https://youtu.be/QtiMsKehlNI

Once Scarlett finished giving him directions, they exchanged numbers so that she could give them in text form. As he followed them as efficiently as he could, managing to avoid setting off any traps on the way, he found himself in front of a house. It was, like the rest of the houses in this street, detached, surrounded with a wooden fence, and made from red bricks. It seemed perfectly normal on the outside, but somewhat larger than its neighbours. He knew he had the right place, at least: emblazoned on the wooden door was a white, metallic number 34, the one Scarlett had told him.

He eyed the door carefully, making sure it was just a normal door with nothing potentially explosive on it. Once his search turned up dry, he took a deep breath, reaching up and giving it a firm knock. Then he stood back and waited for someone to answer. That took quite a while, and he couldn't hear anything going on from behind the door, either - must've been imbued with Sound Natura. Just to be sure, he gave another, lighter knock before standing to the side of the door.

And eventually, the door opened, causing Inigo to look up and see Galileo himself looking down at him with cold eyes. He was dressed in his signature red suit, his arms crossed, and as their eyes met, Inigo could feel the murderous intent emanating from him that he was doing a good job of hiding. Now that had him thinking...

"...how did you find this place, Red Joker?" the older man asked, breaking the silence between them with words that seemed to lack emotion entirely. "You haven't been watching me, have you?"

"No, not really." Inigo replied calmly, placing a hand on his hip. "I'm here to talk to you."

"Naturally, but that doesn't tell me how you got here."

"A bit of asking around. A lot of trial and error." Inigo lied. "But I'm here, now; not that you made it easy."

"I suppose I'll have to put a little more effort into the bait next time." Galileo shrugged. "You wanted to talk, yes? Come on in."

"I'm wearing warm clothes." Inigo shook his head. "I can talk right here."

At once, Galileo scanned Inigo's outfit - a long purple jacket, thick black sweatpants, and what looked to be a black sweater underneath. He sighed slightly. "Ah, to not be able to regulate your body temperature. Just think, you could wear your favourite outfits all year round." he mused. "I pity you, Joker."

"I manage." Inigo said calmly.

"But, alas, I am a very busy man. If you won't come in, you'll have to get this done as quickly as you can." Galileo looked down at him again. "What was it you wished to talk about?"

Inigo hummed a little, knowing there was nothing Galileo could do out here without alerting the neighbours. He looked around the place, seeing things were still rather quiet - he seemed to be the only one outdoors right now. His dead eyes looking into Galileo's cold ones, he said, "I suppose I should get on with it now. Why me?"

"Pardon?"

"Chainsaw murderers. Spree killers. Fires. You've blown up buildings, a gas station and a couple televisions so you could stop me. You've even killed people directly, just to guilt me into giving up - and you've tried to murder me directly, too." Inigo said, staring closely at the man.

"What of it? Am I on trial, now?" Galileo scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Is there a point to all this? Enemies sometimes kill each other, you know."

"Am I really worth the effort?" Inigo asked. "As far as you know, I'm just a guy. I'm not even your only enemy, surely."

"I would disagree with that. The Mikado declared you an enemy to Libera for a reason." Galileo raised an eyebrow. "I'm simply following her orders."

"From what I can gather, there's a bit of a conflict of interest." Inigo shook his head, raising a finger. "Everyone else in Libera still seems to want to capture me and take me to her. She still wants me alive. You want me dead."

Galileo's face scrunched up in annoyance as Inigo spoke. Just now, he was beginning to remind him of his daughter once again, and the thought of that got on his nerves. "This doesn't surprise me, of course. I can tell you're not her biggest fan." he continued. "But you can't be doing all this just to spite her."

At that, Galileo shook his head, scowling at the prospect. As if he'd be so petty. "I believe we had this discussion during our last meeting." he said, quickly masking his anger. "Perhaps you'll remember what I said. Since you fancy yourself so clever, let's see if you can do something so basic."

And at once, Inigo began to recall everything that had gone down in the confrontation at Luster Street. The words exchanged, the arrogant sneers, until the ocean ceased its flow over one statement in particular:

"You must understand, I simply can't have rats scurrying about."

So his suspicions were confirmed, and he shot Galileo a look that was, for lack of a better term, disappointed. "...all this, just because I'm a 'rat'?"

https://youtu.be/PCM38PblSsA

Galileo looked down at him with a familiar smirk, oozing nothing but smug contempt for his very being as he put his hands together, almost like a brief clap. "The rodent can think." he said in false awe. "What will they come up with next?"

He examined Inigo closely, making sure it was safe to continue before doing so. "You come in here, poking your little snout around, and expect me not to bring down the claws?" he said, feeling an urge to pace back and forth but recognising there was a time and place. "You know too much to be let go. This is my town, Red Joker. And, as we all know, a cat in gloves catches no mice."

"Just as I suspected." Inigo frowned. "None of this is about Libera in the least. It's about you. It all makes sense; I'm not as big a threat to Libera as I am to you."

"A threat? Don't flatter yourself." Galileo raised an eyebrow. "You're simply an annoyance at worst - more a gnat than a beast."

"But it still feels pointless to me, even now. All this time, effort and resources, all to pin down a rat..." Inigo shook his head, closely observing Galileo's smug face growing more confused. "...that you can't even match up to."

"Do you mean to imply that you're my better?" Grant asked, his tone betraying equal parts curiosity and annoyance. "I knew we called you the Joker, but this is simply absurd!"

"What's absurd is you thinking you were the cat in this equation." Inigo countered. "I've been a step ahead of you since this hunt began, Grant Monarich."

