck by one thought above all the rest:

I'm not alone... I'm not alone.

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"You're CERTAIN there's no concussion?" Penn asked for the third time.

"Affirmative."

"Because if she has a concussion, we shouldn't have let her go back to sleep..." he murmured.

"There is no concussion."

"Maybe I should wake her up, just in case?"

"She would be best served by being allowed to rest."

"Listen to Isis, Penn. She knows what she's talking about." the voice of his partner whispered, trying to soothe his paranoia.

He pressed his lips tight against each other to hold in his arguments. When it came to health, cooler heads always needed to prevail, and he was self-aware enough to know he wasn't one of them. With what felt like a herculean effort, he forced himself to turn back to the task at hand.

"Okay... so we set up all the different levels of access in BUCKLER, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Then I guess we need to start filling in all the roles. I'm the director, answering directly to Director Coulson... whether I like it or not... Do you mind being Assistant Director, Isis? You've got a better head for management than I do."

"Affirmative. It would be my pleasure."

Penn took a deep breath and sighed with relief. Knowing Isis was his right hand in this affair tripled his confidence that he wouldn't make some kind of stupid mistake.

"In that case... I guess we should make our first assignments, shouldn't we?" He glanced towards the car, checking in the vain hope that Sunset would be awake. "If she'd accept it, Sunset should be our first field agent... assigned to our own team, of course."

"I suppose it would follow suit for Missy to be the second?"

"Missy will be a rank higher. She knows a bit more about other worlds than Sunset, and she can handle a little more... meta knowledge." He smirked. "She plays the naive child, but we all know better than that."

"Affirmative. What designation will be used for this team, director?"

"Well, the RWBY girls already call us Team SIEG... but I'd prefer something that didn't use my real name in the acronym." He thought for a moment, pondering the question in his mind. "Any ideas?"

"While there are several technical designations that could and have been used, Administrator Noir collectively refers to your party as 'Penn and the crew.' Would this be suitable as a code name?"

"Maybe we can just shorten it to 'The Crew...' Seems succinct enough, kinda catchy. I like it." He chuckled. "The Multiverse Crew... That's us."

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Stabbing, searing pain ripped through Sunset's abdomen. She couldn't think about anything else except the feeling of the saber in her gut, burning away at her insides. She tried to scream, but her diaphragm wouldn't move. She tried to look around for help, but all she could see were the red eyes locked with her own.

She could feel the life draining out of her body, already past the point of no return. It was only a matter of time now...

She was dying.

Dying.

Dyin-

Sunset bolted up, grabbing at her stomach. She was covered in a cold sweat and gasping for breath as the last of the phantom pain from her nightmare faded.

She looked around the tent, trying to center herself in the present. She was in the tent. The space heater was softly buzzing in the corner, making the whole space uncomfortably warm. Missy was starting to sit up as well, rubbing at her eyes.

"Mmph... Sunset? Is everything-" she paused to yawn with a soft squeak, "Is everything okay?"

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to force down the tremble in her hand as she smiled.

"Y-Yeah, Missy. I just gotta use the bathroom. Go back to sleep."

Missy nodded and laid back down, pulling her sleeping bag back over herself.

Sunset reached over and pulled on her jacket, braced herself for a drop in temperature, and swiftly stepped outside into the snow. She could feel it in her gut: she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep until she had calmed her racing heart, and she needed fresh air for that.

The shock of transitioning from warm to cold finally washed away the last of her physical symptoms from the night terrors. She cringed when the cold air hit the sweat on her skin before wiping away the remainder from her face on her jacket sleeve.

She'd been expecting it to be completely dark outside, but to her surprise, the spot they had cleared for the night's campfire was burning brightly, with Penn poking absentmindedly at the coals near the base. He looked up, seeming equally surprised to see her awake as she was to see him.

Sunset wasn't sure what to say, so she simply walked over and took a seat beside him by the fire. It was almost a full minute before Penn spoke.

"Can't sleep?"

Sunset nodded. "Eeyup..."

"Welcome to the club."

