"Gods be damned, you're hurt..." It wasn't the time to wallow, but the wound from the insect's beam cut through his soul. It was the last thing he wanted.

Elizabeth clutched the wound, bringing the flying gale around to fly towards the platform. "It's- It's fine, I'm fine, it's just a bit of blood."

The dog's brain, that of which Buckingham had plugged himself into, told him to groom the wound. Back and forth instincts fought, whilst he kept an eye out for anyone tailing the pair.
"...Your father will be proud of you. You and all of your siblings, you've done wonderful, dastardly things with your lives."

Elizabeth fought with herself over how to respond- A part of her wanted to push back, to curse the fact that most of her dastardly schemes tended to falter before they even begun. Awful luck, every time. Never good enough, perfect enough, always some little flaw that got in the way. But no- she couldn't let the failures get to her. It was a constant struggle not to be afraid of herself. Be determined, efficient, always keep trying, and the dice will roll in your favor eventually. It was just statistics.

"We're close, aren't we? Is...That him, down there?" She mutters as she brings the lizard down to land on the platform.

Buck's heart raced, the closer they approached. The black rabbit of death, alone on its one blue platform. He worried for him, what the years could have done to him. Feelings left to fester, the mind left to rot. He swallows, the galehaut carefully landing the pair at the edge.

"Brace yourself. You remember what I've told you of Thanatophobia, yes?" He slides off carefully onto the platform.

El nods, following close behind. She takes a moment to straighten out their blood-darkened dress, make sure she looks tidy. Steel her heart- This is what she came here for.

"I'm...nervous. I'll stay behind you if that's alright."

What a wonderful day today was. After many many days of nothing, the DEVIL saw a dog and pet it. The sensation of its fur was like a overly hot summer sky, a day at the park with no shoes on, having to feel every single blade of grass and a hundred other things that he used to hate.

When it started screaming and running he just sat down and watched it calmly. Its voice was like a million dying birds and the slight tremble of the platform under its feet as she paced like an earthquake. Before all of this, the DEVIL hated unexpected sensations but it had been so long since he felt, heard, or saw anything.

He was so excited, he made himself as small as possible, so that not a single movement would ruin the explosions in front of him. He wasn't listening to her. He was feeling her life.

And then she disappeared? He perked up his ears when it happened but not much else. He didn't even look over the edge to see if somehow she'd be there.

He's looked over that edge for years. Nothing is ever there.

But then another sound? Two people and an animal! How exciting this sensation was. He doesn't really see them. He experiences them. Their soft whispers to each other as loud as a jet engine. He hops closer. Not greeting the duo at all.

"Elizabeth.. give me and your father some space, watch your step, please." This blort's body is wretched. Smaller than the drattle, useless and writhing. But it's a safe haven compared to what was just below the surface.

But he felt it more appropriate to come to O-11 as he was. No illusion of stability, Failure discarded the comatose blort as it unhooked its claws from the body. A familiar display of flesh squeezing and contorting into shape, out like a rabbit from a hat.

"If you're going to get touchy-feely I suppose I might want to avert my gaze anyway." Elizabeth snickers, backing up to stay by the gale.

Buckingham steps forward on shaking stilts, and bows his head to Death.

The DEVIL feels Buckingham just for the sensation of it. He doesn't realize what is in front of him until something familiar drifts into his mind. Especially when the creature before him does not go limp, does not die. "No.....No."

The DEVIL backs away in HORROR. "No! No!!! Why a-ARE YOU HERE?" He screams.

He winces, keeping his head down. "I come as a beggar, O-11. I wish to make amends for where I've done you wrong."

"I spent these years without you, considering my options. I.. wasn't even entirely certain you'd be alive by now. Gods know what horrors there were in this space."

"I told you as much, I wouldn't leave you. And I stand by it. There's nothing here, I can't possibly imagine what life may be without.. Anything.."

"..Alas.." He looks back towards where the pair had come from. "I'd return you home, but there's hardly a home to come back to. But I can offer you an out, all the same."

"No....Please why....has....has god done this? Buckingham I wanted you to LIVE!"

"T-That is why I didn't bring eugh! That's why I didn't bring you to HELL with me! I...I wanted you to live e-even if I wasn't around." The DEVIL had come to accept the HELL he was in. Everyday he would close his eyes and think of a world in where, without him, Buckingham was alive. And, maybe this world wasn't perfect, but that he would find something out there to love and care for.

