Bunker

Reze is alone with her thoughts once again.

I think one of the things I miss the most is the sunshine. Not a lot of that here in Russia. Not that I mind.

It's not like I get to go out much anyway lately…

As Reze looked around her room she thought about how much she earned this room. This situation.

It was far from well furnished. The poor apartment she had above the coffee shop looked practically luxury in comparison. A slab on the wall with a blanket on it they called a bed and in the distant corner a bucket that they emptied whenever she left for testing.

Frankly it was nicer than she thought she deserved.

The downside to her sparse room was that it left her with her thoughts and in her head was not where she wanted to be. But there she was, slipping back into how she made her way back here.

What she knew was pieced together from what little they've told her and what she could overhear from the guards, but after Denji killed her and the other Hybrids in the confrontation with Control, Reze wasn't conscious of what happened after. Rumors say something happened to her after the Hybrids were taken out but no one is certain and Public Safety, and Japan as a whole have been pretty tight lipped about it. Either way, Public Safety extradited her corpse to Russia where she now finds herself. In her old home. The Bunker.

"Эй, пора"
"Hey, it's time."

Reze is wrenched from her thoughts by one of the guards. Apparently it was Time.

She slowly rose to her feet, back pushed against the wall to support her weight as she had to rise palms open to show she wasn't concealing anything from them.

"Отступи"
"Back off"

She stayed just like that as the two guards who were just outside her "room" enter to sweep it for contraband before they get to business. The song and dance almost brought a smile to her face as memories of past escape attempts flashed in her head.

Eventually they started through their trek through the facility, the place itself dimly lit and labaryinthian and the destination changed frequently, altogether making it so the layout was confusing to try and map by memory alone.

"Сюда"
"This way"

One of her escorts slammed his truncheon into the side of her head he wanted her to turn at the intersection. The above obfuscation wasn't aided by the fact that the staff's favored method of guidance was blunt force trauma.

Finally it seems like they decided this was the room. She was told to wait while they confirmed with The Surgeon.

Nobody knew anything about The Surgeon, at least no one Reze was willing to trust give her good information. The only thing anyone knew for sure was that he'd been handling all the surgical testing in the Bunker for as long as anyone here could tell, and as she was forced into the room she was reminded just how long that was.

As the guards shoved her in she came face to face with him again. Gaunt, skinny body that was, unfortunately for her, deceptively sturdy. His hands shook with such intensity they were no longer fit to feed the man much less hold a scalpel with any precision. His back was so curved from hunching over tables it seemed like he was starting to develop a hump. And his face. Loose skin hung around his head like hair except for around his face which was pulled taught, sewn in place around his temples making him seem like the skin he wore was not his own. For all anyone knew it wasn't.

He hissed something she couldn't quite make out to the guards as they prepped the room. Reze knew her role in this whole situation and began to strip off the meager gown and underwear they'd given her for modesty.

She lay on the table ready for the surgery and as he put the mask on for the anesthesia Surgeon leaned down to whisper to her in a halting, raspy voice.

"I know how much you want this surgery to work, my child. I assure you we are closer than ever to a breakthrough."

Reze was pulled into unconsciousness with that on her mind as The Surgeon leveled his bone saw and cut off her head.

The anesthesia caused Reze to dream.

Unfortunately for her she was back at the Dinner Table.

Reze is much smaller now. Maybe 8 years old. She is sat at an old hard wood table marred by countless scratches on its surface and legs and across from her is another child. Hollow and frail looking but glaring at her like that will change the outcome. Equidistant between the two and a handful of centimeters into the table was a single knife.

They sat there. Staring at each other in the almost empty room.

Time passed.

As the anticipation made the moment stretch to eternity

Just

Waiting

Before

"Начинай!"
"Begin!"

Before the final syllable could finish Reze had already thrown herself over the table, grabbing the knife and in one smooth motion dragging the blade across the other child's throat.

Reze moved to return to her chair, wiping the blood on the gurgling figure's shirt. The body's eyes flared with anger that seemed to target everyone and no one in particular, until finally going glassy. Reze was wondering what they'd bring out to eat.

