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"Soooooo, what's the occasion, Pico?"
Girlfriend turned to the mercenary just after shutting the front doors to her family's residence, having let her partners in.
All she and Boyfriend had gotten from him so far was questions about whether GF's parents were going to be home that night, and once he'd gotten a sure "no" he immediately came back a minute or so later with a text that the three of them needed to meet at her place as soon as possible.
Well... technically four.
"I was about to ask the same thing."
Because Soul had appeared from BF's mind after GF officially declared it safe for him to be there.
"Jeez, would you guys relax? It's not that big a deal."
"Pico, you literally asked if Gigi's parents were gonna be home tonight and after she told you they weren't you instantly told us to come over. Something HAS to be happening, dude."
After a brief pause and some expectant stares from the other three, Pico finally sighed, and let it spill.
"Spooky kids."
Girlfriend immediately let out a gasp, her eyes gaining an excited twinkle to them.
"Whaaaaaaaat?? You should've told me before! Then I would've gotten all our Halloween decorations set up!"
"Ya didn't let me finish. I was gonna say that the spooky kids AND Lila are gonna be visiting us."
"Really? Lila too? Why?"
"What? She wanted to say hi. Plus she wanted to talk about some stuff."
Boyfriend hummed in confusion.
"Is that why your phone's been blowing up?"
"Nah... that's someone else."
"Aaaaaand you're still not going to tell us who it is, are you?"
"Nope."
Boyfriend gave him a weird look for a moment, but seemed to quickly dismiss the subject with a shake of his head.
Pico, on the other hand, pulled out his phone, looking through his messages.
"Anyway- they should be here any minute now."
That was when Girlfriend and Soul exchanged glances at each other - they were both thinking the same thing.
"Uh... Piki?"
"Yeah, Gigi-?"
"What exactly are we gonna do about me, genius? Lila doesn't know I exist yet."
"Well, for one, this is a good way to get BF off his procrastinating ass and actually explain that to her-"
"Hey! I was gonna do it eventually! Though having the kids around makes it easier... I think. Since they already know and all."
"Top notch excuse, Bee."
"Shut up."
"Bee, with you, 'eventually' is most of the time just another way you end up saying 'never, even if I want to'."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you can't act like it doesn't affect you too, man."
"What do you MEAN? I literally got that from you!"
"Pfft- which is why I always say you have to deal with all the traits I end up passing over to you, dude."
"Like you being the idiot who tries to make a crème brûlée by cooking ice cream?"
"I- We don't talk about tha-"
Pico then cleared his throat, cutting off the two's lighthearted bickering.
"That aside, heh- just trust me. I've got the whole 'Lila doesn't know' thing handled."
Soul stared at him for a few seconds, before eventually sighing.
"Alright..."
"We're, uh, still gonna get to spend time with the spooky kids, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, Gigi, we will. I gotta talk to Lila first anyway. Ya don't mind if we use your parents' room for that, right?"
"Mmm... maybe the backyard will be safer. Not that my parents don't know Lila, but I'm pretty sure they'd kill anyone that ever went in there that wasn't me."
"Point taken."
Suddenly, the three of them heard a knock at the door.
BF and Soul looked at each other and nodded, and the latter went back into the the rapper's mind in a white flash of light.
Girlfriend then swiftly went to open the door, and-
"HI, MS. GF!"
The two spooky boys spoke at once and barreled into the room, clearly happy to see the trio again.
"HI, MR. BF! HI MR.PICO!"
"Hey to ya, too, kids."
"Beep!"
"Well, this is certainly a warm welcome..."
They heard Lila's voice as she entered through the door, looking around at the rather unnerving designs on the Dearests' front door.
"Nice to see you again, Ms. Lila! You can just set your stuff on the couch over there, I'm sure my parents won't mind!"
"Aw, how sweet! And please, you can just call me Lila."
GF nodded - though she swore she could see a faint flicker of cyan in the dark of her eyes.
Hm.
"By the way, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly did you want to stop by along with the kids...?"
"Oh, they told me they had a lot of fun last time they visited you all, so I thought I'd see what I was missing! And plus, it's very nice to see how the rest of you are doing myself."
"Ah- We've been just fine, no need to worry...! I'm glad you could stop by."
Lila returned her smile, and GF turned back to BF and Pico - who were currently occupied with a very energetic Skid and Pump.
"Looks like you two are already having fun!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Pico huffed out, but the annoyance was clearly insincere. He began waving his arms to get the kids' attention.