Silence fell again, neither of them pushing the other to talk about why they were awake. There was only the crackling of the fire and the sound of their breathing. It was... a comfortable quiet. No pressures, no urgency, just the flicker of firelight. She took long, deep breaths, letting the scent of wood smoke mingle with the crispness of the winter night and wash away the last remnants of her anxiety. As her adrenaline finally thinned out to nothing, she felt exhaustion creep in, making it feel like her body was filled with lead. After a while of pondering, she finally let herself lean on Penn's shoulder, feeling sleep already tugging at her eyelids.

She wasn't sure when she dozed off again, but the next sensation she was aware of was an arm around her shoulders guiding her back to the tent, and then darkness.

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Sunset couldn't bring herself to eat. She simply sat and stared at the plate, only pushing her food from side to side.

"Sunny? You feeling okay?" Penn asked. His question felt like a dagger of guilt. He had been making food for her for so long, and here she was, wasting it.

"S-Sorry, just... not hungry." Sunset offered her plate to Missy, who only stared at the food, then moved her gaze up to meet Sunset's eyes. The look of pity in them made it clear that she wasn't going to take Sunset's leftovers again.

Penn glanced away, his eyes shifting several times as he jumped from one thought to the next before settling on his next words. "Sunset, we're almost back to Remnant... you need to keep your strength up."

"I'll be fine," Sunset mumbled.

"That's MY line..." Penn countered, "and I deliver it more convincingly." He gave a long, tired-sounding sigh as he straightened in his seat. "Missy? Could you and Isis do me a favor?"

Missy perked up slightly, tilting her head in confusion. "What?"

"I want you two to go check on Salem's remains. Make sure they're still completely inert. Check for any magical aura or signs she might be coming back now that we're only a day's drive from her home dimension." He pointed a chiding finger at the duel spirit. "And run diagnostics on every. system. No eyeballing it!"

"But that'll take an hour!" Missy whined. "And it's cold out! Can't Isis just do it herself?"

"If there's any magic afoot, I want you on top of it while the systems could potentially be compromised." Penn stood firm. "And the sooner you start, the sooner it'll finish."

Missy grumbled unintelligibly under her breath as she spread her wings and picked up Isis's drone. Together, the two of them left the night's campfire behind and flew away into the darkness. Penn watched them carefully, making certain that they were out of earshot before turning back to Sunset. In his eyes, she could see the same quiet resignation that was always present before he needed to do something tiresome.

"I didn't want to do this..." he muttered, setting aside his plate. "But you've forced my hand, Sunset." He leaned forward, his eyes locking with hers in a way that made her shift uncomfortably in her seat. He ignored her discomfort, and Sunset felt like he was trying to scrutinize her soul through her eyes, but she forced herself to keep the eye contact... if only to know what it was he would find. After a few seconds of this uncomfortable eye contact, Penn spoke again.

"Aperture."

Sunset finally blinked, caught off-guard by the unexpected word. Penn seemed to recognize that she was confused, making a disbelieving gesture with his hand.

"What? Did you forget that promise goes both ways? I'm invoking the Aperture agreement: No acting tough and going it alone, not for either of us." He shook his head. "Now, I want you to tell me what's bothering you, and we'll work through it together."

Sunset didn't want to talk. She REALLY didn't want to talk, but... a promise was a promise.

"I... I just haven't- I-" Sunset stammered, finding herself unable to gather her thoughts. Finally, she just dropped her face into her hands in defeat. "I- I don't know..."

They both sat in silence for several seconds, and Sunset knew that Penn was waiting for her to continue. Still, she couldn't collect herself enough to put together the thoughts that were plaguing her... or maybe she simply couldn't bring herself to verbalize it.

"Sunset... you've been like this ever since you finished off Sa-"

"Killed Salem." Sunset corrected.

Penn paused, taking the time to process much more from those two words than she had intended. He took a long sip from his steaming thermos, clearly pondering the words deeply.

"I was afraid it was that." He made the statement simply and in the most matter-of-fact manner.

He'd known what was wrong. Of COURSE he'd known. Sunset felt indignation welling up, ready to yell at him to let her have her privacy, but he was already talking over her... and his next words threw her for a loop.