At the mention of his name, Galileo visibly flinched, and at once Inigo gave a tiny smirk, satisfied at having been able to shake the asshole even slightly. "It's funny, isn't it? I know a lot about you, but you don't know a thing about me even though you're not the one being hunted." Inigo said, returning to a mildly critical glare. "I know you teach geography when you're not being a criminal menace, you're a high-ranking member of Libera, and you're going all-out to avenge your wife while neglecting the reminder of her memory she left behind."

"Don't you dare speak of her!" Grant hissed, clenching his fists. "I don't know how you obtained such knowledge, but you have no right!"

"...my apologies. That was out of line." Inigo nodded in concession. "But you have to know, I had nothing to do with her death. Killing me won't bring you closer to your goal."

Galileo took a deep breath, silently seething for a while and looking down on him. "And who said I can't set a more short-term side objective?"

"Nobody. But like I said, it's pointless." Inigo replied, looking up with his smirk returning. "You can't win against me. This should be clear by now, Grant."

"I haven't lost yet, Red Joker. And I shall not, either!" Galileo announced, teeth clenched and eyes fixed in a red-hot glare. "Just you wait! As you burn to a crisp under my gaze, you'll wish you'd never stepped foot in this town!"

"Losing your nerve, Grant?" Inigo said, causing him to make a 'tch' sound. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me. You've piqued my interest and made an enemy of me. So I'm gonna crumble your throne, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

"If your objective here is to get me to leave you alone, you're doing an exceptionally poor job." Grant growled, glowing white embers slowly rising off his hands. His hands trembled, arms tensing in anger before he just barely managed to contain himself. "Never mind leaving Ruben, I just want you out of my sight!"

Before Inigo could respond, Grant shoved him out of the way, knocking him on his ass with the sheer force of his push before slamming the door in his face. Inigo looked up, mildly perturbed by the sudden and frankly uncharacteristic show of physicality, before humming a little, closing his eyes and getting up to dust off his clothes. He placed a hand on his chin, turning around and walking away from the house as he looked up to the night sky.

"...and just like that, it all falls into place."

.........

Inigo didn't leave immediately, needing to do a little poking around that took a good while before he was satisfied. Naturally, his first move following this was to get out of town, and to this end he'd decided to cross his fingers that Grant hadn't planted bombs in the railroads and take a train, dropping him off at Arc, the closest thing to a home he had.

It was of no object to check into his typical inn for the night - frugal as he was, he tended towards a cheap room like always. Sitting down on the bed dressed in his nightgown, his thoughts drifted towards Iago, wondering what he'd been up to all day, and what kind of death toll he'd racked up in Inigo's own absence. He frowned slightly, wondering if Iago was perhaps putting himself in danger by being so aggressive. He couldn't say that thought comforted him, but at the very least it seemed to shield him and leave him relatively free to enact his plan.

"Tomorrow is the day..." he murmured to himself, slowly entering his sheets and lying down with a sigh. "I've only got one shot at this. I think this should work. I've gathered enough information..."

He knew what his plan was, but he had to think of a way to brief it to his fellow Spectrums. They needed to act correctly. He picked his phone up, sending a message into his group chat before allowing the stream of messages to flow in, answering what he needed to. But the whole time, he was thinking, second-guessing this course of action. But this was the best thing he could think of in order to win against Grant Monarich. And the exciting prospect of that almost overrode any feelings of hesitation.

"...well, we'll see how the game unfolds after I've made my move..." he sighed, putting his phone down and closing his eyes. And then, he began to drift off, thinking of Scarlett and her situation. Hearing about her baggage only gave him more reason to hate Grant - but if all went as planned, he wondered what would come of her. But that would have to come later. Now was the interim. At that, he dozed off, entering the land of dreams.

https://youtu.be/m347gRsIZY4

Or, as he found out the moment he entered this strangely lucid state, the sea of dreams. It was nothing he wasn't used to - the dark, watery depths were a sight he was all too familiar with when dreaming. But right now, he felt in control - he felt awake, somehow. He opened his eyes widely, seeing a group of glowing purple lights in the distance, with lines connecting them. They were arranged in the form of a constellation - specifically, the old formation of Noctua, the owl.

"...this is new." Inigo thought, holding his breath tightly as he stared at the stellar owl. Moving his arms, he swam closer to the light, raising an eyebrow. "This whole dream is even weirder than usual. Wonder what this means..."

"It means you have finally been found, magician of mist."

As those words were spoken, Inigo felt like static was flooding into his brain, distorting each word and compelling him to put his hands to his ears, his teeth clenched.

"What the fuck was that?" he thought, still shaken by the unsettling noise. He shook his head, pressing a hand to his forehead and trying to calm down.

"Worry not. It is only me." the voice spoke again. "I mean no harm."

"Doing a great job there." Inigo noted, continuing to draw closer to the light source, only to find it didn't seem to be going anywhere - he knew he was moving forward, but the stars seemed to remain equidistant. "Who is this? What do you want with me?"

"I simply wish to observe your endeavours. You are an intriguing one, magician of mist." the voice answered. "Through your deeds, you may grow closer to me yet."

"And...who are you?"

"I am many things. I am entropy, uncertainty and despair." the voice spoke, its words no longer hurting Inigo's ears quite so much. "But for now, I am watching you."

"'Uncertainty' is about right. That didn't tell me shit."

"Perhaps when we next meet, I'll feel like sharing more. Perhaps I'll deem you worthy. Or perhaps not." the voice said, sounding about as casual as it could with its static-y reverb. "But now that we have made contact, expect things to be...different. Things will be unclear - and perhaps that will change when we next meet."

Inigo raised an eyebrow at that, feeling his mind go blank as the lights disappeared, leaving him alone in this sea of confusion once again. The dream continued as normal, but this time, he couldn't help but feel like he was drifting towards a destination.