"Alright, what do the two of ya wanna do?"
Clearly filled with all the spooky energy in the world, Skid jumped on top of Pump without hesitation and pulled out a microphone.
Boyfriend quickly lit up at the proposal.
"...Sweeeeeeet. You guys are on!"
Boyfriend flashed his trademark smirk as he brandished his own mic, and Girlfriend was quick to pull up a song for the three of them to sing to. It wasn't long before the familiar opening notes of South began playing through her speakers, and the trio was quick to begin battling as a remix hit full force.
And, credit where it's due - those kids certainly had gotten better than the last time he'd seen them.
He could work with that.
The two continued on, Girlfriend continuing to happily bop in between them on the speakers. The beat held steady, leading them into every new section with ease.
But it was clear that, while the kids may have gotten tougher, the rapper was still the skilled pro he's always been.
The battle was practically a walk in the park for him.
...At least, it should've been.
It was a good two-thirds of the way into the song though, where things had started to go more than a little wrong.
Because of COURSE they would.
The two kids had given him a rather tough note barrage that lasted several bars, hell, it was probably enough to rival Tankman - it made him a tiny bit nervous, but it was fine.
After all, this battle was just all in good fun, wasn't it...?
He can do this. Just- take it one bar at a time.
He can handle this.
...Four bars.
He can handle this.
Eight.
He needs to keep going.
'Boyfriend.'
He knows he can't afford to stop.
Twelve.
He can't lose now.
'Boyfriend!'
...He's lost count.
JUST ONE MORE T R Y-
"BOYFRIEND!"
And that was when he found himself falling forward into his friend's arms, coughing and gasping for air.
His hands were shaking, having dropped his mic and it'd been left on the ground.
"...wha... What just-"
"You started to really push it on those last few bars, babe. I'm glad Soul was fast enough to stop you, I didn't realize... You looked like you were about to collapse."
He distantly heard Girlfriend's voice from beside the speaker, he vaguely recognized hers and the kids' worried looks-
And deep down he knew exactly why he'd pushed it. Given that Soul had to stop him, he probably knew as well.
...He's still not over it, is he...?
"Mr. BF? Are you okay?"
Slowly, Soul helped the rapper to stand upright again, and he gave an apologetic smile to the kids.
"I-I'm alright, guys. Just pushed myself a little... I'll be fine."
Thankfully, these two were still kids, so that was enough to lift their spirits.
And also take notice to the new arrival... once again speaking at the same time.
"YAY! Hi, Mr. Soul!"
Both of them quickly latched onto him, earning a small chuckle from him in response.
"Pfft- I know, I missed you guys too..."
BF couldn't help but laugh a bit at the scene, though he was still trying to recover.
He can't say he doesn't feel at least somewhat stressed for letting that little mask slip in front of the kids.
Letting out a sigh, he looked around, and found some things missing from the room they were in.
"Hey- where did Pico and Lila go?"
The rest of them turned to look over at the now vacant couch... apparently they'd been so focused on the rap battle that they never noticed the two leaving the room.
Girlfriend then seemed to realize something, and spoke up.
"Oh, I think Pico said something about them going to talk for a bit after you started singing. He figured you could keep the kids occupied in the meantime."
"Huh. I mean, I know he said she wanted to talk about something, but I didn't think it'd be with just him."
"Right? I thought he meant with all of us, too."
"Mr. BF, weren't you going to tell my mom about Mr. Soul?"
"I- Right, yeah. I guess today's a better time than any, huh?"
The two kids (still clinging onto Soul, humorously enough) both nodded.
"Fair. Buuuuut I guess either Pico is doing the easy work for me right now, or it's something completely unrelated."
GF brought a hand up to her chin for a moment, thinking.
"Isn't it weird that I've never actually seen those two talk before now? Unless it's something to do with the hotel. Pico's the one who helped her set that up, after all."
"Hm... kids, is anything going on with the place you guys are staying at?"
To the three's surprise, Skid shook his head to answer her question.
"Nope! Our hotel is great! Not very spooky, but it's still great!"
"Then why else would they be talking...?"
"Maybe he IS trying to prepare her for the reveal, then. After all, he at least implied we were going to explain that to her tonight."
"Yeah... this is really weird. I mean, it doesn't sound too far-fetched... But, still, 魂, Gigi has a point. They haven't really talked very much before now. Well- not that we've seen."
And the spooky duo, who'd been tuned out of this entire conversation until now, suddenly decided to chime in.