"I'm sorry, Sunset... I couldn't stop Salem myself, and you had to do something unthinkable." He shook his head. "I'm sure you've already tried to justify it to yourself as being self-defense, but-"

"But she was starting to understand..." Sunset felt a lump growing in her throat. "The only way we COULD have beaten her was to make her understand..." she reached down to her own thermos, cracking open the lid and letting a cloud of steam rush up into her face. "I just- I think we could have saved her, and instead-" Sunset felt another swell of bile in her throat, and she quickly rinsed it back down with a sip of warm cider. "I- I murdered her... I used my magic to murder her. Equestrian magic... Our magic..." her eyes widened as a wave of dread crashed into her. "Oh Celestia... what will the other girls think?" She looked down at her hands, hardly able to believe the amount of blood that was on them. Aliens', AI spheres', dragons', Grimm's... and now human's. Whatever kind of 'human' Salem qualified as.

Silence fell again. Penn took another long sip from his thermos, wiping a trickle of black liquid from the corner of his mouth.

"Sunset... Salem wouldn't have changed."

"But-"

"Sunset. We are talking about a woman who has been fully devoted to the destruction of civilization for MILLENNIA." Penn scowled into his drink. "What you did was give her a fleeting moment of clarity, and leveraged it into an opening to save our lives."

"But- I KILLED her! There HAD to have been another way, right?"

Penn flinched back slightly when she raised her voice, but his face settled moments later into a stony frown. "Can YOU think of one? Even now, with hindsight on your side?" Sunset immediately opened her mouth to speak, but he locked his eyes on hers again, causing her to hesitate.

"And no, you couldn't have made that fleeting moment of empathy permanent. Salem's rage lasted MILLENNIA, and you almost had an aneurysm holding her psychopathy back for a matter of seconds." He raised an eyebrow. "With that fact established, what other way was there?"

Sunset's mouth was still hanging open in anticipation of the delivery of a scathing argument... but nothing came. She raked her mind, but no alternative to stop Salem's pursuit came. After a full minute of raking her brain, Sunset settled back into her seat.

"Sunset, I know you're not the religious type, but..." he hesitated for a moment, clearly deliberating his choice of words, "in my religious beliefs and most others, murder is considered one of the most grievous of sins... but killing isn't always murder." He became tight-lipped for another moment as he considered his words even more carefully. "There are things that a good person has to fight for. The times that killing could be considered acceptable are incredibly, exceedingly rare, but... perhaps the most common one is when you're protecting your family." He finally rose up out of his seat, settling next to her and giving her shoulder a strong squeeze.

"It may be a bit of an unorthodox adoption process, but I DO think of you as family, Sunset. I don't regret a single thing I've ever done to protect our little road trip family, and I don't think you should, either."

Sunset was shaking, now, trying her best to hold back tears of relief. Something about the certainty in his words made her feel more sure of herself than she had been in days, like setting her feet on solid ground for the first time in ages.

"Are- Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." Penn gave her shoulder one more squeeze. She couldn't say that she didn't still feel sick with herself, but Penn's words and absolute certainty had relieved a weight from her shoulders. She looked back down at her plate, managing to scoop up a spoonful of mashed potatoes and shove it into her mouth. It was cold by now, but the presence of food seemed to rile up her stomach enough to demand more.

Penn gave her an easygoing smile, as if Sunset couldn't see how he was watching her every bite like a hawk. If it had been anyone else watching her that closely, Sunset would have found it unsettling. In this case, she knew him well enough to know that he was just making certain she was taken care of, and that brought a strange comfort to her.

"You know... when we first set out, you told me that if we took care of Sylvia, she'd take care of us," Sunset smiled and handed him her plate, taking a moment to flip it upside down to emphasize the fact that it was now empty. "That doesn't just apply to cars, does it?"

Penn smiled wider and shrugged, adding her plate to the pile of dishes to be washed.

"Nah, I was just talking about regular car maintenance. But if you wanna make something more out of it, go nuts." He snickered at his own flippant tone, and Sunset couldn't help joining him with a slight giggle.

"Of course... I guess I shouldn't attribute deep philosophy to the pizza guy, huh?"

"Exactly."