It is the only reason he had not gone mad on this platform in an empty void. Just that one thought. And now his paradise was ruined. His body locked up. Stuck between wanting to comfort Buckingham no matter what, and wanting to scream at him in hopes that he would leave, and forget all about him. "Yo..You ha-haven't done anything wrong! E-Except for this!"

"You we-were supposed to live...." He repeats this sentence over and over. "I..I ca-can't be out there. T-There's nothing ou-out there for me...and....eugh!" He holds his head and shakes it. Overwhelmed. Begging for this to be one of his many delusions.

"Love. The surface world is not all well." He despaired. "It's worsened since your impromptu leave. Something.. something wicked as taken a hold of it. I know not of its inner workings.."

"ZooCorp rises. It's rooted itself into planets, from what I can gather its reach has gone far and wide. And in recent..."

"All connections to the "outside" world- anything outside of the company's reach, internet, cellular, anything. Severed. Vanished. It's as though there's.. simply nothing left."

"My brothers have not berated me in weeks. The notails speak of missing figureheads. Love... something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong."

"Perhaps, I'd live my life out as intended, retire happily into my old age without you. I lost the rights to my mansion. All of which I own, sold to live on. I- I wear a blasted MONGREL!"

"I'm lost, darling. I have our spawn to keep me afloat, beautiful they are. But it's you that made me feel like a completed man. Where else all slipped through my fingers, I had you to pick up the pieces. I'm crushed beneath the weight of my guilt."

He places his hands over his head, pulling his ears down as if to drown out all the noise and stress. He felt like he was cracking, breaking to pieces, until suddenly and without warning the DEVIL looks Buckingham in the eyes. "That sounds amazing."

"Y-Your brother wa-was a bitch anyway!"

"And mmmmurgh...suddenly the U-Union being go-gone is bad? I don't think so. I...I think that's gre-great! It sounds like the universe has eugh, gotten better!"

"That's not the point, O-11! ...Yes.. quite though."

"You uh, don't need a manor. It's uh. ok. Maybe? Eh it just, just takes getting used to. You uh, remember me of-of when the accident happened."

"I-I-I-I" O-11 The DEVIL takes a deep breath to calm himself. "Everything was horrible. I couldn't do anything I used to like. My whole- eugh- My whole life changed! It took a long time but...I was able to be happy again, even if uh, even if it wasn't as good as before. Not perfect."

"And then you happened, and it was even better than how-how life was like...before the accident."

"I...Just wanted you to be happy. Y-You won't be happy down here Buckingham, and...I don't think I ca-can go back up there." The DEVIL looks at the animal that brought them down here.

"...Alas.."

"If I touch it. It'll die, my-my-my love. And then we'll all be here in this HELL."

"I had the beast who would not fear you. It's gone."

Elizabeth was listening quietly as the two talked, but she had come to a realization, and she had to say something. "...Father... Were you actually planning on coming back at all, or...?"

"...." He looked to Elizabeth with tired eyes. Expression says more than what he could say for himself. It was a foolish heart that led him here.

"...O-11." He pipes up, moving aside for her. "I wish for you to meet your last daughter. Elizabeth Fortuna Buckingham the 21st. She came along against my best wishes, but she wanted to see you."

The DEVIL lowers his ears as he watches Buckingham divert the conversation. "Daughter?" The DEVIL takes a step closer, but stops, realizing that the only person he knew that loved death, was Buckingham.

She isn't sure what she's feeling right now, seeing that look. But she smiles to address the DEVIL.

"It's...sincerely, a pleasure. I was hoping I wouldn't go my whole life without meeting my other parent. Father had me made after you were...Well. Yes."

"I'm um, so sorry we had to meet this way. You-you're perfect. No o-offense but some of the others ca-came out mmmmmm..." He doesn't seem to finish that thought.

"I'm sorry I have to be your father."

He takes a single claw to lift a lock of her hair. "She looks just like you, darling."

She freezes a little at the touch, as her other 'eye' was exposed.

"Can you...Still see? I'm a little unclear on that. In case you can't, my right eye seems to be a black void. I can see the resemblance now."

