V/n had had nightmares like these before, with the red-robed people. They'd appear with no warning, swarm her vision and overwhelm all of her emotions. She'd only ever seen them there, so obviously this was just another one of those terrorizing dreams.

This was one was a tad bit more peculiar than the others though; she found that she couldn't force herself to wake up as she did usually.   

No matter how hard she willed it, V/n still stood in the same spot, surrounded by red legos and minions running away in panic from the oncoming cultists. They weren't chasing the minions though, they were slowly encircling V/n. They seemed wary of approaching her, for some reason, as though she might melt their skin or make them bleed out of their eyes if they got too close to her.    

V/n was still dazed. She didn't know what was going on with her, but she couldn't force herself to move, let alone attempt to escape. She felt a surge of panic overtake her as the cultists began to slowly close the gap.

"Why can't I move?! Why can't I-" There was a rush of wind. V/n's feet were no longer frozen on the concrete floor. Someone had hold of her in their arms, swinging the two of them upwards onto another storage roof.

 Her rescuer released her from their arms, causing V/n to tumble onto the surface. "Ugh, my elbow. . ." She probably scraped it. She confirmed the theory at the sight of the crimson blood pooling at its edge. 

God, this guy had obviously never done the whole rescuing thing before, he needed to work on that. 

But wait, who had rescued her? Shaking herself out of her daze, she rose to answer the question for herself. 

She stopped suddenly. One look at the one who had saved her from certain doom made her turn on her heel in a huff and stomp away. "You can't just walk away from me like that!" Mysterion yelled. "Watch me!" V/n yelled back. She continued marching away. Mysterion groaned and ran up beside her. "I don't even get why you're mad at me," He growled. "Is giving up villainy really such a terrible thing for you to do?"

"It is when it's the only thing keeping food on the table," She hissed. "You can't just expect to waltz into my life and uproot my entire livelihood!" V/n stopped walking along the units and turned her edged glare into his eyes. "My sister and I have been doing this ever since we were kids." She got closer to him, backing him up dangerously close to the edge of the unit. "It's worked for us thus far, and there's no way I'm changing that for some self-righteous hero I barely know!"  

Mysterion inhaled. One push and he would be nothing more than a spattered corpse on the cold, hard, unforgiving ground. Upon noticing this, V/n scowled and backed away. She was mad at him, but she didn't want him dead. Not that much, anyway.

"What are you even doing here?" She muttered weakly.

Mysterion sighed, but without his usually gruff accent. "I wanted to help you." He stated. He pulled the two blue folders out from behind him. "I figured if I got here sooner, I'd be able to exchange these for your sister." V/n snorted and gestured to the cultists searching for her below. "Yeah, If you were here like, 15 minutes ago we probably wouldn't have to deal with them. Oh, I should probably mention, I found that cult we were looking for." 

"Uh, yeah. Kinda caught on to that." He replied nonchalantly. "Listen, I know you're still pissed off at me, but. . . I'd like to call a truce." V/n glanced at him sideways. Well, well, how the tables have turned. It seemed like only last night, she had called for a truce under similar circumstances. She tried to maintain her scowl, but she couldn't help but let out a small snort of laughter. "Well, isn't this a familiar scene," She chuckled, narrowing her eyes in amusement.  

Mysterion rubbed his shoulder awkwardly. He looked kind of nervous to V/n. Without another word, he pulled something out of his back pocket and shoved it into V/n's arms. Confused, she looked down. Her breath hitched.

It was that box of band-aids she had given him on the night when they first met.

"You kept it?" V/n whispered, turning the crumpled, barely rectangular box around in her hands. "Uh, yeah," He muttered, staring at his feet coyly. "I had initially thought to get it tested for your fingerprints, but the police said they had a bunch of missing people to find, and wouldn't let me use their scanner." He gestured to her wound. "Figured you could use one for your elbow." 

V/n nodded. She opened the box, pulling a single band-aid out. She fumbled with the annoying band-aid paper; dropping it in the process of trying to stick it on her wound. "Ah crap," She sighed, reaching down to grab it. "Here, let me do it." Mysterion knelt to pick it up, then gently pressed it onto V/n's elbow.