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Sunset took a deep breath to calm herself, taking the time to watch the white steam from her breath disperse. She glanced over her shoulder, then to the left and to the right, peering as best she could into the semi-darkness of the moonlight. She'd asked the others for some "alone time," but she knew Penn well enough to know he would be weighing her privacy against her safety, and there wasn't any assurance he would leave her completely on her own for long. As for Missy, there was no telling how many of her thoughts were completely kept to herself.

There wasn't time to procrastinate or brace herself.

"Isis... bring her out, please."

There was only a soft crunch of snow and the whirring of servos as Isis's oversized drone stepped out into the moonlight. After a few seconds, it sat down on its haunches to expose its glass underbelly. The charred remains inside rattled around unceremoniously before collecting at the bottom in a pile. There wasn't any sign of change in them, which both relieved her and sent a pang of regret through her heart. There really isn't any undoing what's done...

She pressed her hand against the glass, took another deep breath... and forced out the message she wished she could communicate to Salem, wherever she was.

"I'm not sorry for what I did."

She grimaced at the calloused words coming from her own mouth. They felt cruel to say, but more importantly, they were true.

"I'm sorry that I felt like I had to do it... but I'm not sorry I did it."

It was easier to say the second time.

"If you really had been watching us, then you ought to have known how far we'd all go to protect each other... Especially after everything that's happened." She narrowed her eyes. "That was what I had to think about the most, you know. Before I left CHS, the idea of killing someone would have been... completely incomprehensible to me." She shook her head. "But then I lost my friends... and my whole world, actually." She shuddered, but held back the emotions threatening to overtake her. "That's... the first time I've really said that. I've said that I lost my friends, but... I was thrown by the side of the road in a whole other world, with nothing but the shirt on my back what I had in my pockets. I lost EVERYTHING for reasons I still don't understand!" She took a long, shuddering breath as a sob threatened to burst past and shatter her composure. She turned her back on the glass case, taking in multiple lungfuls of the cold night air until she was in control of herself again.

"Since then, I have had to fight... constantly... to keep what few friends I've made from dying- because that's my life now, instead of magic mirrors or siren's songs I have to worry about watching the ones I love get murdered right in front of my eyes..." She pressed her palm against her forehead. "And that's changed me... No matter what kind of image I'm supposed to live up to or 'kid-friendly' person I'm supposed to be, I don't think that I can ever go back to being the same person I was when this all started."

She narrowed her eyes to glare at the pile of dismembered pieces of charcoal that were formerly Salem.

"In a way, I think that-" she nearly choked on her next words, but for the sake of this newfound honesty about her situation she forced it through, "killing you was what it took for me to finally take a long look at myself and what I've become to survive... What lines I'm willing and not willing to cross." She reached down to her waist, holding her saber in her hand and staring at it. "I don't ever want to do this again, and I promise I'll do everything in my power to make sure I don't."

She sighed and turned back towards the camp, leaving Salem's remains behind her.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I think I feel more ready for it now. So... thanks for that, I guess. I hope you find some kind of peace on the other side."

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Penn was writing... or, at least, he was trying to.

MAKE IT CHANGE IT BURN IT ALL DOWN AND BUILD IT BACK UP MAKE IT ALL OVER AGAIN

He was trying to block out Bendy's glee at having something to make and manipulate again, but the ink demon's voice was deafening. The monster's excitement was enough to make his fingers seize and curl, making typing impossible. After a few seconds he finally reached up and slammed the laptop shut, tossing it fruitlessly onto the passenger seat. The computer passed harmlessly through her incorporeal body and onto the cushion. She'd made her peace with not being able to be there a while ago, but it still frustrated her a little to have so little impact on her world around her. It hurt her to see him unable to do something so important to him, and his anger left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"This is impossible..." he muttered.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought you always said impossible is a dirty word?"

"Yeah, well, I'll eat some soap later." He rolled his eyes before giving her a sideways glance. "It's not like I can use any other dirty words around the girls. Every time I try, I either get bleeped, drowned out, or something hits me on the head. I'm starting to think Sunset's got some anti-curse aura!" He gave a long, tired sigh before reclining in his seat and closing his eyes. He looked relaxed, but his clenched fists revealed otherwise. "I just... need to calm down for a while. "

He was making jokes, but she could feel his heart breaking with the disappointment of another day putting off doing the thing he loved the most. He couldn't keep going like this, as much as he refused to admit it. He NEEDED that outlet... and for once, she might be able to do something to help him.