"She does look just like me. The hair, the height, the face. Everything. I'm....uh so...so sad I can't be there for y-you. I messed up. C-Can you forgive me?"

"I didn't ask for an apology. This is... Gods- I just can't believe how lucky I am to have made it. I nearly died on the way over here- Twice! Things don't...usually go this well for me."

"That's how thi-things are for me when I go outside too...."

"I'll mmm answer any questions yo-you have. Any of them."

"There are...so many questions. Too many. It's hard to pick one out to start..."

"Do you know how to build half-decent doomsday machines? Father is a terrible teacher."

Buck snorts. "Perhaps I'm a bit hasty..."

"I agree! He's-no-no offense uh, kind of, um, terrible at teaching...." The DEVIL looked around, as if hoping to find anything.

"I mmm wish-wish I had my computer. I could have g-given you some good tutorials...." A sense of despair that he hasn't felt in years overcomes him.

"I wish I had anything." he mumbles quickly as he grabs at his claws.

"Well!" Elizabeth clasps her hands together, her smile turning somewhat spiteful, and her tone becoming a bit sarcastic.

"You have us, now. Because we're not going anywhere! Ever!"

He blinks, suddenly worried. "N-No. You're leaving. You need to leave."

"Sweetheart.." He leans down, gently nudging her with the end of his nose. "...Not all things go as planned. That's for certain, it's a lesson I'll have to learn over again. I think... My heart wanted to believe there was more than we can do."

El reaches out and runs a hand over their fathers head. Like petting a horse. She tries not to think about that too hard.

"Let's be realistic here for a moment. There are three of us and an animal that can hold two, and one of us will kill said animal. And beyond that, there's an absurdly powerful machine trying to kill us. Do you think we'll be able to escape that? Us? Failure and Ill Fortune? The fact that I'm still alive is one of the most fortunate things that has happened in quite a while."

"I came here thinking this would be a rescue mission- that we'd be able to get Father out of this hell. But it's not in the cards. And if there's one thing I do well, it's playing the hand I was dealt. The greatest chance for our continued well-being is to give the machine the beast and ask very nicely if, instead of killing us, he can just lock us in here. Perhaps it'll overlook our meddling in exchange for the assurance that we won't be letting anything escape."

"And besides- I wouldn't mind spending a while longer with the two of you. I mean- Father here has lived quite a long time, hasn't he? He probably has quite a lot of stories to tell. We can find ways to pass the time."

There was one thing that Buckingham still had on his person. When the Q classes had carted his discarded drattle body away, there were few things on his person he was allowed to keep. But one of them was his wedding band.

"Dear. There's truly hardly anything left, but I can give one thing. I have plenty around me to remind me of you, love." He places a hand on El's shoulder.

O-11, not the DEVIL took the ring. He remembered as dumb as it was, getting married over the internet, on one of his Virtual Reality chatrooms. He thought it was a little stupid back then, how he found himself embarassed even though it was an arranged marriage.

He remembers talking to Buckingham, just because his phone number was at the top of his phone list, because it started with a B of all things. What had just been diplomatic quickly turned into something else. True love.

He wanted to keep Buckingham with him forever. He truly did. But on the day he was sent to HELL, the day he went from being O-11 to being the DEVIL, he knew he had to let him go, and hope that out there he would recover.

"The machine will not kill you, whatever this machine is. Because you do not fear death. Yo-you will escape. You will survive." The DEVIL gets closer. "Because...if you don't believe in those things, you cannot be here with me." He holds out his hand. "Because you would fear DEATH."

Elizabeth looks at the hand for a moment, a flutter of nervousness in her heart. Was this actually fear? Or was she afraid of being afraid? Or maybe she was afraid that, no matter certain and unafraid she was, the universe would somehow ruin it for her, again. The nervousness passes, replaced with something more akin to sadness. She trusts her father. She reaches out and takes his hand.

He holds her hand, and nothing terrible happens. "You don't fear death...uh..you fear life..."

"So mmmm you h-have to defeat it. You uh, wouldn't be a B-buckingham if you didn't defeat your fears."

For a moment, something cut through the sadness and melancholy in his head, watching their hands make contact. Teeth that clench, baited breath for some assurance that Elizabeth did feel no fear...
It was a twinge of pride, that the two did just fine. In spite of death, failure, ill fortune hanging over their heads.

