A SMALL GAP IN MEMORY.

 1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY7:20 pm.

Space and time warped as Noche stepped out of the lighthouse-shaped portal. Dark mist trailed around her as the other three followed. In the distance was another lighthouse, this one of gold and black. The group wasn't visible from this angle, but they were there.

"You're welcome," Dia said.

Noche turned and stared at her dark counterpart. Comparing her own gold hair to Día's black. It was unnerving how similar they looked, yet subtly different.

"Thank you," she said.

Mary and Alice stuck to the side, talking to each other, but keeping an eye on the two.

"Have you noticed it's always night here?" Dia asked.

"Now that you mention it, yeah. Why is that?"

"I think its cause you don't want to see the sun."

Noche paused, contemplating what was just said.

"I died... Bled out at the bottom of DeathTech," Noche said. "That's how I woke up here... But everyone else was teleported here by you?"

"I had to teleport them at the exact moment you died," Dia nodded. "I totally didn't almost miss the deadline – I swear I'm not addicted to anime."

Noche scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"So I can't die. What about the others? Is there an afterlife for everyone else?" Noche bit her lip and paused. "What about Jack?"

Dia shrugged. "You are an exception, for everyone else death is still a mystery. I don't know what happens to a normal person when they die."

The blonde lowered her head and frowned. Dia placed her hand on Noche's shoulder.

"To be human is to require the unknown."

Noche shrugged off the physical contact.

"Don't... I don't want to hear your philosophical crap."

Dia raised both hands, took a step back, and sighed.

"Alright mom."

"Don't call me mom."

"Well, I was spawned from you. So that does kinda make you my mother."

"No."

Dia chuckled. A flash of gold surrounded by black mist became a portal in the shape of a dark lighthouse.

"I'll go before uncomfortable questions are asked," she said. "About those repressed memories... You've died a few times now. Hopefully it's enough. Focus on that lighthouse, let it guide you."

With those words, Dia vanished.

Noche walked back to Mary and Alice.

"So, bruh, who was that?"

"Uhh, well, you see, this place is kinda like a dream world. My dream world," Noche said. "And she is... Let's just call her a nightmare."

"A nightmare?"

"What else would you call a dark reflection of yourself?"

"Fair enough bruh," Mary paused. "So this is your dream world."

"Yeah. Weird, right?"

"Very."

"Apparently I have two VIPS. One is corruption and the other... Is this place?"

"What!"

"Yep. I, uh... Resurrect here when I die."

Mary didn't respond.

"Uhh... Mary. You ok there."

"I hate you so much right now. Are you serious?"

Noche's lips became a tight line and she nodded.

"Un-fucking-believable. That is so unfair."

The blonde shrank away. Mary covered her face with her hand and shook her head.

"I get a life-threatening disease, and miss goldilocks over here gets not one, but two world-shaking superpowers."

"Sorry."

"It's fine... It's whatever."

There were a few seconds of awkward silence between the two before Noche spoke up again.

"So I bled to death."

Mary didn't respond at first. Then she sighed.

"I saw... I... I admit, I was scared you were gone. Like really gone," Mary took a sharp inhale. "But I guess you're alright. So that's... Good. That's good."

Noche's eyes darted to the side, avoiding Mary's gaze.

"Still – you're as dumb as a bag of bricks," the dark-skinned girl snapped. "Challenging a behemoth monster like that! What were you thinking!"

Noche chuckled. "I wasn't. I was just so angry cause Jack..."

She stopped talking, letting her mouth hang open for a moment. For a brief instance, Mary gave her a sympathetic glance.

"We should go back to the group," Noche said.

"Alright bruh."

Moments later, the three of them turned to the lighthouse and encountered the group. Shaylin and Tak ran up to Noche while Boots, Raven, and professor Grim stayed back.

"N-Noche! Are you ok?" Tak stammered.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she paused.

"What about Dia?" Boots asked.

"She won't be bothering us anymore," Noche paused. "And I think I might have a way out of here."

"Gee golly gosh, you do?"

"I think... I don't know for sure. But I have to try. And it starts with that lighthouse."

Everyone turned toward the structure. Noche took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She walked past her friends and approached the lighthouse.

As her gaze solidified on the golden beam, a familiar sensation washed over her. It was cool and briny, like laying on the beach at night as the tides enveloped her. The experience was something she had at the last moment of every death. As if her brain responded to the point of no return by comforting her with something she loved most. The ocean.

The feeling had gotten too familiar. It sent her heart racing as the embrace of death tightened its grip around her. Noche's breathing became rapid – she didn't want to die again.

"No, I'm still alive," she thought. "I'll survive. Calm down."

She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. Noche forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. Her heart rate decreased as her iron will took control. The blonde opened her eyes and glared at the lighthouse; she would not be defeated that easily. Death loomed over her, and she stared it down.

A pinhole developed in Noche's left eye.

As if in response, the golden beam grew and shot out into the infinite night sky. It spun, ever so slowly, and gained speed second by second. In the blink of an eye, the light was moving so fast it was almost strobing. This lasted only a moment before it changed into a pure disc of light that filled the sky.

