WOODEN PUPPET.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY7:14 pm.

Noche took a step back as the world rumbled. Before her, Alice's head twisted until her chin pointed towards the sky with a loud snap. Her skin turned to wood as she floated into the air, and as she rose higher she grew and grew. In a matter of seconds, Alice was a giant one-hundred-foot creature with an equally massive pocket watch hovering above her.

All three hands on the clock spun at accelerating speeds as strings descended from the numbers. They tied themselves to Alice's limbs as her head continued twisting until the chin faced the ground again. Except for her eyes, all her facial features vanished, yet despite no mouth, she spoke.

"The moon!" Her voice boomed from all directions. "The moon, the moon, the moon!"

Alice raised her massive arms, but as they rose echoes of them stayed behind, making it appear as if she had dozens of arms. Then a sniper rifle appeared in each hand – countless guns aimed in all directions. Raven was the first to react, creating a wave of telekinetic energy to pull the group away.

A thousand gunshots echoed around the void. Bullets flew in all directions as chaos was unleashed in a barrage of gunfire. Alice went on a rampage and attacked everything around her.

"Hey Alice!" Dia yelled and pointed to Noche. "Remember when she choked Mary?"

"I-I never choked Mary!"

The blonde's eyes went wide as the titan turned to her.

Dia whistled. "By Joe, she's pissed at you."

All went silent as the gunfire stopped. A mixture of purple and yellow clocks appeared in front of each rifle's barrel. The yellow clocks were labeled past and the purple clocks future.

"Woah... De Ja Vu," Noche murmured.

The simultaneous explosions almost looked like a firework. All the rifles fired in different directions and all the bullets vanished into their respective clocks. Noche stared as something wet dripped down her forehead. She brushed it with her fingers and they came back red. No, more orange than red, but it was blood. Orange blood.

A yellow clock labeled present floated above her head. A dozen purple and yellow clocks encompassed every inch of her body.

"Shrodinger shot," Alice's voice boomed.

Noche exploded into orange mist. Dia chuckled and melted into the ground.

The blonde woke up with a gasp – she covered her mouth with her hands and fought back the urge to vomit. She was in the yellow room again, but this time she wasn't alone. Dia was standing there, a grin plastered on her face.

"Hello again," she smirked.

"You!"

Noche lunged towards the tar harpy, who effortlessly dodged by stepping to the side.

"What, it was Alice who killed you," she snickered. "Relax, it's not like you can die... Permanently."

The blonde spun towards Dia, who grinned, and vanished into the ground. Her eyes widened and she scanned the area, but the tar harpy was nowhere to be seen. Noche rushed towards the door, ran past the cat tails, and entered the lighthouse again.

However, she found herself in a new location. A cold environment with white tile floors and walls. Heavy, thick chains that ended in meat hooks filled the ceiling above and mist drifted above the ground.

"W-Where the hell am I?"

An arm threw itself over Noche's shoulder – she spun to Dia who leaned on her like a used car salesman.

"Limbo! We're still in your limbo."

Noche shoved the harpy away.

"Get off me! I'm still pissed at you attacking me!"

"What's wrong? I thought we were close," she cackled.

"You killed me!"

"So? I thought you wanted to escape?" She grinned. "The only way to do that is to retrieve your repressed memories."

"I'm going to bash your face in!"

Noche threw a punch at Dia, but the harpy dodged and laughed.

"Relax – our fight was just a warm-up. I'm done fighting now that giga Alice is here."

"Do you think that matters? You could have killed someone!"

"Pfftt, it was all under control. I was only scaring them," she said. "Besides, you don't want them thinking we're on the same side? Do you?"

Noche hesitated a moment.

"That's right – Boots thinks I'm some evil entity that can take control of your body," she said. "He'll blame me for any sin I commit... Because he doesn't know you gave me permission."

The blonde grit her teeth as Dia walked around her.

"How would he react if he saw us getting along all buddy-buddy? How would the group react if he told them what happened to that mother and daughter?" She continued. "Me attacking you and your friends was the best way to trick everyone into thinking I'm the bad guy... And not you."

Dia clapped her hands together and spun to face Noche.

"See! I'm still your scapegoat! Combined with the fact I'm helping you regain your memories, I think I deserve a raise!"

"Fine! Whatever! We'll put our fight on pause... For now."

