Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

August 18th, 2011

They woke up with a gasp to someone shaking their shoulder with a confused and worried look on their face.

“There you are!” She said when they finally opened their eyes, then gave them a weird look. “You look… interesting.”

At their lack of response, she continued: “I didn’t appreciate being fallen onto, but I’ve seen worse. Where did you come from anyway?” No response, “Oh! How rude of me, I’m Georgie Barker.”

They looked at her outstretched hand, unsure what to do with it, then back up at her, who seemed to be waiting for a response. They opened up their mouth, getting ready to bombard this odd stranger with questions. Then they closed it as fear threatened to overwhelm them once more at the thought of speaking.

Mimicking writing, they look up at Georgie, who takes out a small glowing rectangular thing, then gives them a sceptical look, and digs through the small bag she was holding for some paper and a pen.

Would Jonathan Sims be a believable answer?

“Maybe, if it wasn’t for the fact that you stared at the paper like it personally offended you for over a minute before you answered.”

That’s fair, but I’m not giving you a different answer, call me Jon.

“Fine, ‘Jon,’ you never told me where you fell from.”

Space, They reply honestly, still dazed from whatever had happened. They look up at Georgie to see her reaction, I’m telling the truth.

“Right, but something’s telling me this isn’t a conversation for the middle of a London sidewalk, want to come to my place?”

You’ve just met me, They reply, wondering if all people from this planet are like this.

“Look, not to insult you, but you’re like half my height and look like you’ve been through a cheese grater. I’m not scared of you.”

They shrug, letting Georgie pull them up, nearly collapsing before she catches them. They latch onto her arm and relish in the warmth of it, leaning into her for support, they hadn’t felt the warmth of another person since they had left Midgard. Even before they left they had rarely felt that warmth, instead, they spent their time buried in work away from the others.

They barely noticed when they reached Georgie’s, nearly tripping over the steps into her flat. After settling them down, and asking if they needed anything, she grabbed out a first aid kit and went to work on them.

Georgie was far from surprised at the fact that they seemed mostly healed after she had gotten a good look at their less-than-human traits, but covered their existing injuries anyways.

“Alright, time to explain.”

I don’t really wanna talk about it, so here’s the shortened version; My home got destroyed, I took a ship out, and the thing that destroyed it must’ve messed with my mapping system, cause I ended up here.

“And by your home you mean…?”

All of it, the whole Yggdrasil system.

“Yggdrasil?” Georgie asked, seeing Jon’s eyes literally lighten up at her tone.

Do you know it?

“Not in the way I think you mean, just mythology and stuff.”

Oh, of course. Can we be done now? Sorry.

“ It’s alright. There’s no rush. I mean, it was clearly pretty bad, so only tell me more when you’re ready. If you’re ready.”

After Georgie had gotten through all of her questions, at least the ones Jon would answer, she sent them to go take a shower. While they were in there, she threw their clothes in the wash and got out an old ‘What the Ghost’ hoodie and a skirt. They weren’t perfect, but they were the only things she could find that seemed close to Jon’s size.

Later, hours after Georgie had gone to sleep, they woke up with a start. In their flailing, they fall off the couch, hitting their head off of the coffee table and waking Georgie.

“Jon? Are you okay out there?” She calls out, as she walks down the hall from her room.

“Make it stop,” they mouth over and over again, shaking their head, until they realize they are actually saying the words, and bite down on the side of their hand to stop.

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re okay,” She assures them, pulling their hand away from their mouth. “Do you wanna talk about it?” They shake their head so aggressively that Georgie wouldn’t be surprised if it gave them a headache.

“Do you want me to put your hair back up for you? I can do it like it was earlier.”

Jon nodded hesitantly, pulling themself back onto the couch and adjusting so that Georgie could reach their hair easier.

“Do you have any music you like to listen to?” Georgie asks, beginning to brush out Jon’s hair, seeing them go to shake their head, then pause, thinking.

Do the mechanisms exist here?

“Yeah, I think so, I used to listen to a band called that all the-” She cuts herself off, multiple different emotions crossing her face. “Wait, does that mean they’re actually space pirates?”

I will neither confirm nor deny. They reply with a smirk.

They manage to hold it together through the album, except for when a few all too familiar voices find their way through. Georgie, much to Jon’s relief, neglects to mention the times when their glowing tears fall slowly down their face.

I think I hated them, or at least pretended to, to the point where I convinced myself, but I do miss them. They admitted as one album switched to the next. Though if I ever have to hear that one song of theirs Von Raum kept trying to sing to me again- They joke with a wet laugh.

Georgie had long since finished their hair, but Jon seemed so at peace that she spent over an hour just tucking every loose piece of hair into place, even though she knew they would more than likely fall out by morning.

Chapter Text

November 28th, 2011

“Can we pleaaaase take a before and after pic?” Georgie whined out, pouting at them.

I’ll agree if you stop yelling in my ear. Jon wrote, glaring at her, though there was no heat behind it.

And so Georgie took a photo of them together, grinning ear to ear as Jon glared at her phone. In the photo, Jon was wearing an outfit consisting of their travelling cloak, stained a light, glowing rainbow around the edges, along with a button-up and skirt Georgie had gifted them.

“Right, now change into this, wouldn’t want to get any dye on that,” She gestured to the cloak, handing Jon an old shirt she used to use when dying her own hair. “How old are we aiming for again?”

I don’t know, like 30 maybe?

“Didn’t you say if you converted your actual age to earth years you’d only be like, 24?” Georgie asked, giving them a weird look.

1, that was an estimate, and could be extremely off. 2, it was 22, not 24. 3, I’m assuming my hair won’t hold dye well, so already looking older will help when more white starts to show through.

“That- that second one doesn’t help your case at all, it- You know what, never mind,” She sighed, gesturing for them to sit down.

~

December 12th, 2011

“You promise you’ll stay safe?” Georgie asked, giving them a warning look. “Don’t put yourself somewhere you can’t wiggle out of, especially because you chose there of all places to work ET.”

Not ET, They weakly glared at her.

“Sure ET. Stay safe, okay?” She hugged them.

They swallowed a few times, then flapped both of their hands for a second to calm themself, before continuing: “I will, Georgie.”

~

October 3rd, 2013

It was a bad day then, they thought, like most days have been since they’ve started working at the Magnus Institute. Some days they could get out a few sentences, but even then doing that almost sent them into a panic, thinking about Yggdrasil.

They rubbed their eyes, looking up from their computer as someone sits across from them, looking equally as sad, lost, and lonely as they imagined they also looked.

“Ah, sorry, didn’t see you there,” The man muttered, quickly moving to leave for an empty table before Jon held out their hand and stopped him.

You can stay, they quickly wrote, handing the post-it note to him and moving to write on another one. Are you new here?

“Oh, uh- yeah, started a week or two ago,” The man didn’t move to say anymore.

I’m Jon. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.

“Tim,” he said, sitting down next to Jon with a pile of papers, a majority mentioning the name Robert Smirke, and the others seemed centred around clowns and circuses. The desperation in Tim’s red-rimmed eyes matched the look Jon knew they had worn when looking over the statements for anything Bifrost-related when they were first hired.

~

2015

“Soooo boss,” Tim walked in, a playful tone in his voice. “Scared of a little dog?”

Jon, deciding this would not be the best time to mention they were, in fact, afraid of dogs due to the limited exposure they’ve had with them over their years on this planet, ignored him, going back to their work.

“Oh c’mon, don’t be like that. I just came to warn you that Sasha is absolutely gonna come in here and chew you out once the dog situation is solved, didn’t seem like she appreciated you snapping at Martin.”

“Well, if he hadn’t let a dog into the archives it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

“Awww c’mon, Martin isn’t that bad. You’re just the human equivalent of a cactus.”

“Tim.”

“Fine, fine, I can see where I’m not wanted. I’ll be out of your hair.”

Chapter Text

“S- Statement ends,” They choked out, whatever had been keeping them going through reading the statement now gone. They had grown to expect the feeling over their past few months as the head archivist, but they didn’t think they would ever get used to it.

A feeling all too much like Odin’s gaze through the black box was the first thing they noticed, but there was more to it than that. With each statement they read, it felt more and more like if they tried to stop reading during a statement, they wouldn’t be able to, although they couldn’t bring themself to test that theory, too scared of the results.

“My god! Martin?” The sound of their door being thrown open interrupting their thoughts. “What… What the hell is- What are these things?!”

“That’s not important right now, Jon! Just help me kill them!”

“Right! Uh-“

“Just step on them or something, ” Martin squealed out, voice several pitches higher.

After a few minutes of panicked stomping by Jon and the assistants, Martin walked up to them.

“I’d like to make a statement.”

“Martin, are you sure about this?” Jon asked, looking over Martin’s dishevelled state. Besides looking like he hadn’t slept for over a week, he also looked in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. “You should probably-“

“I just want to make a statement about what happened to me. I mean, it… it’s what we do.”

“No, what we do is research statements. Usually those made by liars and the mentally unwell.”

“Well, I need to tell someone what happened, and you can vouch for the soundness of my mind, can’t you?”

“… That is beside the point.”

“It actually seems right on the point, boss.”

“Tim-“

“If you’re that worried about it, it doesn’t need to be an official statement. I just need a record of it.”

“Fine. You’re right. I suppose. Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding…”

“A close encounter with something I believe to have once been Jane… Prentiss.”

“Recorded direct from subject, 12th March, 2016. Statement begins.”

~

“Statement ends,” The words rip their way out of Jon’s mouth, stronger than they had ever felt with the written statements.

“R- Right, is that all?” Martin asked when Jon didn’t continue.

Opening their mouth and closing it a few times, they held out a hand, signalling for Martin to wait a moment. Taking a few minutes to calm themself in the awkward silence, they tried to rationalize the pulling feeling of speaking and being watched down to the pressure of Martin being there with them.

“You- there’s a room in the Archives I use to sleep in when working late. I suggest you stay there for now. I’ll talk to Elias about whether we can get extra security, but the Archives have enough locks for now. It’s also supposed to be humidity controlled and, though it hasn’t been working for some time, it does mean it’s well-sealed. Nothing will be sneaking through any window cracks.”

“Okay… thanks. To be honest I didn’t, didn’t expect you to take it seriously,” Martin said, the confusion of being taken seriously temporarily overriding his concern for Jon.

“You say you lost your phone two weeks ago?”

“Thereabouts. When I went back to the basement.”

“Well, in that time I have received several text messages from your phone, saying you were ill with stomach problems. The last one said that you thought it “might be a parasite–‘“ They’re interrupted by their phone buzzing, “Hang on.”

“What?”

“I just received another text message. From you. “Keep him. We have had our fun. He will want to see it when the Archivist’s crimson fate arrives,”  They almost let out a bit of a hysterical laugh at the word ‘crimson,’ referring to their blood, before they are quickly drawn back to the present by Martin’s shocked gasp.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I ask Elias to hire some extra security. I should probably warn Sasha and Tim as well. I’ll also have a look through the Archives, as I believe we should have a statement from Ms Prentiss herself in here somewhere. Recording Ends.”

“Right- I should probably go get that room set up then.”

“Of course. One more thing, there should be a cot somewhere in there, do come to get me if you should need some assistance setting it up.”

“Will do,” Martin says, quickly stepping out with a look that says he would rather sleep on the floor than take them up on that offer.

As soon as Martin leaves, Jon sags down into their chair, reaching for their phone to call Georgie. As it rings, they set it to speakerphone and lay their head across the desk, hair falling out of its bun and around their arms like a curtain.

“Jon? Is everything okay? Helloooo? Jon?” Georgie asks, her voice growing more concerned, then stopping when she hears the shuffling of Jon sitting up and grabbing their phone.

“ Sorry,” they rasp out.

“No need to apologize, Jon, I’m just worried. What’s wrong?”

“S- something’s not right about this place, and I have no idea what to do about it, Georgie.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning one of my assistants just got chased into my office by a wave of unidentified parasites, which he claims came from the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss-”

“Woah, woah, slow down Jon. I can’t understand you,” Georgie soothed.