"Hey, I'll be right back." She let her grasp on the world around her start to fade. ""I'm going to have a little talk with our guest."

That made him straighten up, but a glare from her was enough to stem the tide of objections he was about to throw her way. He struggled with what to say for a moment before finally giving in.

"Just... be careful, okay? I don't want to risk losing you again, partner."

She smiled, feeling a smidge of warmth in her heart at how he was worried about her. As she let her concentration fade, she allowed herself to be pulled back out of "reality" and into a world much more easily accessible to her.

Once she was situated in Penn's dreamscape, she took a deep breath in through her nose. The air was heavy and dense, like just before a summer thunderstorm, and the thick gray clouds blotting out the sun confirmed his current state of anxiety.

With their mutual trust, she only needed to think for a moment before a doorway to her desired location appeared, and she stepped through.

The Forgotten Shores were still healing from what Salem had done to them during her visit, but at a surface level, they were back to their former glory... aside from one very unwelcome sight. There, on the closest of the sandbars, was an emaciated black figure, grinning from nonexistent ear to nonexistent ear in spite of the chains wrapping him from head to toe.

She didn't hesitate to spread her wings and glide down to the ink demon, settling with her best, most authentic glare of frustration as she came to a landing.

"Hey, could you do us all a favor and SHUT UP?"

The demon tilted its head and its smile somehow grew even wider, now beginning to wrap entirely around its head.

"Time is on my side. He cannot abstain forever, and when he chooses to create again-"

She raised a skeptical eyebrow and reached up, grabbing the demon's upper and lower lips and gripping them shut with her hand.

"You REALLY don't get the meaning of the words 'shut up,' do you?" She used her other hand to gesture to the area around them. "Let me explain to you EXACTLY what the situation you're in is. THIS little section of Penn's brain is what I lovingly refer to as 'The Forgotten Shore.' Do you know WHY I call it that?" She let go and, after a moment of making sure the Ink Demon wasn't going to interrupt her, scooped up a handful of sand and water from beneath their feet. "A human's senses never switch off, barring something being wrong with their health. That means that the brain has a CONSTANT feed of information that doesn't usually matter." She began to tilt her hand, first letting the water run off, then the sand after that. "The sound of their own heartbeat. The taste of the meal they ate three hours ago. The feeling of every inch of skin rubbing against the fabric of their clothing... It's all garbage, static, white noise." Just to emphasize how NON-threatening he was while being held prisoner, she walked past him and began to wade into the water, enjoying the sensation of it washing over her scales and leg.

"Even less obscure things, like the highway sign he read three miles back or the song he was listening to two spots back in his playlist... if it doesn't matter, it comes here." She chuckled and kicked backwards, sending a splash up onto the demon. "As a creature who doesn't really get to experience the world in the same way he does, I come here pretty often, just to partake in those fleeting sensations before they disappear... but disappear they do." Her point made, she waded back up onto the beach to address the demon again. "And the longer we keep you here, the more of YOU that's going to disappear, too."

The demon chuckled, but she could see the corners of his grin beginning to falter and turn inwards. She was right, and both of them knew it.

"Honestly, I'm okay with that. After everything you put us through, I would find watching your existence erode away to nothing delicious."

The demon's grin faded further, but the slip of its confidence lasted only a moment before its smug demeanor returned.

"Outliving an original won't make you any less of a REPRINT."

This time, it was her own mask that slipped. She lashed out, teeth bared as she wrapped her hand around its throat. For a moment, the two of them stood completely frozen like that, with her ready to snap Bendy's neck for his words. His smile was back in full force, letting out a throaty chuckle.

It would have been so easy to snap his neck then and there like a twig... but that would be admitting that he had gotten under her skin.