Images appeared inside the radiance – starting with Noche's decapitation from her perspective. As the scene went dark, a moment later, it revealed a pure white realm. In this memory, Galloway, the founder of Cross, stood before Noche. Skulking in the distance was the monster Creeps.

A conversation took place, but the light only revealed the sights; there was no sound. In the memory, Noche shook hands with Galloway and a moment later she appeared in the yellow room. The blonde sat down on a red couch and her eyes glazed over. Time sped up, Noche's appearance changed to an eggshell blue medical gown, and her hair was shaved off.

Months passed in the span of seconds as her hair grew back. The entire time a copy of her mother and father stood behind her, but both had television screens for faces. Then the room changed from energetic yellow to a somber blue.

The words This world lies drifted across one of the corners in the room. It was replaced by the words You're not sleeping as a wave of blinding light appeared from the window. The sudden flashbang sent the image of Noche screaming across the couch as she covered her eyes. Then those words were replaced by But are you awake?

The memory of the blonde stood up and turned to the source of the blinding light. She did not notice Galloway and Creeps lurking behind her. She walked towards the door, opened it, and before her was a small planet with a surreal, cardboard-like ocean. At the center of this planet stood the massive gold and black lighthouse. A second later she was engulfed by the golden light.

When it passed, she walked past the cattails and approached the gold and black lighthouse. Creeps and Galloway stalked her the entire way. Her hand reached out to the doorknob were the words How do you kill a concept? were engraved. Little arcs of lightning connected her palm to the brass as she loomed closer.

Underneath, Creep's bony fingers reach for the same knob. They grabbed it in tandem and turned. The door unlocked and Noche's eyes snapped open; she floated in a tube full of glowing blue grim gel. The liquid drained rapidly, the glass doors slid apart, and she fell out.

She was prone on the ground and coughing as Creeps lurked in the dark corner of the monochromatic room. A moment later, the blonde was running through the halls of DeathTech. It didn't take long for her to find the anglerfish soldier and the C4 explosives on the wall behind him.

A bullet whizzed past her face, drawing blood, and in response, Noche fired her first-ever dead light canon. The burst of lightning triggered the C4 and the explosion rocked the room. She ran through the dust and debris, before jumping out of the newly formed hole in the wall.

Noche fell by the cliffside and dove headfirst towards the ocean. She had fallen several dozen stories and was racing at terminal velocity. The waters were fast approaching and for a moment it seemed like she would land in the shifting emerald waves. Then the tides retracted to reveal an array of bedrock below.

Her head exploded into a shower of skull shards and brain matter. Creeps watched from the shadows of the beach as bits of Noche splattered everywhere. The corpse tumbled into a wedge between stones – the exact spot where she later found the skeleton after defeating the giant centipede.

The vision changed to Noche standing in limbo again. Galloway stood before her and together they walked towards the lighthouse door a second time. This time it led to a beach, however, when Noche stepped onto the sands the beach turned out to be a desert. That desert.

As Noche watched she almost turned away. The sight of that desert, even as a memory, was too much for her. Watching herself traverse through the sands was enough to relive the experience. Fortunately, the vision didn't last long. Medusa and Dreg appeared next to the unconscious blonde.

It showed her waking in a medical bed and Noche's heart skipped a beat when Cherries entered the memory. It showed her time at Cross, sneaking onto Dreg's mission, and her fight with Timmy Timebomb. Followed by Creeps, hidden within a smoldering building where a forgotten bomb had exploded after Noche's fight had ended.

When Noche was searching for evidence that Hectare had cheated, she found an old man holding a weather radio. What she did not see at that time was the man's face – it was Creeps. Nor did she notice when she failed the exams, when the nukes dropped, or throughout the entire base of DeathTech.

Not once did Noche notice that Creeps had stalked her the whole time. Always lurking in the shadows – just out of sight. Then the memory caught up to the moment they entered the bowels of DeathTech and in seconds Noche watched herself bleed to death on the floor.

It was a surreal sight and the blonde didn't notice her right hand drift up to her left arm. Then the vision changed to her waking up in limbo. Memories of Noche's adventures filled the sky, from meeting Grasshopper to fighting Alice as a giant wooden puppet.

When the memories caught up to the present moment the lighthouse showed itself. Inside that lighthouse's beam was another lighthouse. The effect repeated over and over like when one places a mirror in front of a mirror. It strained Noche's head and she was forced to turn away.

After a moment, darkness took over the world and the memories ended. The lighthouse went dim and all went calm.

"Ok... That wasn't very helpful," Noche muttered. "I seemed to have made a deal with Galloway... and Creeps has been stalking me ever since I escaped."

The blonde paused and stared back up at the lighthouse. If it had more to reveal to her, it wasn't going to do so now. She had overcome the terror of death, yet those newest memories were still vague. It bothered her.

"Whatever, the way out is through the lighthouse," she scoffed. "It's time we leave this place."