"..I love you, darling. I don't know what life holds past this point. I've rolled with these punches before."

Elizabeth grips O-11's hand tightly, and a look of determination flashes over her face, thoughts flying through her head at a speed she could hardly keep up with. "...Perhaps... Perhaps if Father was in his smaller state- the size of a hat, he wouldn't be too heavy, and...The beast - the beast has an utter fixation on lavender, perhaps if it were distracted it would forget to fear... But did I - No, damn it, I forgot the perfume at home...Maybe if we just..."

The look of determination shifts to dejection, shifting closer to acceptance. "...I...I don't want to go. I don't want to leave you behind. What about what I want? Why can't I ever get my way?"

There was nothing the pair could do.

"Sweetheart... you've made your fathers proud. You're here, in spite of it all, correct?" Buckingham carefully carries himself over closer to O-11. Looking to him for permission, as he would before.

"We fear not death. We've embraced that fear. Therefore, there's nothing that... whatever that, machine may be.." He glances behind him.. "...Could do to us that we can't take."

There's a lunch box opened on the floor. In the middle of a poorly made hamburger, is some sort of strange anomalous device.

"Elizabeth. You...You just need to find where you be-belong. You might like my stories for awhile, but soon I'll run out."

"A-And uh...and in that time, you will egh...grow to hate me. We will grow to hate each other I uh...worry."

Elizabeth is quiet for a moment. She notices the odd device in the burger, and bends down to pick it up, trying her best to smile.

"...I do still need to make a name for myself, I suppose. I haven't even robbed a bank yet! I...I'll do my best. Thank you."

"No no, honey, you uh....mmmm... need to work to your strengths. Like uh, I was a K-class eugh...used to be.... but uh, K-classes travel, and I was too weak to do that so uh, I started working on the computer and sending orders. Thats how I uh, became an O-class."

"You should be like...uh...helping people! But like....b-because you're bad luck, you know that uh, those people will always fail....."

"Or that you'll lead them into a worse situation! Yeah! If that, uh, makes sense...."

"To your advantage, Sweetheart. Perhaps you'll be the next Great Buckingham with such finely tuned abilities. ...Gods know, none of your other siblings are all too interested." He itches the back of his neck.

"Hm... That is a good point. I never really considered trying to help others...It's rather easy to tempt fate into doing what I want, thinking about it. 'Oh, what could go wrong? At least it's not raining!' I could definitely do more with that..." She cackles quietly, lost in thought for a moment.

She goes quiet again- before gently hugging her fathers, both of them. "Thank you, again. I...I'm inclined to make some promise about seeing you again, but well... fate's a tease, I'd prefer to point her in other directions."

Buckingham leans in. Feeling the fur pressed against his skin, so thinly put together on O-11's frail frame. He hung there, listening to his daughter whisper and the faint whispers of death that emanated from the Devil's hollow pit. Nothing so cold and grasping should feel so warm, but Winifred Buckingham the 21st never felt so at home. Savoring, prolonging.

He pulls away slowly, backing away from Death for the last time. "May we meet again, my love. If not in this existence, shape and form."

Buckingham's body shudders, and he retracts himself back into his hat. It's an unpleasant scene, but he's quick to hide back into his hat. He regards the unconscious blort body briefly, wincing. "Mh.. I don't. Believe I wish to be a mongrel anymore. You may do as you wish with it, dear."

"I will savor this moment, for hundreds of millions of years, my Dark Prince." O-11 struggles out as the two pull away from him. "I-I don't know..." O-11 chokes back tears he no longer has. "If we-we'll see each other again. B-But I wish you the best. Please-please be safe. Both of you."

Elizabeth moves back towards her gale, mounting it.

"I'll make sure to make lots of friends that will keep me safe, and nothing bad will ever happen to them."

The protector of the universe lands on the sliced body of the galehaut. The only escape they had. "Fate's a bitch, ain't it?"

"EGADS!" Buck scrambles for the platform, sprayed with the Gale's blood as it slips into two pieces.

He takes a step off the body that crumbles into nothing but dust behind him. "I decided, hey I'd let you guys have your last words. But I ain't letting you get away you know."