"Oooh, clever... Like that's not the most obvious way to get a rise out of me." She tightened her grip, relishing the feeling of the inky flesh squishing and distending under her fingers before she finally forced herself to release it. "I made my peace with the fact I'm not the 'original' card spirit a long time ago. That means I get to reinvent myself however I want. Different pronouns, different personality, and the chance to have a partner who went out of his way to choose me because he actually VALUES me." She made a point of rolling all of her eyes at once, just to drive home that she felt no need to keep all of her attention on Bendy. "So yeah, I might be a reprint, but at least I'm WANTED. Remind me what WAS written on half the walls in that studio you were left to rot in? 'The creator lied to us,' I believe?" She motioned to where they were standing yet again. "And as much as I'd enjoy continuing to rub that in your face until you dissolve away into nothing like a conceptual jawbreaker... I'm here because that's not going to work out for us in the near-future."

The demon's head went from tilting to one side to tilting the other, indicating that he was listening intently.

"Despite my best efforts to convince him to do literally ANYTHING else, Penn is about to throw himself into the middle of a conflict between two gods and possibly risk blowing another universe's timeline to smithereens. If he's going to have any chance of making it through this intact..." she gestured between the two of them, "which is necessary for BOTH of our continued existences, might I add, then we're going to need him able to think and function at one hundred percent." She placed one hand on her hip and sighed as she got to the part she wasn't looking forward to about this conversation. "So... listen. I want to propose a truce... or maybe more of a stalemate, if you hate the idea of calling each other allies as much as I do. If you will SHUT UP and just let Penn think straight without trying to hijack his existence every waking moment, then I will move you to someplace where you can safely... watch."

"Why watch what I can-"

"Because you're NOT going to own it! You're not going to remake Penn or Sunset or ANYTHING!" She pressed her palm to her forehead. "Get it through your head, there is NO winning for you, here! You will NEVER see the light of day again! Penn will wrap his car around a telephone pole, throw himself down a trap hole, do ANYTHING to avoid letting you out again! What I am offering you is a LIFELINE in exchange for you to just SIT THERE with that DUMB SMILE and NOT. SAY. ANYTHING!" She drove the claw on her pointer finger directly into the center of the demon's face. "You can wait for your opening that will never come, see what a creator who CARES about the things he makes actually looks like, and maybe, just maybe, you might learn something from watching a good person at work!"

They both stared at one another for what felt like a long time, and she could practically hear the gears in his head turning.

"...stalemate, then."

She smiled and grabbed hold of the chains wrapped around the ink demon's body, beginning to drag him further into the shore and towards the gateway. "I'd shake your hand, but... well, we both know you're not getting untied any time soon. We'll consider it a gentledemon's agreement." She paused to think at the threshold of the doorway. "I mean, if you try anything funny, I'll personally re-scatter you across Penn's memory and make sure you never have enough teeth to smile again, but none of us need to go through that racket right now. Why don't we start with a trip to the movies? When Penn gets into the zone, his imagination can get pretty wild to watch while he's writing."

Despite the faux affability, the tension in the air was undeniable. This wasn't a truce, and both parties were well aware of it. This was a stalemate, a duel that was settling into the long game. Each of them was going to take time to regroup, gather their strength, and then come at the other again at full force.

But she'd managed to get back the thing that mattered most to her partner, and for the moment, being able to make that difference made her feel invincible.

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Sunset watched Penn strut around the campsite with what she could only describe as an "extra pep in his step." He was smiling and happy, and the laptop tucked under his arm made it clear why he was in such a good mood.

"So, when am I going to get to see what story you're working on?"

Penn froze in place mid-step before slowly turning to face her by swiveling in place.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't been working on anything..."

"Riiiight." Missy grinned as she floated past. "That's why you were awake typing away at three A.M. and have practically had your laptop surgically grafted onto your arm... Working on nothing."

Penn slowly and deliberately moved his laptop to hide it behind his back.

"Yuuuuup... working on absolutely nothing."

Sunset and Missy both glanced at each other, one disbelieving and the other mischievous.

"So then you won't mind if we juuuuust... take a look at your works-in-progress folder and sort by date?" Missy asked.

Penn's eyes widened and he mockingly covered his crotch with the laptop, made even funnier by the fact that, even far enough south to have left the snow cover behind, they were all wearing multiple layers of clothing to fend off the cold. "Missy! You can't just go exposing a writer like that!"

Missy rolled her eyes. "Right, I forgot, that's for Patreon sponsors only."

Sunset chuckled. "What if we just ask Isis to show us?"