“My assistant, Martin, got attacked by Jane Prentiss- I’ll explain her later- doing followup on a case for me and- and I can’t let the people I care about get hurt again. He was trapped in his flat for two weeks Georgie. And I sent him there!”

“Right, let’s start small, does he have a place to stay? I doubt it’d be safe for him to go back to his house right now.”

“He’s staying in document storage-”

“The institute ? Christ, Jon, didn’t you just say the worms followed him there?”

“I mean yes, but it’s humidity-controlled so-” They tried to explain.

“Jon, I swear to god- you’re gonna invite him to stay with us this instant, or I will come over there and do it myself.”

“But- But what about my-”

“I’ll clean all of it up, he won’t know, you’ll be fine.”

“Fine… fine, I will. Thank you, Georgie. I’ll probably be home early then.”

As soon as they hung up the call, they set to clearing up their desks and packing current statements into their bag. Once that was done, Jon made their way out of their office in a rush, nearly tipping over Tim; who had decided to lay down on the floor, for some reason.

“Ah, Tim, where’s Martin? I would like to talk to him,” Jon asked.

“Doc storage I’m pretty sure. You’re not planning on chewing him out for anything right now I’d hope, right boss?”

“What? No, no of course not-” They started, sounding a little too sincere for their liking. “I would just like to extend him an offer, he is my employee after all.”

Walking into document storage, they found Martin, who appeared to be wrestling the cot into a usable shape, instructions long forgotten. They sat there and watched him for a few seconds, then awkwardly cleared their throat when Martin didn’t notice them.

“Oh! Sorry, Jon- I didn’t-”

“No need, Martin. I actually came to offer you a room at mine? I talked with my roommate Georgie, and she said it would be a good idea to stay with us,” Jon offered, waiting for a few moments in silence for Martin to respond. “Oh, only if you want to of course- I’d entirely understand if you’d feel safer here-”

“No- no that would be nice if you don’t mind. The institute is rather… unsettling at night.”

“Martin,” Jon gave a light smile, trying to lighten the mood, “Were you about to call it spooky? ”

“W- what- no I-” Martin paused, looking at Jon’s face. “Was that a joke? ” 

“Maybe, maybe not,” Jon smirked, before gesturing at Martin’s few belongings, “Let’s get you packed and get going, then?”

“W- what? Right now? Don’t you usually stay later?”

“I’d say this is an extenuating circumstance, Martin.”

As they packed up, they filled the silence with awkward small talk, Jon and Martin carefully avoiding anything that could be linked in any way back to Jane Prentiss. Ignoring Tim’s surprise and suggestive comment at Martin leaving with them, Jon shot Tim a practised glare.

Jon had offered to go back to his apartment with him and grab some things, which, although nice, was the last place Martin wanted to see, so they headed straight to Georgie’s after leaving.

Meeting Georgie had been a bit… shocking, to say the least. Given his perception of Jon, he’d quite wrongly assumed that Georgie would be similar to them. But she was all jokes, laughs, and friendly banter, almost a polar opposite to Jon.

Jon too seemed to be different than expected when around Georgie. They were much calmer, and relaxed, actually letting themself enjoy things. Maybe it was Martin misreading the emotions on Jon’s face, but they almost seemed… less afraid now that they were out of the archives, though if they were scared of the institute, Martin couldn’t blame them. It always gave him a creepy feeling, almost like being watched.

He was given the guest room, which had about three too many beds in it, taking the place of an actual bed frame. Martin assumed that, if the mattresses beneath weren’t as stiff as they were, the tower would have collapsed long ago under the weight of the person sleeping on it.

“Sorry, I keep trying to get rid of them, but then I just end up with more, ” Georgie explained, getting a laugh out of Jon, a surprisingly light sound. “If I had known ahead of time- well, that’s hardly important. You’ll tell me if you need something, I hope?”

“This is actually the lowest amount of mattresses she’d had since I moved here,” Jon stage whispers to Martin as he nods. “It was like a mattress clown car when I moved in. At least 15 of them.”

After that, everything went smooth until dinner, where Jon and Georgie watched Martin’s eyes drift over to a small picture frame tucked in the corner of the counter. 

In the frame were two pictures, the first one, a photo from the night Georgie found them, taken to show them how her phone worked, showed them both, with bandages covering most of Jon’s face and arms. The other one was the photo they had taken before dying their hair for the first time in 2011.

Georgie, as quick on her feet as always, saw Martin’s questioning look and responded quickly: “Ooooh I love those photos! Did Jon ever tell you about the band they used to be involved in?”

“I did not ,” Jon responded for Martin, glaring daggers at Georgie, but his relief was clear.

“That first one was after they got in an accident on their way back from a performance, and they had me send that photo to all the members so they knew Jon was okay.  And the second one was a few months later before Jon started working at the institute and we had to redye their hair.”

“Oh! What was the band?” Martin asked, leaning slightly forward towards Georgie.

Before answering, Georgie looked towards Jon, who nodded in silent permission.

 “Have you heard of the Mechs?” Martin shakes his head, a confused look on his face. “I’ll play a clip of them for you, you probably won’t see Jon though, they mainly worked backstage.”

Throughout the rest of the night and dinner, all three of them watched through the available concert recordings, though Jon seemed the most emotionally invested in the stories, and looked heartbroken at almost every death involved.

Upon arriving at work the next day, the two found a small number of worms crowding the entrance which Jon killed for Martin before he went by, seeing the look of terror that crossed his face at the sight of them.

“You’re sure you’re okay being here? What with the worms showing up, you could take a few days off.”

“Ah, it’ll be fine. I’d rather be here with the worms than alone at the flat, to be honest, and Georgie said she had some errands to run.”

And with that, Jon headed to their office, quickly leaving Martin and avoiding the other two assistants' eyes. It hurt Martin, seeing the walls of fear and sadness build themselves back up in Jon’s expression as they both entered the building, but he didn’t yet know enough about them to help in any way.

“So Martin,” Tim began, a mischievous smirk on his face, “What’s the boss's humble abode look like? Is it all mysterious books n’ stuff?”

“I will not be gossiping about Jon’s flat with you, he doesn’t even live by himself anyways.”

“Wait what-“ Tim began, shock evident on his face before a pen hit the side of his head. “Sashaaaaaaaaa!”

“Will you two shut it already,” She mouthed, “I’m calling some places for follow-up.”

Chapter Text

“Right, just come this way into my office, and we’ll get started,” Jon explained, leading the statement giver into their office.

“Okay, You’re ready?” Jon asks, clicking on a tape recorder, “Statement of…” 

“Amelia Smith.”

“Amelia Smith, regarding…”

“An… appearing figure around London in 2011.”

“Recorded direct from subject, 28th March, 2016, by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Statement begins.”

“Right, well, I had just begun my walk home after my shift had ended. And I was just about to pass by this girl, Georgie Barker, she said her name was. I didn’t know of her at the time, of course, but I heard her talking to the thing from across the street.

There was this thing, apparently called itself Jon according to what I heard from Georgie, sitting on the road next to her, knocked out. It looked like it was from some bad sci-fi movie or something.  It had long, probably shoulder/chest-length, white hair that was almost glowing with a shifting rainbow pattern. But it was kinda hard to tell since it was put up in a few dutch braids. It was wearing a white button-up tucked into dark pants with a long coat of sorts over it all.

I tried my best to get a little closer, so I could see its face, but the girl was in the way. What I did see though, was the shimmering blood pouring out of its body, and onto Georgie’s hands.

Anyways, she had said something about it falling on her, which isn’t exactly how I would have described it, but maybe it seemed that way from her perspective. From my perspective, however, it had just… appeared there. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was certainly falling, but it felt more like falling into this dimension than falling from any height, if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t- sorry, I’m rambling.

After it fell on her, Georgie just talked with it, well, to it. It didn’t actually talk , but it wrote back to her on a piece of paper she gave it.

After Jon said something that made her particularly shocked, she ended up looking around and spotting me, just looking at her with a shocked look, and invited it back to her home. She even said she wasn’t scared of it, at one point.”

After a few moments of silence, Jon finally replied: “O- oh, alright. Is that everything?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s not like I followed her home or anything.”

“Right, right, ‘course not. Is there anything that prompted you to make this statement after all this time?”

“Yeah, nothing special, though. I was just talking with my partner Wil the other day when they asked me to listen to this podcast with them, it’s called ‘ What the Ghost.’ Georgie Barker’s the host. It took me a while to place her voice though, when we first started listening to it”

“I went through and listened to all the episodes, trying to see if she did anything on it,” She sheepishly admitted. “Didn’t find anything though.”

“Right then, that’ll be all. You can leave your contact details on this form along with you’re name if you’d like to be updated on this case.”

“No thanks, rather leave it behind, didn’t bother me that much. Just came here cause Wil told me I should when I told them about it.”

“Alright then, thank you for your time,” Jon said, clicking off the tape recorder.

After ushering her out of their office and watching her leave the archives, they broke into hysterical laughter, calling Georgie.

“G- Georgie-” They got out between laughter, “Y- You’ll never guess who just left a statement.”

After Jon failed to explain the situation through their laughter, they played the beginning of the statement through their mic.

Listening to the statement, Georgie let out a few comments about inconsistencies, as well as defending her actions that day: “I couldn’t just leave you there! You should have seen yourself, you looked like a kicked puppy!”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you’re all right to do this now? You can take a few days off to recover if you need,” Jon assured Sasha as she sat down, waving at her bandages shoulder.

“No, it’s fine. Tim’s getting me a coffee, and I’d rather get this down while it’s still fresh in my mind. Besides, you didn’t give Martin any time off when he had a bad experience.”

“That was of Martin’s own choice, actually. He didn’t want to stay alone at Georgie’s, I mean, I could hardly give him a holiday in the office. And anyway, he wasn’t injured.”

“It’s just a scratch, Jon. I’ll be fine. Can we begin?”

“Okay, fine. Statement of Sasha James, assistant archivist at the Magnus Institute, London, recorded direct from subject, 2nd of April, 2016 regarding…”

“Let’s just call it ‘a series of paranormal sightings involving a distorted figure.’”

“A distorted figure?” Jon asked, worry finding its way past their professional facade, both for Sasha and the idea that the Bifrost followed them.

“I’m fine, Jon,” She replied, reading the worry on their face. “I’ll start with the first thing I noticed.” 

As Sasha continued to give her statement, Jon found it harder to focus, their intense worry blocking out everything else. They reasoned they could just listen back to the tape later for important information they missed.

“Jon?” Sasha’s voice broke through, lightly tapping their arm. “Are you okay? You’re shaking.”

“Ah, yes, sorry about that. I’ve had a pounding headache all day” They lied quickly, but evidently not well, as Sasha levelled them with a disbelieving look. “Nevermind me, this is more important. Please continue.”

“Fine. Well, on that morning I paused before the window and noticed one of the warped figures below was… off, slightly. It looked too tall, the limbs and body were very thin and almost wavy like they didn’t have any structure or bones in them. I, I couldn’t make out a face, but it was the hands that were the most bizarre. They seemed to be stretched and inflated by the distorted light, until they were almost the size of the rest of the torso. The fingers were long and stiff, and seemed to end in sharp points. It stood completely motionless, and I could feel it staring at me.”

“Staring how?” They asked, the image of Odin watching them through the black box clear in their mind.

“I don’t know, Jon. I was more focused on their knife hands. ”

“Right, right, my apologies. Continue.”

Jon tried their hardest to focus on Sasha and keep their hands steady as the statement goes on, offering input where needed, but the thoughts of the warped forms they watched on the black box kept flashing through their mind.

“Thank you, Sasha. You should be going now,” They say, waving her away. “Statement ends.”

In, out, in, out, they reminded themself as their breathing got more rapid. They’ll research this Michael thing before they freak out. If there is proof of its existence before their arrival, they had nothing to do with it, this planets destruction wouldn’t be on them.