"Ooh! I think it's cuz Ms. Lila-"
Before Pump had the chance to finish, the door leading to the backyard opened, and on the other side was Pico, standing in the doorway.
Talk about a dramatic entrance.
"Bee, Soul, need you two to come with me for a second. Gigi, you can keep the kids occupied, right?"
"Sure! Though, why exactly are you taking just the two of them...?"
"I'll... explain later. Promise ya on that."
"Fine..."
The kids then let go of Soul, and he and BF nodded at each other again before Soul went back into BF's mind, and the rapper began walking over to Pico.
"Don't worry, guys, we'll be back soon!"
Once they left the room, Skid and Pump immediately turned to GF.
"Want to sing with us, Ms. GF?"
"I'd love to! Plus, my boyfriend isn't the only talented singer in this room!"
She pulled up a different remix that immediately came blasting out of the speakers. The kids lit up.
This was gonna be FUN.
Meanwhile, as the two made their way to the backyard of the residence where Lila was supposedly waiting, a conversation flowed between them.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"What?"
"You know... telling her about Soul and all that. I get the kids want her to know, but-"
"Just trust me on this, Bee. It'll do us a favor in the long run."
Boyfriend's confusion was clear as day at that, but he decided not to question it.
"...Is that even what we're doing?"
"Eh... sort of."
"Can you tell me anything?"
Boyfriend asked, half-joking, half not.
"I can tell you what the kids' favorite ice cream flavors are."
"That's unrelated."
Pico rolled his eyes with a smile, but didn't say anything else.
Neither of them said much more than that until they got to the backyard.
"Li, we're back."
The woman in question turned around, noticing the two.
"Oh, there you are!"
"Hi, Lila!"
Strangely, she didn't respond, her expression turning to one of confusion as she stared at BF for a moment.
"Hey, where's your friend?"
"Where's my what now?"
"You know, that friend of yours Pico talks about."
"Wait- huh?? Pico, did you already-??"
Pico then snickered, cutting BF off.
"I didn't have to say shit. She already knew."
There was a beat of silence.
And then, as if on cue, Soul popped out of Boyfriend's mind for the two to confusedly yell the exact same thing at the exact same time.
"WHAT???"
"WHAT???"
"Okay- Li, you wanna start explainin', or should I?"
"I think it'd be best if... you went first."
Pico nodded, and turned back to the two to begin elaborating.
"So basically, according to what Lila told me a while back, she's been having some crazy visions or whatever thanks to that demon the kids called on to revive her all that time ago. Most of them were just about us in general, but a good chunk had you two in 'em. That's why she knows about ya already, DragonForce."
"Holy shit."
"Wait- if this was a WHILE ago, why are we just learning about this now?"
"One, we don't want the kids to learn about it. Two, we had to figure out the best way to explain it to ya. Those kinds of visions aren't all she gets."
Lila nodded, continuing in Pico's place.
"Sometimes, I see the city collapsing around me, and there's always some thing watching it all burn. Pico says it might be the same person from your nightmares...?"
Cue yet another beat of silence.
"...Again, Pico- you didn't say anything because why-???"
"This was all before the Mix incident, Bee. She hasn't gotten any answers out of it since. Wouldn't have been much help."
"...Yikes. That's... gotta suck. I'm sorry you have to deal with it, too, Lila."
"Well, I'm sure it's a much bigger nuisance to you than it is to me. It just stays silent every time I try to confront it."
"I could say the same thing! It never tells me- US, anything!!"
"And evidently... it's getting a little frustrating."
Pico nodded, confirming and seconding on their responses.
"Ah... I see. Anyway- so that's... Soul, right?"
"The one and only~"
"It's nice to finally meet you in person."
In response, Soul shrugged nonchalantly.
"Same here."
With the introductions out of the way, Boyfriend turned to Pico again.
"So... I guess this is why she wanted to talk to us?"
"Mhm. She called me in the middle of the night to come over to the hotel so she could talk about it with me. With everything we went over then, it figures we'd find time to eventually tell the both of ya."
"You didn't tell me she had powers, though."
"You mean the visions? I told ya, that was Eyes' doing. Or whatever that guy's called. I gotta ask the kids."
"Premonitions are still powers."
"Says who?"
"Uh- literally every damn superpower website EVER."
"I mean... I guess they count as powers?"
"See, Li, this is why I tell ya, they're both nerds."
"Pico shut up."
"Pico shut up."
"Actually..."
The three turned to look back at her, and they were quick to see the hesitant expression on her face.