"Отличная работа, маленькая девочка, к сожалению, еще не время для еды"
("Excellent job little one unfortunately it is not time for food yet")

Reze's face fell, there was no other reason do take on the Dinner Table if not for getting a decent meal out of it. (A meal she would later learn that was just barely any better than the normal rations they gave them)

"Ваше выступление было образцовым, поэтому вас вознаграждают. Еда придет позже."
("Your performance has been exemplary so you are being rewarded. Food will come after.")

Reze was ushered past a number of door down a number of hallways past a number of scientists and guards who only sometimes acknowledged her until eventually they stopped her in front of a door and walked her inside.

It was a blue tiled room with not much else in it. Two metal tables, one next to the other, with something weird floating in a jar on top of one of them.

Reze thought she knew what was in the jar, as they had taught her and the others about vital anatomy, but there was things about it that didn't look right. It had what looked like a piece of string sticking out of one end of it and? What looked like an eye? If she was right, this was no ordinary heart.

That was when she met The Surgeon for the first time.

When he came in, he didn't strike Reze as any different than any of the dozens of other scientists she passed by on the way here. Average build, maybe a little on the skinny side, his hands seemed a little haggard, like he spent a lot of time working with them but otherwise fairly dexterous. Stood straight up like they pulled him from one of the line ups of soldiers, and aside from a slightly retreating hairline there just wasn't anything notable about the man that walked in.

They told her to get on the table, prepped her for surgery, and as she lay while the others got the room in order the man she would know as The Surgeon leaned down to whisper to her.

"I hope you are ready my child, for you will be my masterpiece, and you will do great things for the Motherland"

Slipping a mask over her face one of the assistants told her to breath in deeply, while another talked with The Surgeon

"Ты уверен, что хочешь надеть это во время этого?"
("Are you sure you want this on during?")

"Да, это абсолютно необходимо"
("Yes, it's absolutely necessary")

And Reze fell asleep to the sound of a lullaby.

День моего свидания с Джейн Всё готово
Утром мы пойдём в церковь
Будем пить кофе и есть омлеты в кафе…

The day of my date with Jane everything is ready
In the morning we will go to the church
We will drink coffee and eat omeletes at the cafe…

When Reze woke up she was singing the same song, older again.

She let the song linger on her lips before she took a shaky breath in, then out, in a heavy, shaky sigh.

I guess this means they failed again…

She would be disappointed if they hadn't been at this for…

Truly she didn't know how long she's been captive here for. The times they brought her for "testing" were irregular, and they gave her differing doses of anesthetic so sometimes she'll have been out for shorter or longer than other times.

There was truly no way for her to tell how long had passed. They keep no timepieces in her cell or any of the rooms she passes through, and no windows with which to see the sun and tell the days.

The sun… I miss how warm was. How comfortable it was in your light. Can't see very far in the dim light here.

She turned her thoughts to the Sun again until those thoughts led her back to the reason she was here and apart from the sun in the first place.

Makima

Just remembering her name drove Reze up the fucking wall! It was her fault she was here now, her fault she felt this way, her fault that she wasn't able to meet Den-

NO

She'd promised herself she wouldn't think about him anymore, to forget his name. For all the things she'd said and done to him, especially in their final moments. She didn't feel like she deserved to be in his life anymore. She had made a promise to him and she broke it. She wasn't even sure she was going to fulfill that promise but in the end it didn't matter.

Because of her.

Makima was the one who stopped her in the alleyway and made her break her promise, Makima was the one who used her ability to make Reze say and do all those things that probably made Him hate her. She was the reason Reze is here in this cell now trapped awaiting her--

"пора"
"It's time."

Reze was once again dragged out of her spiral by the guards. As she rose from her bed with her hands out she noticed that one of them was much younger and unfamiliar to her. Must be new. Which means-

"Подметите комнату для контрабанды"
"Sweep the room for contraband!"

Old Yeagor was here training him. As she made this confirmation she got certainty it was him the form of him waking up to her and punching her in the stomach. Hard. He follows it up by meeting her nose with his knee as she doubles over from getting the wind knocked out of her.

Yup. Old Yeagor.

"Всё в порядке сэр?"
"Is everything alright sir?"