“New assignment for you all, find anything you can on this Michael figure when you get the chance. Sasha, if you’d want to work on something else instead, come to my office when you return and I can find a few files for you to work on,” They ordered as they walked out of their office.

“‘Course, Boss!” Tim said, holding up his hands in a double thumbs up.

“Are you okay, Jon? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Martin piped in.

“My wellbeing is hardly any of your business, Martin. Just, just find the files.”

“Right, right. Just worried.”

“There’s no reason to be.”

“No reason? Christ, Jon, I’d say being stalked by a freaky creature with knives for hands as well the human worm sack is a good reason to worry!”

“Right, sorry,” They grimaced, going back into their office and leaving behind an awkward silence.

“...Uh, did I hear that right?” Tim’s voice cut through the silence with a joking tone. “Did bossman just apologize to Martin? Maybe I should go check on them.”

“ Tim !” Martin chided. “They’ve been better these past few days, what with me living with them.”

“Yeah, yeah. ‘Be nice to Jon,’ and all that. I really am going to go check up on them though, they seemed out of it.”

“They told me that they had a headache, so tone it down when you go in.”

“Will do Sash!” Tim responded, knocking on their door softly and walking in after getting no response. “Hey Boss, Sasha told me you had a headache?”

Looking intently down at their desk so that their hair hid their face, they shook their head, gesturing for Tim to leave. It wasn’t fair to put their problems on Tim like this, he had his own.

“Can’t do that, Boss. The others would have my head if I left without talking to you. Are you okay?” A nod from them. “Talk to me, what’s wrong? I can tell you’re shaking.”

“Can I just sit here then? While you work?”

They shrug, they’d honestly rather not be alone, and it’s not like Georgie’s here, but they’d hate to take up Tim’s time.

“Any files you need help going through?” Tim asks, grabbing the small stack Jon hands him and looking them in the eyes with a smile. Their eyes are red and puffy, but if they don’t want to talk about it, he won’t make them. “Just like the old times in research, yeah?”

Pulling up a chair on Jon’s side of their desk so they’re side by side, he gives them a reassuring glance and starts on the pile, reading through for any small references of Michael, anything from its name to a description of it. A few minutes in, their efforts are interrupted by Martin opening the door.

“Um, I found a statement that might mention Michael. But it’s just a description, not his name or anything.”

“Thank you, Martin,” Jon finally says after looking blankly at him for a few seconds, trying to control the waver in their voice. “Uh, I’m gonna record this now, Tim, but you can stay if you want.”

“You won’t even notice I’m here.”

“Alright, Statement of Lydia Halligan regarding her insomnia. Original statement given 8th June, 2015. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.”

“Statement begins…”

~

“Statement ends.”

“Well, I am forced to agree with Ms Halligan regarding how verifiable what she says is. There are no details to follow up, save for Ms Halligan herself, who passed away from a heart attack less than a month after giving this statement. She was 29. The description of a tall man with curly blond hair and an unnerving laugh alludes to the description of Michael given by Sasha, so we can be pretty certain this was him. I find myself wishing this statement was a bit older, so we could get a better grasp on how long this Michael has existed,” And if it was before my arrival, they don’t add.

“End recording.”

“Thank you, for staying, that is.”

“It’s no problem, really. I miss hanging out with you.”

“Yes, yes, you should be going now though, it’s past when you normally leave.”

“You should be going too, you know,” Tim responds, stopping to consider something. “Wanna come back to my place? I’m having Martin and Sasha over for the weekend.”

“Oh, yes, I do remember Martin telling me that. I really wouldn’t want to intrude-”

“I’m the one asking.”

“Fine, okay, I suppose I could do that,” Jon says, seeming shocked by their own quick agreement. “I’ll have to call Georgie first though.”

“Right then! We should get going!”

With that, Tim helps Jon tidy up their desk and organize the files they were both working on while they call Georgie. With reassurance from Tim that Martin and Sasha have already left, they gather their things and go.

Upon the two’s arrival at Tim’s flat, they are met with Martin and Sasha, who are wearing near-identical shocked looks at Jon’s presence, though Sasha seems to be doing better at hiding it.

“Right,” Tim cut in after getting everyone settled in and ordering dinner. “What movie do we want to watch?”

“Thor maybe? It’s been a while since we’ve all watched that,” Sasha offered, no one noticing the way Jon almost fell off of their chair in the dark of the room.

“Well then, if no one has any objections,” Tim responded, putting the movie on.

The movie isn’t as bad as Jon had imagined, and due to the inaccuracies it had to their own life, it stayed far enough away from the point in their mind where they kept their memories of their Midgard and their experiences with the Bifrost.

“ That’s Odin?” They find themself blurting out when Tim makes an offhand comment.

“Yeah? Wait- you’ve never seen this movie?” Tim asks, shocked.

“Ah, no?” They admit, getting shocked looks from the three.

When the movie ends, Jon can’t stop themselves from asking yet another question: “Why didn’t they include Sigyn?”

“How do you know so much about Mythology?” Sasha questioned.

“I, uh, studied it for a while?” They floundered for an answer, cursing the fact that now they had to become familiar with Earth’s Norse mythology to back that fact.

“Oooh! You’ve got to tell us about what you know sometime.”

After finishing dinner, they set up sleeping arrangements and put on another movie. Sasha and Tim took the fold-out couch and Martin took the air mattress at Jon’s insistence, leaving the chair next to the couch for them.

They quickly fall asleep, all the events from the day had left them entirely drained.

“Yog Sothoth who is the Bifrost, and whose dread invocation now shattered, drags them towards the roiling nuclear chaos of the mad demon sultan at the centre of reality. A billion screaming squamous things approach, oozing and crawling through the shattered tatters of a sane world. All the doors are open now. ” Lyf felt the words leave their mouth once more, mirroring the Voids, the edges of their vision going rainbow with colours that don’t exist, and never have.

They jolt up, letting out a small cry at the colours still swimming in their vision. Shaking, they quickly wipe away their iridescent tears with shaking hands, not wanting to risk the others seeing, and try to get their breathing under control.

“Stop, stop, stop,” They whisper, closing their eyes as tightly as they can. Their hands gripping their hair and pulling at it to distract themself from the colours.

Vaguely, they feel hands gently pulling their hands from their head and holding them to the other person’s chest, where they can feel the deep breaths the person is taking.

“You’re okay, Jon, it’s just Tim, you’re at my house, try to breathe for me, okay?” The person- Tim- says. “There you go,” He encourages.

Unable to keep their thoughts on the feeling of their hands in their hair, they focus intently on Tim. They focus on his voice, the texture of his shirt where their hands had clamped around it and the way Tim breathes in and out as he talks.

“Tim-” They manage to choke out, then clamp their teeth down, remembering their dream. They go to wipe their tears before they remember their still gripping onto the front of Tim’s shirt and wipe their new tears off on their shoulder.

“There you are,” Tim says softly, opening up his arms as an invitation for Jon, who quickly falls into them, adjusting their grip on Tim’s shirt. “Let’s move over here, yeah?” Tim gestures to the couch and picks Jon up when they give a small nod.

Silently, they pull out their phone and put on a song neither Tim nor Sasha finds particularly relaxing, but Jon seems to find comfort in it, so they don’t pry.

“Are they okay?” Sasha whispers once she’s sure they’ve gone to sleep.

“I hope so Sash, because we both know they won’t talk to us about it either way.”

Chapter Text

As they walk out of their office and into the break room they hear familiar voices singing, and curse themselves once more for taking the name that they did.

At the time they chose it, they’d been so dazed they didn’t realize it. But of course, they remember now that even looking up their name would bring up one Jonathan Sims, not them, though, but rather Jonny D’ville.

Tim had been sure to rapidly inform them of this, although they convinced Tim it was a coincidence, he got the ‘truth’ out of Martin.

As they got closer though, they realized it was a song they hadn’t heard before. No, that can’t be right.

“Jon! Martin yelled, pausing the song. “The Mechs released a new album!”

They almost dropped their cup of tea right there, Marius and the others were on the planet?

“Oh, did they?” They tried to hide their shock. “What’s it-” 

At that moment, Georgie bursts into the Archives and looks at Jon with wide eyes.

“Your office. Now.” 

Complying, they follow her there, giving her an odd look the whole time.

“Georgie- You can’t just-”

“Jon. Look at me. Have you listened to the new mechs album?” She asks, looking relieved when they shake their head. “Good. Don’t. It’s- It’s about you, Jon. ‘The Bifrost Incident’ ”

“What- No- No- they wouldn’t- Marius wouldn’t let-” Jon pleaded to no one in particular. He would though, wouldn’t he? It’s not like he knows you’re on this planet, he probably doesn’t even know you made it out alive. And It’s not like they wouldn’t make an album out of something like that.

“Jon…” Georgie reached out.

“Don’t call me that!” They snapped out, then covered their mouth. “I’m sorry, I just… I’m not him, don’t know why I chose that name, I’ve never even met Jonny. Just… call me Lyf, yeah? Lyfrassir Edda.”

Georgie stared at them, shock on her face. She’d come to accept that she’d never know their name, after all this time.

“Un- Unless that’d be too much to ask- I’m sorry I shouldn’t have-”

“No, no, Lyf, it’s fine, just shocked you told me is all.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Sorry, that’s just… I didn’t realize how much I missed hearing it said after all this time,” They said, their eyes welling up with more tears.

“... Lyfrassir Edda is a better alien name than Jon,” Georgie finally says, with a smirk.

Breaking out into wet laughs, Lyf lets themself be pulled into Georgie’s arms. They sit there in comfortable silence until an unfortunately all too familiar chant can be heard down the hall, said in a voice all too similar to theirs. Jonnys. Of course they told him to do it, considering how alike we sound.

Shooting out of Georgie’s arms, they back up and squeeze their hands into fists, then let out a sharp gasp followed by silence then the confused and shocked murmurs of the assistants in the other room.

“Lyf?”

“I- I need to go out there- I think I did something…”

“Are you sure? Your hair…”

Their face twists up in confusion as they grab out their phone and turn the camera to them, and the hair dye once in their hair seems to have disappeared, leaving it back to the white and rainbow mess it was before. 

“Oh.”

“Maybe we should-”

“Jon!” They hear Tim’s voice coming down the hall, and before they can even react he throws open the door, Martin and Sasha behind him. 

“What… What did you do to them?” He yells at Georgie, who gives Lyf an unimpressed look.

“She didn’t-” They look towards Martin, then Georgie, and whispers something to her.

“You- you look like the-”

“Picture- yes,” Georgie interrupts. “I’m afraid it’s not my place to comment on that one though.”

Tim’s next to speak though, and his voice comes out icy. “Comment on what. ”

“Tim, I’m sure it’s-”

“ No, Martin. You saw what happened out there, then we come in here and Jon looks like this. ”

“It- It wasn’t on purpose! I just- I was scared and-”

“So you decided to just do what?” Sasha cut in, “How do I know you aren’t like Michael?”

“So you did do it!” Tim yelled out at the same time, getting closer to the shaking mess that was Lyf. 

Losing her patience at how the others were treating Lyf, Georgie reached out and roughly shoved Tim backwards. “Back. Off.”

“None of you are in immediate danger, so you’re all going to let me talk to Jon for a few minutes, then, if they want, they’ll talk to you. You know nothing of what they’ve been through. Now get out.”

The three, apparently now somewhat broken out of their angry and fearful haze, stepped out of the office, Tim slamming the door behind him.

Quickly working to calm them down, Georgie wrapped Lyf up in her arms, holding them tight and just talking to them about anything but the current situation.

“R- Right, I have to tell them now, let’s go,” They said, breaking away from Georgie.

“Only if you’re sure.”

Walking out of their office, they’re met with the assistants, Tim’s pacing back and forth, scowling at the ground, but his face whips up to meet theirs as the door clicks shut. Sasha’s rereading the statements they’ve collected on Michael, and Martin’s just sitting there, looking blankly at his tea.

“I- Assume there are questions? But please just let me explain it all first.”