"That's not... everything..."
Lila sighed, and retrieved something - what seemed to be an apple - from her bag. She threw it out, but it stayed just a few feet away from her hand.
Her eyes began to glow that sickly cyan color, her hair began to almost float, and in one swift motion, he closed her fist and the apple was splintered in shards.
...And then her hand opened again, and what came out was a blast of fire that the three had to quickly move to the side to avoid.
They slowly turned to stare back in awe as she dropped her hand, the ashes left from the apple falling to the ground.
Pico was the first to actually speak afterwards.
"...Okay. You can do fire stuff now. That's new."
"It started the night after we first talked. It's still been a little... difficult to manage."
"You should tell Gigi. She'll probably be able to teach you how to handle it no problem."
"Soul- you're the one who literally summons flames out of your fucking hands. If anything, you should be doin' all the teaching here."
"I- IT'S NOT ACTUAL FIRE!"
"The fuck do you mean it's not fire??"
"Actually, Pico... it's not."
"Are you fucking kidding me."
"Did you REALLY think that I was messing around with fire every time I use my powers? It's just effects, doi."
"You're breaking every visual representation of fire powers known to man, DragonForce."
"Not my fault, Guns N' Roses."
"Wait. You motherfucker, can't you levitate shit too?"
"Since when was that the point of what you're asking me??"
"Um... about that..."
Lila then spoke, getting the others' attention.
"I don't think we need to worry about teaching me how to use them... because the kids already did that."
"...So you're telling me ya actually have fuckin' superpowers and the kids know?"
"It wasn't really my fault! The fire kept popping up every now and then, even in my sleep, so I don't think they wouldn't have noticed it anyway!"
"To be honest, Li, you realize how batshit insane this is, right? Where the hell are you even getting all these powers from anyway??”
"I'm... not sure. I can only assume that they're from... you know. They're still growing, too, but nothing new has shown up since the whole 'levitating things'... thing. All I can do is just try to practice it."
"Eh... better than doing nothing with it. Besides, it might be a key to something, we don't know yet. We'll have to monitor it and see how it develops."
"Great..."
BF then cleared his throat, interrupting their conversation.
"I'm gonna be honest, I have NO IDEA what's going on anymore."
"Let me be a little more specific, you had us at 'fire' and then lost us at everything else."
"You idiots."
And then, before the two could fire a retort, the door opened, GF and the two spooky boys appearing on the other side.
"Hey, the fireplace in there keeps flickering to this weird cyan color, and the kids keep saying they know what's going on, so-"
"Oh yeah! My mom has superpowers!"
It took her a moment to process Skid's comment, but when she did, she was instantly taken aback.
"HUH?"
"We know."
"We know."
"We know."
BF, Soul, and Pico all responded with the exact same sentence.
Skid seemed a little confused on how exactly they knew already, but went with it.
"I suppose you could say they've been 'training' me."
Lila was speaking more to GF that time than the others, but the wording still caught the surprise of the other three.
"Yeah! Here, watch! Hey, mom! Can you light this book on fire?"
Skid handed a dusty, torn-up book to his mother, who eyed it suspiciously.
"...This isn't something that's important to your parents, is it sweetie?"
"My dad can live without it I'm WAY too interested in seeing this right now!"
Lila paused for a second, before shrugging, and proceeding to levitate the book between her hands as her eyes glowed cyan again.
A burst of energy charged up between her hands, before she raised them and let a pillar of fire shoot into the sky, a circle of fire lighting up around her for a split second.
Meanwhile, somewhere several miles away...
Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest were currently out at a fancy restaurant.
They'd left their daughter to watch over the mansion, though in all honesty... she was probably with that blue-haired boy again...
Suddenly, a beam of cyan light shot up in the distance, and they both looked towards it.
"...That's not at our place, is it, honey?"
DD stayed silent for a moment.
"...Nah."
Back at the Dearest residence...
Lila looked down at the now burnt circle of grass around her.
"Oops... is that going to ruin the lawn?"
"Eh, I can easily fix it. But that was so cool! You never told us you had powers!"
"Well, actually, Gigi, she told Pico first and then Pico just told me and Soul. Except for the fire. And the telekinesis. That's new stuff to everyone but the kids apparently."
"Oh. Hey, at least that gets the introductions out of the way! Now the kids don't have to hide his existence from Lila anymore!"
"Yeah, but they still gotta hide it from everyone else."
"Right..."
"But- going back to the vision stuff. Are you sure you haven't gotten anything from that thing that could be useful?"