"Да, всё хорошо, товарищ. Я просто здороваюсь с нашей маленькой предательской лабораторной крысой."
"Yes, everything is fine comrade. I am just saying hello to our little traitor lab rat."

"Сэр, разве она не опасный дьявол? Я не думаю-"
"Sir, isn't she a dangerous devil? I don't think-"

"Верно, товарищ, ты не думаешь. Просто делай, как я говорю. К тому же, наша маленькая лабораторная крыса давно не оскалила клыки."
"That's right comrade, you don't think. Just do as I tell you. Besides, our little lab rat here hasn't bared her fangs in a long time."

It was true. After countless escape attempts followed by an uncountable amount of deaths and failures with worsening and worsening conditions following them, coupled with a realization made it so that Reze had long since stopped trying to fight back or escape. That realization was simply: What did she have to go back to?

The two guards continued to converse taking her down to the surgery room as she continued to think on that. What did she have to go back to? Surely nothing here in Russia. She'd already been branded a traitor to the State. None of her contacts here would be willing to do anything on her behalf. Her long stay in the Bunker more than proved that.

"Эм, сэр? Ты говорил, что она предательница? Что она сделала?"
"Um, sir? You mentioned she was a traitor? What did she do?"

"Боже, ты зелёный, что тебя нашли, когда делали ремонт здесь? Это был наш бомбардировщик, которого отправили в Японию за каким-то очень разрушительным оружием, но он в итоге длительно работал с японским правительством против нас. И вот теперь она гниёт. Предатель народа и советского государства!"
"Jesus you are green, what did they find you when they were making renovations here? This was our Bomb Spy who was sent into Japan to get some highly destructive weapon, but wound up in an extended stay working with the Japanese government against us. So now, here she rots. A traitor to the people and Soviet State!"

That got under her skin. Not the accusation of siding with the Japanese government to plot against them, although that was a lie it was one repeated enough around here to not matter what she said. Plus with Makima's Control there was a time in which she was working with the government, just not any of the other things they levied against her.

What really got under her skin was the fact that they called it a weapon. That Guy's heart deserved so much more than to be known as a weapon. It should be treated with as much love and kindness as it showed her, as much consideration as any other human being. It deserved better than to continue to be around her.

After everything she did to Him, just thinking about the possibility of reuniting kept Reze from further escape attempts. What would she even say? Would He hate her? Would He kill her? She highly doubted it. He was too sweet on her to do that. At least, He was the last time she saw Him. But He would have every right to scream at her, tell her He never wanted to see her ever again. For all the things she did, for all the things that Makima made her say.

She deserved to rot here.

Yeagor finally motioned for them to stop. From there it was business as usual. They made her prep for surgery while they waited for The Surgeon. Despair ate away at her on that cold metal table until finally, without her noticing The Surgeon rasped into her ear once again. "Fear not, my child, we inch ever closer to success."

As he moved to where she could see him, he looked a lot worse than he did the last time she saw him. His taught face was now pulled into a rictus so tight she wasn't even sure his lips were moving as he talked now. To accomplish this the loose skin that hung around his head was now pulled into a horrible mockery of a ponytail that appeared to have been stapled to keep it in place. The Surgeon looked the most unhealthy she'd ever seen a living person be and that was quite a feat. The lab coat and shirt he always wore hid most of his form but she could tell they hung off him like loose curtains, his fingers, now steady, were so thin it seemed to her that there were no muscles manipulating the fingers below the skin. He put a thin finger to his thin lips as if to say not to mention it before continuing. "I am making progress on my deal with my benefactor, Surgery Devil. We should come to an accord by tomorrow, at that time we will have succeeded in perfecting the surgery. In the meantime, today's surgery will proceed as planned regardless. Nurse, please prep the patient for surgery."

"Док, должен сказать, это мой любимый способ усыпить её, который у нас был."
"Doc, I must say, this is my favorite way to put her under we've had yet."

As the newer guard prepared the music for The Surgeon, Yeagor was positioned out of sight of Reze so she didn't have any context for what he was talking about nor did she hear the sound of the bolt gun cocking until Yeagor put it against her forehead and pulled the trigger.