"I sure hope endangering the entire universe just to see some big rabbit was worth it."

Elizabeth tumbles off the slain Gale, hitting the platform and scampering backwards.

"How very generous of you." She mutters.

"ENDANGERING HOW?!" Buck's little claw click on the platform. His body, curled up inside, squelches. "THIS CONCERNS YOU NOT, MACHINE! I ONLY WISHED TO SEE MY HUSBAND AGAIN."

Beat. "Settle a bet for me- Would my plan of asking you very nicely to just let us rot down here have worked? Curious about that."

Bobo slowly walks closer and closer to the Buckinghams. His sword drags behind him, scratching red trails into the platform. "You'd want to stay here? In HELL? With the DEVIL? What kind of fools would ever find comfort in that monster?"

"...He's my Beloved."

"That's my father you're talking about, thank you very much."

("Of course you have to have two fathers. Whatever man...")

"I guess I'd let you stay, if somehow you got down here without ripping a hole through the universe. Not like that's possible. But see, you don't understand. BLUE HELL ain't a fun place to romp around. Every time you rip into the universe like that, you make it more and more unstable."

He finally picks up his sword, readying it. "But I guess trying to talk to your dad is worth the stablity of the universe, huh?"

Buckingham, so riled, yet again falls completely out of his hat. He steps forward, silently in front of Elizabeth. "......"

O-11's ears twitch. He panics trying out find a way out, not for himself, but for his loved ones. It is only then that he notices the device Elizabeth had picked up. ("E-Elizabeth! Yo-You have to use that. It's uh, a teleporter..... But remember what I said. Eugh, don't..don't use it for yourself.")

"Honestly, I'm just torturing you guys now. I should have just teleported behind you and killed you before you could even move."

"Oh well, you live and you learn!"

"Except I guess you won't be doing that first part any longer." Bobo laughs to himself before charging the Buckinghams.

Elizabeth was about to say something cocky, but instead she just kind of yelps and fumbles with the device, pointing it at Bobo and activating it.

"Hhh. N...N....No...!"

"I....always told you...you were going to hit the wrong target one of these days."

"TEACHER!"

Cheater touches the cut on his chest. The one that slowly crumbles parts of his body to dust, and then nothing at all. That was the worst part about being killed by Bobo. "So. What did you learn today, little dude?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT DID I LEARN!?!? WE HAVE TO STOP THIS. I...I CAN FIX THIS!"

Cheater holds his hand out, stopping Bobo. "Don't even try it."

"W-Why not!?!?"

"Cause you gotta make sure no one else is going to get hurt if you miss."

It is only then that Bobo realizes that Cheater is at his typical food stall. A large group is around both of them, and more people gathering due to the commotion. If he messes this up, he could kill more. And in trying to fix those people, he'll keep on failing until...

"Honestly. This is punishment for my own issues, little man. I shouldn't have kept secrets from you. I did it because I was embarrassed, but then I kept lying because I was worried you'd be disappointed. Especially once I got sick."

"Bobo....That father you've been looking for..."

"That was me. I'm sorry." Cheater reaches down to touch his chest, and finds he doesn't have one anymore.

"Dad?" Bobo thinks back to what he said seconds before as he raises his hands to try and heal his father.

(But I guess trying to talk to your dad is worth the stability of the universe, huh?)

Cheater puts a reassuring hand on Bobo...though that soon disappears. "Don't blame yourself, kid. I'm the idiot here. Heh....maybe I was hoping you'd notice the resemblance sooner or later......"

".....Nah....I was just a coward."

"Just promise me...you'll take my lessons to heart a little more. The way you would have taken your dad's."

"Tell Averruncus that I'll miss him. I don't know if we'll ever meet again." Cheater finally blows away in the wind, and even that would disappear.

Bobo was left with nothing to mourn. That was the worst part of it all.

He leans on the ground in grief. He doesn't care when the two Buckinghams escaped through the portal, it soon closing behind them before O-11 could escape with them.

For he had killed his teacher.
His father.
His friend.
And the only one that understood him.

He spent his whole life seeking the only person in this universe that could ever understand him. And he was always there. He was too focused on his goals to see the obvious.

And for his crime. He could no longer hope for a day where he would have someone to look up to.

Bobo was finally, well and truly alone.