They were so close to each other now that she could feel his breath on her face. He did not attempt to move, even after the bandage was secure on her arm. The h/c(ette) felt her cheeks grow warm at their closeness, not sure if she should pull away or close the gap between them. She stared into his icy blue eyes. From the first meeting at the bus stop, she had a good feeling about him. Maybe he felt the same chemistry she felt. Maybe. . .

V/n swung him into a tango lean, their lips mere inches apart. Should she make the move? Should she back away? No, she was the one who pulled him in. She looked at him again. He looked at her like he wanted her to do it, as though he was waiting for something like this to happen. 

There was no going back. 

Almost shyly, V/n puckered her lips and scrunched her eyes shut, leaning in.

The two's lips were just a second away from touching, their passionate feelings for one another entwined. Finally, after 16 slow burning chapters of this garbage book, V/n and Mysterion kisse- 

"Ew, What the hell V/n? I told you that the lovey-dovey crap you were doing with that kid from school was disgusting, now you're frenching with the enemy? Jesus Christ, dude."

V/n gasped. She knew that voice. She let go of Mysterion, running to where she had heard Virus. Mysterion groaned, heaving himself up and trudging after her. And to think, he almost reached 1st base with his crush.

There he was, on the T.V. where that cultist just was. He was tied to the same chair like on the ransom tape, but he looked more ruffed up and his gas mask was gone, exposing his- her- more feminine face. Cassandra's fatigue was reflected through her tired, dull green eyes, and her scruffy short hair was scruffier than usual, if humanly possible. 

"Cassandra?! I'm here to rescue you! Where are you?" V/n called out, desperate to find her sister before the cultists could. "Uh, where am I? The same place they've been keeping me for the past week. Then that asshole raccoon boy waltzes in and just turned on this camera and-" "SHUT UP YOU DUMB BITCH!" 

The fat raccoon boy jumped in front of Cassandra, slapping her in the face. "Ouch, You motherfucker-" He hit her again. V/n's sister looked as though she wanted to kick the shit out of this guy, and V/n could relate to her anger. "YOU GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER, YOU CLOSETED FURRY!" V/n screamed. The Coon glanced at her boredly, as if only then remembering she was there. "You're V/n?" He looked her up and down, unimpressed. "I thought you'd be more. . . tough-looking, with Chaos whining about you like a little bitch all the time." 

V/n flexed her knuckles and gritted her teeth. "Why you little-" She began to advance towards the television as though punching it would do some good. Mysterion grabbed her arm. "He's trying to get a rile out of you," He said, switching back to his husky tone. "Let me handle him." V/n cast a hesitant look at the hooded hero. Sighing, she nodded and took a few steps back.

"Aw what, hiding behind your boyfriend?" The Coon jeered. Mysterion glared at him, unfazed. "What the hell did you do, fatass?!" He snarled. "Oh, you want to know what he did?" Cassandra butted in. "He's been working with the cultists all along! They were paying him to-" Cassandra got cut off by The Coon slapping his hand over her mouth. 

"That's none of your business Mysterion,"  The fat boy scowled. "All that you need to know is that these weird cultists have been searching for your V/n friend for a long time and came to me for help. I just had to concoct an elaborate scheme to trap her here."

V/n stared up at him, shocked and appalled. Was he the true mastermind behind everything? Every bad thing that had happened to her since she had moved to South Park,  was it all apart of his 'elaborate plan' to get her cornered at the U-STOR-IT? 

Then there was the whole thing with the cultists. . . what did they want with her? The memory of her mother flashed across her mind, e/c eyes shining into her own intensely as M/n recounted to run from the ones in red robes. Then there was that dream with the baby where her mother's name was mentioned. . . 

Everything that was happening to V/n all at once began to overpower her emotions as if she truly was in another nightmare. She was surprised at herself for not breaking down and crying at all the transpiring events. Instead, she stood up on shaky knees, glaring up at her sister's captor.   