Noche crossed her arms as Dia grinned and slapped her shoulder.

"Great! Now, Noche, I'm sure you've noticed you're a V.I.P by now."

"Yeah, I'm a corruption user, I've figured that much out. Don't know how to use it, but I know I am one."

"You're also immortal, but that's not all. Limbo is more than just infinite resurrections."

Noche perked an eyebrow.

"Limbo is your mental domain. You control everything in Limbo – including space itself. You can use Limbo to teleport," she said. "Corruption, immortality, teleportation. You have a lot of powers, don'tcha."

"I can teleport?"

"You can teleport yourself and others. How do you think Mary vanished?" Dia grinned. "What do you think that flash of gold surrounded by black mist was."

Noche blinked, then her eyes widened. She summoned her sword; it appeared in a flash of gold encompassed by black mist.

"See! You've been using it this whole time and you didn't even know it," Dia's grin widened. "If you want to escape this place – you'll need to remember how to teleport more than just a sword."

The blonde was stunned. She stared at her dark blade for a few heartbeats.

"How do I use Limbo?"

Dia summoned her scythe.

"I mean, if you want, I can kill you again," she smiled. "Eventually you'll get over the trauma of dying. That should clear up those repressed memories."

"No! I'm not dying again!"

Dia laughed but was interrupted by the world rumbling.

"Uh oh, seems like little miss time puppet is having quite the rampage."

"How am I going to fix Alice?"

"You could kill her."

Noche glared at Dia.

"I'm kidding."

The two walked deeper into the room. Fog dispersed to reveal countless human corpses hanging on the dozens of meat hooks hanging from the ceiling.

"What the fuck!"

Noche spun to Dia.

"Don't look at me. This is your mind."

"Is this real?"

"Probably not."

"Probably?!"

"Well, Limbo is a strange place."

Noche turned away from Dia but came face to face with the corpse of a child. A little girl of about four years old with her intestines hanging out, frozen solid. Her faded eyes still held the dread of her final moments. It stunned her speechless.

"Come on, it's only a dead kid," Dia said.

"For fucks sake Dia... This is... I can't..."

"You better get used to sights like this," the tar harpy sighed. "If you never want to fail again, you'll encounter worse."

The blonde turned to her companion, but couldn't muster a glare.

"Noche, the road you're treading will lead to a mountain of corpses," Dia's expression was serious. "I'm here to make your burdens easier. But you still chose this path."

"Shut up."

"You can't avoid it forever – especially in a world that reflects your own mind."

Noche gave a solemn stare to the child's corpse one last time, before moving forward. Unaware of the meat hook slithering towards her ankle like a snake. In a flash, Noche was lifted high into the air. She screamed as she kicked at the chain.

"Really now Noche, stop feeling guilty and get down from there," Dia said.

"Fuck you Dia, get this thing off me!"

"Listen here, Captain Ahab. Does this look like the nautilus to you?"

"That's two separate books."

"Point is, this is your mind. A realm of thought! Or rot. Get it? Cause your old bodies are rotting right now!" Dia shouted. "If meat hooks are wrapping you up, it's because you feel like you deserve it."

Dia shrugged and sighed as the chain wrapped tighter around the blonde.

"This world is a reflection of your subconscious. Every voice you've heard, every creature you've met, everything you've encountered is a manifestation of your deepest thoughts," she said. "You've literally designed your own personal hell."

"So what? I'm being wrapped up cause I feel... Guilty?"

"You tell me!"

Noche closed her mouth and frowned.

"Do you have any idea how much it rains in this world when you are sad?" Dia snapped. "I get water is your thing, but fuck man, it really pours here!"

"Alright! I get it!"

"No, I don't think you do! Think about it! You are a god here," Dia shouted. "A god! You have as much control over this reality as you would your own imagination!"

Noche blinked.

"You need to stop treating this place like the real world, and treat it more like a lucid dream," she continued. "Concentrate. Will the chains to unwrap."

The blonde closed her eyes and focused. More chains descended from the ceiling and started wrapping themselves around the blonde. It didn't take long for her to be enveloped in a cocoon of metal. Dia scrunched her brows.

"Did we go off script?" She muttered.

Chains slipped off Noche as she hit the ground with a thud.

"Ahh, we're still on track."

Dia walked over to Noche and pulled her up.

"Get up God-che. It's time we stopped Alice."