“Just um, one thing? Have you all listened to the entirety of that album?” Lyf asks, seeing them nod. “Right, well, that’s a relief. I suppose I can just answer most of your questions with one sentence then.”

“My name is Lyfrassir Edda, previous inspector second class of the New Midgard transport police.”

The other’s stare in shocked silence, till Sasha finally breaks it: “That’s not funny, Jon.”

“Lyfrassir,” Georgie corrects her.

“Lyf would be fine, I suppose, if you all decide to still be my friends after this.”

“This isn’t funny,” Sasha repeats, but she sounds less sure this time.

“No, it’s not,” Lyf agrees, “I’d say my life has been rather sad.”

“I- need a second,” Tim says, stepping out of the room.

“I need to check on him,” Sasha says, leaving the two with just Martin.

“Martin-”

“Not right now, J- Lyfrassir. God, how could you hide that for this long?”

“I’m sorry,” They say, looking down at their lap.

“No- I’m not upset at you, at least, not very. You know I don’t like being lied to. ”

“I know.”

“ But , I think I understand why you did. I mean, it’s not like we would just believe that, even working at a place like this. I’m more upset that you had to go through all of that, though.”

“Oh,” They reply, and the three settle into an uncomfortable silence as they wait for Tim and Sasha to return.

Silently, the two come back into the room, looking at each other, then Martin.

“Can- Can I ask what I did? When the music stopped, that is.”

Meeting their eyes, Tim pointed over to where Martin’s phone was sitting. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, but the aux cord that leads from it to the speaker was more of a melted rainbow mess than a wire.

“Oh.”

“Oh? You did that and all you have to say is ‘ Oh?’” Tim starts, but Sasha’s elbow to his side seems to shut him down quickly.

“I didn’t- didn’t know I could do that.”

“Do you, uh, have any questions?” Lyf asks, looking nervous.

“Yeah, I do, actually,” Tim starts, but he seems more like his usual self after his talk with Sasha, “Why on earth would you choose the name ‘Jonathan Sims’ if that’s Jonny D’Ville’s name?”

“I panicked! Georgie was right there and I just-” They mumbled out, hiding their face in their hands.

“...Wait, does that mean they’re actually space pirates?” Martin asked, getting a laugh out of both Lyf and Georgie. “Why are you laughing? I thought that was a perfectly acceptable question.”

“No- no it is-” Georgie got out between laughs, “That’s just exactly what I said.”

“What she’s trying to say is yes, they are.”

“You’re lying,” Tim gasps, while the other two just give shocked expressions.

“I’m not!”

After a shorter, more comfortable silence, Sasha pipes up: “At the end of the album, they said you were headed to the Hoddmimis mining colony. How’d you end up here?”

“Ah, I’d assume that would be the Bifrost messing up my tracking systems. They were completely offline for a while until… Ah, it seems I forgot to mention that actually.”

“Mention what?” Georgie pipes in, looking confused.

“Until I picked up Nastya, she fixed them for me.”

“She’s alive?” Martin and Georgie ask, as the two were the ones with the most Mechs knowledge. And the other two just look confused at the implications that she could die.

“I thought they were… immortal?” Sasha asks.

“Nothing is truly immortal, eventually the mechanisms keeping them alive have to stop working, they all know how they’ll die at this point, being alive as long as they have.”

“They’re not gonna stop it?”

“Why would they? I’d imagine the millennia they’ve been alive so far is more than long enough... Sorry- can we stop now? I- I can’t,” They mumbled, getting a nod from the others. “Thanks, um, I’m gonna head home with Georgie, I think.”

“Course, Lyf,” Tim said, walking over and ruffling their hair, “Stay safe.”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Georgie asks, giving them a concerned look.

“I- It doesn’t matter if I am, I need to see them.”

Giving them a considering look, Georgie nods her head, and they finish getting ready in silence. They work together seamlessly after all these years, Lyf gathering all the things Georgie needs for her hair while she gets dressed, then sitting patiently while she brushes out and braids theirs.

“Gonna go all out today?” She asks, holding up a box that they know holds their old clothes.

“Maybe I will,” Lyf smiles. “We are going to a concert, after all. Why not go all out?” They say, grabbing not only their clothes, but an old pair of steampunk goggles, and hung those off of their neck.

Once the two reach the cafe where they decided to meet up, Lyf hops out of the taxi and up to the other three, who are sitting around a large table, talking excitedly.

“Hey guys!” Georgie announces their arrival, sliding into an empty spot beside Sasha.

“Hey-” Tim starts, staring in awe at Lyf’s outfit as they sit down next to them. “Holy shit Lyf you look amazing!”

There are sounds of agreement around the table, much to their embarrassment, and they hide their burning face in their hands. 

“Thanks.”

“Seriously, you should do your hair like that more often, it suits you,” Sasha adds.

“Georgie did it,” They mumble, feeling credit was due, and trying to divert the attention from themself.

Getting back into the flow of conversation, they all talked about the concert, and everyone’s individual plans for it.

“I’ll probably need to get out during a few of the songs,” Lyf admitted, looking embarrassed. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Tim assured them. “Take as much time as you need. Just… talk to me if you need someone, okay?”

“What Tim said,” The other three said at the same time, then laughed at each other.

“Jinx!” Sasha and Georgie yelled.

“Right, is everyone ready?” Georgie asked as they reached where the mechs would be playing, getting nods from everyone in the group.

Lyf waited outside until Georgie said the lights were starting to do down, as they didn’t want to be recognized by them just yet, if it all. And their… distinct clothing wasn’t giving them any stealth points.

As they walk in and find the others, they can hear the beginnings of ‘Tales to be Told,’ and can’t help the grin that splits their face.

“It’s so much better in person,” They mutter in awe, a peaceful look on their face. There’s no Nastya, of course. But they know she’s okay, and that’s all that matters.

Then lean into Tim as the music comes to its peak, then dies down for introductions.

“...  And last, but most important: myself, Jonny d’Ville, your humble captain!”

“First mate!” The audience yells, outpowering the yells from the crew itself.

As the music continues, and Tim begins talking to Sasha, they go over to Martin and Georgie, who seem as awed by the performance as them.

“Aren’t they amazing?” They ask, then lean closer to the two, and start to point at each of the previously imprisoned mechs, telling stories about the three.

Their face twists up at the mention of Odin, and as her song comes on, but they don’t say a word until Raph’s finished singing.

“God I hate her,” They deadpan.

Laughing, Georgie elbows them. “Really, I hadn’t quite gotten that impression from the monologue before the song.”

“Oh shut up,” They scold, with a fondness to their voice.

The five of them quietly bicker back and forth between songs until Lyf hears Jonny walking the crowd through the repair of the black box, and they freeze, before saying something to Georgie and running out. As they escape, they just barely hear the beginning of ‘Red Signal.’

In their panicked running, they don’t see the person sitting on the sidewalk outside until it’s too late, and they trip over them.

The other person flinches, pulling out a gun of sorts and aiming at them as they mutter apologies. Before they can even process what they’re seeing, she drops the gun, eyes going wide.

“Lyfrassir?”

“Nastya? Oh god- you’re here!” They say, crouching down to hug her.

“You… survived?” She asks, her accent as heavy as always as she checks them over for injuries. “How?”

“It was years ago, Nas, I’m fine. It was the B- Bifrost probably, was dead then I wasn’t. I- I missed you.”

“I missed you too, I guess,” She grumbled out, then smiled sadly. “Immortal then? 

“Ah, maybe? I haven’t really tested it .”

“Right then, Do they know you’re here?”

“Who- No, stupid question. No, I- I’m not sure if I’m ready yet, to be entirely honest, but I can’t miss this chance. Why are you here? I thought you said you weren’t ready to see them yet.”

“Times change, I miss them,” She responds simply, patting the ground next to her a few times so they sit down.

“Hey Lyf? They just finished Terminus if you-” Tim starts as he sees them, but then his eyes focus on Nastya.

“Ah- Tim, this is Nastya. Nastya, Tim.”

“Tim,” Nastya repeats, nodding her head in a greeting.

“Oh! You’re Nastya! Lyf’s told us all about you!”

“Tim,” They groan out as Nastya raises an eyebrow at them.

“Only nice things, I hope?”

“Ugh, I hate you two,” They say, punching Nastya jokingly in the shoulder. “I’m heading back inside, if you’d like to join us?”

“Ah, yes, I  suppose it’s time I face them…”

“Together,” Lyf says, grabbing Nastya and Tims hands. “Let’s find a way to get backstage, shall we?” 

Going inside, they round up the archive crew and do introductions as everyone chants along to Drunk Space Pirate.

Under the cover of chaos, they find an exposed door and set themselves up in the room where the Mechanisms seemed to have left all of their things. An uneasy silence settles over them and everything seems too loud and quiet at the same time.

“Do you want to wait outside so I can see them first?” Lyf asked.

“Ah- That’ll probably be for the best. Thank you.”

“Can, um, sorry, can you guys leave too? The Mechanisms are… unpredictable at best, and I wouldn’t want any of you to get hurt,” Lyf asks, nodding as all the others head out a back door to where Nastya was waiting.

After a few minutes of lonely silence, they hear walking down the hall and hold their breath as the door opens and Ivy steps in.

“Oh, Lyfrassir!” She said, walking over and stopping a few feet away with a smile on her face, then a frown. “I’m sorry we didn’t come looking for you, but given there was only a 4% chance of you surviving, and a 78% chance of us getting stuck in the Bifrost looking for you, we couldn’t risk it.”

“No, no it’s okay Ivy, I understand… you’re okay, right? No ill effects from it?” 

“Nothing bad! Raph and I worked on testing everyone when we got back. You’re okay?”

“Ah- yes, of course.”

Ivy frowned, looking them in the eyes, “There is a 97% chance that was a lie, given the time of your escape and the audio artefacts on that recording of yours.”

“Sorry, I just- When will the others be here?”

“Everyone should be back soon, most likely in under a minute-”

She’s cut off by the door opening once more, and Marius steps in and sits down on the ground, looking down at his feet and wiping his eyes.

“Did something happen?” Ivy questioned.

“Ah- shit, you’re in here. Nothing-” He finally looks up, eyes locking on Lyf. “Is that really you, Lyf? Ivy, this isn’t some sick prank, right?”

“You wish, Von Raum,” Lyf finally responded, smirking.

“God, how did you survive? Are you okay?” Tears were leaking down his face again, and he looked to the floor.

“He’s been having a hard time with this album,” Ivy explains, “Reminded him of-”

“Ivy I swear to god-” Marius started, throwing his goggles at her, but he missed, and as the door opened again he hit Ashes straight in the face.

Without missing a beat, they grab their gun and shoot Marius where he sits, then finally notices the others in the room.

“Ivy,” They nod in greeting, then look towards Lyf, who seemed unphased enough by this to tip them off. “You are?”

“Lyfrassir Edda,” They bow with a smirk, imagining Nastya outside, and the stories she told of Ashes.

“Cocky bastard,” Ashes grinned, “I can see why Marius likes you.”

They try to stammer out a response, shocked by the second comment of Von Raum enjoying their company. Before they can make a coherent response, though, they hear Marius start to stir again, and walk over and kneel to him.

“Good aim,” They tease, bringing their hand under his chin and tilting it up so his eyes meet theirs.

“I take back everything good I’ve said about you,” He mumbles, letting his head be held up by them.

“You admit it then?” They pull their hand back with a smirk, watching his head fall back against his chest.

Laughing, they wait, leaning against the wall as the others come in. Introducing themselves to everyone but La Cognizi, whose wings fluttered happily as she saw them. Jonny, less pleased to meet the person with who he shared a voice with, just grumbled.

“Right, I- I have someone to show you all now if you don’t mind. Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Walking out to the others, they gave a smile and a thumbs up.

“They’re ready for you Nas, do you want me back in with you, or?”

“Could you bring Jonny out for me? He- He deserves to see me first.”

“Of course,” They said, giving her a reassuring smile, and going back in to grab Jonny. “Jonny? Can you come outside with me real quick?”

“If you try anything I will kill you, Marius be damned,” Jonny grumbled as he walked out, getting a glare from the aforementioned Marius.