"What does it mean?!" She choked. "You've been working with them, right?! That means you know why they want me!" V/n's hooded companion gave her a concerned glance. "V/n, there's no need to-"

"No no, I think it's time we tell the deathless girl the truth." A different voice rang out. Oddly enough though, the voice wasn't blasting out of any of the surrounding speakers. V/n looked down and saw the head cultist, his crimson hood hanging off his shoulders, greying hair and wrinkled face exposed.

"You!" V/n roared. Even if she only saw a shadow of his face in a dream, she recognized him as the one who had taken away that baby. The one who was behind all of this. She broke into a sprint, just about to leap off the unit roof to connect her fist with his face. Mysterion swiftly grabbed V/n by her waist at the last moment, twisting her arms around her back. She struggled and grunted against his firm grip. "Just listen to what he has to say to you," He murmured in her ear. "It might help us make sense of all this." V/n spun around, eyes wide in fury. "You don't get it, dude. I've, I've seen this guy before, he keeps mentioning my dead mom by name, he killed a baby that looked like me, and-" 

V/n's wailing was cut short by the uproarious laughter of the cult-leader below. His mockery of her sorrowful panic made her face grow red. She let out another yell, thrashing against her companions hold more violently than she had before. "WHAT DO YOU FIND SO FUNNY?!" She screamed.

His laughter fades into a soft chuckle as he shakes his head in pity. "I'm sorry, I just find it funny, how you think M/n is dead." V/n stopped thrashing. "What are you talking about?" She whispered warily, her voice dangerously low. 

He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Well, for starters, your mother never died. Many years ago, she was a faithful member of our church." 

"Mom was a cultist?" Cassandra whispered, stunned at the news. V/n had almost forgotten she was there. She was too busy trying to process the information in a way that made sense. Her mother couldn't have been one of these crazy people. Just the thought of her standing alongside the cultists in a red robe made her want to throw up. She was a kind, compassionate woman, and these cultists didn't particularly look like they shared those traits.

"One day though," He continued, "We found a positive pregnancy test on our grounds. It is illegal for our women to bear children, as our sacred texts quote, the penalty being death. Eventually, when M/n's stomach swelled and she could hide it no longer, she admitted to the deed. the girl pleaded for the life of her child, said she would raise it to be loyal to the church, but we couldn't allow it -or her- to live."

"But that can't be," V/n whispered breathlessly. "You couldn't have killed her, she- she was alive." The old man chuckled wolfishly. "You're right, she was. Her execution was scheduled to take place the next morning, though her life was... prolonged, due to certain complications. One of them being her water breaking."

"So what, you didn't just kill her while she was giving birth? For some reason, I don't see you being above that," The h/c(ette) spat. 

"We were going to, yes, but I halted the executioner as he was about to strike the death blow. At that moment I had a stroke of genius. M/n giving birth in the sanctum of the dark lord was surely a sign from him himself! He wished us to perform a traditional sacrifice of the child, to appease him! So we waited for the child to be born, took it, and left M/n to bleed out and perish as her punishment."  

"So you... killed a baby? Whose mother was named M/n?" V/n was starting to put the pieces together. With the dream she had of him, the look-alike baby and the story she had just heard, it was all starting to come together.

"It's not possible." V/n muttered in disbelief. With everything that she had just heard, these guys had... killed her. But that was impossible! She was alive! How did Cassandra fit into all of this, and how had her mom survived? 

"I'm sure you have many questions," The head cultist cooed, "But I fear we cannot answer them. For this time, the ritual will go as planned, and the deathless will finally die." 

V/n turned to Mysterion. "We need to get Cassandra, then we need to get out of here." He nodded, releasing his grip on her arms. They turned to run but skidded to a halt at the red-robed cultists blocking off their escape on either side. They held sharp weapons in their hands, raising them as they cautiously closed in on the two. 

"Looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out of this," Mysterion growled, raising his clenched fists. V/n scowled and did the same. 

"Good, I think I have a little harbored resentment to take out on these guys anyway."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Ello lads it's me howsit going 

I initially planned on making this chapter longer, but I did the impossible and made it TOO LONG so I'm gonna banana split it up into chapter 17

crap can you all believe theres 17 of these smh

but yeah anyway

see you all next time 

yEet 

-Ever 

(P.S. Thanks for 2k gamerss love you all <33)