The song carried her to another memory of the song. She was older than she was in the previous night but a bit younger than she is now, and her arms were wrapped around her targets neck, singing halfheartedly.

После этого мы прогуляемся по парку
Потом мы пойдём в аквариум, чтобы посмотреть любимые блюда Джейн
Дельфины и пингвины…
After that we will take a walk in the park
Then we will go to the aquarium to see Jane's Favorites
Dolphins and Penguins…

Reze wasn't too invested in what was happining here and now. How could she be? Whenever she was out on a mission and away from that dreary bunker she was always so interested in everything aside from the mission. Death, and killing, effeciancy, and sterility are all in abundance in that bunker, but here? There was so much going on! Reze was taught about the stars but to see them in person was another thing entirely! They're so much brighter than the pictures showed! And when they twinkled it was unlike anything she'd ever seen before! This guy was so lucky something like this got to be the last thing he ever saw!

As she wrung the last vestiges of life out of her target she marveled giddy at the possibilities tomorrow would bring. In exchange for taking this job she bartered for an extra day she could use at her descretion. Monitored of course. Some devil in contract with the higher ups or fiend will keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't do anything they wouldn't want her to but still! Ever since her first mission all that time ago she's been enchanted by everything there is to see in the world! The great food! The beautiful sights! The movies! All of it was basically a dream compared to what it was like in the bunker.

As she got up from the floor of the rooftop she took a deep breath. Eager to get a start on her new day in the sun as soon as possible!

As she finished that thought the dream/memory shifted and she was watching fireworks! Well, she was watching a movie that had fireworks in it.

What she was doing now was sitting in the apartment of her latest target watching a slightly hokey romcom while the man in question continued to bleed out on the couch. He had made some crack about how bad the movie was and said we're trying to make moves on her again. When it became clear she didn't actually mean to do anything with him he got all yelly and annoying and she was supposed to kill him anyway so she just got it over with. It's not like she hadn't done something like that before, when she had a mission she carried it out with strict professionalism and did whatever it took. He was just sooo not her type.

It had been a handful of years since the last memory and she had done countless jobs on behalf of the State since then. They trusted her so much and gave her so much leeway she spent much more time vacationing outside of the Bunker than she did in it. If she asked for a couple weeks leave they would not only give it to her they would do so unmonitored. Reze saw little reason to divulge any kind of information to anyone so they weren't worried about their most loyal dog biting the hand that feeds. All she needed where her days out in the sun.

But even with that something still felt. Missing.

There was this weird feeling in her chest. It was there whenever she thought about what could be ahead of her. Sure she could just keep doing what she was doing. With the bomb in her chest and all the temporary Contracts they have her take doing assassinations and the odd Devil killing job wasn't as hard as it could be but was that really all she wanted to do?

This forever?

She glanced at the cadaver on the couch.

This forever?

She had no answers. How could she? She had all the freedom in the world and no idea how to use it.

She turned her attention back to the movie. It was some Japanese flick. The main girl had taken her now boyfriend to a festival to confess and now they were running through the stalls enjoying the festival together.

"I wonder if this is what normal people do" she said to all the nothing. Not just the nothing in the room but the nothing she felt inside and the theoretical nothing that lie ahead of her if everything stayed the same.

Frankly speaking, this is something she'd been feeling for a while now, but only gave voice to this feeling in this quiet moment as she stares mezmerized at the couple. Distantly, so as not to disturb her own reverie, she wondered if that's what she wanted. Not only to be free, but to be free with someone. Someone she could run through stalls together, laughing. Tell everything to and feel completely comfortable and at ease with. It was a weight she carried with ease but a weight nonetheless. Having someone to share it with…

She breathed in and smothered the thought where it lay. It's a fine idea to entertain but realistically there was no such person she would find. Firstly, she rarely makes a connection with anyone unless she's planning on killing them later, and even if she could find someone. Permanent. She highly doubted there would be anyone willing to accept her with all she's done. Everyone she's killed. Sure it didn't bother her but most people tended to freak out when they learned about who she was and what she could do.

So she took that little feeling, folded it back up, and put it away. No time for that now. She's got a rush job from some high profile ally in Japan, something about taking the heart of some dangerous target or another. She'd be briefed proper on the way there.