“Of course,” Lyf assured as they walked out, then turned to him with a serious look in their eyes. “But if you mess this up, I’ll ruin your life for as long as I’m alive, deal?”

“You’ve got some guts kid. Deal.”

Nodding, they continued forward and around the corner, where they were met with Nastya and the others.

“Nas?” Jonny breathed out as he saw her, then ran to her and wrapped her in a hug.

Eyes widening in surprise, Nastya awkwardly wrapped her arms around the shorter man and patted his back as he sobbed.

“Nas?” Lyf asked over Jonny’s sobbing, “We’re gonna head home, I’ll send the others out, okay?”

“Thank you,” Nastya nodded.

Chapter Text

Upon reaching Georgie’s, it was like a switch flipped in Lyf, and they collapsed into the arms of the person nearest to them, shaking like a leaf.

“Oh- uh, you good there, boss?” The person, apparently Tim, asked, awkwardly patting their back and sending a look to the others, daring them to say anything. “C’mon, let’s get you moved over to somewhere we can sit, yeah?”

“Mmm,” They mumbled out, letting Tim pull them over to the couch and collapsing on top of him as he sat down.

“You okay?” Tim asks, softer this time, giving Martin a thankful look as he sets down two cups of tea.

“Yeah,” They reply, then again with slightly more conviction. “Yeah, I just- it’s a lot, after all these years.”

“Of course,” He assures, lifting his hands to Lyf’s hair before stopping to give them a questioning look.

Nodding, they readjusted so Tim could more easily reach their hair, and cradled their warm mug between their hands. They let themself enjoy both the warmth of it, and the warmth radiating from Tim.

After a few moments of silence, with just the soft murmuring of the others talking in the kitchen, Lyf spoke again.

“Y- you know, they had the recording right there and they still messed up the story,” They choked out in an almost joking tone right as the others walked into the room, getting a questioning look from not only Tim, but everyone else.

“I thought you said it seemed pretty much verbatim?” Georgie asked, curiosity in her eyes.

“I- I thought they did- but I saw some of their music laid out on one of the tables when I was talking to Ivy- they don’t even know I was the one who did it,” Lyf explained, tears running down their face.

“Did what?” Sasha asked.

“In- In red signal- they had the person singing as ‘Void.’ It- It wasn’t though, not entirely, that was also me. I said those words. I- I couldn’t s-stop, I can still feel them leaving my mouth, being pull- pulled out like teeth.”

“Oh, Lyf-” Georgie began as their breath started to speed up.

“And- and almost every night I can hear it running through my dreams, or even through my own mouth-”

“Lyfrassir, you know it’s not your fault, right?” Sasha asks softly. Lyf’s eyes meet hers, looking over her face for any sign of mocking or sarcasm, then they shrug, looking back down at the ground. “I mean it, it’s not.”

“She’s right, Lyf,” Georgie cuts in, but she knows it’s unlikely to change much. They’ve had this conversation more than enough times to know how it goes.

“I’m the one that said it though, if I had just let the prisoners explain instead of fixing that stupid black box then maybe-”

“Sasha’s right, Lyf,” Tim repeats Georgie’s words.

“I can still feel the words leaving my mouth Tim,” They choked out after a few moments of quiet. “I still couldn’t even talk without feeling like it would happen all over again for over a year after I got here- I was so scared-”

“I know,” he says softly, wrapping his arms around them and talking to them as they calmed down. “I know.”

They stay like that for awhile, listening to the others as they talk about the day, and try to enjoy the moment. They’re here, the Mechanisms are here, and their friends are here, everything was going to be fine.

They’re back there now, in their dreams, and the feeling of when they first found the cell empty was running through them. 

It’s an odd feeling, being back here. They haven’t had many dreams like this since they started working at the institute. Mainly just the ones of Naomi Herne and a few other statements, though those based off of the written ones felt less real.

“The prisoners have disappeared, through twenty inches of solid steel and fifty heavily armed guards. I should have listened.”

As they walk further into the cell, they look to where the Mechanisms belongings should have been. Even when they broke out their things would be there. All of it is gone this time, and they know the group of prisoners won’t be coming back.

They can’t really explain the emotion they felt at this. It had been quite the mixture, though. Anger at them for leaving them here to the Bifrost, for letting their home fall like this. Relief, at them being safe, away from it all. And even a void of emotions, missing people where they’d always had someone, even if that someone was an ill-conceived anchor made up of the three immoral immortals that inhabited their daily life.

They sit on the floor of the cell now, regretting, mourning and celebrating their last moments in it with a bottle as they speak to their recorder, not too unlike the tapes they now have to use.

“They were right, of course. I've chartered a small ship, and as soon as I've finished this bottle I'm setting off for the Hoddmimis mining colony far from the Yggdrasil system. I'm not stopping there, though. I’ll just refuel and keep going. If anyone hears this report in time, I suggest you do the same.”

Of course, no one would ever have a chance at getting their report on time, as evidently, the Mechanisms had somehow gotten their hands on it, but they couldn’t have known that at the time, and no one would have believed them otherwise.

“Inspector 2nd class, Lyfrassir Edda. Signing off. Good luck.”

It’s funny, in some sort of twisted way, that that’s how they ended it. As if any amount of luck would have ever saved their system from the Bifrost.

They make it all the way to the ship, like they always do in this dream, but they’re unsure if the colours would even be worse, given what’s coming. And then it starts as expected, the static begins to build, people on the radio pleading for information and all they can do is listen. Too scared to reach for the mic, to speak their warning into it.

Then there was nothing, just the dark, oppressive sky and the deafening silence for far, far too long.

They remember it more clearly now, the moment when they first saw Nastya, floating through the now-existent stars and clutching to her small sheet of metal.

It was new, the feeling as they picked her up, the sound of another living, breathing person. Not the warmth you’d expect though, Nastya was never warm. 

“Quicksilver blood will do that,” She said when asked, as if that was supposed to be obvious to them.

It was only then that they made the connection, as obvious as it should have been before then.

“Oh, you’ve met them then?” She asked with a sad smile. “I wish I could offer you some information on their whereabouts, but…”

She’d told them everything in the oppressive silence, more than she’d probably ever meant to, but anything to fill the void was better than keeping her secrets.

She’d learnt theirs too, though through a much more filtered point of view, as anything they told her was thoughtfully written out.

She talked about anything as she worked on fixing up their ship. And once that was all done, and the stories all told, she sang.

Originally, they’d detested the songs, as of course, Nastya had to start with the one Von Raum kept trying to sing, but they grew to love them.

She’d even begun to teach them the violin, carefully instructing their hands as they flew through the empty void of space. They miss it, maybe she’ll teach them again.

They remember the moment they came upon Earth as well. Both of them excitedly looked towards the planet before worry crossed Nastya’s face. They went to ask, but can’t remember if they actually did, as the next thing they remembered was Georgie, and her odd sort of worry, lacking any of the fear you’d expect from the situation.

Later, they’d asked her if she saw any portion of their ship, but it must’ve just disintegrated, either via Bifrost or just Earths normal atmosphere. They’ll have to ask Nastya later if they remember.

They wake up slowly after that, shuffling a little bit until they felt the person beneath them start to move.

“Hmm? Oh, my apologies Tim, I shouldn’t have fallen-”

“Mmmm, shut up and go back to bed,” Tim grumbled out, “I would’ve moved you if I cared.”

“Ah- Right, right. Of course.”

They leaned back against Tim, feeling the warmth coming from him much more acutely after the lack of it they’d felt from Nastya in their dream. Her cold fingers adjusting the violin and bow they’d held oddly in their grip.

They wake up with a shock much later to the sun shining in their eyes.

“Calm down,” Tim’s voice comes from the kitchen, “Sasha’s covering for us. She and Martin went in.”

“But we have the statement giver coming in today and-”

“And you’re in no state to do that,” Comes Georgie’s voice, dropping the Admiral on them, who they pet gratefully after grunting at the impact.

“If Melanie complains, for some unknown reason, about having to tell her story to one of those two, I’ll inform her that you would have been much worse,” She smirks.

“You know her?”

“Course I do, I sent her there. It’s the best I can do for sending Sarah her way.”

“Sarah…?”

“Baldwin. She needed someone else on her crew.”

“Sarah Baldwin…” Lyf repeated, “Wait, Tim, can you call Martin and ask him to bring statement #0122204 back, or uh, it’s the statement of Nathan Watts. Oh, and Melanie’s statement! So I can cross-reference the two.”

“Course, boss,” Tim said, doing a mock salute as Lyf rolled their eyes.

“We aren’t even at work, Tim.”

“And? You get the funniest look on your face when I call you that.”

“I do not!” They yell indignantly, throwing a pillow at him.

“You tell yourself that.”

“Great, thank you, Martin,” They say as Martin reluctantly hands them the file.

“You know I don’t think you should be working outside of the institute,” Martin says, frowning.

“Yes, yes. I know, but I think I’ve actually got something… here!” They say, skimming over Sasha’s neat handwriting till they come to the name Sarah Baldwin.

They hold it out to Georgie, pointing at Sarah’s name as they begin to explain.

“Considering the descriptions line up, and Sarah Baldwin has been missing since August of 2006 when she went missing near Old Fishmarket Close in Edinburgh. I’d say that whoever Melanie was working with wasn’t her. I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing,” They gestured at Watts’s statement, “The anglerfish, took her.”

“Oh!” Sasha yelled, “I’ll look deeper into that, tomorrow. And contact Melanie with the results.”

“Thank you,” Lyf nods, giving both Tim and Sasha their things as they get ready to leave.

“We’ll get lunch together sometime, yeah?” Tim asks, then turns to Georgie. “You too, It was nice getting to properly meet you.”

“Of course! I’ll have to invite Melanie over some time, so all of you can properly meet her as well.”

~

“Right, you’re all ready?” Lyf asks as they all start to grab their things, getting various affirmations from the group.

The walk there is rather uneventful, to their relief. They’d met up with most of the mechs a few times since the concert over lunch, but never with the others, and the idea of them all together was starting to stress them out.

It wasn’t that they didn’t particularly trust either of the groups, they didn’t, but it was more that they were worried about the two sets getting along. They two were wildly different, but they suppose the sheer amount of years the Mechanisms had been alive would make them that way with everyone.

When Lyf gets to the address the Mechanisms gave them, they’re shocked to find it’s just a normal apartment building. They suppose it makes sense though, given how little time any of them actually spend on this planet.

Steadying themself, they knock sharply against the door and see it get quickly swung open by Gunpowder Tim.

“Ah! Nice to meet all of you at last!” He yells out, “Come in!”

And then the introductions began. Both Tim’s got quite a laugh out of the matching names, while Jonny was less than pleased to hear of Lyf’s name thievery.

“You snitch,” They growled, elbowing Georgie, who just laughed.

“Why on earth would you take Jonny’s name?” Nastya asked.

“I panicked! Georgie was right there and I just-”

“Hid your name but not that you were from space?” Georgie interrupted.

“I didn’t say it was a good choice,” They grumbled.

Looking around, they saw the other Mechs had now all broken off into groups. 

Sasha was engaged in what appeared to be an exciting conversation with Ivy, but closer listening revealed it to just be an intense discussion on archiving, and their favourite systems to sort things by.

Tim was, unsurprisingly, engaged in a conversation with Gunpowder Tim and, more shockingly, Von Raum.

Looking around, they found Martin and walked over to him.

“You should have seen the fires-” Ashes continued, ignoring their presence to continue talking about the destruction of their home planet. “Here, I’ll get Jonny, we’ll sing it for you.”

“Not thinking of doing any arson in the Archives, are you?” Lyf asked, causing Martin to jump.

“Christ! Where’d you come from- of course not!”

“Joking, joking,” They held their hands up in surrender. “I’ve just heard Ashes has that effect though- ah, there they go-” Lyf started, getting cut off by Ashes bass as the two began Lucky Sevens.

“God the neighbours must hate you,” They mumbled, getting Marius’ attention.