"Isis wouldn't betray me like that!" Penn smirked. "And you're never going to guess my password, anyway."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Absol359uteTerritory."

Both of them burst out laughing as his smile disappeared and the little remaining color in his cheeks vanished. He looked down at his laptop for several seconds before sulking off in the direction of the car, muttering under his breath. "Great, now I gotta change it again..."

The two of them continued laughing as he slunk out of sight to hide his laptop (under the third row of Sylvia's seats, on the driver's side, Sunset already knew). As they laughed, however, Sunset's phone began to vibrate and ring in her pocket. Still riding the high of her laughter, she reached into her pocket.

"Y-yeah? What is it, Isis?"

"A situation has arisen in the containment unit for Salem's remains."

Both Sunset and Missy stopped laughing immediately. Sunset's heart was pounding in her chest as she raised her phone up with a trembling hand. Displayed on the screen was a picture of Salem, her body intact and completely healed as she twisted awkwardly to fit into the containment chamber. She was staring directly at the camera, and deliberately raised one hand into the air. She pointed upwards with one finger and began to spin it in the air, trailed by a faint white wisp of magic clearly intended to be an improvised white flag.

"She claims that she wishes to declare a truce."

"But... how?" Sunset whispered.

"A truce? A truce?" Missy seethed through clenched teeth. "Is this some kind of sick JOKE?"

They were both so caught up in their disbelief, they almost didn't notice when Penn came back, ceremoniously dusting off his hands. "There! I'd like to see you figure THIS one out!" He paused, noticing the two of them staring at Sunset's phone. "What's going on? You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

Sunset and Missy both looked at one another, clearly each hoping that the other would take the unfortunate responsibility of telling Penn the news. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Sunset took a deep breath and held out her phone for him.

"You're not going to believe this..." Sunset watched Penn's expression carefully as he took in the sight on the screen. "But according to Isis... she wants a truce."

Sunset watched him cycle through a rapid gamut of emotions. Shock, terror, anger, and then absolute fury all intermingled and alternated on his face, and his grip on her phone became white-knuckled and began to tremble. For a moment, Sunset worried that her phone was about to be crushed in his grip, but after what felt like ages he finally closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and then let it out.

"Why won't she just die?" he muttered bitterly.

"So... what are we going to do?" Missy asked. "We're, what, a day from Remnant? I say we just keep her locked up in there and turn her over to Ozpin like a Christmas present."

"Ignoring her could be dangerous, though..." Sunset replied. "I mean, she was willing to chase us to the ends of the Earth before, it probably wouldn't be wise to give her MORE reasons to hate us. Maybe she really HAS changed? Either way, shouldn't we at least give her a chance to talk?"

Both of them looked at Penn. His eyes were still closed, but she could tell his brain was moving, turning gears at a rate that was probably threatening to self-destruct.

"I know... I know..." he muttered to no one. "But Sunset's got a point... If we ignore her, she could pull a Maleficent." He paused again. "Of course I don't WANT to, but if she really HAS managed to come back, we clearly aren't going to win with any plan that either of US can concoct..." He flinched slightly to the side, as if someone had yelled in his ear. "Well, do you have any BETTER ideas?"

Sunset shivered as she felt a wave of hot malice wash through the air, an aura that she recognized. Her suspicions of what was happening here were affirmed when Missy raised her eyebrows and directed her gaze at a spot just over Penn's shoulder.

"Wow, sis, so much for not using that kind of language in front of ME, huh?"

One of Penn's eyes cracked open, momentarily flashing them both with sickly orange light before returning to his normal blue. Missy jumped up into the air, clearly offended at some unheard remark.

"It's not eavesdropping when you're talking RIGHT in front of me!"

After another few seconds, Penn sighed and gripped at his head with one hand, exhausted by whatever inaudible argument he'd just finished.

"Fine... we're not going to let her out, but let's see what Salem has to say for herself." He sighed with resignation as he turned and began to trudge out of camp. "But this doesn't mean I'm not going to have Isis just drop her in a volcano, or something..."

Sunset and Missy both glanced at each other again before standing up to follow him. Missy gave a forlorn groan as she floated beside sunset.

"Man... and we were having such a nice morning, too."

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