The dream/memory shifted again and she was standing in a phone booth, pouring rain outside, her target right in front of her. She'd just used two separate openers and while neither seemed to work usually that throws them off their-

Is he throwing up?? The briefing said that he was extremely dangerous maybe he's getting a wea- is that a flower?

Oh

Craaaaaaaap

"Ahem yes pardon me young miss, I don't mean to interrupt your, ah, recollection but I'm fear this to be the last time possible"

A voice Reze didn't recognize from this memory cut through as she looked around for the unfamiliar voice lightning flashed from outside, only it never went out. In fact it only got brighter and brighter taking one last look at His smiling face before the light consumed everything around her leaving her in a blank white void.

Instinctively Reze reached for her pin only to find that it wasn't there. And in fact looking at herself she saw that she was much younger than she was earlier. About the age she was before she got her bomb.

"Who are you?! What do you want?!" Even if she wasn't as capable she could still put up a front if needed. Depending on who she was dealing with that could be all she needed.

"Deepest apologies young miss truthfully if it were up to me I would have let you dream for longer," a vaguely humanoid shape, a brighter white than the void around it in the idea of a person appeared descending from above. It was completely featureless save for what seemed to pass for this thing's eye, deep endless void with just the faintest pinprick of light inside. "To tell you true i believe this was the best dream you've had in a long time but also I needed to tell you now. When again you wake, that doctor will have what he needs to finally kill you and take back the Bomb Devil's heart."

Reze bristled "He's not gonna kill me, he's just going to take the heart back. I'm not going to use it anymore and they can put it to better use than I will…"

"Pardon my saying so young miss but I think even you don't believe that, any of it!"

"Why does some random Devil care about me anyway?!" Even if it truly was here to help her there's no way any Devil would do so without a good reason.

"Well you see miss, I am under contract."

"Bullshit, I didn't agree to anything, who wants you to free me?!"

Nothing about the Devil changed visibly but she could feel it straightening up and smiling, a smile as gentle as it was toothy and unsettling. "Ma'am I would think you would know by now you were just talking with him."

Reze felt like she was blown off her feet. Her face burned and her chest ached like crazy. Denji made a Deal to get her back? Did he really still care? What did he pay? Wait, who even was this Devil that thought it could get her out?

"Fine, but who are you how could you possibly get me out and to Japan?"

The shape bowed "I am but a Faint Hope young miss, I alone cannot get you out. You must needs grant yourself an opening. Should you create an opportunity tomorrow, rest assured that your hopes shall come to fruition."

Reze's head was a buzz, everything was happening all at once and her head was swimming.

"Dear Girl our time here is over remember: if you wish to try your fate with Chainsaw you must find an opening for yourself or else I'm afraid there's nothing to be done!" and with that he began shining harder and ascending back upwards.

The only thing Reze could think to say was "His names not Chainsaw it's-"

"Denji!"

Reze woke up yelling again, but for the first time in a long time she wasn't waking from a nightmare.

What a strange and intense dream she had just had. She almost dared to think that any of it meant anything.

She lay still on the hard slab they called her bed surrounded by kilometers and kilometers of bunker, enhanced by the Labyrinth Devil and housing thousands of different specialty soldiers all throughout. Even if Denji still did like her there would be no point.

Reze isn't leaving the Bunker.

Reze is dying here today.

"Привет, предатель, хирург с нетерпением ждёт нового теста, так что сегодня ты совсем не отдыхаешь!"
"Hey traitor, the Surgeon is eager to try out the new test so you're not getting any rest today!"

Yeagor came to personally escort her today. He's got a sick grin on his face but this is the most gentle he's ever treated her. He holds the door open for her as she walks out then takes her by the hand to guide her down the halls.

As they walk the paths everywhere she looks there are more and more guards. All of them look on with some mix of derision, excitement, or expectation. Each waiting for the spectical the Surgeon would make of her.

I'm sorry Denji, I'm going to have to break our promise one last time. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

She wondered if she would be able to miss him after this. The warmth and brightness of his smile. How she had hoped to live a life with him. Maybe they could have discovered what a normal life would have been together.