“Ha! As if. We’ve got this whole place bought out. Jonny got tired of the noise complaints, and we’ve specifically banned him from murdering anyone on this planet. Murder here wouldn’t bode well for our reputation.”

“Oh, of course, I should have known you’d want an entire apartment building rather then a house,” They responded, voice laced with sarcasm and rolling their eyes.

“That you should’ve,” Marius agreed, smirking.

Later, after everything had more or less died down, people broken back into groups, they found Nastya, laying facing the ceiling in the hallway by a heater, listening to the electronic hum it made.

“Hey Nas,” They said, laying down next to her.

“Lyf.”

“You miss her,” It wasn’t a question, but Nastya answered anyways.

“I do. My assessment of Aroura was… unfair. It’s not like I’m the exact same person I was all those millennia ago, not built out of the same things. Why should she have to be?”

Lyf hummed, thinking. “You’ll be leaving soon then?”

“Not for long, just a few months with the other Mechs. You’ll be okay?”

“I’ve been so far.”

“Yes, yes. Of course. You’ll contact us if you need anything though?”

“Of course.”

“Good… good."

Chapter Text

“Right,” La Cognizi handed over the file she was holding, a collection of all the tests she’d done on the Bifrost while imprisoned. “Take those, look them over if you need to.”

“Ah- Thank you?”

“It’s just a copy, so don’t work about it getting damaged or anything. And here,” She handed them the copy of the work she’d been doing on them the past few months, “Is the copy of everything I have on you.”

They smiled, taking the file gratefully. Luckily for them, her… questionable morals relating to science didn’t seem to come into play when they specifically were the ones being tested on.

“Hopefully you won’t need this, but based on what I have on earthly medicine, it won’t work on you.”

They grimace as they take the bottle of painkillers Raph’s holding.

“If I end up needing these, you guys better come back here at your earliest convenience,” They joke, remembering how little falling from literal space had hurt.

“Oh shush,” She swatted them with her wings, turning to leave with a smirk, then stopping in her tracks, and turning back to them. “And, as Ivy said, don’t touch that table. We need to investigate it further.”

“You’ll be okay?” Nastya asks as the others begin to leave.

“I always am,” Lyf jokes with a sad smile.

“They’ll be fine,” The Drumbot pipes in, pulling Nastya along. “We’re only going for a few months.”

They watched the group of pirates leave, staring at the door as it closed. They knew realistically the others would be fine, but it was more about missing them than the worry they would feel had it been anyone else.

The next few days went by as normal, but of course with their luck, as soon as the group of immortals left, they all had to go and get themselves into danger.

“I see you…” They say, getting up from their desk to kill a nearby spider. “Shit!” Lyf yelled out after accidentally knocking a hole through the wall and destroying their shelf, which got Sasha’s attention.

“Lyf?” She called out as she walked towards their office, “Are you alright in there?”

“Yes, yes, just… a spider.”

God they hated those things, of course, they’d find something like that on earth. Evil things.

“A spider?” She laughed, finally entering the room and seeing the hole in the wall, “What, did you hit it with one of the extinguishers or something?”

They grunted, gesturing at one of the smaller files on their desk.

“ That did it? I swear, I’m surprised those cheap shelves even hold the statements at this point.”

Sighing again, they opened their mouth, presumably to comment further, but before they can, they’re cut off by Sasha stepping and forward and taking in a quick, shocked breath.

“Look,” She waved her hand at the wall they’d managed to dent.

“Ah, yes, I suppose the shelf must have managed to dent it as it collapsed, I’ll have to inform Elias-”

“No, it- it looks like it goes straight through,” Sasha said as she got even closer, and stuck her face straight up to the hole in the wall, grimacing at the odd smell coming from it, earthy, in a rotten sort of way.  “I thought that this was an exterior wall?”

“It- It should be. There are no other rooms that way. Wait-”

“No, it looks like it’s just a layer of plaster-”

“Shh,” Lyf whispered, as they pulled her back and listened intently, catching the faint sound of wet writhing, then they saw a small, silvery worm fall out of the wall, landing on the floor with a small noise . “Shit! Sasha- run!”

They pushed her towards the door right as the full pile of worms came through, latching onto their hands as they grabbed for their tape recorder, much to Sasha’s horror.

Finally grabbing it, they sprinted out of their office and shoved it in their pocket, closing the door and leaning against it as the squirming sound intensified.

“Guys?” They both swung their head up to see a frightened Martin, and froze. “Is everything alr- Christ!”

His eyes locked on the bottom of Lyf’s office door, where worms had begun to squirm out from.

“The CO2! Get the CO2!” They yelled to Martin, who quickly sprung into action.

In a moment of panic, Lyf tugged off their sweater and stuck it under the door, still leaning against it regardless of how awkward the position was. Martin, who thankfully, was now back, blasted the escaped worms before pulling the two of them into document storage.

Pushing away from Martin, Lyf quickly ran back to grab the recorder they’d left in their sweater pocket, getting more worms on them in the process, but not finding the recorder.

“Shit! Lyf, your hands!” Sasha yelled, finally getting a good look at them and the group of worms burrowing into them.

“I just… uh… let- let me think!” Lyf yelled, swatting Martin and Sasha off before closing their eyes and just… pushing the worms out?

“Lyf. What the fuck.”

Martin let out a strained and startled laugh at Sasha’s response, reaching behind a box of files to pull out a small bag.

“I- I can’t get them from the other places…” They trailed off, panicked.

“I- I got it,” Martin said, holding up the corkscrew he’d taken from the bag.

“Drinking in the archives?” Sasha asked with a pained gasp as she adjusted her position and felt where a worm had burrowed into her.

Shaking his head, he moved towards Sasha and offered to help, cleanly removing, then disinfecting where the work had been, and bandaging it up.

“I used to have a knife in here, but I started thinking that, well, cutting into someone laterally wasn’t really the most efficient way to get them out, and they seem to be quite slow burrowing in a straight line so, given their size, th-the corkscrew just seemed to be the better option.”

Sasha and Lyf just stared at him, a sad and shocked look on both of their faces. He hated it, the looks of pity they gave him, why was it so shocking that he could be the one to come up with the great plan for once.

“Look, you guys got to leave your home every day, got to go home, even. Okay? I didn’t! I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to do when… when Jane finally found us, Lyf. Found Georgie’s home.”

“... Thank you, Martin,” Lyf replied, softer than he’d expected after his outburst.

“Enough stalling, Lyf,” Martin said when they opened their mouth again, “I do still have to take those out.”

“Can- can you fix this, first?” They handed the tape recorder they’d grabbed to Martin, who sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Sasha, take this,” He handed her the corkscrew and gestured towards the worms, “And take those out.”

Gritting their teeth, they let Sasha reach towards them, removing the worms with a shocking amount of pain.

They’d yelled, of course. Who wouldn’t after feeling any amount of pain for the first time in about 5 years?

“Shit! Ow- How- How did that-” They said through gasps, getting a surprised look from Sasha.

“I thought you said you didn’t feel pain?” Martin asked.

“I don’t! Didn’t. I don’t know,” They trailed off, gesturing for Sasha to continue, more prepared this time.

After a few more painful minutes, both Lyf and Sasha were free of worms and neatly bandaged. The stress in the room was building as the three of them heard Prentiss break through his office door, and move into where the assistant’s worked, then into the empty break room, leaving behind a few worms in each of the corners.

“Why record it?” Sasha asked, breaking the tense silence.

“What?”

“Before, in the office. It, it was stupid going for the tape recorder like that, and then when you dropped it out there–”

“I said I was sorry! If I’d known Martin had another one stashed in here, I never would have…”

They threw their hands up as they trail off, unsure of where to go with that sentence. They never would have what? Put themselves in more danger? It’s not like they could die.

But Martin and Sasha can.

That was it. They weren’t the ones put in danger by that. Martin and Sasha were. The two were too loyal, would try to save them even if they didn’t need it.

“No, it’s, it’s fine, just… I just don’t understand. I thought you hated the damn thing. You’re always going on about it.”

“I do! I did. I just… I don’t want to become a mystery. I don’t want another world - universe even, to become a mystery. I refuse to become a part of another goddamn mystery.”

“What?”

“Look, even if you ignore the walking soil-sack out there, and the fact that we are probably minutes from death, there is still so much more happening here. I’ve studied this planet, I’ve gotten Raph’s reports on it. Whatever’s happening here shouldn’t be. It’s not even the Bifrost. We have nothing .”

They let themselves slide down the wall they were standing against, barely sitting at this point.

“Three hundred years from now, whatever’s happening here isn’t happening, if Tim is from this version of earth, that is. Recording it is my best chance of solving this and stopping another planet from falling into its doom.”

They gesture at the odd holes dotting their arms, which were healing at a distinctly normal speed, and continue.

“If- If somehow I die, either as wormfood or… or something else. Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened, and how to keep this planet safe.”

“You don’t think that would… put them off?” Sasha asked, sitting down next to them as Martin awkwardly alternated between looking at them and out the window.

“Gods… I hope so. Only an idiot would stay here for as long as we have,” They said with a bitter laugh.

“W-Wouldn’t that make us all idiots?” Martin piped up, glancing around nervously, looking for more worms.

“Are you saying we aren’t?” They cocked an eyebrow at him. “You haven’t been able to go home for months because of this job.”

Martin rolled his eyes and shrugged, refusing to admit they were right, but not arguing the point either. He knew that would be a losing battle, given the circumstances they were currently in.

The three fell into another quiet, everyone looking themselves over for worms and flinging their heads to face any sudden movements, fearing more worms.

“Can you see what’s going on out there?” Sasha finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Ish,” He made a gesture with his hand, “When did we last clean these doors?”

“What can you see?” Lyf asked, going to stand up, then hissing in pain as they put pressure onto the palms of their hands, falling back to the ground and glaring at Sasha, who gave them a smug look, gesturing for them to stay down.

“Worms seem to have backed off a bit. There’s a few lurking in the corners, looks like they might be… waiting? Ooh, ooh hey, there’s the other tape recorder!”

Martin pointed towards the open part of the room where it had been pushed to by the worms after the worms got through the door, it lays motionless near Tim’s desk.

“Can you see any sign of Prentiss?”

“No, no. Just the worms I mentioned earlier. What do you think they’re waiting for?”

“Tim.”

They had blurted it without even thinking, but now that they said it, they felt their blood run cold. 

“Shit!” They yelled in response to their own words.

“Oh god!” Sasha yelled at the same time. “He’s still out at lunch! Quick, someone call him. Tell him not to come back inside.”

“Don’t bother,” Lyf said as Martin reached for his phone. “There’s no service in here.”

Lyf and Sasha began to make more plans as Martin kept his watch out the window, looking and listening intently for any sign of Tim or Prentiss. Sasha had asked them if they’d be able to contact the Mechs but, of course, they’d left their only form of contact with them at home, left in some pants pocket of theirs.

“There! There, there, there! I see him!”

The two looked up in shock, Sasha standing up to bang on the door and out all the warnings she could think of, to no avail.

“It’s soundproofed. He can’t hear you!” Lyf yelled, hitting their head off the wall behind them in frustration.

Sasha, not acknowledging Lyf’s words, continued yelling and banging on the door, this time joined by Martin.

“Oh god. There she is, there she is.”

Lyf muttered something, trying once again to get up, ready to throw themselves out the door to get Tim, but once again fell to the floor with a hiss, the bites on the backs of their legs making themselves well known.

Sasha, sparing one more look to Lyf and Martin, seemed to tense up, and braced her hand on the handle of the door, getting horrified looks from both Lyf and Martin.

“Ah, screw this.”

“What, Sasha, NO!” Lyf yelled.

And before either of them could really react, she threw the door open and slammed it behind her, letting in a few loose worms but keeping the safety of the room surprisingly intact.

“…still working? Ah, okay. Test, test,” Tim said into the tape recorder with a look of confusion, turning back to the entrance of the archives. “What are you doing on the floor? Huh.”