To his dismay, Lila shook her head.
"Sorry..."
BF just sighed in response.
"It's alright. Just... was nice to get my hopes up for a second, you know?"
"Well, if it's any help, I'll be sure to let you guys know when I DO get something."
"...That does actually make me feel a bit better. Thanks."
The two exchanged a warm smile, before Pico couldn't help but butt in with questions of his own.
"Now that I think about it... have the visions changed at all since we last spoke about them?"
"No... just the same stuff, but... some of the flashes I get have changed."
"How so?"
"It's hard to make out, but it isn't really limited to your friends anymore. I keep seeing things being destroyed, and random images I can't make sense of... but nothing further."
"Huh. That's weird. And interesting. Let us know if ya get anything more on that."
GF then quickly interrupted with her own set of questions.
"Sooooooo if you don't mind me asking... what powers do you have?"
Skid and Pump were quick to answer that for her.
"Ooh! My mom can see into the future, do that super cool making things float thing, and everything with the fire! Oh, and she can sense spooky stuff like Pump can!"
"We're not sure what the fire has to do with Eyes though."
"Maybe it's her own thing! That'd be super cool and spooky!"
They weren't entirely sure how that made it spooky, but sure.
While the kids continued explaining it to her, BF and Soul starting to listen in as they recalled how they'd found out, Lila walked over to Pico.
"...Is it bad that I get a weird sense of dread whenever I look at him?"
"At who?"
And at that, she pointed to BF.
Her eyes dangerously flickering.
...Oh.
"Any idea why?"
She shook her head.
"I just... have a vague feeling that something bad is going to happen. Like we're all on the verge of something terrible..."
"...And that relates to Bee... how exactly?"
"Because when that moment comes... he'll be in the most danger."
Pico was silent for a moment.
Well. That was great.
Another unknown threat that he needed protecting from.
This fucking sucks.
"...What about Soul?"
Her eyes briefly glowed cyan, and she thought for a moment.
"I-I'm not sure. ...But... whatever that thing is, it seems to be... afraid of him?"
"...Afraid? ...Huh."
"And vengeful. Very."
"How are you getting all this?"
"It's either from... Eyes... or senses from some past experience where the two have met."
Interesting.
Though, he's pretty sure he knows exactly what she means by that last bit.
"I'll keep an eye on both of them. Don't worry. Just tell me if anything else pops up that we might wanna know."
"...You still haven't told me everything that happened before."
"Yeah... just too soon to say anything. Can't stop worrying about things that happened, and haven't happened yet. Who the hell knows if we're gonna get a happy ending after all of this?"
Her look turned contemplative, the flickering glow starting to return.
Girlfriend then suddenly snapped her fingers, an idea clearly coming to her.
"Oh, you should join our rap battles! It'd be cool to see how those powers of yours manifest through the music. Maybe that can help you better understand them!"
"I... guess I could give it a try! Besides, these abilities are constantly evolving... It'd be nice to get a read on it for once."
"Cool! Soul, come on, you should go against her first! I'll even pair you up with the kids!"
"Alright, alright, but just as a warning, don't expect me to go easy on you."
In the midst of some joke from Lila about him being the rapper's soul and not expecting anything less, the kids enthusiastically followed after the three through the door, with Pico trailing behind...
...Until he felt a tug at his arm.
He turned to see Boyfriend looking at him with a stern expression.
"Pico, can I... ask you something?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if he were unsure on whether or not to let the words spill out-
"...Can we not tell anyone else? A-About Soul, I mean. I'm just... I can't help but think about what happened, and- I just don't want that thing using anything, or anyone, against us anymore. Especially... with those powers Lila has. Okay?"
Pico was a little surprised by what he'd said.
And, admittedly... a little concerned.
Because clearly, the events that transpired in the Mix universe were still heavily affecting him. He's sworn that Gigi had sent him a text about the rapper nearly collapsing in the middle of a rap battle with the kids, and he's got a hunch that it had something to do with that.
Still, after a moment, he brought himself to nod, and started to speak.
"...Alright, Bee. No telling anyone else. You got it."
"Thanks, Pico."
With a warm smile, Boyfriend followed the others back into the mansion.
Pico lingered outside for a few moments, pulling out his phone.
Boyfriend's words echoed in his head.
And his thoughts trailed to one of the text conversations sitting in his messages.
...Before he sighed, pocketing his phone and finally following after the rest of the group.
That was something he'll confront when the time comes.