Reze's face felt hot. Her chest felt like it was about to explode. How terrible to start feeling this way now now that she was hours away from certain death.

But maybe…

Maybe it didn't need to be.

Maybe she really could trust that strange Devil? Thinking back there was a lot more guards around but almost none were armed. It has been a long time since she last even thought about breaking out. But maybe…

Even if it was all a trick the worst that could happen was she got captured again and her execution was a little less pleasant than it could be.

She had slowed thinking all this with Yeagor roughly pulling her arm along.

"Пойдём, принцесса, твой трон ждёт."
"Come on princess your throne awaits."

"Прошу прощения, царь, но я думаю, что собираюсь отречься от престола."
"My apologies tzar but I believe I'm going to abdicate."

"ЧТО?!"
"WHAT?!"

As fast as she should have been long ago she took her free hand and wrenched it away from her tigger pulling it free, feeling the heat that was once unbearable rise from her chest until reaching a peak at her head, which blew apart in spectacular fashion taking most of Yeagor with it. And once again she was Bomb Girl.

Our Contract has been renewed. I'm glad to see you again Reze!

She had no idea who said that but Reze had little time to wonder as the guards had now started to reconvene and are starting to come back with greater force. She needed to get out of here. Additionally the dim lights got dimmer separating the weak bulb lamps even further. Labyrinth was awake now.

She blew up the ground beneath her feet to kick off, with Labyrinth paying attention where she was going was less important than not being in one place for too long.

All her force came to a slamming stop as Labyrinth tried to cut her off. In frustration blew up the wall in front of her. The passage beyond still there. It seemed they were a little slow to react. Gunfire came from behind her, as it hit the broken wall next to her it blew a large chunk away. They're using large caliber they reeally want me stopped!

For the first time in a long time Reze giggled as she took off further down the way. She rushed down the dim twisting halls for a while before thinking.

Ok I'm loose now, just what kind of opening is that Devil on my side looking for?

Then she heard it a distant wailing roar.

Labyrinth.

Out from the darkness came a fist 3 times the total size of her body. Just before it hit her she exploded the air in between them lessening the impact but still flinging her away. She landed in a room many times bigger than they would plausibly allow in this place. This must be Labyrinth's lair.

The stone of the archway creaked and shuddered as it shifted to fit its new occupant but still seemed too small to properly fit them. First, the fist that had hit her. Meaty and muscled with patterns all across it that seemed to shift and move with the appendage. Pulled along behind it was a cow skull from a cow larger than any land vehicle Reze had ever seen. A single bloodshot eye lay at the center of the skull while the eye sockets flowed with more of those shifting patterns. As it pulled itself into the room proper it revealed the rest of itself. From the chest down he was all rib cage, the bottom rungs splitting open into jagged approximations of ant legs propelling it forward. What would be this humanoids's spine flowed out as a tail connecting it to the construct around it. The labyrinth formations inscribed on all the bones. Labyrinth Devil.

Shit

Reze didn't have time for this. She needed a way out and fast luckily as this was supposedly the heart of the labyrinth there were plenty of options to choose to get out of there. One of the paths led away and upwards so she exploded her way up and out. Labyrinth is several times bigger than her and even with her Bomb back she has several doubts that she could take it in a straight on fight.

As she fled from the room she heard Labyrinth roar and what sounded like stone breaking. She didn't dare look back as she continued to speed away from it as fast as possible until she made it to a larger room. Inside was Labyrinth again. As she scanned the room quickly she realized the path she took somehow led back to where she had just been.

Craap

Once more down a different path narrowly avoiding the strikes from Labyrinth confirmed. It was using its ability to loop her back to the same room.

Alright big guy, I've got a date to keep and you won't keep me from it.

Reze changed her trajectory mid flight to put some distance between the two of them before snapping her fingers and letting off a series of smaller explosions aimed at its eye.

While it guarded its eye with its arms Reze quickly blasted herself down and towards the hulking mass, skating her hand across the surface of the floor in front of it, then twisting and touching each of its bone legs in turn as she passed them. Finally she gathered as much of her power as she could muster and from behind created a giant explosion to push it forward a bit, disconnecting it from its labyrinth and causing it to stagger.