Then, with a smug smile, he clears his throat and does his best Archivist impression, which is quite good, in his humble, unbiased opinion.

“Statement of Joe Spooky, regarding sinister happenings in the downtown old–” He’s cut off by the sound of a door clicking open then slamming in front of him. Then the quick clicking of a pair of shoes as they ran towards him.

“Tim, look out!” Sasha yelled.

“Sasha?” He flung his head up to meet her eyes.

“Behind you! Run!”

“Oh…” Tim said, frozen in place as he watched Prentiss move closer, small, silvery worms surrounding her.

Sasha threw herself into him right as some worms launched themselves out from under Tim’s desk, Prentiss moving closer as they untangled from each other.

There was a small, nearly silent moment as they sat there, getting covered in worms, then Sasha pulled them both up, a wave of worms separating them.

Tim, terrified and unaware of where the worms came from ran into Lyf’s office, slamming the door shut behind him and grabbing the first can of CO2 he found.

Sasha, unable to go back for Tim, ran to the nearest fire alarm and pulled it, bolting up into the main part of the institute to find Elias. Surely he had a plan for when this happened, right? 

As soon as she found him, she began a full rundown of the situation, explaining what had happened to each of them and what she thought they should do next.

Elias, seemingly ignoring her, held out a hand for the tape recorder she’d gotten from Tim and fiddled with it for a moment before she heard it click on.

“Right, tell me again, please.”

“You’re kidding.”

“You did bring a tape recorder. I just thought Jon would appreciate as many supplementary recordings as possible. For the record.”

She looked at him, face contorting as she outweighed the benefits of wasting time retelling the story versus figuring this out on her own.

“Well, for the record, if we don’t do something now, it won’t matter either way,” She settled on, sneering at him.

“So… these are the worms those two have been going on about?”

“The ones terrorising us for months? Yeah!”

Ignoring her outburst, Elias continued calmly. Talking all about how he had assumed they’d been overreacting. Sure, she’d said the same thing about Martin for a while, but this was neither the time nor place to talk about it, given at least one of her friends was most likely already dead, and the other two weren’t far from it.

“Look, Elias. I don’t know what you think is going on, but I have just seen thousands of… fleshworms pouring out of the wall! God knows how long they’ve been hiding! Tim might be dead, and the others…”

“Of course. The fire alarm was a good move, but it does mean most staff have evacuated, so we’ll have to deal with them ourselves.”

“Yeah, obviously! There are thousands of them, Elias.”

“Not quite what I meant. On Jon’s insistence, I recently changed the Archive’s fire suppression system to use carbon dioxide. Should have done it years ago, really –”

“So why hasn’t it gone off?”

“Because there isn’t an actual fire.”

“Then we set it off manually! We don’t have the time for useless discussion, Elias.”

“That shouldn’t be necessary. There is a manual release, a few floors down.”

“Wait. Wait. Will it hurt Martin?” She paused for a second, stuttering out more of the sentence, “Or- or Jon?”

“Almost certainly,” Elias said, cocking his head at the pause in her question, “Er, I’m not a doctor, but I know dumping a load of CO2 on people isn’t generally considered a good idea. I really don’t want to have to find another Archivist so quickly after Gertrude, but from what you say… it might be a mercy. You know the situation best, so…?”

“Let’s go,” She quickly decided, still feeling the worms digging into her skin, even though they were long gone.

The two of them made quick work down the first set of stairs, but as they reached the second, they were hit by a wave of worms, pushing Sasha down the hall into artefact storage.

As she walked, she reached down for her tape recorder, clicking it on a talking nervously into it. Explaining what had happened since she left them, and where she was now.

She was rambling now, about her history at the institute. Then she found it, the table she’d mentioned to them before.

“Oh, hey. I’ve found… I’ve found that table you and Raphaella were talking about. Don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Just a… basic… optical illusion. Nothing special… just- just a… wait-”

“Lyf! Lyf, I think there’s someone here. Hello? I see you! Show yourself.”

Sasha looked around, keeping the tape recorder clutched to her chest as she spun to face the noise echoing around her.

“Hello?” Another voice- Sasha, right?- said. “I see you.”

“I see you.”

Chapter Text

“Martin?” Lyf asked, gesturing for Martin to help them up, but he just shakes his head, glancing back down at the bandages covering their leg.

“Wait a bit, if we need to run, you can’t be worn out already.”

They sit in silence for a while longer, Martin looking attentive out the grime-covered window.

“Martin, what do you see?” Martin, not looking away from the window, makes a questioning noise. “Well, I can’t very well see from down here, and you won’t let me get up so- I need you to describe what’s going on. For the record.”

“Ah, yeah. Sure. So, um, Sasha tackled Tim and there was kind of a struggle, but she made it out of the Archives. That, that was about two minutes ago and she’s gone to get help. P-Probably. I mean, she- she couldn’t… she wouldn’t just run so… I don’t think the worms got any of them, but- but there was just a lot of movement and, and shouting and, and wriggling…”

“Stay with it, Martin. What happened to Tim?”

They didn’t mean to sound so rude about it, but between everything that’s happening, they were barely holding themself together.

“They got split up and he ran into the office. You said that’s where you made the hole. When you were recording. And they all came through, so… he’s dead-”

“We don’t know that!” Lyf interrupts, then there’s the sound of footsteps coming from the wall, barely audible over the squirming from the office.

“Why do you still even work here?” Ly asked, trying to ignore their current situation.

“Are you seriously giving me my review now?”

“No… We’re clearly about to die so doing a whole heart-to-heart thing doesn’t seem that far off, and, truth be told, the question’s been bothering me. You’ve been away from home for months, with the constant threat of… this. Sleeping with a fire extinguisher and a corkscrew. Even you must be aware that that’s not normal for an archiving job? Why are you still here?”

“Well- hmm. I feel I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck. I’ve typed up a few resignation letters, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hand them in.”

“Martin…You’re not, uh… You didn’t die here, did you?

“... A ghost? Really?”

“Well I- I didn’t use those words-”

They get cut off by a bang, and a large crack spreads up the wall. Martin pulls Lyf up and the two of them brace against each other, expecting the worst as another bang comes, then another, but instead of being met by Jane Prentiss, they’re met by Tim’s face.

“Hi, guys!” Tim yells to them, holding his dented fire extinguisher up in a greeting with an odd smile.

“Tim!” They both yelled, Martin rushing over to check him for any worm bites, Lyf nearly dropping back to the floor at the sudden lack of support from Martin, who grimaced apologetically.

“What the hell? I thought… how did you…?” 

“You made it!”

“Funny story really. I ran into the office, worms everywhere, horrible death and everything, tripped and fell in some boxes and there were like 20 cans of gas in there.”

“Are, are you alright? You seem a bit…”

“Fine! Fine! The gas… left me a bit light-headed. Not a lot of ventilation in the tunnels. Come on!”

“You want us… to go- go into the tunnels?” Lyf asks with a dumbfounded look. They hadn’t heard Ivy mention anything about tunnels before she’d left, but they’ll have to ask her for some more info once she gets back.

“Yeah! Actually, not that many worms in there anymore. I think they’ve mostly gone into the Archive. Although the ones down here are faster for some reason. And quieter.”

After checking Tim for worm bites, then a bit of stalling between Lyf and Martin, they made their way over to the hole Tim had crawled through and hesitantly stepped in.

The three of them walk for a while in silence, listening intently for the worms that put them in this situation. While there were definitely fewer worms down here like Tim had said, they were invisible in the darkness, and even the echoing of the tunnels didn’t seem to amplify their squirming.

Lyf clicked off their tape recorder. It was too loud, and they were nearly out of tape.

A wave of worms came through a few minutes later, pushing them to the fastest they could go with Lyf’s injuries.

“Shit!” Lyf yelled as they turned a corner, and they only heard two sets of footsteps. “We lost Martin!”

“What would you like me to do about it?” Tim asked, blasting more worms. “He’ll be fine, they’re all chasing us anyways.”

Pulling out the tape recorder, they turned it on a began to speak. 

“We’ve lost Martin, wait- he- he’s not dead, I mean… I don’t think he is, but the worms followed us, so he should be fine. Tim has managed to find what looks to be an actual trapdoor, so… we won’t need to bludgeon our way through any more drywall. I’m recording this in case –”

“In case the trapdoor opens back into the Archives and Prentiss is there to kill us.”

Lyf shudders, at least Tim would have the mercy of definitely dying. Hopefully, it’ll be quick for him, at least.

“In as many words, yes. Tim?”

Tim opens the trapdoor and they climb up into Lyf’s office. They both inhale sharply as Jane turns to face them. The gaping holes one might call her eyes locked with theirs.

“Archivist.”

“Ah-”

“-Shit.”

Much to their surprise, Lyf sees their communicator on the floor by their desk and launches for it. 

“Nastya, help-”

They manage to call Nastya and gasp a few words into it before they’re taken down by Jane whose worms we digging back into their legs and knock the communicator from their hands, then the screaming fills their ears. A horrible, echoing noise not dissimilar to the audio feedback of the Bifrost.

They blackout as they hear a worried voice come through the receiver, either from pain or the CO2 fire systems they hear turning on.

It’s Raphaella who hears it first, not Nastya, but she assumes the Aurora sent it through the whole ship, so maybe Nastya did hear it.

“Nastya, help-” Then a deafening scream, not from Lyf though, it didn’t sound anything like them, move like thousands of tiny screams.

Raphaella reaches for her communicator to respond, but there is no response, just the faint wailing of alarms under a current of writhing.

Turns out that everyone did hear it, as just a few seconds later there is two more announcements, one from Marius, and another from Nastya both telling them to get to the common room and for Brian to get them back to Earth, now.

The whole crew sans the Drumbot is there in under two minutes. They’d allowed themselves to get much more attached to Lyf than anyone else, given their apparent immortality.

It takes them just under an hour to get back, the chatter of Raphaella and Ivy bouncing theories off of each other drown out all the other conversations, and soon the whole crew is listening into them.

Nastya has her coat bunched up in her hands, knuckles even paler than normal due to her death grip on it.

Lyf wakes up, much to their surprise. They can still hear the ringing of the fire alarms, so it can’t have been that long. They go to sit up, being hit once again by that sharp pain. It’s everywhere now, not just their legs, and they fall back down with a gasp of pain.

Tim, they think, panic filling them as they force themselves up, ignoring the pain. They hear paper shuffling beside them and nearly flinch off the bed, getting Raphaella’s attention.

“Lyfrassir Edda I swear to God if you mess up those bandages I will find a way to kill you.”

“A week, Edda, ” Nastya says at the same time, punching them in the shoulder with a scowl. “We were gone less than a week and you still almost managed to die. Which I didn’t even know was possible. ”

“Ah- ow-” Lyf rubbed where Nastya had punched them, scowling back at her. “The other’s, are they-”

“Yes, yes, they’re fine… well, they’re alive. The only reason you aren’t with them is your distinct inability to look human when injured.”

“Alright, well, I need to go get their statements. Thank you, Raph-”

“Not quite, Edda. Take these, Marius managed to sneak into your office to grab them.”

She held out her hand, in it was a small bottle of pills, which they recognized as the ones she gave to them right before leaving. They chuckled, remembering what they’d said in response to those before she’d left.

Well, I suppose I was right in assuming that the Mechanisms would have to come back if I needed these.

When they finally got back to the Magnus Institute, Lyf was met with Martin charging at them, looking over their bandages to assess their injuries and apologizing profusely.

“Martin, Martin. Look at me. I’m fine,” They said, cracking a small smile as his eyes met theirs. “It’s okay, really.”

“They- They found Tim, who said you were with him but- but you weren’t. You were just gone. ”

“The crew got me, I couldn’t very well be treated by a normal doctor, could I?”

“Oh- No, no of-”

“Ah, Jon. I’m glad to see you’re doing well. Where have you been?” Elias’ voice cut off Martin’s, and there was an odd edge to it, behind his relieved smile.

“Just talking with the lovely ECDC people, you must’ve missed me,” Lyf replied, looking straight at him, then turning back to Martin. “Where did you say Tim was, again? I ought to go check on him.”