With it in position she held her hand out like she was giving a thumbs up and began the two stage explosion.

Boom

First she blew the legs up as it was staggering causing them to splinter under the weight of itself now that they've been weakened and put off balance. As it collapsed it was precisely where she has already touched with most of its main body lying collapsed on the active ground she laid.

That won't kill it but it will probably knock it out for a while.

It's effect was almost instantaneous. The room started shifting to be much smaller and the surrounding darkness dissipated making everything just a little easier to navigate.

Reze took a step forward to get going but as she did a dizzy spell almost made her collapse.

Damn it! My anemia can't act up now!

She needed blood. She could take some from a guard if she found one on the way out but that was uncertain and dangerous considering they know she's loose. She has an idea but no one was going to like it. She climbed on top of the collapsed Labyrinth to get closer to its eye. A massive unfocused shape looked back at her general direction as she stooped down low to take a bite of this massive eyeball.

It thrashed a little but was too concussed to do anything to stop her. Unfortunately for Reze…

Eugh! That's mostly eye fluid! Gross, gross, bad idea!

"Кажется, она здесь! Поторопись! Окружите её!"
"I think she's here! Hurry! Surround her!"

Reze has no more time to be here she has to leave now, so she takes off, running to conserving her energy.

As she runs through the halls she feels ragged. This is technically farther than she's gotten before as she managed to knock out Labyrinth but she's starting to flag. There's only so much she can run now and she still has no idea how to get out of here. Did she make a mistake? Should she have never tried this in the first place?

No.

If this was to be her last day then she will spend it making everyone who's ever wronged her miserable in the process. Now that Labyrinth is down she could probably find a closet somewhere and ambush and kill the next guard who sees her without worrying about getting ambushed in return! Maybe she could even do that enough times to find a way outta here!

Do you hear that Denji-baby? I'm on my way back!

She may be going a little crazy with the adrenaline and anemia…

But she does find a closet. And notices that the light coming from behind it is much brighter than she was expecting. She has no idea what could be in there but as she hears more voices from the guards coming in either direction she opens the door and throws herself inside without a second thought.

"Now now Dear Girl we needn't resort to that! We have you now!"

At the words of the once again, unfamiliar voice Reze started to panic. Did she accidentally throw herself into a room with a bunch of guards? Maybe she accidentally found the higher ups and they were about to turn her in worse than the normal guards? She was planning on surrounding herself with a massive explosion and trying again but found the energy wouldn't gather.

"Come now Dear Girl, you really must open your eyes and look about yourself!"

Really looking around now she realized she was in that White Void again. And looking behind her there was no door. She just Was Here. Exhaustion quickly over took her as she collapsed to the ground.

"Yes, yes, Dear Girl you held up your end of the bargain. And quite admirably I must admit! Bringing down that Labyrinth brute was no small matter!"

Reze was too exhausted to properly take in what was happening around her but she felt a warmth like being embraced.

"Now, chin up Dear Girl, you've an appointment to keep and we musnt keep him waiting!"

"Wait, my clothes!" Upon realizing she might be meeting Denji again she was suddenly extremely self conscious about what she was wearing. For longer than she knew they'd been keeping her in ragged prisoner clothes even before she blew most of them off with her transformation.

"Pish Posh girl! I've you more than covered thataways! Now go! Your appointment is waiting!"

For the first time in a long time Reze took one, confident, hopeful, step forward.

When the light cleared Reze was walking into an extremely familiar looking cafe. Too familiar. If it really was as long as she was thinking she was disappointed Bossman really never bothered to change anything.

Her eyes scanned the room. At the couch tables was some kid she'd never seen before and behind the counter, where she was expecting to see the Boss, holding a bouquet of flowers. Was Denji.

She nearly sobbed when she saw him. In a lot of ways he looked exactly like the last time she got a good look at him but there was something different about him. Something in his eyes said that so much had changed. But in her heart she hoped that nothing had changed too much.

Something that was confirmed when he almost dropped the bouquet looking at her.

When he spoke it was the words that she'd dreamed of hearing as she spent all that time in that Hell, and hearing it gave her more comfort than she would realize.

"Reze!"