They fought to keep a straight face when they saw the look of shock on Elias’ face before he straightened it back out and stalked away.

“Oh- I- I didn’t-”

“Don’t worry, Ivy already told me, I just wanted Elias to go away. She doesn’t trust him, so neither do I.”

“You’re okay, right?” Lyf said after a beat of silence, seeing how pale Martin was. “Could I get your statement on what happened after we separated?”

Martin looked hesitant, “I… I mean, I  already told the police.”

“The- The police?” Lyf asked, suddenly aware of the police crawling the area. “Right, um, we should probably do this somewhere more private then? Georgie said I should invite the three of you back to ours for the night.”

Lyf managed to get both Martin and Tim to head home, but Sasha seemed… more reluctant than they’d remembered her being about Georgie and the Mechs. 

“Right, well, could you come down to my office for a moment, just to record this statement, then you’re all set to leave.”

“Really, Jon, this can’t wait? I’d rather head off. And I’m not very fond of the idea of heading back down to the worms.”

“Sorry, I just… I need to hear it. Please. And I have to keep watch. To be sure.”

“Right, let’s head down there then.”

Both of them grimaced as they passed by the first of the worm carcasses as they headed back in. The amount only multiplied as they went further, now mixed with some blood from their first encounter of the day, and even more, as they entered Lyf office, where Nastya told them she’d found them and Tim.

Sasha practically flung herself back as the two of them entered Lyf’s office and were met by Nastya and Ivy, who waved apologetically at Sasha, before grimacing a little and continuing to clean the area and gathering samples.

“Right, just, uh, stand there I guess,” Lyf gestured across the desk, to where the other chair used to sit. Now it was across the room, covered in worms and… whatever the unidentified substance Jane had been spewing earlier was.

“Statement of Sasha James, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, regarding the invasion by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July, 2016. In your own time.”

“Yes… Where do you want me to begin? I was with you until I ran out to save Tim. Then we were separated, and I fled into the Institute proper. I pulled a fire alarm, because the worms were following me, and I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. I went to Elias. We talked. We were going to save you, but the worms came, and I fled into the Artefact Storage room. You know I hate the Artefact Storage room, so it must have been bad.”

“Right, you used to work there, correct?”

“Yes, for three months. It was dreadful. I used to think that it was the most dangerous place in the Institute, before the worms. It was safe enough, though and the worms didn’t get in. I was there until the fire system deployed, then I ran out to get to a window. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that scream, though. I could hear Prentiss screaming even from there.”

“That’s when you came down here correct?”

“Yes, I returned to the Archives, thankfully all the worms were dead. You and Tim were lying there, still. The dead worms still half inside of you. The trapdoor was open next to you, and more were inside. I went over to check you and Tim were both alive, given the state of both of you, and I pulled you back to remove the worms.”

Furrowing their brows, they looked over to Ivy, who was staring dead at them, she must’ve caught that too.

“Are you alright?”

“Sorry, just… difficult to hear, you know. That’s when Nastya showed up, correct?”

“Yes, that sounds right. It was right after she left with you that Elias arrived with the fire brigade and doctors and the hazmat people. They talked to me for a long time, and I did my best to explain the situation. I’d told him that a doctor had already taken you. They checked me for worm-marks, but I was fine.”

How could she have been fine? Didn’t Sasha jump out at Tim when… no, they must be misremembering, she’d barely missed the worms.

“After an hour or so, we heard cries from the trapdoor. It was Martin. He was shouting about a body.”

“Sorry, what?” Then snapped their head up, shooting up from the chair they were in. “I ought to get going, thank you, Sasha.”

“Oh… alright then. Bye, Jon.”

Jon again? Had she always called them Jon? 

God, their head hurts, must be some side effect of the meds Raph made. 

“Right, Nastya, Ivy. You said you’d be coming back to Georgie’s with me?”

Moving back from their desk and turning off the recorder, they brought Sasha to the door and sank back into their chair.

Seeing that the tape was off, Ivy spoke up. “Lyfrassir, are you alright?”

“Ah- yes, of course, I just have a pounding headache, for some reason.”

“Really?” She stood up a bit higher. “Nastya, do you?”

“A bit, yeah. It’s going away now.”

“That’s odd, I’d assumed mine was just my mechanism acting up, but there’s little to no chance yours would do that, Nastya. And Lyfrassir doesn’t have a mechanism.”

“Can we just… I want to go home,” Lyf said from where their head was pressed against their desk, getting Nastya’s attention. 

“Of course. Ivy, do you have what you need?” She gestured to the vials and bottles Raphaella had sent the two of them with.

Gathering their things, they started to head out, just for Lyf to walk almost face-first into Elias, who was standing outside of their office, his hand held up like he was about to knock.

“Elias”

“Jonathan,” He ran a hand over his face. “Jon… as your boss, I’m telling you to go home. Look. You look like a mummy. You need rest.”

Ignoring the urge to stay here just because Elias said not to, they nodded, a gestured for Ivy and Nastya to follow.

Once they were out of the institute and on their way home, Lyf turned to Ivy. 

“Earlier… Sasha seemed so… shocked that I was alive.”

It wasn’t really a question, just a statement, but Ivy could tell that they needed some sort of answer.

“She kept calling you Jon as well, and I’d say it’s an 89% chance our headaches are connected to her, in some way. Given how they left as soon as she did.”

“You don’t think… she said Martin found a body. I get that she was upset when I got the job but you don’t think...”

“She was supposedly next in line for your job, yes?” Ivy asked, seeing them nod. “I’ll look into it.”

Arriving at Georgie’s is quite the experience.

She was immediately on them, not unlike How Raphaella and Nastya were when they woke up.

“Lyfrassir Edda! I leave you alone for a singular day and you almost get yourself killed!”

Backing up slightly, they hold their hands up in surrender. Gods, those three are worse than their mother was. It’s odd to have so many people willing to fight them for risking their own safety.

“I did not!”

They try to stand up taller than normal, to prove a point, but Georgie just mirrors them. She’s always been the more stubborn one out of them, which is saying something.

Backing down, they sign and follow Georgie inside. She’s set up the couch, presumably for Tim, but he’s not there.

“Martin’s waiting for you in the kitchen, said you wanted to get his statement. And Tim’s in his room, Martin refused to have him sleep on the couch.”

Following the information Georgie gave them, Lyf went to the kitchen.

Martin’s there, of course, and he’s pacing back and forth, tea clutched in his hands with a scowl on his face, like he was deep in thought.

“Martin, are you… alright?”

Startling, he almost drops his tea, “Christ Lyf! Why do you walk so quietly?”

Shrugging, they sit down at the bar and gesture for Martin to sit across from them.

“Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant, etcetera, etcetera. Go.”

“Right. Well, I was doing some background checks for case 0081709, when you and Sasha started screaming, so I went to ch–

“Martin, start with what I don’t know, please,” Lyf snapped, before realizing how harsh the words sounded, and grimacing at Martin. “I- I was with you for almost the whole time, what happened after?”

“Sorry.”

“Ah, it’s fine, I just… I only need from when you got separated. From when we lost you in the tunnels.”

“No, I mean… I’m sorry I left you.”

Martin was wringing his hands together now, refusing to look at them. It was almost painful to look at.

“Oh, Martin,” Lyf sighed out as they reached forward, awkwardly patting their hand on Martin’s arm, trying to comfort him.

They were never skilled, in that regard, but hopefully the gesture is picked up by Martin, who looks like he needs it right now.

It’s nearly ignored in the outpour of words that follow, every explanation of what went wrong, which was a rather unfair assessment of the situation, given Martin wasn’t the one who separated them with a wall of worms.

“I know. It’s fine, Martin. I’m fine… Everyone’s fine, I just need you to tell me what happened next, and then it’s finished.”

“Alright…” 

It was a bit of a rambling thing, at first. But Lyf’s silent encouragement seemed to help Martin pull more of the details out as he went on.

It all seemed pretty normal, in comparison, until he got to the body. Gertrude Robinson.

After Martin finished his statement, Lyf excused themself to their room, using the excuse of sleep so they would be left alone.

No one believed it, of course, but it wasn’t worth it to call them out on it.

Gertrude Robinson’s was actually quite a normal death, which was exactly the problem. Three shots to the chest. She was murdered. There was no strange creature, no Bifrost artefacts from their arrival. Just someone who wanted her dead, and made sure to go through with that want.

Sasha seemed almost too easy of a suspect, now. Her tapes were missing, along with the tapes for cases 0051701 and 0160204.

Chapter Text

“Lyf!” Georgie repeats, now right in front of their door banging on it. They don’t answer. Again. “Lyf I know you’re in there, stop moping.”

Sighing, they begin to untangle themself from the blanket, rubbing at their puffy eyes with their hair loose and hanging around them. At some point, they must have fallen asleep, as it’s now nearing 8 o’clock. The meds Raphaella had given them were starting to wear off, and they could feel it. 

Before they can fully untangle themself, though, Georgie opens the door and her face softens slightly.

“Lyf…” She’s inspecting their face now, and there’s no way she doesn’t see the grimace on it. “The other’s are eating dinner, takeout, but…” Sighing, she looks them over, taking in even more of their appearance. “It’s alright, you sleep. I’ll save some for you.”

Turning back to the door, she leaves, and Lyf deflates even more, collapsing back onto the bed and straightening out their blankets. They weren’t sure if they could get back to sleep, with the pain shooting up their limbs at every movement. They’d meant to ask Georgie to grab their mads from Raph, but she’d left before they could get a word out.

Reaching for their nightstand, they grab their notebook off of it and start scratching down some notes. Suspects, clues, and every bit of information and statement they’ve gotten so far.

They nearly threw their notebook across the room when Georgie opened the door once more.

Holding up the glass of water and pill bottle in surrender, she says, “Nastya dropped these off for you, said Raphaella made some adjustments after she and Ivy went home, so they won’t wear off within the hour like the other ones.”

Holding out their hands, Lyf pretended to not notice the shake in their hands, which had only gotten worse as they rewrote the day’s events. Georgie’s eyes were on them, but she didn’t mention it either, just giving them a reassuring smile.

“Oh, hm, thank you. And tell Nastya I send thanks to La Cognizi if she’s still here.”

~

“Right, um,” They shuffle around their papers, which are scattered around their bed. “Supplemental to the event’s of the 29th July, 2016.”

“Gertrude Robinson, the last Archivist at the Magnus Institute, and my predecessor, was murdered. There were no worms to infest her, no strange, ghostly apparitions to warp her mind, or caves to entomb her. She was killed, in the Archives, by someone who used a gun, and that scares me far more than any spectre or twisted creature. Because that means someone here is a killer. Someone wanted her dead, and they got exactly that.”

Flipping over to the next page in their notebook, they continue.

“I don’t know why this is bothering me so much, given my status as near-immortal, and backed by a crew of true immortals. The police will investigate thoroughly, I have no doubt, but… given their track record in this matter I am not optimistic.”

“There must be something here, something that I’m missing,” They begin flipping through their notebook again, more frantically this time, looking for something, anything . “I dread to think of how far it’s hidden beneath the surface, if not even Ivy can find it. I… I think Gertrude Robinson must have found it, and I think that is why they killed her.”

“But if it was Sasha that did it. If Sasha was the one that pulled that trigger, then what exactly did Gertrude Robinson find? What was worth killing her over.”

“Some of my tapes are missing. Maybe it was Prentiss, but she seemed more interested in the written files, and the other tapes seem fine. In addition to the tape Sasha lost earlier, the tapes for cases 0051701 and 0160204 are gone. I don’t know why these two specifically, but they must have some greater importance if someone thought to take them during the infestation.”

“I’m still missing a statement from Tim, but I have most of the information on his whereabouts during the incident, so there is no need to bother him about it just yet.”

“I’ll need to have Ivy look further into Sasha, get some more information on her.”

“I’m going to figure this out, and I’m not going to stop. They’ll have to figure out how to kill me first.”

“End recording.”